Road rallies – Rallye du Dourdou: first victory for Nicolas Derrien! – The race: day stage

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Rallye du Dourdou: first victory for Nicolas Derrien !

Road rallies - Rallye du Dourdou: first victory for Nicolas Derrien! - The race: day stage

By winning the 2011 Dourdou Rally on his BMW F 800 R Panda Moto, the young Sarthois Nicolas Derrien obtains his first rally victory and takes the lead of the provisional following a quack from Julien Toniutti’s KTM 990 Superduke. Report.

The race: day stage

With a few minor delays and neutralizations, last night’s stage ended for the firsts around 3 a.m. Barely more than four hours of sleep before going to find the motorcycles at the closed park 1h30 to recondition them before the start of the second stage…

Saturday morning, 10:00 am: it starts again! After an express connection of 29 minutes (the hourly average is set to 60 km / h), we are back in St-Cyprien.

This time it’s Stephane Ricciarelli who sets the best time on the handlebars of his Yamaha 450 WRF (2’17’36), ahead of Bruno Langlois’ KTM 690 SM (2’17”49) and the BMW F 800 R Panda Nicolas Derrien’s bike (2’18”26).

In the Villecomtal special, it was the turn of the young Corsican Paul-Christian Piazza to shine in 2’10”61 ahead of Nico Derrien (2’11”50) and Bruno Langlois (2’11”70 ).

At the end of this special, the road book takes us on a small loop of around 30 km before reaching the assistance park in Villecomtal. The landscape is superb all along the route, the Aveyron shines in its most beautiful colors … and my eyes are full of beautiful images, I skip partial mileage between two boxes in the road book and I take the wrong direction at an intersection…

By the time I realized my mistake on this small, very narrow downhill track, I covered a good two kilometers! U-turn disaster and gas to take the right direction! But times are tight today and the 5 minutes spent gardening are going to be hard to go back … It’s not easy to increase the pace in the middle of the gravel that can arise at any time! Ma does not need to be prayed for and adapts very well to my requests in angry mode … But this blunder will make me show up a minute late at Villecomtal: 15 seconds penalty! Added to my rather lousy special times, my result at this rally may take me out of the Elite ranking (top 20).

At the end of the first lap of the day, 40 minutes of assistance and we leave for a new grand tour of 120 terminals.

On the second day’s stint at St-Cyprien, Bruno Langlois regained the upper hand on his KTM 690 SM and set himself the fastest time in 2’17’09. Stephane Ricciarelli’s Yamaha 450 WRF followed suit in 2’17’16, followed by Nico Derrien’s BMW F 800 R which did not give up in 2’17’86. Julien Toniutti on his KTM 990 Superduke, in fourth position one hundredth behind Nico (2’17”87), begins to feel that the victory of the rally is far from being achieved … The meager lead he had obtained in end of the night stage on Nicolas Derrien has melted … We will have to spit in our hands !

Hats off to the Laur / Ferrieu crew on the Choda Suzuki 1300 team who find their way into the top 20 !

Villecomtal special, second day pass: Bruno Langlois wins again in 2’10”72 ahead of Nicolas Derrien (2’10”96), Paul-Christain Piazza (2’11”45) and Julien Toniutti (2’11”84).

At the end of the second daytime lap, new assistance of 40 minutes before the last two specials.

St-Cyprien, act 3, day: Nicolas Derrien’s BMW F 800 R Panda Moto is in missile mode! Nico slams the best time in 2’16”66 ahead of a wild Bruno Langlois riding his KTM 690 SM (2’16”86), while Julien Toniutti does his utmost at the controls of the KTM 990 Superduke from KTM France and gets the third fastest time in 2’17”11.

Arrived at Villecomtal, tenth and last special of the 2011 Rallye du Dourdou, Nicolas Derrien is on the verge of securing his first rally victory! Julien Toniutti should secure second place and thus keep the lead of the provisional. His 11 point lead will wane, but his pole position in the 2011 French Championship should not be in jeopardy. Except that in motorsport, anything can happen…

The Villecomtal special is not a billiard table and in the passage of a compression, Julien’s KTM 990 Superduke with relatively low ground clearance scrapes the asphalt a little too hard, as its speed is high …. Following the violent shock (with a shower of sparks according to some spectators), the engine of the KTM shuts down! Aware of the location of the fault, Julien hurriedly descends from the motorcycle and inspects the underside of his motorcycle…

Nico Derrien’s BMW F 800 R, which left a minute later, is not far away and Julien risks seeing it tumble down at any time … but in a few seconds he finds the fault (a wire disconnected on the stand safety switch ), reconnects it in a disaster and leaves immediately !

He finishes the special "hard", aware of the fact that this quack will cost him dearly in the championship … He will get a time of about 35 seconds more than he should have been … Goodbye la second place in the rally, but above all goodbye to the 11 point lead! With the performance of the Corsican pilots who will come between him and Nico, Dourdou’s points will not weigh heavily in his basket…

Paul-Christian Piazza takes the best times on his Husaberg 570 FSE in 2’11”03 ahead of Bruno Langlois on KTM 690 SM (2’11”15) and Nico Derrien who ensures his victory in 2’12 39.

The last day’s lap is shorter and it is via the small section that you reach Villecomtal. It was hard this rally, an organization of the Moto Club de Villecomtal (MCV), calibrated to the millimeter, will have made us live a beautiful ride in Aveyron !

Marcus HIMSELF

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