music | IAN CORLESS

Time allowance 09-hours 30-minutes / 0700am start

B3 and back to B3, the heart stage at 31.4km’s takes place in a new area for Marathon des Sables.

One could say that this is a classic MDS stage with a little of everything and while the participants may be feeling a little too tired to enjoy the views, there is much to appreciate here.

Jebel Tafeguenat a highlight followed by wadi, stony terrain and small dunes. CP’s ease the journey at 6.8km, 13km and 23km.

The day started under cloud and cool temperatures after a night of sandstorms. The early pace easy, with Rachid El Morabity and Mohamed somewhere in the middle of the pack. However, this soon changed with Aziz Yachou dictating the pace.

Rachid El Morabity followed and the race was on.

Was this the day that Mohamed El Morabity would relinquish his lead and allow his brother the opportunity for a 10th MDS title? The simple answer, yes!

As the stage progressed, Rachid and Aziz pushed a relentless pace and Mohamed dropped farther and farther back.

Mohamed watched the race pull away, strapping on his leg…

Within the final 8km, the duo of Rachid were at full pace, it was superb to watch as the master, Mr MDS, Rachid El Morabity opened a gap pushing at almost 17km’s and hour.

Aziz grimaced trying to keep up. This was the make or break day and Rachid crossed the line in 2:11:43. Aziz followed with 2:12:23.

Now, what time was Mohamed going to cross in? No doubt he was calculating a pace to make it all very close for the last day, his time, 3:04:06 (35th place) and 52:23 after Rachid.

The ranking going in to the last stage:

Mohamed El Morabity 19:19:39
Rachid El Morabity 19:20:14 (35 seconds behind)
Aziz Yachou 19:22:30 (2:51:00 behind)

The strategy for stage 6 is simple, Mohamed will recover from his leg problem but relinquish the 35 seconds to his brother whist also making sure he does not lose time to Aziz so that he finishes second. It has been a stunning El Morabity game plan, once again!