PIVOTAL
MOMENTS
1
WHEN SUNDERLAND LOST
FEELING IN HIS LEGS
TWELVE MONTHS AGO, Briton Sam Sunderland
was celebrating becoming the first British rider to win
the Dakar Rally, beating his Red Bull KTM teammate
Matthias Walkner to the line by 32 minutes. With
confidence soaring and an injury-free preseason,
Sunderland was favourite to repeat his performance
in 2 018 and came out of the blocks hard and fast. He
won two out of the first three stages and started the
fourth with over three minutes on the chasing pack. Mid
way through the stage, the 28-year old bottomed out
after misjudging a landing which sent a heavy impact
through the seat and into his body.
“I didn’t have a big, crazy crash as such. I missed a
little pocket between the sand dunes, where normally
you would land the bike,” he said. “It was only when I
started to lose the feeling in my legs after continuing on
for another five or 10km, that I didn’t have much of
a choice to carry on.”
Sunderland stopped his bike, laid down on the sand
andwaited for medical assistance. He was airliftedback
to the bivouac before being transferred to hospital
for tests.
“I’vesquashedtwodiscsatthebottomofmyback
andthereasonIcouldn’tfeelmylegswasbecauseit
waspressingontomyspinalcolumn.”2
WHENJOANHURT
HISKNEE
THISYEAR’SDAKARRallywas
MonsterEnergyHondaTeam’sJoan
BarredaBort’sseventhattemptatthe
covetedwinner’strophy.Nostrangerto
thechallengesofDakar,he’sgot 22 stage
winstohisname,butanavigationalerror
duringthethirdstagemeanttheSpanish
starendedthestage14thinthegeneral
standings, 22 minutesofftheleader.
Lookingtorighttheerrorofhisways,
the 3 4-year-olddominatedthefifthstage
toclawbackanimpressive 14 minutes
fromthenRallyleaderYamaha’sAdrien
vanBeverenandfoundhimselfbackupin
fourthoverall.Hewouldclaimanotherwin
in the seventh stage, the first of the two
marathon stages, incredibly recovering to
within striking distance of the top step.
In that seventh-stage charge the
Spaniard had crashed and hurt his knee
and, when doctors ruled there were no
broken bones, he continued his plight.
It was during the 11th stage, still ranked
second in the overall standings, that Joan
Barreda Bort was forced to abandon his
chase for the elusive winner’s trophy.
“I couldn’t take it anymore” he said.
“Since I fell and hit my knee I have been
suffering a lot in every stage. My knee was
unstable and I had to change my position
on the bike but even that didn’t help.
Today I reached a point where I couldn’t
feel my leg any more and I think, in spite of
everything, the best decision has been to
stop so as not to make the situation worse.”OF
2018
Joan Barreda Bort has been
plagued by bad luck the last few
Dakar rallies – he’s due a win
Sunderland was forced
to surrender hope of two
consecutive Dakar winsHe won two of the first
three stages and had three
minutes on the chasing pack