Rosario, Sunday - If there is one universal truth about the 38th running of the Dakar Rally, it is that nobody got an easy run.
The stats are more than intimidating, they're downright scary. The 2016 edition of the world's toughest motorsport event was run over 13 stages - a total of 9597km - across some of the most rugged terrain on the planet.
It took the competitors from near sea level to 4000 metres up in the Bolivian Andes, from bitter cold to searing heat. Two stages were shortened due to flooding, another two because the temperature was unsurvivable for motorcycle and quad riders in the mandatory full protective gear.
Just to finish the Dakar is a notable achievement; Charlie Boorman rode the long way round the world with his mate Ewan McGregor, but he got less than halfway on his sole Dakar attempt.
Naval architect Kobus Potgieter - the sole South African motorcycle finisher - is likely to be looked at askance by local enduro hotshots after coming in 80th out of 84 motorcycle finishers on his Dakar debut - until they're reminded that he will be 50 in June and he finished 80th out of 152 starters.
Peterhansel wins, Giniel 3rd after Dakar drama
French Dakar legend Stephane Peterhansel took his 12th Dakar win - six on bikes and six in cars - but there were performances just as noteworthy from many South Africans.
Top of the list is Boland boykie and former South African Touring Car champion Giniel de Villiers, known to social media as #TheRealGiniel, in the No.301 Toyoto Gazoo Racing SA Hilux bakkie. Since his Dakar debut in 2003 he's driven for Nissan, Volkswagen and most recently Toyota, posting a win in 2009 in a diesel Touareg, and four seconds among 10 top five finishes.
In his five starts for Toyota under team principal Glyn Hall he's finished on the podium four times and never been out of the top five - despite suffering a serious power disadvantage. The Dakar-spec four-wheel drive Hilux bakkies, developed and built by Hall at his Midrand workshop, are fitted with naturally aspirated Lexus V8 petrol engines, which are very competitive at sea level but lose out to their turbocharged rivals at high altitudes.
Normally the organisers compensate for this by allowing the non-turbo competitors to fit larger restrictor plates for high-altitude stages but, because the route was changed at the last moment this year after the Peruvian government pulled out, no such provision was made.
That meant De Villiers had to drive flat out all the time in Bolivia, taking silly chances just to stay in touch with the dominant Peugeot turbobuggies and ahead of the works Minis - which are more akin to BMW X3s in disguise.
The inevitable happened, with a puncture on Stage 8, followed by twenty minutes stuck on a clump of camel grass with all four wheels off the ground. He finished 15th for the day, dropping down to seventh overall, nearly an hour behind the leader.
But the next day brought them down to a more liveable altitude and De Villiers began one the greatest comebacks in many years on the Dakar, all the time battling the (very fast) works Minis.
Mini team leader Nasser Al-Attiyah put in a couple of scorching stage drives to move up to second behind Peterhansel as De Villiers held on, all the time under increasing pressure from Al-Attiyah's team-mate, world rally championship veteran Mikko Hirvonen, who really came into his own on the fast rally-style stages over the final few days.
In the end De Villiers finished just four minutes ahead of the Finn, after nearly 10 000km of racing, for a hard-earned podium place - but the win went to French Dakar veteran Stephane Peterhansel in a French Peugeot.
Five facts about Dakar winner Peterhansel
The Dakar Rally is run by a French company, Amoury Sport Organisation, and it has been speculated by a number of commentators that the only stages which were shortened, for whatever given reasons, were those on which the Peugeots weren't competitive.
However, all the stages on the Altiplano, where the Peugeots had a big advantage, were run to full length despite a number of drivers and riders suffering from potentially life-threatening altitude sickness.
Even if it's true, that doesn't take anything away from Peterhansel, who drove throughout the race like the champion he is, but does make De Villiers' achievement all the more remarkable.
For South African cross-country champion Leeroy Poulter in the second official Toyota Hilux V8, No.319, fifth overall was a quantum leap. Poulter finished 33rd in 2014, 16t in 2015 and came within 45 seconds of winning a stage this year.
He also survived one of the scariest moments on the rally when he sideswiped a fencepost on Stage 6, yanking it out of the ground. The fencing wire got caught on the body of the bakkie, the wooden post swung round like a slingshot and punched a hole through the windshield right in front of navigator Rob Howie, instantly reducing visibility to nil.
Later in the same stage, he gently rolled the bakkie onto its side, but flagged down De Villiers tossed him a rope and within moments both Toyotas were going right again.
MORE SOUTH AFRICANS TO BE PROUD OF
Mark Corbett in the leading Century Racing CR5 prototype buggy was lying 31st at the end of the first leg, then went on a charge that took him up to 17th overall and gave him the ovwerall win in the category for petrol-powered cars with two-wheel drive.
Century racing team-mate Matthews, a Dakar rookie, battled a succession of mechanical gremlins in the second half of the race and eventually dropped a place to finish 37th overall and third in the two-wheel drive petrol class.
Sean Reitz - also a Dakar virgin and with only three years' racing experience - in the Regent Racing Nissan Navara battled through some tough times to finish 36th overall, but the team lost its second car when German driver Jurgen rolled on the penultimate stage.
HEROICS ON A QUAD
Team Rhide SA Yamaha lead rider, four times South African quad champion Brian Baragwanath, gave South Africa its second podium finish with third place in the quad category.
Baragwanath, riding a Yamaha 700 Raptor, started fast with second on stage two and a win on Stage 3, before running into problems with punctures and mechanical issues that dropped him down to 10th overall by the end of the first leg.
From Stage 8, however, he put in a superb late charge, winning the final stage (his third stage win of the 2016 Dakar) to hold off Russian Sergei Karyakin and Argentinian Jeremias Gonzalez Ferioli and finish third behind local heroes, Argentinian brothers Marcos and Alejandro Patronelli - with Marcos winning the quad category for the third time.
His team-mates George Twigge and Ted Barbier were also in the top 30 at the end of the first leg. Twigge was an early casualty on the homeward leg of the race, dropping out with mechanical problems on Stage 9, but Barbier kept going to come in 21st out of 23 finishers.
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