The Dakar is one of the few competitions in the world where professional drivers, the best on the planet, mingle with novice drivers who have embarked on an adventure with great stories. Two of the great Dakarian stories in this edition are those of Isaac Feliu and starring six team members All1Team, the largest rookie team in history to compete in the Dakar. And certainly, two of those stories were struck by bad luck at the start of Dakar 2024.
Isaac Feliu, TwinTrail Racing driver, will return to the Dakar after his debut in the toughest race in the world in 2022 and suffered the fear of his life, a high-speed accident in which he hit his head. Disaster is bound to happen at that time. Isaac knows he ran the Dakar but has no recollection of that experience. He has no memory of the competition. And for this reason, he decided to return to Dakar this January 2024, above all, to remember the experience of his whole life and close the circle, ending his adventure in Dakar. His goal was to reach the finish line and enjoy it, but for the first time, his bike had said enough and prevented him from continuing to add kilometers with 60 km left to reach the finish line.
An electrical problem caused the pilot to abandon the TwinTrail Racing Team. Its battery stopped charging so the motorcycle died. Feliu, category pilot Original by Motul and therefore, skilled in mechanics, he tried to repair the shrinkage without success. He looked and tried, but the bike wouldn’t start. Thanks to some locals, he was able to start the motorcycle again, but after 10 kilometers, it stopped again because the battery was discharged again. Finally, Feliu asked for help and boarded the helicopter to be taken to the bivouac.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with the bike. In principle it will arrive this morning and I will try to fix it. I have doubts whether I will continue. My husband has been suffering for two hours because he saw that I was not moving on the tracking map. He already had a very bad time in 2022, but I also have a commitment to more than 800 Supporters and sponsors who supported me in this project,” said Feliu, who at least now will remember competing in the Dakar , even if it is a few kilometers.
Fernando Conde, wounded
Another of the great stories of this Dakar is the one starring the 6 pilots of the All1 Team, a project born from the death of Alex Llibre. Carlos, Alex’s brother, and his close friends want to accomplish every point on the list of 101 things Alex wrote. One of the points is to compete in the Dakar on a motorcycle. The All1 Team achieved the first goal: to become the largest novice team to compete in a Dakar. The second goal is for everyone to reach the end. However, the Dakar has always had two faces: the beauty of a unique race, but at the same time, its enormous cruelty. He was cruel to one of the members of this group, Fernando Conde.
The pilot, who was riding his Rieju, suffered a fall on a slow part of the rocks and broke the metacarpal 1 of his right hand, the one that motorcycle riders use to accelerate. “I broke metacarpal 1 due to gas falling in a very slow place but with a lot of stones. I finished the special with Javi Amar, who brought me to the camp. I consider myself a very lucky person, but “Now obviously I’m very unlucky. Go for it, All1,” he said on his social networks.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
