Eric Palante

Eric Palante (21 January 1963 to 9 January 2014) was a Belgian motorcycle rally raid competitor best known for his many entries in the Dakar Rally, which he started eleven times. He competed most recently in 2014 as a privateer on a Honda CRF450X in the no-assistance malle-moto category, now called Original by Motul, and his best overall Dakar finish was 66th, in 2012. He died during the 2014 event on Stage 5, between Chilecito and San Miguel de Tucumán in Argentina. Organisers reported that no distress alert had been received, and an autopsy carried out in Argentina found that he had died of intense hyperthermia.