Le Touquet Enduropale - Day 2 - Getting ready |
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File under Racing France
Author: Mike Werner
Location: Normandy, France
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Le Touquet Enduropale 2007 Photos
Photos of the Le Touquet Enduropale motorcycle beach enduro are available ! There are some 950 photos available, and can be seen, downloaded and/or purchased.
Click here to access the photo site. |
Saturday started early, since everyone woke up with the thundering noise of hundreds of quads. The day is gray, with bits of drizzle, but at least it's not cold.
The quads were allowed to practice the circuit before actually racing.
The circuit is not as long as the motorcycle one (7.8 kilometers versus 15.5 for the motorcycles). However, the quads are to ride more or less the same circuit as the motorcycles, so quite technical for quads.
Half way through the circuit is the "pit lane". This is where the quads come in to change driver (for the team entries), get gas and repair whatever damage.
Arriving in the pit lane village, the contestants are slowed down. No speeding allowed.
All over people are working on their quads.
There are literally rows and rows of quad tents.
Each quad is allowed a 3 meters by 3 meters space, and no more than 2 mechanics are allowed per quad.
Afterwards, they hightail it out of the tent park, back to the circuit.
Some were practicing the driver change.
As usual some riders were wearing funny helmets.
Some of the contestants looked better and more able than others.
Back at the ranch, the main street alongside the beach is jam-packed.
The usual sponsor trucks are omnipresent.
There were quite a few Quad stands as well.
You could buy almost anything you wanted on the street, from visor, to helmets, to complete motorcycles.
There was even a motorcycle simulator present, something you would not want to do if you had just eaten.
More quad sales...
Every dirt motorcycle on the market was represented here.
Even BMW 650GS, but the stand looked the least professional (just look at the BMW sign).
Yamaha had the biggest display, including one of their Dakar 2006 motorcycles than ran under the Euromaster brand.
These guys represent the CodeVer, the association that tries to protect our rights to ride our motorcycle on the greenlanes in France (and Belgium). You can read more about them on this site.
The street is very long, with massive amounts of bikers and motorcycle stands.
Anything goes...
As you could expect in a French organized motorcycle event, food could be found anywhere, from hamburgers to full gourmet meals.
The fire brigade mobile command post.
Orange's mobile GSM antenna, for all those 1,000's of people who want to make mobile phone calls.
30 minutes before the start of the quad race, the first quads arrive on the scene.
The slowest ones had to arrive the first.
Some had to wait too long....
The mobile hospital, the first entry point for someone who gets hurt.
The spectators are ready for the race to start. (more to follow as new article).
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