Hang on to your hats it’s almost time for Le Touquet.
By Dick Law on 25th Jan 17
Hundreds of nutty sand-loving racers will take to the legendary beach for the 45th running of the Enduropale du Touquet in France.
On the weekend of February 4/5 it's time for the biggest and best beach race in the world – and this year it's shaping up to be the best for a long time.
As it's the final round of the French Sand Racing championship all the best riders will be there, including three-times winner Adrian Van Beveren – who'll be desperate to make it four in a row and close in on Kees Van der Ven's five-race win streak set back in the 1980s.
Daymond Martins, who won the last sand championship round will be there hoping to continue his winning ways along with former World MX champion, Steve Ramon, who will want to add a second Le Touquet voctory to his win in 2011.
Other names to look out for at the sharp end will be Yentel Martins, Xavier Boog, Richard Fura, Axel Van de Sade and Julien Tournessi.
But also look out for some names we are more familiar with over this side of the channel as Steven Lenoir and Nicolas Aubin will be giving it their all – and let's not forget Mr Unlucky, Milko Potisek.
What does Potisek have to do to get his first Le Touquet win?
One year while in the lead the wind brought the tide in early forcing the organisers to stop the race – and on count back poor Milko was demoted to second place.
Then, last year while in the lead his Yamaha came to a halt while all the others went on to finish the race.
Of our home grown riders there are two names to look out for.
Northern Ireland's Richard McKeown, is now living in Skegness.
He has competed in all the rounds of the sand championship and is always up with the leaders come the end of the three-hour races.
And then there's Britain's Matt Moffitt, who seems to love the sand and only has one speed when he gets out on the track and that's flat-out, wire-tight.
There are always plenty of other UK riders all with their own agendas and reasons for competing – but for most the aim is just to finish this most gruelling of events.
In Saturday's Quad Race three-time winner Jeremie Warnia will take some beating as he goes for his third win in a row.
And Romain Couprie, who has four wins to his name, the first back in 2004 is always one to watch.
Brit Sheldon Seal is running seventh in the French Sand Championship and will be one to look out for along with Carl Bunce with lots of other UK entries.
It's worth the 45-minute drive from Calais just to watch 1,200 mad sand racers storm two miles down the beach from a mass start into a hairpin bend and to the first of many man-made dunes where all hell breaks loose.
There is a Veteran's race on Friday, a Youth Solo and the three-hour Quad race on a shortened track on Saturday.
Then it's another Youth race on Sunday morning with the main solo 11.30am on Sunday.
It looks like they have brought the start time forward a bit as a tide consideration – Milko will be pleased!
Only two UK riders have won the event – Paul Winrow as part of a winning quad pair and Ben Watson, who won the Junior race by a mile in 2014 – so it's about time for another.
It's worth the effort to go and see this event and entry is free.
Cars are parked at the airport and a free shuttle bus service takes spectators down to the seafront.
One year when the sun shone the organisers reported that 280,000 spectators turned out to to watch the action.
Mind you, the track does stretch five miles down the coast. It's one event you could tick off on your ‘bucket list'.
