Road rallies – 75th Rallye de l’Ain: Julien Toniutti, number Ain! – Let’s go !

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75th Rallye de l’Ain: Julien Toniutti, number Ain !

Road rallies - 75th Rallye de l'Ain: Julien Toniutti, number Ain! - Let's go !

One more victory for the pilot KTM official site Julien Toniutti on KTM 690 Duke R, at the end of an “ underwater ” Rallye de l’Ain where we find two site pilots on the first two steps of the podium. Wet record.

Let’s go !

The pilots are at their machines in the closed park. For now it is not raining, but the weather forecast is clear: it will not last! The Monos of the top pilots are almost all on rain tires … the right choice ?

While waiting for the departure, everyone is getting ready. Julien Toniutti sits at the controls of Mickael Porcu’s Husaberg 570 FS just to feel a little of his magic trigger, Nicolas Pautet is as proud as a bar-tobacco with his new Scorpion Exo 2000 helmet, and veteran top Franck Coudert has (again) the smile … General motivation !

First small loop: that of the final recce of the specials, moderately appreciated by the pilots because the race management announced during the pre-race briefing that this first untimed passage would take place while the road is still open to traffic. It would of course have been preferable for the stages to be completely secure, which would have allowed real benchmarks to be taken and would have given real meaning to this blank pass … But hey, the rallyman is never happy, that’s well known !

Three pilots per minute set off for this "free lap". At the start of each special, the pilots are launched again every 20 seconds, no stopping! The rallyman is a race now well known to the organizers, who do their best to channel them and avoid wild brawls and other skids….

These 30 short kilometers are very nice and allow a quiet warm-up. The road is still dry and the sky cleared up could almost suggest a false forecast from Meteo France … Some even wonder whether they will not take advantage of the 15 minutes of assistance authorized at the end of the first loop. to change back to "dry" tires…

Our champion Julien Toniutti does not ask the question for very long and opts for the "dry" at the back of his KTM 690 Duke R: front rain and rear dry, an intelligent compromise in mono for drying…

Then it was off again, this time for good! 11 minutes after the start, we arrive at the start of the Challes special, the one that slips at the start … and that really slips !

The first two pins are like an ice rink! You have to stay calm and ensure as much as possible in the first turns, then big heart is compulsory! First in the row of the first undergrowth where things go very quickly, then after a right-left pif-paf a flat to negotiate well to optimize the trajectory, before starting a long technical descent then very fast to finish very quickly under a highway bridge in a very fast right !

The special is drying, some residual wet patches persist in the undergrowth but it is much safer than downright wet !

Julien Toniutti announces the color on the handlebars of the KTM 690 Duke R n ° 1: 1’30.16 ahead of Mickael Porcu and his Husaberg 570 FS (1’31.03). Third time for a child of the country then in twelfth place in the Elite ranking of the championship, Bernard Thibaut of UM Ain on Honda 900 CBR R who slams 1’31.36.

The link leading to the second special, Ceignes, is very short (10 minutes) and here we are at the start of this special 2, almost dry !

There is no detail, you have to open wide and go deep into the undergrowth! All the more reason if it’s dry! It goes very quickly but it moves quite a bit … then a small descent on a right-left pif-paf and it goes up. Bump, gas, be careful, it goes down on a wide but bumpy right which commands a left on a green plateau with a chute inside – which can pass quickly so well negotiated – then it goes fully into the undergrowth, bump to take to the inter, then to the bottom for a long row very, very fast … It relieves on a bump just before a left, two or three turns and more undergrowth, big brake for a right which plunges downhill , inter in a very fast right, then big left to take inter, exter, inter, rope to the right and fully until the finish (well, almost fully in the last left very bright anyway).

1’29.40 for the best time, Mickael Porcu (Husaberg 570 FS), ahead of the local Bernard Thibaut (1’30.23), and Julien Toniutti, six hundredths behind Bernard (1’30.29).

At the end of these first two times, we can expect a merciless duel between the Corsican pilot and the MNC pilot: the cumulative gap between Micka and Julien is then only 2 hundredths of a second….

The liaison route is quite sporty, you must not fall asleep too much to check in on time at the Poizat time control located 57 km further on in the Ain mountains, about ten kilometers east of the lake by Nantua.

The sometimes tiny roads are rather technical and the hourly average, close to 60 km / h, does not allow you to linger. But the few rays of the sun being more and more timid give a beautiful light on the landscapes of this superb region !

A small error in reading my road-book and here I am lost in the village of Charrix … The road-book indication said to take all to the left and the drawing of the intersection was clear: turn left then again to the left ! But not being at the right mileage, this double intersection no longer made sense … In short, after two or three minutes of wandering in this tiny but nice mountain village, I found the right direction, helped by a native mountain man who shouted to me "it’s over there the motorcycles, over there !"Phew! Thank you sir…

The connection is quite trying, but the 59 minutes allotted pass quickly and finally arrives the yellow sign "CH" indicating the arrival at the time control! I only have two minutes early … I was hot !

The return to Cerdon is about the same distance, but quieter. We will arrive this time with a good ten minutes early, but the rain has returned…

At the assistance, Julien Toniutti re-equips his KTM 690 Duke R with a rain tire at the rear. The battle will be tough with Micka Porcu’s Husaberg 570 FS !

As for the Sidecars, Alain Amblard and his partner Edith lead the dance at the controls of their 1912 Choda 1100 Kawasaki (uh no, 1996?), 30th and 37th scratch time for the two specials, a dozen seconds behind the best time . Bad luck for the disabled rider Denis Grunblatt and his passenger Joachim, who quit: their Choda 1200 Kawasaki team did their own with a gearbox blocked in second right out of the first special.

Marcus HIMSELF

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