Heroic effort sees Ashish Raorane complete Stage 3 with a bicep muscle rupture
Raorane gets doctor's clearance to take further part in the 2 stages
Liwa City (Abu Dhabi), 1 March 2023: Ace Indian Rally-raid rider Ashish Raorane of Xraids Experience, astride a KTM 450 Factory Rally Replica successfully completed one more day despite a fall as he recovered admirably and rode with a ruptured bicep muscle and an extremely painful arm for about 160Km in the Stage 3 of the 2023 Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge here on Wednesday. After close to five and a half hours of racing, Raorane, the marine engineer from Pune, completed the timed special with grit and determination taking an overall 29th place among 45 riders that started the stage, including World Championship riders, and overall 12th among 29 riders in his class, the Rally2 category.
“The day witnessed flowy tracks with soft & technical dunes. I missed a double caution on a fast section and took a bad tumble. I hurt my arm but managed to recover and ride the remaining 160Km, although the pain in the techincal dunes was excruciating. The bicep muscle is ruptured so let’s see how we go tomorrow.” said Ashish Raorane on Social Media after finishing Stage 3.
Later, as the doctors cleared him for the further stages, the Pune rider will start the stage tomorrow, which is the longest and toughest of the rally, a 306-km of dunes in a tough zone, an ‘empty-quarter’. Two more Stages are left in the Cross-country rally raid that also serves as a qualifier for the Dakar 2024 and is the second round of the World Rally Raid Championship. The #34 biker is in Rally2 category.
Ashish Raorane’s time 05hours 31minutes and 37seconds, on another toughest day, riding over the loop around Liwa City, for a 266-kilometer timed special was physically demanding and one of the toughest days of the event so far. He could not have completed it but for his strong will. The terrain was rougher and more technical than the previous days and it was a daunting task even for the experienced and fit, but the Indian managed to navigate and finish much of the route before the fall and later in deep pain.
The rider supported by Rynox Gears, who finished Stage 2 yesterday in Overall 25th and P8 in his Rally2 class, slipped to 29th overall, but it was a creditable performance on the tricky soft and technical terrain that challenged the best of the riders and finishing the task for an Indian who does not have much of seat time on the bike is such a terrain and despite the bothering arm, is a significant achievement.
Earlier in the morning, the opening teams have noted many broken dunes and the competitors were warned of, by the race officials in the briefing. The 403 km stage ran a loop around Liwa City. After a short liaison of 2 km, synonymous with sleeping in, to get out of the bivouac, the competitors started the 266-km special stage composed of 52% of dunes and 48% of soft sandy tracks. The 35-km liaison then allowed them to return to the bivouac.
Day’s Winners – for the record
The day saw Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Toby Price claim victory, securing his first stage win of the event with just 16-second lead. The Australian now lies third overall, just under three minutes down with two days left to race. Paolo Lucci (BAS World KTM Racing) won the Rally2 category once again. He is ahead of Jean-Loup Lepan (Duust Diverse Racing) by 6’37”and Tobias Ebster (SGR Motorsports) by 8’37”. Toni Mulec, the winner’s teammate, is 4th at almost 11 minutes behind.
