Motorsport: Rally win for Luc Alphand

Former World Cup skier Luc Alphand won stage 14 of the Dakar rally yesterday as the race headed across the Egyptian desert to Luxor.

The 37-year-old Frenchman, driving a BMW X5, completed the 274km special stage in 3h 2m 20s to stay in 10th place overall.

It was the BMW X-Raid team's first stage win.

Mitsubishi driver Jean-Pierre Fontenay trailed Alphand by 22s to claim second place on the stage, while fellow Frenchman Stephane Peterhansel, also in a Mitsubishi, stretched his overall lead to 27m 50s after finishing sixth.

Japanese driver Hiroshi Masuoka, Peterhansel's nearest challenger, suffered a puncture early but recovered to finish seventh.