The party was a surprise and brought hundreds of inhabitants from Moncarapacho in the municipality of Olhão to the "casa do povo” to welcome the new local hero. After the journey from Dakar with a stop over in Lisbon, Ruben Faria arrived at about 7 pm surrounded by a small crowd, and was welcomed by the philharmonic band, warm embraces and requests for autographs.

As soon as he had entered the "casa do povo” hall, the motorcyclist said emotionally that he had been national champion several times and he had never had a reception like it. He said that it was very gratifying and that he almost felt like crying.

Then the “biker” went up on to the stage to receive the tribute, to be presented with flowers and to talk in person about some of the most entertaining incidents he had experienced during the rally, accompanied by his team-mates, Ricardo Pina and Nuno Mateus, who dropped out in Mauritania.

Florival Faria, his father, who is a mechanic by profession, was also called to the stage to reminisce about the childhood of the man who has now won a leg in the king of off-road competitions.

At the end, Ruben Faria summed it all up:

He said that things were going much better for him than he had expected. When he arrived in Morocco, his performance continued to be good, which led him to believe that he was going to have a good rally. But the huge problems he faced did not allow him to aim too high. He had broken three engines, his exhaust manifolds had fallen off, he broke a wrist … He ended by saying that he could have finished among the first ten, and that will be his dream for next year.

Yamaha Spain want to include Ruben in their team for next year’s Dakar rally

The 35^th place achieved at the end of the race is not a true reflection of the worth of the SPEDakar motorcyclist. The victory in the second leg, from Portimão to Malaga, was a better example of just that.

The man from the Algarve continued to stand out and he managed to keep pace with the motorcyclists in factory teams, which led to an approach from Yamaha Spain who want to include him in their team next year.

He told the Algarve Observer that they wanted to make him an offer but that it was not the right place. He added that they would make a concrete offer, suggesting that he is not 100% certain of staying with SPEDakar.

He confided that he had not got a signed contract and that he would do everything to stay with the team. He said that he wanted to return in the company of Nuno Mateus and Ricardo Pina, with better conditions. He said that he did not know if this was possible because there were several teams interested, adding that they had already told him that he would be contacted.