Thursday, March 28

Joan Barreda, the defeated hero of the Dakar


Is he Dakar, the toughest race in the world, so there is no doubt that we would find a lot of heroes and heroines. 90% of them, anonymous, of course. Pilots lost, injured, disenchanted, who lost all their enthusiasm to finish the race on the first day or, even worse, participants who lost everything on the last day, that is, today, in the stage that closed the marathon desert rally for Saudi Arabia.

We all know that the winners are the Qatari Nasser Al-Attiyah, con Toyota, about which a lot of doubts weigh despite the extraordinary pilot he is on the sand, and the Brit Sam Sunderland, which has achieved the feat of converting a Spanish brand GasGas, a signature trick, acquired by the Austrian KTM, in the new champion of this difficult test.

Barreda, the MVP

But everyone agrees on something after these two very hard weeks of Dakar and that is that the MVP dakariano 2022 has been the pilot Castellón Joan Barreda, 38, head of the ranks of the official ‘team’ Honda, who has managed to finish the Dakar in a brilliant, very expensive and sacrificed fifth position (the same one he achieved in 2017), after losing, like almost all the participants, in the first stage, penalizing 40 minutes late and, worse still, breaking the left clavicle, fracture and pain that has dragged along the two weeks of competition.

Barreda is an almost unique Dakarian model. What’s more, it’s the third driver with the most wins (29), behind the veterans and already mythical french Stephane Peterhansel and Cyril Després, with 33 wins. But the pilot from Torreblanca (Castellón) continues to resist the victory, the triumph, the rally he loves the most “and through which I spend the last seven months of the year, without resting or on weekends, preparing to try to win it. ”.

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Barreda believes, in effect, that fifth place “running as I have run is very good and has a lot of merit”, but “I came to win.” In 2017, in his first top-5, he was penalized with one hour; in In 2022, in his second fifth place, he broke his clavicle and spent 40 minutes “in a cheating stage, as everyone has recognized.”

“Of course I am proud of what I have done! Of course! But whoever knows the pilots knows that, when one prepares to win, everything that is not winning, knows little, “said Barreda. at the end of the last stage and thanking the Honda team for all the help they have received, slightly modifying the handlebars of their motorcycle, delaying it a bit, closer to their body so that they do not have to exert so much effort with the left arm damaged by the fracture of the clavicle.

Don’t throw in the towel

“I am, yes, with the mentality that I have had, with the work carried out throughout the year, with the ambition that I have shown, that I have demonstrated, in the face of adversity, by never shooting! the towel, with the help received from the team and with being able to finish in the top five which, I insist, given my physical condition is worthy of praise, but i wanted to win“Insists one of the great Dakarianos.

Barreda does not know what he will do from now on. Well, yes, for now, rest. “I must heal this fracture and all the blows that I have given myself from so many falls as I have suffered due to not being able to drive properly.” What’s more, Barreda once again thanked two of his greatest rivals for victory, Luciano Benavides (Honda) Y Toby Price (KTM) that, last Thursday, “in the hardest stage that I have lived in a Dakar”, they stopped when they saw him fallen, almost buried, he and his Honda, in the sand, without any possibility of getting up and, of course , to put his motorcycle on his feet. “If they don’t stop, if they don’t stop, If they didn’t help me, I wouldn’t have been able to finish the rally. Thank you for your solidarity, it was admirable”.

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“I keep getting on the bike with the illusion of the first day and I feel fast and with a winning mentality”

Joan Barreda – Official Honda driver in the Dakar-2022


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And is that if anyone knows what it is to suffer in the Dakar, hence the merit of ending up being the MVP of 2022, is Joan Barreda. Since 2018, the pilot from Castellón has been persecuted and very hard by bad luck. In 2018, he suffered a double fracture of his left wrist. What’s more, the doctors recommended that he not run and he did run. Then he had to operate four times for that injury. “The wrist bones had exploded in such a way that it seemed impossible for them to regenerate and regain their normal shape. I suffered a lot and, for two years, I always ran undercover ”.

In 2020, things did not improve much either, as broke two ribs a week before the Dakar started. “I wanted to die. Of rage, of course. When these misfortunes happen to you, after months and months of training, you enter a negative dynamic and you don’t see anything good. ” And, in 2021, when after a good first week and in the face of what could have been his first real chance to ‘win’, suffered a strong blow to the head that ruined, again, the feat.

“I don’t know what I’ll do, really, but I I’m still looking forward to winning the Dakar“Barreda commented before leaving Saudi Arabia.” I continue to get on the bike with a winning mentality, with enthusiasm, with the illusion of the first day, even if, afterwards, the race is very hard. I feel fast and want to keep going, but I have to rest a bit and meditate. ”

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