Adrien Metge’s Dakar 2018 campaign came to a premature end due to a crash in the Stage 2 of the rally. The 31-year-old French rider had to limp out of the rally with a broken tibia. Meanwhile, Indian riders CS Santosh and Aravind KP dropped to the 28th and 32nd position in the overall rankings, respectively.
The Stage 2 of the Dakar rally covered 278 kilometres within the desert of Pisco. Of this, the competitive stage was conducted over 267 kilometres, a major chunk of which included traversing over sand dunes in extreme temperature. It is over one of these dunes that Adrien had a crash and fractured his leg, throwing him out of contention. Apart from Adrien Metge, there were two more retirements in the motorcycle category.
After a blistering start, both CS Santosh and Aravind KP seem to have taken a steady and cautious approach. CS Santosh finished the Stage 2 in 29th position, dropping his overall ranking to 28th. Aravind KP on the other hand, finished 40th in the stage which dropped his overall ranking to 32nd. Santosh’s Hero Speedbrain team mate, Oriol Mena, finished 27th, while the second Sherco TVS rider, Juan Pedrero Garcia, finished 23rd. The third stage of the Dakar rally will be conducted between Pisco and San Juan de Marcona, covering 504 kilometres.
Dakar 2018 Stage 2 rankings –
1 Joan Barreda (Honda)
2 Adrien Van Beveren (Yamaha)
3 Matthias Walkner (KTM)
23 Juan Pedrero Garcia (TVS Sherco)
27 Oriol Mena (Hero Speedbrain)
29 CS Santosh (Hero Speedbrain)
40 Aravind KP (TVS Sherco)
