Paul Carruthers | January 7, 2011
A day after giving BMW its first stage win in the Dakar Rally, things went horribly wrong for BMW Motorrad By Speedbrain’s Paulo Gonvalves as his BMW suffered a mechanical failure some 25 miles from the finish line, effectively knocking him out of the race.
The mechanical gremlins struck Goncalves almost immediately and he dealt with the electrical issues throughout the stage until the bike completely stopped on him near the end. The team was awaiting his arrival well into the night.
His teammate Ze Helio also had a bad day, the Brazilian crashing 30 miles into the stage and breaking his collarbone. He is now out of the Dakar.
Paul Carruthers | Editor
Paul Carruthers took over as the editor of Cycle News in 1993 after serving as associate editor since starting his career at the publication in 1985. Carruthers has covered every facet of the sport in his near-28-year tenure at America's Daily Motorcycle News Source.
