In what was perhaps the coldest and toughest 'Le Touquet' ever, the victory of this French off-road classic went to Jean-Claude Moussé. The 41-year-old Moussé, who lives in Le Touquet, turned out to be the strongest rider after more than three hours of competition.
With Nicolas Aubin and Rockstar Suzuki's Tanel Leok, the French sand specialists gained two major outsiders. Both would play an important role in the course of the match.
Until this morning there was uncertainty about whether or not the Enduropale would go ahead. If only because about 10 centimeters of snow had fallen on the beach of Le Touquet last night.
It was the young 'Nordiste' Adrien Van Beveren who would take the holeshot just after 13:00 PM. The Yamaha rider was the first leader but would not maintain his leading position for long. After passing the finish line for the first time, Van Beveren was overtaken by Nicolas Aubin. The Builbase Honda rider took advantage of a traffic jam to overtake the Yamaha rider.
Shortly afterwards, Arnaud Demeester quit. Demeester – the seven-time winner of 'Le Touquet' – only rode for fun, but found the race too dangerous in the given circumstances. “I don't understand why we started this afternoon,” he said in a response to FR3.
In the meantime, Adrien Van Beveren had also experienced that the conditions were hellish. Van Beveren crashed together with an amateur and lost three minutes. The Yamaha rider thus lost his chances of victory.
At the head of the race, Nicolas Aubin had now been joined by ex-winner Jean-Claude Moussé. The Yamaha rider rode a well-thought-out race and took the lead just before half way.
The match turned in Moussé's favor when Nicolas Aubin suffered a fuel failure. Aubin's Buildbase CRF450R was pushed to the riders' park by Arnaud Demeester and Rudy Potisek. Something that the FFM jury considered and which may result in Aubin receiving a time penalty.
The road to victory was therefore open to Moussé. Also striking was the good performance of Manuel Priem, who was at the start for the first time in the Enduropale. Priem was still 7th until the penultimate round, but would end up 6th in the last round.
The 40-year-old Jean-Claude Moussé is of course very happy after crossing the finish line as the winner. But Moussé is talking about a very tough edition of the Enduropal. The ice patches and the hard frozen sand banks made everything even more difficult and dangerous…
Result Enduropale Le Touquet: 1. Jean-Claude Moussé, Yamaha , 10 laps in 3h11:46, 2. Nicolas Aubin on 1min10.841, 3. Tanel Leok on 1min23.563, 4. Milko Potisek on 7min40.319, 5. Adrien Van Beveren on 7min51.921, Belgians and Dutch: 6. Manuel Priem at 7min51.921: 10. Ricky Claus, 10 laps in 3h29.40 13. Johan Boonen – 9 laps in 03h11.59 Sven Wauters, 9 laps, 24. Tom Lahousse – 9 laps in 3h25.30, 28. Thierry Klutz – 9 laps in 03h30.03 37. Kenny Van Herck, 8 laps in 3h12.26 70. Glenn Baert – 8 laps in 3h31.00 157. Marco de Blaey – 7 laps in 3h31.21 184. Tommy Ceulemans – 7 laps in 3h40.12 187. Jonathan Braam – 6 laps in 2h47.14 248. Karadeg Lamberty- 6 laps in 3h21.08 806. Wietse Brackman – 1 lap
Fcars: CDS
