Spanish motorcycle rider Carles Falcon has passed away more than a week after a crash during the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia, as announced by his team on Monday. Falcon, aged 45, had been in an induced coma since being transported to the hospital with severe injuries resulting from a fall in the second stage of the rally on January 7.
During the incident, Race director David Castera informed reporters that Falcon, participating in the endurance event for the second time, had initially lacked a pulse. However, he was resuscitated by the first doctor to reach the scene. Unfortunately, the medical team confirmed the irreversibility of the neurological damage caused by the cardiorespiratory arrest at the time of the accident.
The TwinTrail Racing team conveyed the news of Falcon’s passing in a statement on Instagram, remembering him as a cheerful and active individual who had a deep passion for everything he did, particularly motorbikes. The statement noted that Falcon left the world while pursuing his dream of participating in the Dakar Rally.
The 46th edition of the Dakar Rally, which marked the fifth time the event took place in Saudi Arabia, includes a prologue and 12 stages spanning 4,903 miles from Alula in the north to Yanbu on the Red Sea. Originally starting in 1978 as a race from Paris to the Senegalese capital of Dakar, the rally moved to South America in 2009 for security reasons. In 2020, it relocated to Saudi Arabia and now serves as the flagship event of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile world rally-raid championship.
