Motorcycle drama: Leader Saunders crashes and continues on for another 230km with broken bones. Arnau Djed retires after breaking his ankle

In the final stages, it became an all-out battle between the bikers. dakar. It’s an extreme battle for survival in which the pilot who makes the fewest mistakes challenges himself to the limit in order to win. And in that dangerous game, daniel sanders He was at his worst. The Australian driver, who was the champion of the Touareg and the favorite to win last year, suffered a hard fall on the sand dunes at the 138km mark, leaving him with no options.

The pilot put his hand on his shoulder and tried to move his arm to assess the damage. Tosha Shalayna and Ricky Brabec They stopped with him for a few minutes to take care of him. It didn’t take long for him to continue riding his bike. He touched his body. I knew what I was dealing with was serious, but I was trying to reach my ultimate goal. I ran over 230km on sand and broke my collarbone and sternum in two places.. that’s what The Australian pilot himself said so. At the end of the stage, once he was incapacitated, a quick evaluation by a doctor confirmed his fears.

despite this, sanders Although he had made it clear that he would like to continue racing if possible, he lost 27 minutes on this stage, leaving him 16 minutes behind the new leader. ricky brabecThere are three more levels in the general classification.

Saunders started the day as the leader after a great Stage 9. His stability on all types of terrain and conditions and incredible speed made him a big favorite. But he dakar It’s like that. Nothing can be taken for granted until the final goal. He tried to keep his losses as low as possible, but the pain forced him to slow down. As a result, at the 30km mark, he was already more than 10km away from his rivals. But another test of improvement and resistance was seen on motorcycles. dakarI reached the finish line with the intention of continuing.

“I went over the dunes and it was very scary. I almost landed on Tosha (Shareina), but as soon as I got up I realized that my collarbone and sternum were broken. It wasn’t pleasant to keep running down the dunes, but unfortunately I lost the rally there,” said the Australian.

“The team will re-evaluate the injury situation to see if it is safe.” he commented. However, as the MD learned, as soon as he arrived at Bisha, he was very calm with the help of KTM as if nothing had happened.

“I wanted to keep going and if I had stopped today I wouldn’t have finished. We didn’t give up. Mom and Dad didn’t raise cowards and I’m not going to quit at this point. I’m not going to stop until someone tells me to stop or pulls me out of the race.” Despite the injury, he said:

“I can’t lift my arms so I hold on to the handlebars, but I can feel the bones digging into my skin, which doesn’t feel good. It hurts a lot, but it makes me stronger.”said. “I don’t know”When asked if it was safe to continue running, he answered: “If we just drove 150km through the dunes, it wouldn’t be so bad. Now it’s all rock so we can get up and keep going. If it was dunes, it would have been difficult. But now we’re out of the dunes and on gravel roads, so it’s a little bit easier,” he concluded. Later, at the bivouac, Sanders didn’t want to go to the doctor to get tested. He didn’t want to be excluded. I wanted to continue.

Brabec appointed as new leader

After autumn, ricky brabec already Tosha Shalayna They gave him back his time for helping the current champion. This took Brabec into the lead from Luciano Benavidez (who had been interim leader before Brabec’s time was given back). The Argentine, who is running with a broken left knee and shoulder injury, currently ranks second overall at 56 inches.

Tosha Chalayna, who opened the course by winning the 9th stage, helped Saunders make up for lost time, but was still far from the leader with a time of 15 minutes 43 seconds.

In that respect, Edgar Canet finished the day in 10th place on the stage. Edgar sustained serious damage to his front tire during the first half of the marathon stage and tried to repair it as best he could at the evacuation camp, but it must be remembered that there was a problem with his gas tank. It was a very difficult day to reach the finish line, climbing over the dunes on completely deformed wheels. However, it was a mentally tough day for Edgar, who achieved it by finishing 10th on the stage in 18 minutes and 36 seconds. He saw “two sides of the Dakar” when he saw how his friend and caravan mate Luciano Benavidez, still in contention for the title, had to stop to help several injured pilots.

The stage winner is Adrian Ven Beverentrained with the dream of winning the most famous race created by Thierry Sabine. Le Touquet’s long-standing obsession with enduro and Dakar. As fate would have it, on the 40th anniversary of the death of the father of the Dakar, a French Honda rider won.

Arnau Jed leaves

But the motorcycle drama didn’t end with the second half of the marathon stage, a day that was as brutal as it was extremely complex. Another bad news of the day was brought by debutantes Arnau Jed. The Taradel native arrived in Dakar with his father hoping to shine in order to secure a future project that would allow him to quit the construction industry and concentrate on motorcycling professionally. And he ran with head and speed, doing everything he could to finish in the top 20 in his first appearance in the world’s toughest race.

but, 650 meters after the startI was blinded by the sand spit up by another rider’s bike. He then landed on the ground, but unfortunately his foot got stuck in the stirrup and he broke his ankle, which had to be checked immediately after the pilot arrived at the bivouac medical center after being evacuated by helicopter. He was forced to leave with tears in his eyes. And his great supporter, Ferran Zaragoza, warned him as soon as he arrived at the camp: “Don’t worry, we’ll be here next year.”

pedro

Josep Pedro He started the day as the leader in the original category after winning his class on stage 9, taking advantage of starting behind the Catalan to win by eight minutes to his original rival Meroto. Now its rival has become the category leader without any help7 and a half minutes away from PedroWe need to attack if we want to get back on stage 11 tomorrow.