The Honda Rally Team has become, unfortunately for its interests, authentic expert in suffer setbacks of the last hour. In the weeks leading up to the Dakar 2017, the argentinian Kevin Benavides had to renounce his participation in the test after suffering a hard fall during a training. Now, a year later, the training is in a frame of mind similar because it Paulo Gonçalves is a doubt to face to the 40th edition of the Dakar after starring in a fall in a training held in São Bartolomeu de Messines. The Portuguese was doing one of the last testing sessions before the rally-raid of the world’s toughest.
According to the specialized Portuguese ‘MotoSport’, Paulo Gonçalves has damage on one of his shoulders and a knee, which can influence, or even cancel your participation in the next Dakar. In fact, the motard HRC has already passed review with a physician of Barcelona and is awaiting a final review by a medical team of Portugal to know the severity of the injuries and in turn know if these will be limited to the time of riding the Honda CRF450 Rally. Of the medical outcome depends on the presence of the pilot of Esposende in Lima.
confirmation Of the absence of Goncalves in the Dakar, the team Honda Rally Team would lose a major asset to the victory, as the Portuguese is, along with Joan Barreda, the two spearheads of the team. In fact, andl Portuguese had taken part in the Dakar continuously since 2006 with a second place (2015) as best result. However, this experience has not prevented Gonçalves has had a year quite complicated as the pilot luso already had to leave in October the Rally of Morocco by a fall which caused an injury to the right hand.
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