PRICE OUT OF DAKAR
TWO-time Dakar rally winner Toby Price is out of this year’s race after crashing in Stage 9.
The 33-year-old Gold Coast rider, who won the marathon event in 2016 and 2019, was airlifted to hospital in Tabuk in Saudi Arabia for X-rays on an injured left shoulder and arm.
Price was trailing Chilean competitor Jose Ignacio Cornejo by just one minute when the accident happened on his Honda 155km into the stage.
Fellow riders Ricky Brabec and Sam Sunderland are believed to have lost 15 minutes while waiting with Price for medical assistance to arrive.
The incident happened after Price pulled a rabbit out during the previous stage to remain in the quest for a third title.
Over a difficult eighth stage, the former Dakar champion took a gamble using plastic cable ties and tape to mend a torn rear tyre he suffered during the previous day’s
375km blitz across the Arabian Peninsula.
While in previous years riders could swap out damaged tyres, this year’s event has a new rule that stipulates any change like this would incur a 30-minute time penalty.
In a tale of fortune favouring the brave, Price, who wasn’t about to lose any time to his competitors, miraculously was able to pull off a second-place finish with his makeshift solution as the rally
reached the city of Neom. Losing five of the six cable ties which kept his race alive during the leg, the selfproclaimed “bush mechanic” was even surprised at just how lucky he had been.
“Yeah honestly it was a pretty sleepless night (last night) and I kinda thought my race was done,” he said.
“Looking at the tyre, it didn’t really look like it would have too much life left in it, so it’s remarkable it held together.”