It's beach to their own – Le Touquet
By TMX Archives on 23rd Jan 08
THE biggest off-road event of the year is just a week away as 1,000 solos and 400 quads will take to the beach for the annual 2008 Le Touquet beach enduros in north-west France, on Saturday and Sunday, February 2/3.
Once again, it looks like a win in the solo class will come from one of the French specialist sand-racers. Previous winner, Arnaud Demeester, goes in search of his third win.
Meanwhile, last year's race-leader Tim Potisek will hope he has better luck and gets to finish the event this time around.
If he does get to the end, chances are he will be challenging for the win with Demeester, while Jean-Claude Mousse will be waiting to pounce on any mistakes they may make.
Yves Deudon, and Pierrick Paget finished second and third last year and can't be counted out for this year.
Others to look out for are former French and European motocross champion, Frederic Vialle, giving it a go, and Nicolas Cailly on an Aprilia RVX 550 that could be a handful.
Look out for Jean Charles Lanain trying to get the holeshot on his 1,200cc BMW and his team-mate Jean Yves Pegard on the all-new BMW X650.
The course for the solos is mainly the same, apart from more bends and hair-pins to slow what was a rather fast track down, plus some more jumps along the seafront.
Britain stands a better chance of some success in Saturday's Quad race where previous winner, Paul Winrow on his 450 Honda, will be doing the whole three hours on his own. He said: "I was looking at some of the top European names on the entry list and saw that most were doing it on their own.
‘‘So I thought I would give it a go. It saves all the waiting in the change-over area and getting used to the track conditions again.”
To prove a point, last year's winning pair of Blaise Parent and Romain Couprie have split and are doing the race on their own, Parent on a Yamaha and Couprie on a Can-Am – and both will be out to win!
An international flavour will be added with Polish champion, Gregor Brzozoxski, Dutchman Wil Van der Laan and Estonian Arlet Martinson, along with loads of European stars and all the UK riders who managed to get entries.
The Quad course has been changed for this year with a longer straight and a track lengthened from 7.8km to 11.4km, giving more room, and to allow more starters.
Both races start each day at 1pm and go on till 4pm. Just like the past two years, spectators' cars will be parked at the local airport, with a free bus to take then to and from the seafront.
Camping will only be allowed in the designated areas and last year the organisers even had some firewood available for those all-important camp fires.
It's an easy place to get to as all you have to do is go from Dover to Calais, turn right to Boulogne, and follow the coast road for 45 minutes.
Getting home can be a problem as even with parking at the airport, it can take an hour or more to get out of town. So after the race, kick back and have a meal before starting your journey home.