VOL. 55 ISSUE 3 JANUARY 23, 2018 P45
Honda team had a heartbreaking
end to his efforts on the penul-
timate day of the rally when his
CRF450 Rally caught fire during
the special on stage 13. All Bra-
bec could do was stand idly by
while his hopes of finishing the
Dakar Rally quite literally went up
in smoke.
"It was very unfortunate on the
penultimate day for me to have
an electric issue," said Brabec
via a Monster Energy Honda
press release. "They forced me
to quit, as they only gave me an
hour to get moving again. We'll
just have to keep working hard
toward next year."
Brabec offered little further
explanation on his Instagram
page, but did state his intentions
to return to the toughest off-road
race in the world. "Had a blast
out here banging bars with all
the teams and already have my
focus forward to the next one.
Most of the time it's hard to
explain what goes on, from hit-
ting cars, dogs, military guards
and skipping death daily, within
a blink of an eye and no time
to think twice… The adrenaline
rush is wild and things can't be
explained."
For his Honda teammate
Joan Barreda, this year's race
was nothing short of a daily
struggle, especially after injur-
ing his knee on stage 7. Barreda
initially thought the knee was
broken, but made the effort to
continue when doctors failed
to find any fractures. Barreda
trudged on, struggling to keep
up with the lead pace each day,
but on stage 11 it finally became
too much to bear. After getting
lost and finding himself in a
small town about 20 minutes off
course, Barreda finally threw in
the towel.
But perhaps the most dis-
appointing end came for Ya-
maha's Adrien Van Beveren. The
Frenchman had controlled much
of the first half of the Dakar, and
was on his way to capitalizing
on the major mistake made by
the pack of lead riders on stage
10 when disaster struck. Van
Beveren suffered a horrifying
high-speed tumble within about
Kevin Benavides
pushed hard to
the finish to take
second overall,
though it might
as well have
been a win for
the Argentine
rider.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
MONSTER
ENERGY
HONDA
