Ind ia’s injured lone crusader fired up
GOING into the rest day on Saturday, TVS Racing Factory rider Harith Noah nurtured his injured shoulder and was eager to take on the challenge ahead in the Dakar Rally Moto section in Riyadh from Sunday.
“It was very rocky and bumpy on Friday and did not help my injured shoulder. Thankfully, a part of the route which was dangerous, was cancelled. And I am using the rest day for my recovery and hoping to be back in full flow tomorrow. The target is to finish and I am taking it stage-by -stage,” said the lone crusader from India at Dakar 2022, considered the world’s toughest rally.
The five-time Indian national champion from Bengaluru, Noah survived dangerous terrain and a couple of crashes to be placed 28th in the overall ranking after seven gruelling days of racing.
He fell in the first stage, finishing 36th among 145 riders and went on to improve his rank to 31st after Stage 4 and 30th after Stage 5. He continued his progress admirably on Friday, despite a painful shoulder, and finished a creditable 28th in the overall ranking.
The bike and quad special was halted at the first neutralisation area after 101km on Friday. The deterioration of the tracks due to the passage of the cars and trucks in the previous stage in the reverse direction, combined with recent heavy rain means that the route is impassable. The classification for Stage 6 was established at the 101km mark.
Noah’s teammate at Sherco Factory team Lorenzo Santolino is in Overall sixth position after Stage 6 while Rui Goncalves is placed 32nd.