On the afternoon of Monday 15 January, Carles Falcón's team confirmed the death of the Spanish rider, victim of a serious accident in the second stage of the Dakar 2024. The Catalan was transported to hospital for an initial diagnosis and then sent to Riyadh to decide whether to undergo surgery or not.
Days later, his repatriation to Spain was announced, where he ultimately lost his life today. A few hours after the news, the race director, David Castera, appeared in front of the media to give his first reaction to what happened: “I'm sad, we are organizers, they are competitors, everyone knows that it can happen.”
“Nowadays we play a sport with risks, obviously, but when it happens there is always a great sadness that overcomes us,” continued the Frenchman. “We are here to mourn a friend who has left us.”
“He was here to do the Dakar for real, otherwise one doesn't come, it's not an option,” explained the event manager in Saudi Arabia. “The Dakar is the Dakar, with its risks and its difficulties: we all know that motorcycle accidents can happen and that they are terrible.”
When asked about the route for the motorbikes and the safety measures, he said: “As with the route, we have also worked a lot on the motorbikes, but the risk remains. There is always the airbag, which has changed, and we are working on an airbag that goes higher in the head, but little by little we will play with time and technological capacity which is always evolving. However, we still cannot prevent all accidents, we know this.”
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