The past 11 months have been a renaissance for Murun Purevdorj. In July, he won the Silk Way Rally. In January, he scored a top 20 in class at his second Dakar Rally. In March, he won his first World Rally-Raid Championship stage.
In May, he became the first Mongolian to win their class outright in a W2RC event.
Despite nursing a shoulder injury, Purevdorj was perfect in his maiden Desafío Ruta 40 as he won the Prologue and all five stages in Rally3. Each day had the same result: Purevdorj in first, Eduardo Alan in a distant second, and Walter Alfaro rounding out the order.
He beat Alan by 25 seconds in the Prologue, then the rout was on. Purevdorj was comfortably 35:59 ahead of Alan in Stage 1, 19:14 in the second, 40:18 for the third, 22 flat on the penultimate day, and concluding with the widest margin of victory at 51:01. By the end, Purevdorj and Alan were separated by nearly three hours.
“Winner chicken dinner,” Purevdorj quipped.
It wasn’t like Alan racked up penalties either. The only one he had was 3:30 in Stage 5 because he left the neutralization zone too early, a miscue that all three Rally3 riders made as Purevdorj got 90 seconds and Alfaro got 7:30.
One major factor that caused him to fall so far behind was a hand injury he sustained and reaggravated after falling several times. The crashes weren’t substantial, but they slowed him down and the pain on the last day was bad enough to make him ponder if he fractured his thumb. He also took a shot to the thigh from the handlebars kicking up.
Still, Alan was gracious in defeat. He trails Purevdorj by just one point in the Rally3 standings going into the Rallye du Maroc.
“I couldn’t beat the Mongolian, but he deserves it,” Alan said of Purevdorj in a post-race interview with Somos Dakar. “He’s a banger of a rider. I was telling a colleague of yours that he’s a rider who could easily compete in Rally2.
“It’s an honor to compete against riders like that. It’ll all come down to Morocco. You never know until the flag falls. It was my turn in Portugal, and now it’s his. We’ll see.”
Alfaro had a mechanical issue from the start that he never recovered from before retiring altogether in Stage 3. He also received fixed penalty of two hours for exceeding the time limit each day for Stages 1, 2, and 4. Still, he was allowed to continue the race and made it home in the end.
Results
| Finish | Overall | Number | Rider | Team | Total Time | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 30 | 79 | Murun Purevdorj | Xraids Experience | 22:52:45 | Leader |
| 2 | 43 | 54 | Eduardo Alan | Xraids Experience | 25:41:42 | + 2:48:57 |
| 3 | 58 | 63 | Walter Alfaro | Pedregà Team | 66:28:15 | + 43:35:30 |
Stage winners
| Stage | Overall | Rider | Total Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prologue | 46 | Murun Purevdorj | 7:22.6 |
| Stage 1 | 36 | Murun Purevdorj | 5:10:19 |
| Stage 2 | 40 | Murun Purevdorj | 2:30:17 |
| Stage 3 | 37 | Murun Purevdorj | 6:11:08 |
| Stage 4 | 37 | Murun Purevdorj | 5:19:05 |
| Stage 5 | 26 | Murun Purevdorj | 3:34:34 |
Featured image credit: Irina Petrichei / Edophoto / DPPI / ASO
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