SALTA, Argentina — An experienced Belgian motorbike rider has died competing in this year’s Dakar Rally, organisers announced Friday.
Eric Palante, 50, riding for the Honda team, died Thursday’s fifth stage between Chilecito and Tucuman in Argentina.
Palante, in his 11th Dakar, was the third person associated with the grueling race to die Thursday after two members of an Argentine news team perished when their car plunged into a ravine.
“The dead are journalism student Agustin Mina, 20, and Daniel Ambrosio, 51, who loved auto racing,” Super Rally manager Francisco Delgado told AFP.
Dakar organizers ASO issued a statement reporting that a technical support truck had discovered Palante’s lifeless body at 0830 local time Friday at the 143km mark of the stage.
“No alarm was made to the organizers. Eric had been supplied with water during the afternoon,” the statement continued, adding that the fatality would be investigated by a local judge.
Palante is the 23rd competitor in 36 editions to die in the Dakar Rally.
Although the newsmen were not officially accredited, the team was covering the 2014 rally — in which 431 vehicles are crossing Argentina, Bolivia and Chile for the auto, motorbike, quad and lorry events.
Also in the vehicle were 31-year-old Martin Delgado, the magazine manager’s son, and Rodrigo de Quesada, 36. Both men are photographers for the Super Rally magazine. The survivors were taken to a hospital in Tucuman. — Agencies