TOBY Price was left confused and frustrated after a navigation error during the Dakar Rally's opening stage saw the two-time champion fall almost 50 minutes behind the race leader in Saudi Arabia.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The 34-year-old former Hunter resident will now look to regroup over the next fortnight of competition, but the endurance motorcyclist has plenty of time to make up following Sunday's 333-kilometre round trip to and from Ha'il.
"Still don't know what quite happened today," Price said in a video posted to social media on Monday.
"I've looked back through the road book and it doesn't kind of make sense so we're going to do a little bit of research on that.
"All in all the morning was really good, we only lost six or eight minutes maybe. I felt comfortable on the bike and the new bike is really good in these conditions.
"It was all going extremely well until we got to 250 or 260 kilometres. It's frustrating, especially on day one, but there's still a long way to go.
"What happened to us today can happen to anyone else over the next 12 days. So we'll wait and see, we'll regroup and get ready for another day and try to go full gas again."
Price, who won both the 2016 and 2019 events, sits 22nd overall after initially placing eighth in Saturday's prologue. He is 47 minutes and 17 seconds behind fellow Aussie and frontrunner Daniel Sanders.
Meanwhile, Molly Taylor, the first Aussie woman to race in the Dakar, slipped back to 10th alongside compatriot Dale Moscatt in SSV class - four-wheel side-by-side vehicles.
Josh Callinan
My name is Josh Callinan and I'm a sports journalist at the Newcastle Herald. I started with the newspaper in 2016 after a decade at the Maitland Mercury.
My name is Josh Callinan and I'm a sports journalist at the Newcastle Herald. I started with the newspaper in 2016 after a decade at the Maitland Mercury.
