After clinching victory in both the prologue and stage one at this year’s Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, Monster Energy Honda HRC’s Tosha Schareina delivered a stunning performance in the dunes, securing another dominant win in the first part of the marathon stage.
Today’s 338km route took competitors out of Mezaira’a towards the Oman border, beginning with a 78km road section to warm up. The real challenge came next, with a 237km timed stage through the dunes, testing their skills in the vast desert playground. The day concluded with a final 73km road section, leading them to the remote Al Qua’a marathon camp for the finish.
After losing time the previous day, Tosha Schareina seized the advantage of his later starting position to launch a determined charge on today’s stage, steadily closing the gap to Daniel Sanders. At the 81km mark of the special stage, he was the fastest rider, gradually chipping away at his deficit in the overall standings. By the 200km point, he was just five seconds behind Sanders and by the end of the stage, Schareina had turned his previous loss into a 1’25” advantage, regaining the overall lead. It was an impressive comeback from the Spanish rider, especially as he had some road book issues in the first part of the stage.
Ricky Brabec, facing a similar challenge to Schareina yesterday, came out firing under the scorching Arabian sun. Setting a strong pace from the start, he reached the marathon camp in third place, just two and a half minutes behind his teammate. In doing so, he also shaved off some of his overall time as he steadily closes the gap to the podium.
Adrien Van Beveren kept pushing to improve his performance in the second half of the rally, taking on the towering dunes aboard his Honda CRF450 RALLY. The 2023 winner finished stage three in fourth place, just 3’18” behind Schareina. Sitting in sixth overall, he’ll be looking to ramp up the pace over the final two days of the rally in the hope of securing a spot on the podium.
Skyler Howes rounded out a Honda top five, building on the positive suspension setting he’s made to his bike in recent stages. While he’s currently ten minutes behind overall, he’s determined to keep pushing through the relentless dunes, focused on making up time.
At the Al Qua’a camp, set against the backdrop of untouched dunes that can turn a deep red depending on the time of day and the angle of the sun, the riders will be faced with no mechanical assistance and they’ll be required to make any necessary repairs to their bikes on their own. As the night falls, they’ll camp under one of the darkest skies in the United Arab Emirates, offering a stunning, unbroken view of countless stars, planets, and even the Milky Way. It’s a stellar location for stargazing, but for the Honda riders, a restful night’s sleep will be essential as they prepare for tomorrow’s 394km penultimate stage.
Ruben Faria
General Manager
The first part of the marathon stage is done and today was a good day for us. The time gaps in the overall standings between Tosha, Daniel, Luciano and Ricky, the top four riders, is really close with less than three minutes between them. Daniel did a good job defending today, however, Tosha did the maximum he could do, although he did have problems with the tablet on the first part of the stage. At the refuelling they changed his tablet and he was also given back six seconds in time. Tomorrow, Ricky will start the stage in third with Tosha just ahead of him. I believe that Tosha can again do a good job tomorrow and if he defends well, then there will be a tight fight between Tosha, Luciano, Ricky and Daniel. It’s always like that at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, the battle goes down to the last kilometre. This year will be no different.
In this first part of the marathon stage, Adrien And Skyler lost a little bit of time compared to the others, but they’re still there fighting in the overall standings.
Tonight they will sleep in the middle of nowhere, we’ve had no contact with them but I hope they will have a good night before picking up the fight again tomorrow.
Ricky Brabec 9
Stage: 3rd Overall: 4th
I’ve had a fairly good result today. I was kind of getting worried at refuelling as I was up at the front of the stage with Tosha and I had two small tip overs before then, so I’m pretty sure they knocked me down on some time. I’m third on the day which is really good for me for tomorrow, but it also means the overall is really close, so it’s going to be a fight to the end. Tonight we’re going to sleep out here in the desert, hopefully it’s not too windy.
Skyler Howes 10
Stage: 5th Overall: 7th
Today’s stage was another improvement for me, gaining more confidence in the bike and finding a good pace early into the stage. I rode by myself all day but still had a good time pushing through the dunes. The stage was another mix of some fast plateaus, lake beds and some technical dunes. I had one mistake before refuelling but overall had a good stage and I’m happy with my riding.
Adrien Van Beveren 42
Stage: 4th Overall: 6th
It was a tough stage, we had a lot of dunes and not so many sabkha like the other days. Daniel Sanders did really good, he was opening fast so I could just ride in the tracks ahead, although at times the wind sometimes did make them less visible. I was on my own all day but I could see Nacho Cornejo ahead towards the end.
Tosha Schareina 68
Stage: 1st Overall: 1st
It was pretty good, from the beginning I noticed it was faster than yesterday. We had a mission to attack because we started behind the other riders, so I tried to push from the start. Unfortunately until the refuelling I had a problem with the tablet, I couldn’t change the notes so I was given some time back. I tried to push again and I’m happy to have won the stage. Tomorrow we have that difficult mission again to open the stage.
Rally GP Result – Stage 3
Pos. Rider Num Nation Team Time/Gap
1 Schareina Tosha 68 SPA Monster Energy Honda HRC 03:09:58
2 Benavides Luciano 1 ARG KTM Factory Racing Team + 02:21
3 Brabec Ricky 9 USA Monster Energy Honda HRC + 02:36
4 Van Beveren Adrien 42 FRA Monster Energy Honda HRC + 03:18
5 Howes Skyler 10 USA Monster Energy Honda HRC + 03:40
6 Sanders Daniel AUS KTM Factory Racing Team + 04:08
7 Cornejo Florimo José Ignacio 11 CHI Hero Motorsports Team Rally + 05:11
Rally GP Provisional Standings After Stage 3
Pos. Rider Num Nation Team Time/Gap
1 Schareina Tosha 68 SPA Monster Energy Honda HRC 09:21:43
2 Sanders Daniel AUS KTM Factory Racing Team + 01:25
3 Benavides Luciano 1 ARG KTM Factory Racing Team + 02:03
4 Brabec Ricky 9 USA Monster Energy Honda HRC + 02:53
5 Cornejo Florimo José Ignacio 11 CHI Hero Motorsports Team Rally + 06:10
6 Van Beveren Adrien 42 FRA Monster Energy Honda HRC + 07:09
7 Howes Skyler 10 USA Monster Energy Honda HRC + 10:11
