Sweet Baby Jesus, This Is Why Pablo Quintanilla Lost Nearly 20 Minutes At Dakar
Mitch Kendra

Features

Sweet Baby Jesus, This Is Why Pablo Quintanilla Lost Nearly 20 Minutes At Dakar

Heading into the last day of the Dakar Rally, Pablo Quintanilla trailed Toby Price by only 1min02sec, a gap that left the overall up for grabs. But Quintanilla crashed while in the stage lead, resulting in a 22nd place finish and fourth overall. Price was able to hold on to win the Dakar Rally for the second time in his career.

Then we found out how Quintanilla crashed.

Well, you want to talk about going big or going home, GET ON PABLO’S LEVEL.

While it’s unfortunate Quintanilla lost the lead in the final stage on a huge crash, it’s another thing for him to get back up—even if it took a while—and finish the damn race!

While the video of the crash is only a minute long and there’s no timer counting how long Quintanilla is down for, the caption reads: “This is why Pablo Quintanilla lost almost 20 minutes today and finished 4th on the GC. #Dakar2019”

Several people came to check on him, even another racer. It appears he was down long enough for the helicopter to circle around a few times, as we see several different angles of him. He is somehow able to get back up, get on his bike, and go—he even roosts the people that were tending to him.

Quintanilla’s teammate Andrew Short, who finished fifth overall, posted on Instagram: “My heart goes out to my teammate @quintanilla102 who left everything on the table today going for the win. He has a huge heart and I’m thankful for everything he has helped me with. Get better soon Boss!”

As much as it sucks for Quintanilla to get the lead and lose it in the final stage because of a crash, I’d say he definitely left everything on the table. The ancient saying goes “Sometimes you have to risk it for the biscuit,” and Pablo went full send mode, almost as if trying to reenact the famous scene from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Props to him, for not only taking a chance for the championship, but for getting back up and finishing after such a bad crash.

There is no official injury report yet, but we do hope for the best for Pablo.

[Update]

Pablo issued the following quote via a Husqvarna press release:

“Today I gave it all for the overall win, but things did not go as planned. A few kilometres into the stage there was a broken dune and it was hard to see it. I jumped it and landed heavily on my foot. Luckily the medical crew arrived a few seconds later and they helped me get back on the bike. The rest of the day it was just a struggle to get to the finish. If you want to win the Dakar you do need to take some risks and that’s what I tried to do today. I was really trying my best today for myself and for the team. It was a tough day but still I’m happy I’ve finished this Dakar. I take my fourth-place result and focus on the future. Overall, I’m happy I gave 100% at this Dakar and took some risks while battling for the win. I will come back even stronger next year.” 


Main image: Marcin Kin / Husqvarna Images