Stage 10 of the 2026 Dakar Rally delivered yet another dramatic swing in fortunes, as Adrien Van Beveren returned to top form with a dominant stage win, while Ricky Brabec emerged as the new overall leader.
Following a night of marathon-stage camping, riders set off early toward Bisha in Saudi Arabia’s Asir Province. A brutal 368 km special across soft, energy-draining dunes tested both endurance and concentration, with competitors pushing themselves to the limit before finally reuniting with their teams at the finish.
Van Beveren was outstanding throughout the day and by drawing on his vast experience in the sand – including three victories at the Le Touquet beach race – the Monster Energy Honda HRC rider looked completely at ease on the towering dunes. As he reeled in Tosha Schareina, Brabec, and Michael Docherty, he maximised the opportunity to collect bonus time from the front.
Although Luciano Benavides mounted a strong charge midway through the stage, Van Beveren kept his composure and pace to secure his seventh career Dakar stage win, finishing 3’49” ahead of Brabec. On his 11th Dakar appearance, it was a statement ride and one that confirmed his early rally issues are firmly behind him as he eyes further success before Saturday’s finish.
Brabec’s day was equally impressive, if more calculated. Starting fourth, the American used the tracks ahead to his advantage. His rhythm was briefly interrupted when he stopped to check on Daniel Sanders following his crash in the dunes, but he quickly regrouped to claim second place. A 1’37” time credit for assisting Sanders proved crucial, lifting Brabec to the top of the overall standings.
With the leaderboard reshuffled once again, Brabec now leads the rally by just 56 seconds over Benavides after more than 41 hours of racing.
After winning the previous stage, Schareina faced the difficult task of opening the route and paid the price early, losing 17 minutes within the first 123 km. Later working alongside Brabec to assist Sanders, the Spaniard then settled into a steady rhythm through the relentless dunes. Despite finishing sixth, 5’28” of bonus time for running at the front moved him onto the provisional podium in third overall. With a more favourable starting position tomorrow, he has a strong chance to extend his nearly two-minute gap to Sanders, who is now in fourth.
Skyler Howes continued his consistent Dakar with a solid fourth-place finish, also picking up bonus time. The dune-heavy terrain suited both the American and his Honda CRF450 RALLY and he completed the two-day marathon stage without issue, keeping him fifth overall.
With just three stages remaining, the battle for Dakar honours is wide open. Stage 11 will demand absolute focus as riders head toward Al Henakiyah, facing a punishing 883 km day with no margin for error.
Ruben Faria
General Manager
What a stage today! A few months ago in Spain, David Castera said at the Dakar presentation that if you liked dunes, stage ten would be full of them and he was true to his word. There were kilometres of dunes: soft dunes, big dunes, all kinds of dunes.
For us, it was a good stage. Tosha had a tough job opening this long stage, but he rode well to finish sixth and climb back onto the podium in third place. Skyler isn’t a fan of dunes, he prefers hard-packed, stony terrain, but he rode a solid stage to finish fourth. Ricky started in a good position, but he caught the front runners early and had to ride alongside Tosha, which made it hard to build a gap. Still, he finished second and took the overall lead, achieving the goal. Adrien is a completely different rider from the first week. He’s riding much better and winning today’s tough stage was a fantastic victory. As for stage 11, we don’t know much yet, based on the map, it looks fast, so we’ll see how it unfolds.
Ricky Brabec 9
Stage: 2nd Overall: 1st
The marathon stage was good overall. We got to sleep on the ground, under the stars, it was really cool. Overall, the two days was awesome, we did the best job we could and the outcome is pretty good. If we’re still in a good position for the next three days, we’ll just keep doing the best we can and we’ll keep plugging away. We made it back which is my main goal, my bike is in one piece, so for my mechanics it’s super awesome. The times are super tight, I don’t know if I like it still, but it’s a good race I’m sure for the people watching. We’ll keep fighting, there’s three days to go, hopefully at the end of this thing we’re in the position we want to be in.
Skyler Howes 10
Stage: 4th Overall: 5th
Time and time again we’re seeing that the marathon stage is a key factor in this race. Yesterday, I did a much better job of managing, it was really rocky in the beginning and tricky navigation, so I more or less just chilled out and rode really easy, managed the bike, brought it in in a good position and also didn’t make any navigation mistakes. Today, I knew it was going to be really physically demanding. I rode normally, I didn’t go out of my comfort zone. Adrien passed me going full gas, I just let him go. I was riding my own race today and eventually we caught back up. They were opening the stage and it was really difficult to open in the big dunes so I was able to close the gap back up and I would consider this a really good stage, managed it, I rode my own race, had my own plan.
Adrien Van Beveren 42
Stage: 1st Overall: 6th
It was a good day to take the win. We had a lot of sand and this is my terrain, you know I really enjoy it. After the first week, where I had a few problems, it was not easy to regroup and be focused again and try to give my best, but I did it. This stage win is more than a stage win, it’s also a good result after trying to improve everything and get back to my real level.
Tosha Schareina 68
Stage: 6th Overall: 3rd
It was not easy, we knew after yesterday that we were going to lose so much time today because it was full, soft dunes. From 80 km we were riding all together. After refuelling Daniel Sanders had a crash and we stopped with him to try and help. After that we were riding together until the end, over the dunes, trying to fight with the dust and to try and take advantage of taking all the bonus time. We are more or less back in the game, it will not be easy tomorrow or for the last three days, for sure it’s not a secret, we will continue to push.
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