The Galician Fran Gómez Pallas At 53 years old, he is a regular participant in the Dakar rally, having reached the finish line in four of his seven previous participations. But this will not be the case in the 2024 edition after facing the toughest motorcycle race in the world with a challenge for the future where sustainability is the goal.
Fran is one of the members of the Mission 1,000 category, which is designed to test new carbon-neutral technologies. He is carrying a 100% electric artisan motorcycle with the goal of reaching 1,000 kilometers and applying to compete in the future with this prototype on the same route as other motorcycles. But unfortunately the Dakarian adventure ended with 12 kilometers to go on the 11th and penultimate day.
The Galician was riding in a straight line and, suddenly, in one of the impacts with a stone buried in the middle of the track, his chassis split in two and Pallás and his motorcycle flew. Fortunately, he only reported a broken rib and two of the contestants he passed stopped to help him. He managed to join with their help, but he was left without completing his fifth Dakar of eight participations when he reached it.
“We ran out of motorcycles just 12 kilometers from the finish line, a picture is worth 1000 words. I touched the riders in front, they helped me later and I am very, very grateful to them. I only had one crack on one rib, for the rest fine,” he said via Instagram
“The most painful thing is that you can’t do the last 45 kilometers tomorrow to finish the project, tomorrow is just a walk to the podium. You don’t know how much it hurts not to finish…”, he said.
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.
