In addition to speed, expertise and zero fear, to race and succeed on a motorcycle one must have some luck.
Hugo Millán did not have it.
The 14-year-old boy and motorcycle racer died this Sunday the victim of an accident in the first laps of the Eropean Talent Cup, a one-make talent search race framed in the European Speed Championship (CEV) and driven by Dorna, organizing company of the Motorcycle World Championship.
The pilot, one of the most outstanding in the category, second classified before starting yesterday's race after adding four consecutive podiums at the Estoril, Valencia (where two races were held) and Montmeló circuits, was involved in an accident multiple at the beginning of the test, which was held at the Motorland circuit, in Alcañiz (Teruel). He was lying on the track. He got up on his own foot. And, when he was trying to reach the shoulder of the track, he was hit by another motorcycle. It was the machine of the Polish Leon Pawelec, which collided with Millán's and then ended up running him over in a fatal accident. The incident occurred at the exit of Turn Five at Motorland, a tight turn that is taken to the left at low speed.
The race was called off.
Millán was treated on the same track and then transferred by helicopter to the Zaragoza Hospital, where nothing could be done to save his life.
He passed away a few hours later.
As soon as the fateful news was confirmed, the rest of the FIM CEV Repsol races that remained to be held on the day were suspended.
Hugo Millán was from Huelva and did not travel anywhere without his family.
His parents and his older brother, Quique, drove hundreds of kilometers so that the youngest of the house could go on a motorcycle.
His brother played soccer, but Hugo liked to see Marc Márquez run and win, that's why he wore the number 93 when he started running and participated, at just nine years old, in the so-called Cuna de Campeones, a project to give way to young talents driven by the Cheste circuit in Valencia.
"We will always remember you for your smile, your big heart and your professionalism," the official account of the Cradle of Champions published when the news was confirmed.
Hugo Millán, right, with his family, in an image taken in 2014, when he was competing in the Cuna de Campeones.
Millán's death comes on a weekend in which another rider, 23-year-old Brad Jones, is in a coma after an accident in a British Superbike championship race.
Less than two months ago, the 19-year-old Swiss rider Jason Dupasquier, who was competing in the Moto3 category of the world championship, passed away, in circumstances very similar to those of Millán.
The circuits are every day safer and the protections in the monkeys, greater.
But it is not the same to compete in the MotoGP World Championship than to compete in the Spanish Championship, now the European Championship, where, among other things, it is not mandatory to wear a leather suit with integrated airbaig, as has been the case for a few years in the world Cup.
Another 14-year-old boy, Andreas Pérez, died in a CEV race three years ago. And the debate was reopened on the dangerousness of this sport and the enormous risks assumed by kids who ride big bikes on MotoGP tracks.
The European Talent Cup started in 2017 with the purpose of facilitating the arrival to the so-called Junior World Cup (the aforementioned CEV) of the youngest runners: the minimum age to participate is 12 years old. All the motorcycles are Honda NSF 250 R motorcycles (250cc four-stroke), they reach 225km / h and cost around 5,000 euros. In order to participate in the European Talent Cup, the Millán family, humble and with limited resources, used a kind of micro-investments: small companies in Huelva joined forces (and contributed money to the cause) so that the boy could fulfill his dream. On the keel of his Honda, with the number 44, they wore the names of more than twenty of them.
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