Page 113 - Australian Motorcycle News (January 2020)

IN BRIEF
A THIRD OF THE
3ROADBOOKS
CAME AT THE
LAST MINUTE
FOLLOWING ALLEGATIONS
OF teams overlaying
roadbooks onto satellite
imagery in a bid to gain an
advantage over competitors,
2020 saw the introduction
of what the rally organisers
called ‘sporting innovations’.
As well as the roadbooks being
supplied for the first time
in full colour – negating the
need for the riders to spend
hours each evening with a
flurry of highlighters marking
ON FOUR OF THE 12 the following day’s terrain
and hazards – on four of the
STAGES, ROADBOOKS 12 stages, roadbooks were
presented to riders just 15
WERE PRESENTED TO minutes before the start.
“The terrain was sweet,
RIDERS JUST 15 MINUTES it’s tough navigation but the
BEFORE THE START roadbook is incredibly good,”
eventual winner Brabec said
half-way through the event.
TOBY PRICE HAD
AN UP-AND-
DOWN YEAR
DESPITE SCORING HIS fifth podium in six
attempts, 2020 was largely a year to forget for the
defending Dakar champ. A torn roadbook and a
navigational error put the Aussie on the back foot in
the early stages of the race, dropping him back to ninth
in the overall standings after just two stages. He had
clawed his way up to third place by the end of the sixth
stage, but was the first rider to come across the crash
scene that took veteran Portuguese Dakar rider Paulo
Goncalves’ life during the seventh stage. He stopped to
help the fallen rider and spent almost an hour and a half
at the scene assisting the medical crew.
“I helped assist carrying him to the helicopter as it
was the right thing to do,” said Price, who finished one
place behind Goncalves in third when he claimed his
maiden Dakar podium on debut back in 2015. “I was first
at his side and wanted to be the last to leave.”
FROM TUMOUR
TO DAKAR
Former British enduro
champ Mick Extance who
was diagnosed with a brain
ago and was told his chances
tumour almost three years
of waking up from his life-
to see was just one percent.
saving surgery being able
He’d raced Dakar seven times
between 2002 and 2009, so
when the 56-year-old defied
the odds and retained his
vision, he committed to
Dakar 2020. It looked to be
all over for Extance on stage
seven when a damaged rear
wheel bought his Dakar to an
end, but a donor wheel from
another competitor put his
race back on track.
“Dakar 2020 makes
overcoming a tumour a
breeze,” he joked.
DIA-BEAT-IES
Daniel Alberto Puig’s plight
to become the first insulin-
to finish Dakar was curtailed
dependant Type 1 diabetic
for the second year in a row
when the engine on his
seventh stage. The 47-year-
Husqvarna blew during the
old hasn’t lost sight of his goal
and intends to go back and
achieve his dream.
AUBERT OUT
Champion Johnny Aubert’s
Two-time World Enduro
comeback ride came
39-year-old crashed just two
to abrupt halt when the
kilometres short of the end
of the last day before the rest
day, resulting in head and rib
injuries and his withdrawal
attempt in nine years.
from what was his third Dakar
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