Cyril Despres To Race Le Touquet This Weekend |
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File under Racing France
Author: Mike Werner
Location: Normandy, France
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2011 runner-up and former winner of the famous Dakar rally, Frenchman Cyril Despres  , is obviously not that tired after two very heavy weeks in South America. He's just back, and already he has announced that he's racing this coming weekend in another physically intensive and difficult motorcycle race, the Le Touquet Enduropale .
The Enduropale is world's biggest motorcycle beach/enduro races, also one of world's biggest motorcycle races, with 1100 motorcycle starting (at the same time), 800 quads and between 200,000 and 500,000 spectators (it's free, so many people make use of that for a weekend of free entertainment).
Cyril Despres is racing this weekend on a borrowed KTM 450 SX. He's raced before, but only participated in the holeshot (in deep beach sand on a KTM 950 Adventure), which he won (link ).
This time he is going to try to finish the race. Other big name riders have tried to finish in the past, names like David Knight, David Fretigne and many others, but none of the big names have managed to finish this gruelling race. So who knows, maybe Despres will manage. Three hours in deep sand and freezing temperature is not easy.
 Cyril Despres on his KTM 950 Adventure motorcycle at Le Touquet
Although it's the end of January, the weather forecast looks good. It'll be cold, but no snow and hopefully no rain. Many people arrive at Le Touquet on motorcycle, so if the weather stays good, there should be record crowds.
Last year's event was supported by: - 60 motorcycle cops, of which 25 in the dunes
- 65 gendarmes, 300 police
- 160 firemen, 75 security agents
- 180 stewards
- 200 municipal staff
- 2 Mobile hospitals
- 1 medical triage center
- 6 Red Cross first aid centers
- 14 doctors, 2 surgeons, 11 nurses
- 3 helicopters
Remember that this year is the first year an electric motorcycle (a Zero) is competing (link )
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