Medina Province, in the north-western quadrant of Saudi Arabia, set the scene for the special, which went on and on for 414 kilometres and threw the riders and crews of the Dakar in at the deep end.

After exiting Al Ula, the field weaved its way around canyons on sand, but the landscape soon changed to more challenging terrain.

Smart driving for Ladies Team de Rooy FPT

The first stage consists of basically only stones, varying in shape and size. Through clever driving and good teamwork, Anja van Loon, Floor Maten and Marije van Ettekoven managed to stay out of trouble and set a good time. The stage was shortened to 280 kilometers due to a one-hour delay.

“The first 25 kilometers was a nice winding track with lots of variety,” Anja says. “After that it was just rocks all day. In all shapes and sizes, but that was the only variety in it. There was a waypoint hidden and a lot of trucks drove the wrong way there. We actually did too, but through smart looking and good teamwork we found the right track quickly and gained quite a bit of time.”

Other than that, there were no problems aboard the Iveco Powerstar. “The truck felt good, I had everything under control and we didn’t have any oops moments. We didn’t have a flat tire and that also saved a lot of time today. So it was an excellent first day for us. With Marije and Floor it also went well in the truck, on to tomorrow!”

Stage 1 Results

Stage Rank	Number	Driver	Time	Gap to first
1	600	Janus van Kasteren Jr.	4h55m25s	–
9	622	Michiel Becx	5h34m16s	+38m51s
16	618	Anja van Loon	6h10m46s	+1h15m21s

Overall ranking after Stage 1

Stage Rank	Number	Driver	Time	Gap to first
1	600	Janus van Kasteren Jr.
	622	Michiel Becx		+
	618	Anja van Loon		+

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