From brother to brother in the Metge family

January 4 ^th 2020 - 20:39 [GMT + 3]

The start list officially confirmed that Michael Metge will not be starting what would have been his eighth (and possibly last) Dakar due to a knee injury. Sherco decided to replace him with his own brother Adrien, who has been part of the team for several years but was poised to sit out the 2020 edition. It was a dramatic twist of fate for the younger of the two Metge brothers, who had to get ready for the rally with less than a week to spare: "Thank goodness we're brothers and are the same clothing and boot size… I'm even wearing his jacket with 'Michael' printed on the back!" Moments before climbing onto the podium and bringing his bike back to the secure enclosure, the biker with race number 11 already felt comfortable enough in his new role to talk about his objectives: "Last year I was a bit frustrated because I finished 22^nd riding with a broken scaphoid and after being slapped with a big penalty, although my pace was good enough to crack the top 10. I hope I can keep it up after training year-round. I still feel every bit as strong even though I haven't raced a lot this season." Meanwhile, a few thousand kilometres away, Michael is already his brother's most fanatical supporter.