The Spanish Tosha Schareina, who defended the lead in motorcycles obtained on Friday after the first Dakar victory of his career, has abandoned the Dakar 2024 rally. The Valencian Honda rider fell at kilometer 240 of the special, held in a volcanic area of winding paths, in an area of treacherous stones. The young runner, who was running second at the time of the accident, was evacuated by medical helicopter after standing at the scene of the impact for more than an hour and a half with serious pain in his arm. He himself confirmed to EL PAÍS and the rest of the Spanish media attending the rally the final diagnosis after visiting the hospital in Medina: fracture of the left wrist and of the acromion, a clavicle bone, in the right shoulder. If the doctors in Spain determine that he must undergo surgery, tonight he will take the plane back to have surgery and begin recovery as soon as possible.
“It is a very hard blow to leave the Dakar in a year that is going so well, and even more so after having done a very good prologue,” he lamented. “I'm calm, I don't make many mistakes, and that's why it makes me even more angry to end this Dakar like this. But we already know, it is a crazy race and anything can happen,” he resigned himself. The pilot first received assistance from Botswana Ross Branch (Hero), who was with him for about 25 minutes and ultimately won the stage with a time of 05h13m55s to take the lead in the table. “I was riding very slow, I was trying to overtake Toby (KTM's Price). I hit something with the rear wheel, and fell going slow. We were doing a very good stage, it was a fairly slow part, where there was no danger, but I was chasing the dust and I caught something and fell, with such bad luck that the blow left us out,” he analyzed.
The helicopter did not act immediately since Schareina, 28, felt fine at all times, beyond the severe discomfort in her limb. “It was a very tough special, with a lot of stones. At the first refueling I felt very good… the mistake was being too relaxed, and we paid for it,” he said maturely, without hesitating to launch into self-criticism, sitting on the stairs of the motorhome. The fall, he detailed, came on black sand while following the single route marked by the rest of the competitors.
The driver with German roots was participating in his third Dakar after becoming the great revelation of 2023 in the world of rally-raid. After debuting in the test in 2021 with a 13th position and finishing as the second best rookie in his debut, he missed the race in 2022 due to bureaucratic problems in his project with GasGas Aspar and impressed again with another 13th in the last edition. His recent good performances earned him a place in the official Honda team, with which he has already achieved a victory and two World Cup podiums. His second place in the Sonora rally in Mexico impressed those responsible for the Japanese brand, and shortly after they knew for sure that they had hunted a diamond in the rough when he won the Desafío Ruta 40 in Argentina.
Knowing that the lack of experience in the Dakar weighs heavily, Schareina faces this new bump in his career as a new lesson from the toughest race on the planet: “We have had a great season with the victory in the World Cup, and they are already taking us into account. account. With what we have done in the Dakar they already know that we can be there, but in the end we also have to be consistent and finish the same as we start.” One mistake and one stone are enough to say goodbye to the dream.
The first special of the Dakar 2024 also started with another notable setback in the car category. Frenchman Lionel Baud, from Toyota, had an accident with a spectator as soon as he started the 417 kilometer special between Al Ula and Al Hanakiyah. The French driver, who opened the track for the four rebound wheels, after the first car on the agenda arrived late, had the mishap with the victim 200 meters from the starting point and turned around to alert the organization, causing a delay of one hour until the resumption of the test. The injured person was treated by medical services and transferred to the nearest hospital. For now, more details about his condition are unknown. The four-wheeled stage was won by the Belgian Guillaume de Mevius (Toyota), 29 years old, with a time of 4h35m59s. Carlos Sainz made a great comeback after starting very late to finish second, 1m44s behind the winner and gain a cushion of more than 10 minutes over the rest of the Touareg favorites. The injured person was treated by medical services and transferred to the Medina hospital with a double fracture of the tibia and fibula. The director of the Dakar, David Castera, confirmed to this newspaper that he is a foreign tourist and that his life is not in danger.
The four-wheeled stage was won by the Belgian Guillaume de Mevius (Toyota), 29 years old, with a time of 4h35m59s. Carlos Sainz, who suffered three punctures and was close to disaster, made a great comeback after starting very late, to his delight. The Madrid native finished second, 1m44s behind the winner and gained a cushion of more than 10 minutes over the rest of the Touareg favorites in the general classification. “This has just begun,” agreed both the Audi driver and the reigning champion, Nasser Al-Attiyah who lost 24m47s at the finish line with the BRX.
In the midst of the general escabechino, Laia Sanz shone with her buggy in 23rd position. He overtook several of the race's totems in a stage of pure survival, marked by constant punctures and the threat of running out of spare wheels.
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