BMW recently decided to have a go at the event last month, and won. Here's the company's report:
Last month saw the running of the famous 'Le Touquet Enduropale' motorcycle beach race on the north west coast of France, with Dunkirk rider Arnaud Demeester winning in two hours and 50 minutes. With this record sixth victory in difficult weather conditions (he first won the event in 1995), Demeester surpassed Dutch enduro legend Kees Van der Ven's previous record of five victories from 1982 to 1986.
In addition to the main race -- which is always won by a rider on a two-stroke 250cc, or four-stroke 450cc enduro bike - there is also an unmissable spectacle called the 'holeshot', for which the first rider to get to the end of the beach's straight can win Ä1500. Almost 1000 riders line up on the seafront at Le Touquet, all intent on being the fastest rider, but to take the victory requires a combination of rider skill, nerves of steel and of course, outright machine power. The fastest machines would therefore be geared to reach around 200 km/h on the sand!
And for the first time it was a BMW rider on an HP2 Enduro that won the 'holeshot' prize at Le Touquet. In heavy wind and rain, local rider (below) beat 922 other riders to the end of the three-mile (4.5 kilometre) straight at Merlimont and claimed the Ä1500 prize.
The 34-year-old BMW France-supported rider has been riding off-road since the age of seven and was competing at Le Touquet for the eighth time. In all his previous attempts to win the holeshot award, he has always finished in the top ten but never taken the victory. His objective for this year therefore was to be the fastest rider across the straight and first over the line on the HP2 that was prepared by BMW dealership Boxer Evasion of Lille.
Like previous holeshot award winner Cyril Despres, Jean-Charles had decided prior to the start of the race that if he won, he would donate some of his prize money to the Fabrizio Meoni association (Meoni was an off-road racer who was killed during the 2005 Dakar rally). On being awarded the victory - and Ä1500 in prize money -- Jean-Charles donated Ä1000 to the Fabrizio Meoni association, with the remaining 500 Ä going to his local hockey club.
See http://www.enduropaledutouquet.fr/