Australian Daniel Sanders is keeping his cool as he rests before the decisive penultimate stage of the Dakar Rally, with a rare motorcycle triumph tantalisingly within his grasp.
Sanders has been brilliant and dominant throughout the two-week rally, and again didn't put a foot wrong on Wednesday's 10th stage, a 115km battle from Haradh to Shubaytah that took the field into the Empty Quarter desert, the largest continuous body of sand in the world.
The Yarra Valley rider now holds what seems like an insurmountable 16 minute 31 seconds lead, going into Thursday's decisive 11th stage in the desert which features a 275km special around Shubaytah, an examination so testing that it's still possible the Aussie's big advantage could be wiped out there.
But with no chances of major time changes coming on Friday's final-day mass-start short stage, it would still be a major calamity for 30-year-old Sanders not to prevail on his Red Bull KTM as only the second Australian winner in any category in the great race's annals.
Sanders sounded cool enough after finishing 11th on Wednesday's stage while also gaining more time on all his leading pursuers, including second-placed Spaniard Tosha Schareina and another Monster Energy Honda rider Adrien Van Beveren, who's 22:24 behind the Australian.
"One day to get it, it would be nice," said the laid-back Sanders, who's known throughout the sport by his nickname 'Chucky'.
"It's pretty much survival tomorrow and just get through, but yeah, I think we'll be all right.
"We're feeling good and even the first 40, 50km felt really rough in the sand because it's completely different softer sand here compared to where we have been previously. But in the end, I felt really good in the navigation and was opening a little bit and then it felt nice. So ready for tomorrow."
There was an element of frustration for Sanders that, after such a dominant performance, he still didn't feel as if he had yet nailed down the win.
"If I did the perfect race I would have executed a very good position yesterday and unfortunately I didn't get to execute as well as I would have liked.
"But that's rally - you can never have a perfect race unless you do a motocross race or something really short and simple. You're always chasing perfection but that's the goal."
The stage honours on Wednesday went to 30-year-old South African Michael Docherty, also riding a KTM.
Meanwhile, the car race has come down to a straight battle between another South African Henk Lategan and home Saudi Arabian driver Yazeed Al-Rajhi
Al-Rajhi led by seven minutes going into the stage but got stuck and relinquished the overall lead back to Lategan.
Spain's Nani Roma, one of only three men to win the Dakar in a car (2014) and motorbike (2004), won his first stage in nine years by 18 seconds from Lucas Moraes of Brazil.
