Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127125
00 00 O'l ...... Ricky Ryan won the first two motos in Beaucaire, France, but had his chain derail while leading t he third and final mota. Over 1200 riders entered the 120-mile Le. Touquet Beach Race , while an estimated 125,000 spectators looked on. Ryan's m isfortune was Goat Breker's ticket to v ictory. Breker t ook the overall in France with a 6 -2 -2 score over John Van den Berk. Breker leads 'MX raid on France By Alex Hodgkinson BEAUCAIRE, FRAN CE, FEB. 21 Am ericans G oat Breker and R icky Ryan made 'a sensational start to the ir European raci n g season when ' th ey tro unced nearl y every Eu ro- 20 pea n works star at the' traditio nal seaso n-o pe ner in southern Fran ce. Breker wound up th e overa ll winner with a 6-2-2 score, but it was R yan wh o showed th e speed, winning th e first two motos th en having hi s cha in derail wh ile leading th e th ird and final race. Breker, 28, who resides in Ri versi de , California , rode a Ho n da CR250 loaned to him from French 'deal er Mi chel Moreau. Currentl y without mach inery for the GPs, Breker is expected to receive th e offer of Kawasakis through another dea ler within the next few days, as all Open class Hondas allowed into France o n th e q uota system have sold ou t. Breker is p lanning to compete in the 500cc GP MX seaso n. Ryan, 21, from San J ose, Californi a, made th e holesh ot in all three motos on hi s H onda CR250 aga ins t all of th e factory'500s despite a lon g uphill sta rt, a nd Ryan held o n to win th e first two motos over such co mp etitors as Da ve T horpe, Er ik Geboers, Jean-Claude Bayle, Jacky Vimorid, J on Van den Berk, Kurt Nico ll , H einz Kini gadn er, Davey Strijbos and J organ Nilsson . ' T he on ly European to wi n a moto was 125cc Wor ld Champio n Van den Berk who beat Breker by half a whe el on h is factory Yam aha 250 in the - third moto to clin ch second overa ll. His cha nces of victory were spoiled by a first lap cras h with a local Pro in th e second moto. Similar p rob lems also put Vim ond and Thorpe ou t of the resu lts in one moto eac h. T horpe also had mechanical prob - lems with th e new factory Honda. A crac ked cra nkcase in pra ctice, and derail ed chains restri cted him to a fifth in the moto wh en he had been put into th e fence on th e ope ning la p . Tea m mate G eboers fin ished second a nd third in the first two motos, befor e he was ru shed to th e hospital for trea tment to hi s left eye. The upper lid and eyeball had been scra tched by a dirt parti cle on th e seco nd lap of the second mo ta. Fo rt u nate ly the reti na w a s no t damaged. 'c!t:. ' Nico ll rode conservat ively on th e new wor ks Kawasaki for th ird overa ll and was th e ,o nly 500cc rider in th e firs t se ven o vera ll o n th e ti ght twisting track. Fastest rider of all o n the H RC computer which was recording hip times of all of th e top rid ers was Bayle on hi s factor y 125. After the inevitable poor start he scorched th rough the pack th ree times for fifth overa ll beh ind the main rival for th e l25cc World title, Strijbo s. World Champion (500cc) Jobe, wh o swi tches to th e l25cc class this year, was, like Strijbos, riding a 250. j obe's best.moto was a 10th. • Geboers blasts Le Touquet beach By Alex Hodgkinson L E TOUQUET, FRANCE, FEB. 14 The grandaddy of beach racing came alive at Le Touquet with Belgiu m 's Er ik Geboers claiming top honors, besting a field of over 1200 riders. Geboers com pl eted th e 12-lap 10 mi le co urse (fo ur mil es along th e beach and six miles back th rou gh the dunes) in just three hours on a 1986 RC Honda, fitte d with a Iive. speed '85 motor and a , 3.3 ga llo n gas tank. Despite havi ng to stop for fuel four times , co m pared to five-time Le T ouquet winner Kees Van der Ven , wh o's KTM carried a 5.2 ga llon gas tank and had to on ly stop twice, Geboers won by two min ut es over Van der Ven. T h e r ace was in fact decided du ring the first two lap s as Van der Ven recovered from a slow start. The Dutchm an was 12th into the dunes first tim e around and trai led Geboers by two minu tes plus by th e time he took over second pl ace o n the second lap. Speed was the on ly deciding factor this year as a q ua rter of a million spect ators wat ched th e 1200 co mpetitors in perfect weather. The major bottlen eck at th e en try to th e dunes had been eased this year and was almos t clear when th e leaders arrived on th eir second lap for the first tim e in th e hi story of th e event. After givi ng th e race a miss in 1987, KTM was back in force this year but only Van der Ven of th eir top riders fini shed. J acky Martens and Peter Hansson both crashed heavily on the first lap whi le 1987 winner Leif Persson retired at half distan ce wh en third as a result of power loss caused by a pl ugged exhaus t. _ Yama ha als o had a bad da y with Van den Berk losing a lot of time wh en he had to ride half a lap with th e air filt er full of sand and make an unscheduled stop for a change of filter. H e was fo urth beh ind Belgi an pr ivateer Honda rid er J ean Marc Blanch y. Jacky Vimond was also top six until he forg ot to stop for fuel an d was left stranded ou t on the co urse. But Geboer 's victory wa s very m uch a personal affair. Although the bike was loaned by H RC , the Belgi an had to pay h is own expenses and entry fee of. $80. T he only prize is a free entry for Paris-Dakar, which the Belgian will not be taking up. •