Road rallies – Third stage: Fred Lejeune wins the first Belgian Moto Tour –

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Third stage: Fred Lejeune wins the first Belgian Moto Tour

Road rallies - Third stage: Fred Lejeune wins the first Belgian Moto Tour -

The road is dry today, but Christian Haquin falls into the fast, very fast Houffalize special! Frederic Lejeune confirms his intention to win this first Belgian Moto Tour, but Wilfried Tallone is getting closer… Suspense !

Dry road on Saturday for the third and last stage of the Belgian Moto Tour, but Christian Haquin fell in the fast, very fast special of Houffalize, fortunately without too much damage.

As for Frederic Lejeune, he confirms his intention to win this first Belgian Moto Tour, but Wilfried Tallone gets closer and knowing the boy’s motivation, there may be a good atmosphere! Report.

Friday night: treasure hunts !

It wasn’t really dark yet at 9:30 p.m. when the start was given. The loop is going to be intense: the tight CH does not require a higher speed than the day one and the average 50 km / h is always required, but the "roads" are not always really and include a multitude of changes of management.

As since the start of the Belgian Moto Tour, the route is not signposted and the follow-up of the road book must be particularly precise: the slightest error over a few kilometers is enough to fall behind. !

And some pilots got trapped there: in rallying, you have to keep a clear mind, but fatigue helping, it is not always easy … Wilfried Tallone himself got caught by pointing a minute early at a CH and Patrick Curtat was 3 minutes late following a course error. You had to calculate quickly and not waste a second !

The ranking has changed slightly in the first three places: Frederic Lejeune keeps pole but this time followed by Thierry Godfroid. Wil found himself 3rd just 3 seconds behind !

On the Promo side, Patrick Bournisien takes first place and ranks 7th overall: nice !

The loop ends around 11:30 p.m. for the first ones: short but intense! Tomorrow, the start is scheduled at 9:30 am for the final stage of this Belgian Moto Tour whose podium is already emerging….

Saturday: Lejeune in the lead, Tallone on his heels…

It rained last night but the road dries up quickly. At the start, Denis Bouan displayed his resentment against a mess with his Tripy which cost him 5 minutes of penalty…

Still as beautiful roads lead us to the first special of the day: Basse-Bodeux! A fast but very tricky and slippery special stage … And it was Fred Lejeune who got the best time, more than two seconds ahead of Fred Fiorentino.

Some small falls to report in this special, in particular at the "pif paf" slippery…

After a 30-minute lunch break in the beautiful picturesque village of Houffalize, the competitors set off to attack the crazy special of this rally … Something sick, deep down, with a stretch of over 250 km / h .

Christian Haquin sets off quickly … too fast: he does not place himself well in a slight left preceding a rapid right, misses his braking, loses the front and ends his slide under the safety rail !

Fortunately, the organization had protected the stage well and protective foams were placed on the uprights of the murderous rails. Christian only got out of it a priori with a nasty blow to the ankle and a fracture of the sacrum. The entire Site team wishes him a speedy recovery !

It was going fast and clean for the others and Christian’s crash was fortunately the only one on this special.

Fiorentino put on the show with his particularly "supermoto" style! breathtaking !

Scratch in this special for … Didier de Radiguès at the controls of a BMW Megamoto in 2’25.88 or at 118.45 km / h on average (the special is 4.8 km long).

Second time for Emmanuel Siaux in 2’27.03 (117.53 km / h) and Philippe Rousselin (Yamaha R1 of Team 22) obtains the third time in 2’27.22.

The race continues…

Tonight, we only have one hour of assistance before the very last special: two laps of the Spa circuit! We add a little gasoline, we do the tire pressure and hop, in the park while waiting for the start of the first series !

A giant circuit … or rather Jehan, because Jehan d’Orgeix was only waiting for that to make up for his mistake in the basic time: he squarely atomizes everyone by sticking straight 11 seconds (in two laps!) To second, Wilfried Tallone, who could yet claim victory !

And he came close to it: in the cumulative time after the circuit, 9 tenths of a second separate him from Frederic Lejeune who therefore won this first Belgian Moto Tour! 9 tenths after nine specials and three days of racing … that’s not much! A big bravo in any case to Fred who saves the Belgian honor despite the unfortunate absence of his brother Eric (read our video interview,).

Hats off also to Emmanuel Siaux: not demoralized by his big "couffe" in time basis, he obtained 8th fastest time on the circuit and placed his Buell XB12SST in 24th place in the rally.

Podium !

In Scooters, the two only entered (on Yamaha 500 Tmax) therefore occupy the first two steps of the podium of the category led by Michel Amalric.

On the Promotions side, congratulations to Patrick Bournisien of the Xzeos Team riding a Triumph Speed ​​Triple, who wins ahead of Erik Enstrom on KTM 950 SM and Michel Bonneau with his Suzuki 1000 GSXR.

In the Classics, Gerard Rolland had a perfect race taking him to the top of the category ahead of Thierry Lifrange (BMW R65) and Jean Michel Gautreau of the Yam Sud team (Yamaha 350 RDLC).

The scratch podium is only made up of multicylinders. The first Mono is placed 5th scratch and the first Promo 6th.

Victory for Frederic Lejeune on his BMW HP2 ahead of Wilfried Tallone (Suzuki 750 GSXR from Team Sport Motorbike Audemar Ax Motos) and Jehan d’Orgeix (Honda 600 CBR from Team Balladins).

End of this fabulous Belgian Moto Tour: it was perfect! An appointment is therefore made for 2008 always at the same time of year according to Christian Jupsin, the organizer..

To end this adventure, I would like to personally thank the loyal rallymen who greatly facilitated things for me by giving me hellish assistance !

So thank you a thousand times to Rob, Calou (Pascal alias "the nanny" for his exemplary kindness and helpfulness), Callie (Françoise, the favorite commissioner of French rallymen), Eric and not to mention the friends around like Mimi (Mayor), Chabou and all those I forget…

See you soon on French roads !

Marcus HIMSELF – Photos MH and Dominique DUFRASNE

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