Following the Dakar online is excellent.

The official live timing site is superb. It updates at numerous points in each stage, giving both stage and overall standings at that point, for bikes, cars, trucks and quads.

For example: the bike tab tells me that Marc Coma dropped some 19 minutes between 31km and 102km on today’s stage. Now, after 301km, he is still 16 minutes down, reducing his overall lead to 29 minutes. Brilliant!

Which proves my earlier point that something going wrong is always a distinct possibility, however much of a lead you’ve got.

While I’m correcting myself on earlier, in the cars, Sainz and Al Attiyah are down in 7th and 9th after 102km today, with Peterhansel just ahead of Gordon at the front. So maybe Peterhansel will mount a challenge yet.

That’s not all the good stuff online though, no sir. Eurosport‘s Dakar page has a load of video, including daily highlights, and – eventually – the show broadcast each night, voiced by the irrepressible Carlton Kirby. Wonderful!