Julie Vanneken, the only girl in the Africa Eco Race

The French Julie Vanneken is the only woman entered in the Africa Eco Race 2019, the race organized by Jean-Louis Schlesser and Rene Metge in the footsteps of Thierry Sabine and the old Dakar… But who is this thirty-something party to the assault of Lac Rose in Senegal, through Morocco and Mauritania? ?

Julie Vanneken, motorcycle sales representative at BMW Azzurro in Essonne, in the Paris region, is currently competing in her third edition of the Africa Eco Race and intends, once again, to join the Lac Rose on her KTM ° 158.

• MNC special file : Everything you need to know about the Dakar motorcycle
• MNC special file : Everything you need to know about the Africa Eco Race

Aged 34, Julie has been practicing enduro since 2012, rides a daily on one and raced the Gazelles Rally in Morocco in 2014 and 2015 with Aurelie Lecointre.

Entered in the Africa Eco Race in 2017, she finished 21st for her first participation but had to retire due to injury in 2018 while another Frenchwoman was riding in the women’s category: Lydia Truglio Beaumont (Honda n ° 131), victim of a very serious fall from which she recovered courageously.

"I am very happy to be here for the third year in a row and I will manage the rally a little differently this year because we learn from our mistakes", said Julie at the start in Monaco on December 31, riding her KTM 450 Rally. Replica whose 2019 decoration is "a little nod to history, with the colors of Gaston Rahier, Belgian driver who participated twelve times in the Dakar and winner in 1984 and 1985 on a BMW".

Requirement and abnegation

Entered in the "Malle Moto" category (private pilot without assistance) after training in the dunes of Morocco with Dakar specialist Jean Brucy (16 times on a motorcycle, 11 in a car), this dynamic thirty-something has experienced her share of technical problems such as a Tripmaster wire cut on Moroccan tracks because of vibrations…

Helped by two competitors in the auto category, the valiant biker managed to reach the bivouac late at night despite the dust released by the 4x4s in order to resume the race in the early morning. "Julie is a perfect example of what a woman is able to achieve without having anything to envy the male public", explains Eric, her coach and mental trainer since 2014: "by her strength, her will, her courage, her stubbornness and all the values ​​that are hers, she has already been able to demonstrate that women deserve respect and admiration just as much as men through a sport which requires a lot of requirement and abnegation ".

His motorcycle trainer David Bernier, a biker in the acrobatics platoon of the Republican Guard who became a motorcycle instructor in the gendarmerie, was "immediately attracted by his sporting challenge and his passion that I share. With his fighting spirit and his enthusiasm, he is a person. one of the most endearing that one wants to help to achieve the best possible success in one’s physical and human adventure ".

"To travel without meeting the other is not to travel"

"When you meet Julie for the first time, you understand quite quickly that she is a woman who lives at 200%, who knows what she wants and who follows her dreams", confirms Guillaume, who ensures its communication during the race. "She also has this unifying side which makes you want to follow her and accompany her in these adventures. She would do very well on her own, but she wants to share this with us for our greatest pleasure. She has many qualities which are his strength once on the bike ".

Quoting the famous traveler from the beginning of the XXth century Alexandra David Neel – "traveling without meeting the other is not traveling, it is moving" -, Julie explains that during the Africa Race she does not travel: "I I venture, I cross, but not only! I meet and I share moments of life with you and with them in the field! "

40th in the general motorcycle classification yesterday after the, Julie Vanneken continues her way to Dakar with all the encouragement of the MNC team !

Preparation of the bike for the Africa Eco Race 2019

Training in the Moroccan dunes

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