Baragwanath rides for SA’s wildlife

With the Dakar 2016 coming to an end in Rosario, Argentina on Saturday former local quad biker Brian Baragwanath, a member of Team Rhide South Africa, is hoping to achieve top rankings in this challenging competition.
Baragwanath won Stage 3 of the quad category by a four second lead ahead of Chilean Ignacio Casale. With tight competition between the two riders, Baragwanath managed to secure South Africa’s first Dakar victory for 2016. However, Team Rhide spokesperson Jenneke Scheepers confirmed that Casale was still in the lead by two minutes and 56 seconds.
Today (Thursday) will see the start of the third last stage from La Rioja to San Juan, on to Villa Carlos Paz tomorrow (Friday) and the finish in Rosario on Saturday.
Baragwanath, four times National Quad Champion and 2014 Botswana Dakar Challenge winner is taking part in Dakar for a second consecutive year as a symbol of the race against time to protect South Africa’s wildlife which hovers on the verge of extinction.
Scheepers informed that: “Team Rhide SA team members Baragwanath, George Twigge, National Off-road Master Quad Champion, Ted Barbier (2015 Dakar Team Rhide SA member) and seasoned athlete Wessel Bosman (who has taken a record-breaking journey from Cape Town to Cairo on his motorcycle) are performing well. Baragwanath, in a video posted on facebook on Sunday stated: “Things are going to get tough from now on. So far it has been a fairly smooth race despite George having an accident. We are now changing engines in preparation of the last stages,” he said.
Twigge did not sustain any injuries but his bike was damaged. He is still in the race.
After Stage 7 the results were also published on the team’s facebook page. Baragwanath finished ninth with an overall standing in tenth position. Twigge finished 27th with and overall ranking in 13th position with Barbier finishing 31st and 30th on the overall ranking.
Bosman is out of the race after breaking both his wrists during an accident in Stage 6.
“Team Rhide SA is a proudly South African off-road racing team that was formed by Baragwanath in 2014.

RC Myburgh
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