This is where the fun starts
By TMX Archives on 26th Feb 09
It seems to have been a very long winter but the first signs of spring, for us at any rate, is a veritable feast of off-road sporting activity... AS sometimes noted in this column it is either feast or famine in this game. You don't have a major event to report on for weeks and then, just like buses, they all come at once! Well, we have had quite a sequence of stop-start weekends lately but now it is all starting to hit the fan. This issue sees the Le Touquet Beach Race from France, Muntjac British Champs Enduro from East Anglia, MMX from Little Silver in Devon and the Wallace Cup National trial from the heart of England. That's just for starters.
And this coming weekend is pretty significant for off-road sport in Britain. On the one hand we have the Hawkstone International MX, giving us all a chance to catch early season form at our most charismatic track – but only just before the British Champs kick-in just a week later. And in a bad clash of dates (for some of us anyway who would like to attend BOTH events) the British Trials Champs gets under way the same day as Hawkstone, with a brand new event at Scarborough.
Of course, the competition calendar being what it is these days, with umpteen championships and major events all vying for the best available date, means that most weekends throughout the ‘season' feature clashes. How I wish it didn't but for once there is actually no-one to blame. There are only so many weekends each year and no organiser worth their salt is going to give way without a fight. Although again, being fair (don't know what's got into me), the major organisations do their best these days to avoid the worst potential clashes.
However, I don't suppose for a second that the clashes worry the riders too much. Not many of
the International MXers will be fretting over the British Trials Championship result, just as this week the Enduro champs chasers weren't much fussed about who was starring in the opening round of the MMX series. So: to each his own – and bring it on!
THANKS to the wonders of modern technology (SkyPlus mainly) I am able – just as you are – to see events that otherwise would remain pretty much out-of-reach of an ordinary Joe such as myself. Like AMA Supercross (albeit three weeks late) and the Le Touquet Beach Race.
Le Touquet happened to be on LIVE last Sunday but not even I would waste three hours of Sunday afternoon sitting around inside when I could be out – and anyway, the whole thing was actually repeated, in its three hour entirety, later that night. So I wasted even less time as I simply turned on, watched the first lap or so, then did something else for a bit, caught up with what was happening in mid-race and then watched the final three or four laps.
It is truly an amazing race and the soft, dry, loose sand looks horrendous. You can either ride this stuff or you can't, there appears to be no happy medium. The helicopter shots show the fast guys weaving in and out of the lappers (that's everybody else, about 1000 in total!) in what looks amazingly like a high-speed video game. The only problem with the helicopter camerawork, with their monster lenses, is that they make the course look absolutely pancake flat whereas ground shots show it in reality to be like a cross-rutted battleground. Even minor undulations bring many competitors to a stop.
I understand the attraction of being part of such a huge event but to the vast majority of the riders I saw, stalling, bogging-in or just plain toppling-off the side because the bike just stopped dead in the sand or the front wheel washed-out, it looked more of a nightmare than a dream ride.
The fast guys are of course something else: Potisek, Demeester and co make it look so easy, actually wheelying out of tight corners where others are spinning a hole in the sand with their rapidly disappearing rear wheels. It was good to see Mickael Pichon running up front for a while, until he faded dramatically in the closing stages. Pichon attracted plenty of controversy during his peak years but when the French ace agreed to present a Suzuki to the winner of a T+MX Win-A-Bike competition at Hawkstone Park, when at the height of his powers, he was a perfect gentleman, and emerged from his motorhome to spend time talking to the lucky winner about the Suzuki and MX in general.
Whatever, Le Touquet is one special event and hats-off to the fast guys.
Now, Roger Harvey was commentating on Le Beach Blast for TV (along with Jack Burnicle) and speaking to Harv on Monday I said I noticed that the dashing duo were having problems identifying riders early on in the race. Now, its easy to criticise commentators but fair's fair, they are just watching a screen, like you and me, and to make matters worse, for Le Touquet they were only provided with a rider list – wait for it – in alphabetical order! Imagine trying to locate rider number 215 in a 1000 rider list...Unlucky, lads!