Dakar 2005 Stage 11 Marred by Tragic Death of Fabrizio Meoni - News - Dirt Rider Magazine

Former Dakar champion, and current second place rider, Fabrizio Meoni died during stage 11 of the Rally today. According to the A.S.O., Meoni crashed just after CP 1. He reportedly broke his neck in the accident. When the doctors arrived 20 minutes later, Meoni's heart had stopped beating and attempts at resuscitation failed.Meoni was 47-years old. For 18 years he participated in rallies on a KTM motorcycle. He won the Dakar Rally both 2001 and 2002. It was his 13th time competing in the toughest desert rally in the world, and was going to be his last. Meoni was a well-respected and admired rider. He will be sorely missed. Our thoughts and condolences are with his family. Godspeed, Fabrizio.The route from Atar to Kiffa was shortened today due to bad weather. Sand storms have ravaged this year's Dakar rally and the original 656km stage was shortened to a 400km Special.U.S. Red Bull KTM Dakar team rider Chris Blais finished the stage in 9th position, while teammate and Manager, Scot Harden finished 22nd and Kellon Walch completed the day in the 101st spot. That puts Blais in 9th, Harden in 17th and Walch in 22nd overall.Tomorrow's Stage 12 may be cancelled due to the death of Fabrizio Meoni. KTM has lost two of its best rally pilots, Fabrizio Meoni and Richard Sainct, in fatal accidents within a period of only a few months, and KTM is contemplating its future support for the rally sport. According to the KTM Press site, "Due to this tragic incident, the KTM management explicitly urges all KTM teams and factory riders to break off the Dakar Rally. KTM is, however, leaving it up to the individual drivers, teams and their sponsors to decide whether or not to continue the Rally."A statement from Dirt Rider Editor and former Dakar competitor Jimmy Lewis:

Rally racing has taken another serious blow. The death of Fabrizio Meoni is not easy to write about, but I take it as therapy. In the Dakar and on rallies, Meoni was a pillar of competitiveness, emotion, dedication and desire. He lived for the Dakar, starting as a true amateur and climbing the ladder to great success, with double victories in the event that would ultimately take his life.It is a very sad day and the whole future of rally racing seems in a state of shock with the recent death of Richard Sainct fresh in our minds. Is it too dangerous? Can it be made safer? Why is this happening?I stopped racing rallies a few years ago. So did a few other top riders I competed with. Riders like Danny LaPorte, Davide Trolli and Oscar Gallardo. We were all guys who thought in our head that we had what it takes to win a rally like the Dakar but never quite accomplished the goal. I can't speak for the others yet, I stopped because I wasn't comfortable with the speeds winning would take and I knew I'd try and win once racing. Had I used up my luck? I didn't want to push it any longer. Sometimes the drive for victory makes one loose sight of the inherent risks. Outside of the height of competition you can look back and see how crazy it is, but engulfed in it you are impervious. Some bike winners moved to the car side like Nani Roma, Eddy Orioli and most notably Stephen Peterhansel—the added protection making the quest a little safer. I've said it before: The Dakar is an addiction. One moment, even with all this tragedy, I'll want to go back. And the next I won't.Motorcycles can be a dangerous. Racing rallies is hazardous and riders know this going in to the event. Is that part of the thrill? I hate to say it, but it adds to the pressure, the experience and the glory if you conquer it or win. If it were as satisfying to race by playing the Dakar as a video game, from the safety of a couch, wouldn't we just do that instead? Meoni knew what he was getting into at the start line, just like everyone who lined up this year and every year before that did. But no one ever expects death or even a serious injury, because then no one would go. Same for Sainct, Danny Hamel and John Deacon, all teammates and friends who have lost their lives doing what they loved: Desert racing, high speeds over treacherous ground in ever-changing and unfamiliar surroundings. Maybe we are all crazy? I believe our excitement threshold is just harder to quench.Is high-speed desert racing to blame? Is it the fact that the Dakar has an excellent medical response and riders dare to take excessive chances under an assumed safety blanket of having assistance nearby? Have top riders pushed the pace up too fast? Has the equipment elevated the pace? Even though a Spanish amateur rider, Jose Manuel Perez, had died a few days previous after being air lifted back to Spain, it doesn't strike home as hard as when the sport looses it's top guy. Even though 22 have died before Meoni on the Dakar, he understood it completely. "This shows the ugly side of the race. The Dakar rally is fascinating, it's part of our passion, but there are certain things you wish would never happen," Italian newspaper La Repubblica quoted Meoni as saying after Perez' death.Ultimately each rider has to make a lot of life-and-death choices starting with the choice to compete. It moves on to the choice to speed up or slow down when racing. The choice to keep going or quit when things get tough. And this is the choice that the rally and the riders are making right now. The death of Fabrizio Meoni hits home to dirt bike riders and rally fans all over the world. We hear this way too much, but he died doing what he loved, proving his passion to a level that few can comprehend.He will always be a hero. And I, for one, will miss the excitement of watching Fabrizio defy age and school the younger riders with tactful navigation. My sympathy goes out to his family and friends whose loss it the real tragedy here.-Jimmy Lewis