Le Touquet Beach Race - full report and gallery
By Team TMX on 3rd Feb 16
Adrien Van Beveren grabs another beach blast victory in France...
For the third year in a row Adrien Van Beveren (450 Yamaha) won last weekends Enduropale Du Touquet - the biggest, hardest and best beach race in the world.
But what makes Van Beveren's win even more impressive is that the 25-year-old has just retuned from his first attempt at the Dakar rally where he finished a very creditable sixth place.
The weather wasn't at its best all weekend with a gale blowing off the Atlantic and across the beach on Friday.
The wind eased off a bit on Saturday but the poor Juniors that were out first thing suffered with the driving rain that thankfully turned lighter for the afternoons Quad race.
Sunday saw the best conditions as the main Solo races started and ended dry but had three quarters of an hour of drizzle midway through the three-hour race.
The start time for Sundays solo race was brought forward to 11.45 after strong winds caused an early high tide a couple of years ago and the shortening of the race, and also big changes were made to the start to hopefully lessen the amount of start straight injuries of last year.
Organisers had divided the start line into two parts with with two separate lanes going to and around the first turn with the yellow plated seeded riders starting on the right gate with the rest going from the left hand gate, five seconds or so latter. And it seemed to work.
Milko Potisek (450 Yamaha) got the holeshot and the prize that went with it but, the runner-up from two year ago, who always seems to be unlucky at this event had his day's sport cut short after blowing his engine while challenging for the win later in the race.
Potisek was still in the lead after the first long lap from the evergreen Steve Ramon (450 Suzuki), Yentel Martins (450 Husqvarna), Camille Chapeliere (450 Yamaha) who is the French sand racing series leader, Romain Dumontier (450 Yamaha) and Van Beveren in sixth, but with another 1,100 riders behind him.
With three laps down and with the leaders already putting most of the other competitors a lap down, Belgium's Martens was in the lead from Chapeliere with Potisek now third and suffering at the hands of some back markers.
Ramon was still fourth but Hollands Marc De Reuver (450 Honda) had pushed Van Beveren down a place with Julien Tournessi (450 KTM) seventh with Margate's own Arnaud Degousse (450 KTM) eighth.
With the first hour behind them, Potisek was back in the lead from Chapeliere and Ramon with four times winner, the first in 1999, Jean-Claude Mousse (450 Yamaha) fourth and Van Beveren fifth after re-passing De Reuver.
Dan Thornhill (450 Husqvarna) was top Brit going strong in the top fifty despite running with a standard fuel tank after they said the second tank they had fitted was against the rules and made him take it off forcing him to make many more fuel stops then the leaders.
At the halfway stage and with the leaders making their fuel stops, things started to get mixed up as Chapeliere was now in the lead from Ramon, Potisek, Mousse, Axel Van De Sande (450 Yamaha) with Martins and De Reuver now sixth and seventh as Van Beveren dropped out of the top twenty with his fuel stop.
With half hour left to go the rain stopped and Van Beveren was back in the lead from Van De Sande, Chapeliere, Ramon, Mousse, Degousee. Seven-time winner, the first win way back in 1995, Arnaud Demeester was riding a 250 two-stroke Sherco in seventh as Potisek dropped out.
At the end of the three hours of torcher Van Beveren collapsed after crossing the finishing line a happy three time in a row winner, with Van De Sande second just under two minutes behind the winner. Chapeliere was third and still remains the leader in the Sand race championship.
Degousee was in a strong fourth place and was the last rider on the lead lap.
Mousse was sixth from the one-time leader Martins with Demeester, Damien Prevot (450 KTM) making a late charge up to ninth place.
Thornhill started his last lap still on the pace and still looking fresh in 41st position but his fitness payed dividends as he crossed the finish line in 36th place and was the top Brit which is not bad considering it is he second attempt at the gruelling event.
"The course was wetter this year then last, which helped keep the bikes cool” said Thornhill, "It whooped out so much I found myself doubling all the way round round come the end of the race. I rode the whole three hours with a massive grin on my face. I loved it so much and the bike didn't miss a beat either which was awesome!
"I pitted more than I would have normally wanted to with a small tank I had fitted after they said I couldn't use the second one I had fitted, but I did the best with what I had and I'm really happy with my results and the way the weekend went”
Saturdays wet and windy Quad race was all about last years' winner Jeremie Warnia (450 Yamaha), as apart from when Pascal Rochereau got the holeshot on a two-stroke Yamaha Banshee (which must have been at least ten years old as that's when they stopped making them) he had it all his own way and was unstoppable.
Keveen Rochereau (450 Honda) was second with our own Carl Bunce (450 Suzuki) in the top five. Warnia sweept round the outside to make up a lot of places from a less then perfect start, as fancied rider Mathieu Vanstrazeele (450 Yamaha) got caught up in a first turn four quad pile up.
Antoine Cheurlin (450 Yamaha) was in the lead at the end of the opening lap, from Florian Mangeot (450 Yamaha), Polish rider Damian Rajcxyk (450 Yamaha) and Randy Naveaux (450 Yamaha) with Warnia sixth and Bunce eighth as Sheldon Seal (450 Yamaha) was making up from and not so good start.
At the end of the first hour Warnia was in the lead and in control with Cheurlin pushed down to second place from Rochereau third as Bunce now in seventh as Seal made his way into the top twenty in fifteenth place.
With an hour to go it was an all French top three as Warnia stretched his lead over Cheurlin and Mangeot and the two Belgium riders of Naveaux and Jan Vlaeymans (450 Yamaha) struggled to close the gap on the leaders.
Bunce was still in seventh place with Seal now up to 13th place and on a good pace.
At the end of the race Warnia won by just over three minutes from Cheurlin, with Mangeot third from Vlaeymans with Bunce a great sixth place as Seal finished his race in twelfth place making good from his troubled start.
"The race went well for me” said Bunce, "Got a decent start kept my self out of trouble and pushed hard all the way from start to finish. Had a good battle on the last couple of laps with Axel Dutrie and Jan Vlaeymans. Maybe I should have done a bit of winter training and I could have got a better result, but I am happy with the result and how the day went”
Seal said, "It all went wrong for me from the start to be honest. I was on the second row and a guy in front of me stalled so started at the back of my wave of 50 riders, but I pushed hard for whole race and managed 12th place so still have something to smile about”
In the Quad Duo part of the race, for two riders taking turns on one quad, Jamie and Ben Morgan (450 Honda) won, having completed 11 laps which was one lap more then there nearest rivals Rome Huibers and Johan Gommans (450 Honda) while the UK's brother and sister team of Ameelie and Harry Miller finished a creditable fifth on there 450 Yamaha against some stiff competition.
In the rather wet conditions, the Juniors, for 13 to 17-year-old, event on Saturday morning Jake Edey (250 KTM) was in the thick of the action, and in the wars.
He started well and was in the top three for a while untill he had an almighty crash knocking himself a bit silly and possibly braking his nose which meant he dropped well back in to the pack.
Adrenaline must have kicked in as come the end of the hour and a half lap he had pulled himself back up to finish in 11th place.
Anthony Bourdan (250 Husqvarna) was the winner from Maxime Renaux (250 Yamaha) and Mathys Bosisreme (250 Yamaha), with Brad Thornhill (125 Husqvarna), Dan's younger brother, in 23rd against some to class sand riders.
