Skyler Howes claimed his first-ever Dakar Rally stage victory with a commanding performance on one of the fastest tests of this year’s event.
With three stages remaining at the start of the day, riders faced a daunting total distance of 883 km, including 346 km of flat-out timed racing. While speed was the dominant factor on the rally’s quickest special stage, competitors still had to stay sharp through technical navigation and rocky terrain as the route wound north toward Al Henakiyah.
Howes has been steadily building momentum throughout his eighth Dakar appearance. Although a tyre issue during last week’s first marathon stage ended his podium hopes, today’s rocky conditions played perfectly into the American’s strengths and the Honda CRF450 RALLY rider took full advantage to secure a landmark stage win. Despite the demanding task of opening the stage tomorrow, Howes was buoyed by his pace and will now look to challenge for a last-minute fourth place overall as the rally draws to a close.
Adrien Van Beveren was tasked with opening the stage following his victory yesterday and handled the navigation with confidence, ticking off checkpoints as the lead rider. He was eventually caught by teammate Ricky Brabec and the pair rode together for much of the stage. Even so, Van Beveren earned valuable bonus time for running up front and finished second, just 21 seconds behind Howes, capping off a dramatic turnaround in fortunes during the second week of the rally.
Ricky Brabec began the day leading the overall standings, separated from Luciano Benavides by just 56 seconds. On his favoured rocky terrain, the two-time Dakar champion pushed hard to extend his advantage, however, a calculated strategy saw him concede time late in the stage and despite gaining some bonus seconds after catching Van Beveren, Brabec dropped over a minute to Benavides at the finish. As a result, he surrendered the overall lead by a slender 23 seconds. With two stages remaining, his experience will be crucial as the fight goes down to the final kilometres.
Tosha Schareina endured a relatively quiet day by his standards. The 2025 runner-up returned to the provisional podium yesterday and focused on consolidating his position. Despite a small crash in the sand, he regrouped to finish fifth, four minutes off the lead, and now holds an advantage of more than eight minutes over Sanders in the battle for the final podium spot.
The penultimate day of this year’s Dakar will see riders cover 720 km as they make their return to Yanbu on Saudi Arabia’s western coast. After 13 gruelling days of racing across spectacular terrain, the final push begins as competitors edge ever closer to the podium.
Ruben Faria
General Manager
We’ve reached the final bivouac before Yanbu. Today’s stage was fast and not overly demanding in terms of navigation and it was fantastic to see Skyler take his first stage victory of this year’s Dakar. Leading the way on the stage, Adrien also made the most of the bonus time, finishing just behind Skyler. Tosha faced a challenging start with a minor crash, followed by a fuel system issue that kept his bike from running at full power. Despite this, he fought through to finish fifth.
Right behind him was Ricky. Preferring a slightly later start position tomorrow to tackle the upcoming navigation and dunes, he will cross the start line in sixth.
Ricky Brabec 9
Stage: 6th Overall: 2nd
Today it was the fastest stage and they had said this at the briefing. Everyday has been fast this week, we were like, “how can they get any faster?” But today was full gas, we were to the stop for 85% of the day. I did the best I could to catch my teammate Adrien and then we rode together, well he navigated and I kind of sat in his dust to collect some bonus time. Stage 11 was good, it was fast, a little bit technical and tricky, but I managed to manage myself well and now I think we’re in a good position for stage 12.
Skyler Howes 10
Stage: 1st Overall: 5th
I’m happy. The stage was really fast and I just did a good job of navigating, pushed it to the end, so I consider that a perfect stage. I came away with the win which means a lot to give back to the team, they deserve stage wins, they deserve a lot and I’m happy to give that to them a little bit. Tomorrow, my job just means I’ve got to do a perfect job. All I’m looking forward to is opening the stage, doing the best I can and not make a single mistake and put Ricky into a good of position as possible. So I’ll just do my best, that’s all I can do.
Adrien Van Beveren 42
Stage: 2nd Overall: 6th
I really gave my best and I’m happy with my riding and my feeling on the bike right now. When you open and your teammate is leading the Dakar starting behind you, I was navigating and he was following, so if I made a mistake he would probably do it too. I tried my best and luckily made no mistakes.
Tosha Schareina 68
Stage: 5th Overall: 3rd
We have another good position, we’ll start fifth tomorrow. I think all the riders in the team were in front so that’s a good plan. Today, was a combination between fast and then really slow amongst the stones. It was good, I started behind and I tried to just arrive to the end of the stage.
RallyGP Result – Stage 11
Pos. Rider Num Nation Team Time/Gap
1 Howes Skyler 10 USA Monster Energy Honda HRC 03:09:02
2 Van Beveren Adrien 42 FRA Monster Energy Honda HRC + 00:21
3 Canet Edgar 73 SPA Red Bull KTM Rally Factory Team + 01:15
4 Benavides Luciano 77 ARG Red Bull KTM Rally Factory Team + 03:37
5 Schareina Tosha 68 SPA Monster Energy Honda HRC + 04:06
6 Brabec Ricky 9 USA Monster Energy Honda HRC + 04:56
7 Cox Bradley 7 RSA Sherco Rally Factory + 08:01
8 Evan Branch Ross 16 BWA Hero Motorsports Team Rally + 09:00
9 Klein Mason 98 USA Hoto Factory Racing + 10:13
10 Sanders Daniel 1 AUS Red Bull KTM Rally Factory Team + 10:28
Rider Standings
Rally GP Provisional Standings After Stage 11
Pos. Rider Num Nation Team Time/Gap
1 Benavides Luciano 77 ARG Red Bull KTM Rally Factory Team 44:48:48
2 Brabec Ricky 9 USA Monster Energy Honda HRC + 00:23
3 Schareina Tosha 68 SPA Monster Energy Honda HRC + 15:16
4 Sanders Daniel 1 AUS Red Bull KTM Rally Factory Team + 23:32
5 Howes Skyler 10 USA Monster Energy Honda HRC + 34:20
6 Van Beveren Adrien 42 FRA Monster Energy Honda HRC + 54:13
7 Cornejo Florimo José Ignacio 11 CHI Hero Motorsports Team Rally + 01:10:50
8 Evan Branch Ross 16 BWA Hero Motorsports Team Rally + 02:25:56
9 Cox Bradley 7 RSA Sherco Rally Factory + 04:13:51
10 Klein Mason 98 USA Hoto Factory Racing + 04:57:08
