Skyler Howes secured third place in Stage 3 of the Dakar 2025, narrowing the gap to the overall leader. The Monster Energy Honda rider finished 4m10s behind the day’s fastest, Lorenzo Santolino (Sherco), and is now only 1m57s behind leader Daniel Sanders (Red Bull KTM).
Howes described the stage’s challenges in remarks to the Dakar’s official website: ‘That first hundred kilometres was gnarly – super, super rocky, like, just 100% rocks, and it’s difficult to navigate through that stuff as well. So you have to take it easy. I had one issue, like I turned in to a little construction zone and then I got stuck between some huge boulders and lost a little bit of time there. Just after that, the navigation got quite tricky; pretty straightforward but it rained out here, and so all the tracks were washed away, and the navigation got really difficult before we got into these sandier tracks with rocks and the navigation got even more tricky then’.
Despite the challenges, Howes was pleased with his performance: ‘I ended up finding the right way and hitting all the waypoints, and I think the other guys ended up getting lost a little bit. So, it looks like a really positive stage for me. I’m really happy with my navigation. Even though I didn’t do a perfect job, I still did a good job, so I’m quite happy with my performance today. And my body feels good. So, I’m excited to make it through this. Now, the marathon stage starts tomorrow’.
Regarding the shortened stage due to weather conditions, the rider admitted he would have preferred a longer one: ‘I would prefer longer stages, for sure. I was looking for the 500km stage, there’s more time to get back some time. I’m happy, because my performance was good, and I ended up in a good position now. But I think a 500km stage would have been nice. Actually, the conditions could have been better; the dirt was wet, we laid down a really good track for everyone else to follow, so that’s not really ideal to open with, but it’s really fun to ride’.