Joan Barreda: learning to run the Dakar with a broken clavicle

Joan Barreda (Torreblanca, Castellón; 38 years old) wants to win the Dakar Rally.

He does not know if it will be this year.

In fact, every minute that passes sees the dream of finishing with a Touareg in his hands further.

He went out to contest the race this Friday, when the day was still just dawning at the Riyadh bivouac and the cold was gripping his bones, with a broken clavicle.

He got on the bike with a slow step, covered in layers to combat the low temperatures, and to the applause of his team.

Completed the stage.

And he wants to finish the rally too.

The Honda rider was injured the day before. He opened the track, as the winner of the previous stage, he had a good pace, despite poor visibility due to a sandstorm. He had a hard time finding the road book landmarks. He was driving almost blind. But he was doing it at a good speed. Without losing too much. Until he ran into a river and hit a rock with his rear wheel. He fell. And he hit his left shoulder hard. “My partner Pablo Quintanilla helped me get up and continue. It was very hard to reach the end, especially in the dunes, but I managed it ”, he declared. When they got to the bivouac they could see that his clavicle is broken, with the bone split into two pieces that are practically aligned. A) Yes,With this early diagnosis - that of an injury that usually requires surgery in elite sport and that in the best of cases is treated with rest - he went out to compete this Friday.

A pilot who gives you resistance to pain.

@ joanbangbang88 at the 6th stage with almenys a fissure to the clavicle is scarred.

It is to abandon.

Morning ovation.

Video @RallyTeamHRC # Dakar2022 pic.twitter.com/DQtcRkKfIn

- Damià Aguilar 🎤 (@damCR) January 7, 2022

And he barely completed the 101 kilometers of a special that, luckily for the Spaniard, had to be neutralized due to the poor condition of the track after they passed through there the day before, an area already battered by the rains of recent days. , cars and trucks, which left everything impractical. "The objective was to try to continue in the race," he assumed at the end. He did it quite painfully. “In rocky areas and where there was sand, I had to stop practically to zero to get past potholes and dangers. Today more or less I have been enduring it, because I noticed that my clavicle was moving and it hurt, but I was able to handle it to go quite well within the pain, "he confessed.

He wants to reach the finish line in Jeddah.

He has one week of competition left.

He has, before facing that second part of the race, a day of rest to recover and think if it is worth competing with pain.

Take the risk.

Relive the bad feelings of the past.

Because it was not the first time that the Torreblanca pilot jumped into the desert with his body bruised and his hopes on the ground.

No one knows better than he that in this state you lose more than you gain.

But he has plenty of courage.

"The key is to try that the injury does not get worse, that the inflammation does not increase with the passing of the kilometers.

For now, if that's the case, I'll try to handle it to continue in the race while I can. "

More information

Joan Barreda: "I learned to compete with pain, but it burns"

Barreda, who made his Dakar debut in 2011, has been forced to retire due to injury five times. In these 12 editions he has always been among the favorites to take the victory, he has added a minimum of two stage victories each year - the same ones that he has in 2022 and that place him as the third driver with the most triumphs, with 28, only five less than those who count mythicals like Peterhansel or Despres–, but bad luck has haunted him. Fast as few, the Honda has suffered multiple falls in all these years, has run with a wrist injury and two broken ribs. You learned long ago to compete with pain, but also that enduring it burns. And a lot.

This Friday he started in 26th position and finished 14th, after giving up five minutes to the winner of the special, Daniel Sanders (GasGas).

Despite these two terrible days, Barreda is ninth classified, 25 minutes behind the leader, Sam Sunderland (GasGas).

The 2022 race was already complicated in the first stage, the one of extremely complicated navigation that caused havoc in the classification.

He lost 38 minutes and has run on the attack ever since.

"We tried to squeeze every day to recover time," he explained.

Until, with that desire for a comeback, he fell and broke.

We will have to wait to see if he can reach Jeddah.

Al-Attiyah defends the lead

In the car category, the special was won by the Argentine Orly Terranova (Prodrive), who took them out, coming from behind, more than a minute to Ekstrom (Audi) and Al Rajhi (Toyota).

Nani Roma finished with the fifth fastest time and leader Nasser Al-Attiyah with the tenth after giving up just over six minutes.

Minudences in a Dakar that governs with success and speed and that leads practically from the first days.

This Friday's special also helped him to put a little more distance with Sebastien Loeb (Prodrive, 50 minutes away), who lost the second position of the general in favor of Al Rahji, 48 minutes behind the Qatari.

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