BAJA PORTALEGRE 500 2020: RUBEN ALEXANDRE FULFILLS HIS DREAM OF WINNING

At 20, Ruben Alexandre achieved a dream. The rider of the village of Crato, who grew up following the cross-country race queen event in Portugal, finally achieved the big goal: victory. On the closing of this edition, he left his teammate, Fábio Ferreira, almost five minutes away, while Filipe Silva closed the podium, 9m15.2s away from the winner.

Four years ago, Ruben Alexandre showed that he was able to fight for the best positions between the quads in the Baja Portalegre 500. The Yamaha YFZ 450R rider continued to grow and improve his performance to achieve, in this edition, one of the great goals in his still short career. Ruben Alexandre was very competitive from the start.

At startup, he established the third time. In the first sector, the victory went to Oscar Romero, while Fábio Ferreira (Yamaha) was in second. But still in the inaugural stage, Ruben Alexandre went ahead. The young man from Alentejo pushed a pace that left the competition far behind and ended the day with an advantage of almost four minutes over the runner-up, Fábio Ferreira.

In the final stage, shortened to 79 kilometers due to yesterday's heavy rain that made many areas of the track impassable, Ruben Alexandre managed the advantage and closed his participation with the first victory in Portalegre and almost five minutes advantage over Fábio Ferreira. Filipe Silva, in Suzuki, ended up in the last place on the podium.

“On the first day, we went smoothly into the prologue to avoid any problems that we might have. There was no big problem in pulling back due to the climate we had. I made third place. In SS2, I attacked. I quickly reached the second place that was Fábio Ferreira. However, I caught the Spanish driver Oscar (Romero) and ended up with an advantage of almost four minutes. Today, I started to manage the wide advantage and managed to reach the end without any problem ”, said Ruben Alexandre.

Engeitado is champion

The consolidated advantage in the championship allowed Luís Engeitado to win the absolute title even without reaching the end. The Yamaha Bluemotor rider pulled out in the third selective sector, in the second stage, but secured the championship.

Text: ACP / Baja Portalegre

Photos:  Rally-Raid Network 
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