Kees Koolen, the founder of Booking.com and corridor Dakar from 2009
Carlos Sainz has left ten minutes in stage 9 of the Dakar, despite the fact that it has been held the special. The ASO has been punished with a ten-minute penalty for a hit during the seventh day of competition, in a coup by a fortuitous Kees Koolen. Dutch is one of those characters that give a book.
Billionaire, philanthropist, sports fan… Your fortune is made, among many other business ventures, thanks to being one of the creators of Booking.com one of the engines of travel and hotels, online more used in all over the world. Thanks to this, you can afford for years to participate in the Dakar on a quad that he has designed.
Now, however, is in the news for a matter different to their entrepreneurial skills or, to be strict, sport: denounced before the organization of the raid Carlos Sainz, Stepháne Peterhansel and Yazeed Al-Rajhi by the violation of one of them and not to help the other two, without that has transpired who is accused of what.
Sainz is risked to be excluded, but eventually it will continue in the race
commissioners talked with officials of Peugeot and Mini to respond to such allegations, in addition to the own pilots. This same Monday, taking advantage of the suspension of the stage, Sainz, Peterhansel and Al-Rajhi (the latter is already out of the race) had to explain what happened. They faced a penalty of time or even expulsion, but in the end the organization has been reasonably benevolent.
Sainz and Peterhansel enfrentabab to a penalty of time or even expulsion from the Dakar.
The rules of the Dakar is clear with regard to accidents: if a rider finds another accident victim, you must stop to help him and, if the situation is serious, activate the alert in the ‘iritrack’ (the system of communication between competitors and organization) to reach the assistance. In any case, the broker who helped the wounded man returned to the time when it reaches goal, so that competitive effects do not affect him.
Finally, and despite the fact that Sainz said that he had not hit Koolen, the stewards decided to impose a ten-minute penalty, so now his lead at the front of the classification ds of less than an hour in front of Nasser Al-Attiyah. Peterhansel, whose accident Saturday occurred precisely for dodge Koolen, was not punished.
Koolen is not, nor much less, a rookie on the Dakar. Competed for the first time in 2009, in the category of bikes, then the cars, and even trucks. Quad has competed in 2013, and since 2014 until today. His best result was in 2017, when he won a stage.
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