Second rider killed in Dakar

Alastair Moffitt

Meoni, who had been running second in the motorcycle class just nine minutes behind leader Cyril Despres, crashed his KTM around 184 kilometres into stage 11, between Atar and Kiffa in Mauritania.

A medical helicopter was scrambled to assist the two-time winner, aged 47, but after 45 minutes of treatment he was pronounced dead.

Meoni is the second rider to die in as many days.

On Monday Spanish rider Jose Manuel Perez succumbed to the injuries he suffered last Thursday.

Event organisers, were quick to pay tribute to another fallen hero.

A statement read: “It is with huge sadness that the rally was informed this morning of the death of Fabrizio Meoni, one of the greatest rally-raid champions ever.

“The entire Dakar caravan wishes to express its sincere condolences to his family, friends and many admirers.”

Yesterday’s stage was expected to be one of the hardest on the rally and event organisers took the decision on Monday night to slash over 250km from the route as a safety measure.

Results were far from the minds of the competitors upon completing the stage and hearing of Meoni’s death.

Marc Coma won the stage to inherit Meoni’s second place while Despres holds a lead of 14 minutes 50 seconds after finishing runner-up.

Isidre Esteve was third on stage to move into third overall while Alfie Cox rises to fourth.

In the car class, former winner Jutta Kleinschmidt won the stage in her VW to marginally close the gap on leader Stephane Peterhansel.

The Mitsubishi driver finished third on stage but still holds a 19mins 50secs lead over team-mate Luc Alphand. Kleinschmidt remains third overall.