FRENCH GP - St JEAN d'ANGELY

What can I say.....WOW... what a track, for those of you that say it on tv...... its 10 times steeper in real life Big shout out to forum member Mart for the ride down and organising the whole thing, thanks fella.

Well our road trip started early Friday morning with a trip to Newhaven, not the quickest trip across but the cheapest at the time, landing at Dieppe the long drive down quickley passed as we eagerly anticipated the forthcoming sun, beer and racing (not in that order), come mid evening with the sun still hot enough to burn our pasty english skin ... first job, beers open and a wander off to look at the steep hillside circuit



Well it was instantly recognisable from past Duke videos and was very impressive with the water sprinkler system busily damping down the well prepped surface. In charge was the globe trotting Justin Barclay giving the order as to when was enough water. Couple the trackside hoardings with the purpose built food stalls built around the track, the grass infields and excellent viewing and you didnt question why our sport of scrambling is so big in other countries!!!



Ok it was a long haul down in the car but it was worth every penny just to see the place filled almost to capacity, imagine what it will be like next year with the circus they call the MX of Nations That is one meeting that i'm penciling in to go see
Now having hyped up the venue its fair to say that the competition was well worthy of a line or two and MX2 home favourite, Marvin Musquin didnt disappoint with a clean almost unchallanged sweep of proceedings. A big shout out for our home grown talent is a must as Shaun Simpson took a second in moto 2 after some bad luck clashing with Ken Roczen in the first Simpson was in fighting form and his confidence showed as he nailed the uphill tripple on the first lap, the only rider in MX 2 to try it in the early warm up laps.

MX1 was looking to be another KTM dominance with Tony Cairoli setting pole and holeshotting moto 1 but Ramon had other ideas and reeled in the toothy Italian passing him around third distance only to have TC come back and regain the lead a lap later and pile on the pressure to pull out a sustainable margin that he held to the flag.
With no British representation in this class our attention was drawn to those that have and do race the Maxxis with some entertaining action coming from Coppins, Swanepoel and De Dyker. Even though Philipparts took the overall Cairoli took the glory as the little 350 showed its not underpowered in the slightest up the near vertical hills of Southern France. However the biggest cheer was saved for local hero Anthony Boissiere aboard the blue TM after he put in TM's best result even overtaking the 350 orange pilot at mid distance and bringing the minority manufacturer a 4th to the delight of the partisain crowd.

Cairoli leaping off the hilltop

Simpson soars above the crowd in early warm up Saturday, while the rest of the field doubled Simo got stuck straight in commiting totally from the first lap

The immaculatly preparred TM of Boissiere that took him to an outstanding moto 2 ride

With huge partisan support its no wonder the French have a riders academy.

Top Bike-It Cosworth Yam pilot Zach Osbourne set some blistering laps but was unable to turn it into a win, but watch this space its not far round the corner

Looks amazing, Looking foward to getting abroad to the GP's... Awesome Coach Keep em coming

JC45 wrote:

Looks amazing, Looking foward to getting abroad to the GP's... Awesome Coach Keep em coming

It was mate, track was unbelievable, crowds like the Matterly des Nations the only downside was the camping..... fooking t*ats up all night making as much noise as they possibly could

The HM Plant KTM squad had its side held up by Natalie Kane with some impressive riding, unfortunatly Jake failed to really mix it up although he was behind Roczen in the results.

Lisa Leyland, the girl that gets rider interviews when noone else can.....wonder why

Local hero, Valentin Teillet had hundreds of fans wearing t-shirts with his name on, but it didnt give him factory linkage as can be seen from his underbelly.

Great pics coach....keep em coming!
Still wading through mine!

COACH wrote:

Lisa Leyland, the girl that gets rider interviews when noone else can.....wonder why

any pics for the club Ady lol

I have a couple of Meggz polishing Cedrics helmet Wayne.... she might not like them to be aired in public tho..

Arggggggggh c'mon she aint shy

Once our Shaun had cleared the triple a few times the majority of the other top riders started doing it with a few heavy landings...

Miss Kane wacking up the style, throwing the bike sideways over the uphill triple.... no she was dounbling but I reckon she could of done it. During Sundays racing hardly anyone attempted clearing it due to the overnight rain leaving the track quite wet then developing some deep ruts.

Livia Lancelot was no match for the very quick Stephanie Laier but there does seem to be a pattern with these ladies... they like the colour orange!

Possibly the smallest girl out on the track was Larissa Papenmeier aboard what looked like a 1000cc machincew by the size of her

Mel Pocock rode his heart out looking quicker than his results sujested

This was the furthest incline from the start... im not kidding you when I say it was almost vertical at the top and shot the riders up at stupendous angles making for some great spectating

Reckon this must be the hot tip of the day... get your mechanic to 'fix' the throttle open

Great read (& pics) any of Musquin?

This one do ya?

So here's Roczen showing the height these fellas were getting off the uphill triple...bloody nutters!