A lot of tension before the start of stage 11 of the Dakar: Van Beveren calls his Honda teammates “cowards”

The stage 11 This should be the big day Dakarthe penultimate special, long, with only sand, where the victory and the podium are going to decide. But before it was played, there were moments of intense tension on the starting line.

He ‘Empty Quarter’ It rose with dew. This prevented the flight of the organization’s helicopters, which is essential for the competition to guarantee the safety of the pilots. This means that the pilots, who get up around 3 in the morning, have to wait between 2 and 4 hours (depending on the arrival time of each person) at the finish line waiting for the start of the special.

Before starting, at sunrise, a very important decision had to be made. The organization has to decide whether the special, planned with 308 km of sands and more sands, it had to be fought over entirely or it had to be shortened.

Canet explained that he had almost no water left in his backpack and by that time he had already eaten the bars he had. This is just one example of what happened to the crowd. They had to compete in a very long and very difficult stage without food and without enough water and that was not safe. Furthermore, if the initial distance is maintained, many pilots are located in the middle of the route at night.

David Castera, who was present at that point, began talking to the pilots. There were moments of great uncertainty. Many have given their opinions, in many cases, each watching the film for their own sake. Discussed the possibility that anyone arriving at the refueling point at km 152 before 3:30 pm could continue

There is also talk that only the drivers of the premier category (RallyGP) will complete the entire route and the Rally2 they did it until they ran out of gas, something that could hurt Canet as he is a Rally2 driver but 8th overall. And there is only two pilots who want to respect the first distance: Adrien Van Beveren and Luciano Benavides.

Finally, the organization decided to shorten the stage for everyone. At that time, Adrien Van Beveren was not there. A few seconds later, sand he found out and approached, furious. There were moments of tension. The French were not satisfied and even, according to sources, Van Beveren He confronted two of his colleagues at Honda, Tosha Schareina and Ricky Brabec.

According to what was said in the bivouac of Shubaytah, Van Beveren called “cowards”use some more bad wordsto his two Honda teammates because they did not want to compete with him in the prescribed kilometers.

Van Beveren wanted 2nd, but no reason

Van Beveren, third overall, was around 6 minutes behind her teammate Tosha Schareina in second place. The Frenchman knew Tosha was running with a broken collarbone. Also, Adrien has a further starting position behind which allows him to attack to close that distance and become runner-up.

However, Van Beveren does not express a very good idea for his team, because in the shortened special, Honda had a better chance to get a double podium in the race. Furthermore, Van Beveren’s idea conflicted with the safety of many pilots as they had to compete in a very difficult stage without the necessary water and food and the danger of approaching night. Finally, sanity prevailed.