Beach Racing...Le Touquet Beach Race

1000’s set for Enduropale Le Touquet Beach Race

 

Enduropale du Touquet, hits the sandy beaches Cote d’Opale at Le Touquet, Northern France this weekend. 

Of enduro interest, EnduroGP number three Nathan Watson starts as one of the favourites, alongside 2017 Enduro 2 runner-up Jamie McCanney. 

Watson, the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider, is something of a sand specialist and has been concentrating his racing in Northern European sand since the end of the 2017 EnduroGP season.

Watson won the Berck Beach Cross (a few kilometres south of Le Touquet) in October 2017. 

He beat a healthy field including Axel Van de Sande, Yamaha Rally rider and 2016 Le Touquet winner Adrien Van Beveren and former MXGP front runner Steve Ramon.

McCanney starts for Yamaha

Outsiders Yamaha Enduro team rider Jamie McCanney will also race Le Touquet. 

McCanney will swap his usual WR250F enduro bike for a specially prepared Yamaha YZ450F.

Enduropale typically runs a 13-15 kilometre lap and has been dominated by French riders and Yamaha in its 13 year history. 

Kawasaki France’s 2017 Le Touquet winner and French Sand Champion Axel Van de Sande will have a say in that though. 

The strong list of entries also includes plenty of French beach race specialists plus a host of MXGP current and former racers. 

Camille Chapelière, Milko Potisek, Daymond Martens, Steve Ramon, Jeffrey Dewulf, Nico Aubin, Ken De Dycker, Xavier Boog and Richard Fura, who was third in 2017, all take to the start line.

Le Touquet attracts huge numbers of riders, as many as 2000 across all classes over the weekend. 

With crowds of around 500,000 organisers claim it is one of the world’s biggest motor sport events.