Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ENDURO · Fifth Annual G Lalay C illes lassic By John Dickins on UMOGES, FRANCE, FEB. 25 he Gilles Lalay Classic is an event like no other - certainly like no other in Europe, possibly in the wo rld . In just five sho rt years, the Lalay has es tab lished itse lf as the tou ghest oneday off-road bash on the calendar - an d it so me how m an ages to sp ring a new surprise each year. Last year, on ly four ride rs fro m an origina l 230 starters man aged to complete the su per-tough cou rse - the rest d ropped out d ue to mechanical failure or, mor e often, shee r exha us tion . This year, 35 riders managed to get to the finish Yet tha t finish was an absol ute epic with the result being declared a d ead heat between two Fren ch aces, Yamaha's Stephane Peterhansel and Kawasaki's Laurent Charbonnel after an unforgettable scene which saw the pair ba ttle up the infa mous final obsta cle - Dead Crow Hill, or, as the French would say, "Le Corbeau Mo rt" - w it h s pecta tors help ing to dr ag the rid ers and bikes u p the impossible slope to the line. The Gilles Lal a y is s taged in th e fores ts of centra l Fra nce and based in the city of Limoges. Just to qu alify, riders mu st firs t come through a pr elimi nary four-and-a-half-hour conventional end u ro, wi th the fir st wa ve of riders leavin g Limoges Ca thed ral at 6:30 a.rn, The top 100 finish ers th en ge t a threehour brea k before the Gilles Lalay prop er begins at 3 p.m. This time, there are pr eciou s few ru les, no motocross tests, no special stages , just a straight race to th e d eath th rou gh th e bogs, fo rests, bogs , moun tains and more bogs to the finish on Dead Cro w Hill - hopefully at abo u t 9:30 p.m., w hich mean s that th e run will take in a couple of hou rs of riding in the dark. And there are a w hole lot of sta mp checks to ensu re that there are no shortcuts. The relatively high num ber of finishers this yea r was d ue mainly to the organizers' tri mming of the course after a heavy snowfall on Thursd ay. On Friday it was nex t to im p o ssible to move around the area - even on the roads - as freezi ng weathe r mad e all the su rfaces li ke g lass . It was horr end ous in th e forests. But a race-day thaw saw condition s im p rove consi dera bly, an d tir es were a ble to bite d o wn th ro ug h t he . snow to wha t was actua lly surpris ingly good grip. W ith H ond a' s Cyril Esquirol , th e winner for the last two years , un able to take part in thi s ye a r 's even t due to injury, the French were relying on Charbonnel and Peterhansel to mak e a race of it even though they we re expected to come under strong pressure from Italian fact or y teamsters Arnaldo N ico li (Husky) an d Giovanni Sala (KTM). And British first-timers Rob Sartin (Yamaha) and Wyn Hu ghes (Husky) were certai nly not jus t there to mak e up the numbers . So ut h African Alfie Co x a lso ad ded a real overseas flavor. It is al most impossible to deliver a blow-by-bl ow accou nt of th e Lalay. So mu ch happens and all of it in a mad tur moil , as thou sands upon tho usa nds of Lim g ran e o es,F c " ·0" t Off -road ace Stephane Peterhansel (above) and Laurent Charb onnel (ri ght) fin ished the tough Gilles Lalay Classic in a dead heat after th e crowd interlered on the f inal hill. • tOW , crazy Frenc h fans block th e roads for mil es around as they crowd the man y s pecta tor po in ts where th e rid ers emerge from the forests. Right from the sta rt, Charbo nnel and Peterhansel were engag ed in a cat-andmous e game wit h Peterhansel often letting local ace Cha rbon nel lead the way through the wo rst bits. The rou te is carefully laid th ro ugh so me real swa m ps w hi ch w ill only take 25-30 m achines before becomin g all but imposs ible. This is the main reason there are usu ally so few fin ish er s. This year, co mpetitors could be th a n kfu l tha t severa l of th e wo rst swa mps we re bypassed becau se of the snow. The French fans just can't wait to get in amo ng th e action, an d on the man y stee p, slippery hills, they wa it in large n u mbe rs to p u ll or pus h co mpetito rs ever onward. British first-timer Hug hes said that he couldn't believe that on one pa rticular precipice there was a mechanical win ch to get the riders to the top. " It was so steep," H ug hes said . " It was scary just holdi ng on to the hand lebars while I was winched up." When he was sitting on the starting line a t 6:30 a.rn., so meo ne said th at it looked like rain. Hu gh es just grinned . "I hop e it does," the Welshman said. "I'm really looking forward to a struggle." As eve ning came and darkness fell, Sartin , w ho had m o ved s moo thly through to sixth pla ce and was gaining o n the lead ers a fte r eas ing int o th e event, d iscovered lighting problems on his Yamah a. "In the morning, the brackets holding my two main lights fra ctured," Sartin said . "We fixed it with a steel su ppo rt, bu t when night fell, I realized that the lights we re too high . I lost a lot of time trying to sort it, bu t I never really bossed the problem."

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