The Africa Eco Race has been a bit of a shock for the multi-cylinder bikes, who’ve been flanked left and right by 450cc motorcycles all race. Thomas Marini had been leading the single-cylinder charge, being the top rider in the bike overall for much of the rally.

“It’s clear we’re struggling with our twin-cylinders compared to the single-cylinders, but I don’t think the fight is over yet,” Alessandro Botturi had commented after Stage 8.

Sure enough, the singles took a decapitation strike on Wednesday when Marini was forced to retire due to a mechanical failure. He had been leading Stage 9 until his Husqvarna broke down.

Jean-Loup Lepan is now the only 450cc bike that sitll has a realistic shot at the overall, inheriting the lead from Marini with a convincing stage win. If anything, he actually put some distance on the Over 650cc bikes as he beat Kevin Gallas by six minutes, meaning the latter has to make up 18:49 over the next two days (Stage 12 does not count for the overall).

The next closest single-cylinder bikes in the overall are Valentin Sertilhanges and Roman Krejčí, who are both over three hours behind Lepan in ninth and tenth.

Eight twin-cylinders are now faced with chasing down Lepan, which could be a tall order with two stages to go and a relatively comfortable gap since Lepan’s proven to be quick himself. Last year’s winner Jacopo Cerutti sits fifth, but was set back by another mechanical problem on Wednesday.

Imre Varga’s Hilux—a replacement after his original was destroyed in a flood—suffered a broken driveshaft joint at KM 96 that knocked him out of the leg. Bart Vanhaverbeke’s Mercedes-Benz SLC was also knocked out yet again with a mechanical.

On the other hand, Vanhaverbeke’s AER Historic classmate François-Xavier Bourgois managed to get the clutch disc replaced on his Range Rover and will rejoin the event on Thursday. The failure had kept him sidelined for the past two days.

“We can obviously forget about the overall, but we’re going to enjoy the remaining stages,” said Bourgois. “We’re counting down the kilometers until we reach Lac Rose.”

Stage 9 winners

Bike

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
450cc	1	176	Jean-Loup Lepan	RC Assistance	4:16:23
Over 450cc	23	13	Alexandre Azinhais	Club Aventura Touareg	5:20:36
Over 650cc	2	171	Kevin Gallas	Ténéré Yamaha Rally Team	4:22:30
Electric	74	100	Cyril Forget	CFR Endurance	19:00:00
Quad	51	97	Alexis Varagne	Team Sénégal	6:58:57

Car

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
T1+	1	215	Christian Femont	Desert Foxx Racing	4:27:32
T1.1	4	200	Vincent Vroninks	Desert Lions Rally Team	4:41:18
T1.2	2	236	Andrea Schiumarini	R Team	4:33:34
Open	10	244	Yoshimasa Sugawara	Équipe Sugawara	15:10:10

SSV

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
SSV	4	285	Eric Bernard	Vendée Team	4:50:48
T3	2	299	Martin Benko	Norwit Racing	4:41:44
T4	1	275	Martijn van den Broek	QFF Racing	4:36:08

Truck

Class	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
T5	400	Gerrit Zuurmond	Rainbow Truck Team	5:41:17

Leaders after Stage 9

Bike

Class	Overall	Number	Rider	Team	Total Time
450cc	1	176	Jean-Loup Lepan	RC Assistance	32:51:20
Over 450cc	20	13	Alexandre Azinhais	Club Aventura Touareg	40:25:18
Over 650cc	2	171	Kevin Gallas	Ténéré Yamaha Rally Team	33:10:09
Electric	76	100	Cyril Forget	CFR Endurance	176:53:40
Quad	74	97	Alexis Varagne	Team Sénégal	98:41:46

Car

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
T1+	1	215	Christian Femont	Desert Foxx Racing	32:50:26
T1.1	3	200	Vincent Vroninks	Desert Lions Rally Team	34:28:43
T1.2	2	201	David Gérard	Nominoe Aventures / Les Fous du Volant / MD Rallye	33:12:57
Open	12	210	Cédric Feryn	Feryn Rally Raid Team	88:47:30

SSV

Class	Overall	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
SSV	5	285	Eric Bernard	Vendée Team	37:46:47
T3	2	299	Martin Benko	Norwit Racing	36:12:43
T4	1	275	Martijn van den Broek	QFF Racing	35:28:23

Truck

Class	Number	Driver	Team	Total Time
T5	400	Gerrit Zuurmond	Rainbow Truck Team	42:35:02

Featured image credit: Aprilia