Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

and get ba ck for th e scru tineering in th e afternoon . On Sunday. h e rode lik e th e co u rse was hi s familia r Day: ton a Bea ch and h e bl u rred past me o n the So u lor cl im b. T he occasion wa s recorded bv th e ca me ra cre w wh o had flo wn in from London ea rl ier in th e week to mak e a of m y pa rti ci pa- • tio n in th e event. It was a film co m m ission ed by th e ind us try de pa rt me nt o f the Briti sh go ver n me n t a n d plann ed for T V scree ni ng inva rio us co u n tries to give a sa les boost to N or, to ns . As I h ad co n fided to th e p roducer . th e proj ect was likely to prove too lat e a nd I wa s right , for th e factory closed a few m onths after th e film was di stributed . I had a ro ug h tim e during th e week , foot peg scra p ing aro un d th e So u lor hairpins tim e afte r tim e wh ilst ca mera a ngles a nd so und mikes foun d th eir best posit ions, a nd one o f m y po lice fri ends would believe that I wa s not paid . H owever . I was g iven a co py o f th e film a nd when it was shown a ro u nd to English clubs. it brought more rider to Pau . What it does not show is th e wall of thi ck fog . which began 200 ya rds after Cook pass ed m e and blanketed th e mountain roads all the way to th e drop down the Aubisque. O n the sharp righthander after the summit of the mountain. there was a five-machi ne crash chaos when a Spanish rider p u lled his No rton o ut o f the di tch a nd skittled the next man. thus effec tively blocking th e road for five min u tes. I arrived very slowly and half blind. having remo ved firs t my gogg les and th en m y fogged spectacles and I was ab le to pick my way through th e mess of mac hinery. The Fren ch police teams had started in their usua l p lac es towards the end of the field. and not only was th e wreckage cleared by the time they ca me through . butthe fog had been thinned by a sudden wind . Th ey took th e fir st three p laces once again but Geneletti had lost h is Honda down the sid e of Li zarie ua and his colleague j ean Hulin won th e top trophy. Of th e de cima ted list of finish ers. Cook wa s close to getting th e best for eign rid er a wa rd a nd I was some pl aces beh ind him. Significant cha nges ca me to th e co urse in 1975 a nd to th e ent ries . H avin g aba ndone d th e Spa n ish a rea o f th e At lantic P yrenees. th e organizers rep lace d it with 160 mi les o f th e H ig h Pyren ees to th e east a nd th ese in cluded m ountain track s whi ch had never been used exce p t by shee p and goats. G one were th e fa st sectio ns , a nd th e 90-mph j a izqu ib el climb en jo yed by th e q u ick motors was re p lace d by a form idable pi ece of g eo graphy ca lled th e Spand e ll e Mountain , much worse th an Lizarrieta a nd with a time ta rget which defi ed th e brav est o f th e brave. Fallen ro ck s had been removed for years and th e circl in g vultures would have been' the fir st to rea ch a ny rider who fell the 4000 feet straigh t down . They were di sappointed not to find bodies in the wr eck of a BMW outfit wh ich had shed its driver and passenger before it h urtled down:the luna r la ndscape. Beyond Sp andel lethe co urse twisted wi th in creasing nas tiness through th e m ountains whish look down o n th e far-bel ow town of Lo u rdes, the mecca of sick and crippled pi lgrims seeking help a t the sh rine of Saint Bernad ette. T hi s was the year whi ch was to change th e fundamental cha rac ter of th e event a nd thereby to begin th e steady decline of th e prestige whi ch had been buill up over m an y yea rs . The hazards of th e mount ains. th e diffi cult tracks in th e foothill s a nd th e fast road sect io ns had been co m bine d into a formula wh ich o fIered th e cha lle nging invitation which had brought to Pau th e big bike type film Author Shilton's Norton is scrutinized at a t imecheck in the Pyrenees Mountains of France. Note helmet and goggles. Histor~: T~e .Inrernational Circuit des Pyreneej; Part 2 By Neale Shilton Whi lst there were no major chan ges for the 1973 course, there were -so m e su btle ones to offset the advantages which the bigger bikes' had on the faster roads away from the moun tains. More unsurfaced sectio ns were introduced to add to th e problems which a nothe r bad winter had crea ted o n the Soulor 20 a nd Aubi sque, /\ six- ma n team from th e German army mad e its first appeara nce rid ing H ercu les m ilitary ma ch ines with I25cc Sachs mo tors. T hey were o u t o n th e co urse from dawn to dust. a tte nded by support vehicles a nd with radio survei lance, But for their slo we r speeds on Bad gers Wood, Lizarrieta a nd j a izqu ibel. th ey wou ld have finish ed h igher th an their 15th and 16th places. However. they had demonstrated that th e event continued to be dominated by higher-powered m achines onl y because o f the speed hill climbs and faster road 'sectio n s. The situa tio n was to change la ter. Pierre Genell eri was the winner for th e seco nd year in successio n . with a brilliant performance which lost only 32 marks. a nd th e Gendarmes took th e next four p laces. Scotland Yard detective Brian P h i p p s wa s sixth on a Norton Commando whi ch I had len t him . In evitably. there was th e usua l n urn ber of crashes . th e wo rst ha ppening between Soulor a nd Aubisque to a BMW rider from Bordeaux when he landed a fter a jump wth wheels porting in different directions. The last time the co urse went into Spai n wa s in 1974. a nd th erefore, th e , last even t in wh ich big bikes wo u ld predom ina te. T he German a rmy increased th eir ent ries to eig h t. a ll o n 125cc H ercu les, a ndt he 13 En gl ish po lice ride rs o n T ri u mphs a nd Nortons in cluded i wo new men. o ne of wh om was to tak e th e top a ward severa l years lat er. He was Bill Em merson from th e north o f Engla nd . but his first ride was handi capped by a d is located sh oulder ' the first day o f practi ce. and for th e rest o f th e week h e learned th e co urse from th e pa ssenger sea t of a p o lice co lleag ue . Th e oth er new Briton was Clive Thomas from London. who tried too hard on Badgers Wood. hit th e roc k wall o n the fir st righthander and wa s in th e hospital for a lo ng time with a fractured thigh. .Loo king a t th e Fren ch press report o f th e event . I see th e warm welcome whi ch it gave to the fir st ' Am eri can competitor. Cook Neil son . who h ad . "crossed the Ocean Atl antique to taste the Pyren ees." Actually he -only tast ed th e road surface in San Seba stien . I met Cook a t Pau airport wh en h e arrived o n th e even ing fli gh t from Pari s a nd handed o ver th e Norton Commando wh ich I had prepared for him . T he re were o n ly tw o full da ys o f pra ctice left . but o n th e Saturday mornin g he wa s a way a t dawn to ride the Spanish sections fo r th e fir st tim e of ma chin er y wh ich co u ld be ridden th ere from far a way places. It was o n thi s cl ass of machine that th e Circu it des Pyren ees had been found ed , a nd it s prestige o wed much to th e po lice ent ries from the Ge ndarmerie Nat ion a le, th e Garde Republi cain e, from Bri tain , Belgiu m a nd Spa in . T he n ew co urse did n ot welcom e th e Tri u m p hs . Nortons a nd BMW s from England or Pari s and it wa s impossible for th em to ac hieve th e hi gher s pee d sche d u les th ey were sti ll set agai ns t. th e sma lle r machin es. My rew ard for tr yin g wa s a cras h wh ich need ed hospital treat men t a nd my fir st menti on in th e lo ng list of no nfinish ers. Gen eletti had a brilliant ride o n hi s H onda 500 to win th e top a wa rd but a Yamaha 175 was a close seco n d with o ther japanese a nd G erman lightweigh ts behind him. At th e traditional banquet in th e even ing we sa id a u revoir as a lways to th e man y Fr en ch po lice fr iend s with wh om we had ridden yea r a fter yea r; bu t thi s time it wa s goodbye for they never ret urned . After the closure of th e Norton facto ry in th e a utumn of 1975. I had joined BMW to develop their U.K. police business and for the 1976 event. I used an R IOOwhich hadjust ret urned from th e marathon Pa ris-to-T eh era n run. The front suspension could not survive the further punishment of five days Pyrenees p ra ctice and I had to retire a fter th e seco nd che ckpoint with collapsed fro nt forks. It was not a good wee k for BMW as the two I had loan ed to po lice riders were both written off after crashes i n the mo un tai ns. After th e withdrawal of the Gendarme tea ms. the on ly pol ice entries came fro m Britain a nd some had been he lped wit h lightweight machines from Yama ha a nd Kawasaki. The begin n in g of th e trai l bi ke era. The Germa n army team on th e sma ll He rcules wa s determined to get amongst 'the top aw ards and succeeded. A British arm y team' arrived with 350cc BSA mi li tary models which someb ody must have assumed were ' good eno ug h to fi nish the co urse. O n Iy one ofthem struggled to the flag . The organizer s had fou nd an o th er un ch arted tra ck whi ch twis ted up th e H ourar ate Mountain fo rest a nd was in th e regu lations as a timed threemi le cli m b. Th e Fren ch press ca lle d it a " rudetest" a nd th at wa s a n o versirn p lica tio n , T he fastest time wa s th e standard beyond whi ch slo wer riders lost five marks per seco nd a nd i t was a near cer ta int v that th e fastest man would be hard to beat for th e top troph y now th at th e G endarmes were not rid ing. Number o ne British co p Bill Emmerson . a m ot cro ss expe rt . decided th at h e would be th ai man , a n d h e wo re O U I th e rear tire of hi s Yamah a unt il he was satisfi ed th at nobod y wou ld ge l n ear hi s time. We watched many o ther riders o n Houra ta te and Spandelle a nd co nc luded .tha t Emmerson' s n earest riva l wa s a young Frenchman on a 175 Yamaha. jean Castera, whose fat her had won the event some years before. T he race did in fact p ro ve to be a ba tt le between these two in th e su nsh ine o f Sunday . Some 121 riders started and 66 finished . Emmerson became th e fir st non-Frenchma n to win, Castera was second a n d a German army rider was thi rd o n a Hercu les. Of the man y cra shes , on e proved fat a l wh en the reg u lar co m pe tito r Fr en chman P h il ip pe Martinetti died in the hospi ta l soo n a fter bei ng rushed th ere - th e third fatality in the hi story o f th e even I. Th e co u rse remained th e sam e for 1977 but m or edifficu ll. Nin e mi les of t he Sou lo r and Aubisque roads had been g ra velled 10 a dep th of six in ch es and rhe Houratate cli mb had been further m uti la ted by logg ing oper a

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