Price led the way at the seventh waypoint before the route headed back up a climb above 4,000m, and trailed eventual stage winner KTM teammate, Antoine Meo, by just 30 seconds at the end.

Overall, he still sits in sixth position but is now within 10 minutes of new race leader, Honda rider Kevin Benavides .

The rally crossed into Bolivia and tasted high altitude running on its sixth day, the 313km stage split into two with a neutralisation point at the Peru-Bolivia border.

However, the Peruvian part of the stage - a 118km stretch that took the field up to 4,700m above seal level - was cancelled due to poor weather for the bikes, for whom Stage 6 became a 195km sprint to the overnight stop at La Paz.