Adrien Van Beveren gives us an appointment at Le Touquet, “for fun”
After a great race on the Dakar 2022, where he finished 4th three weeks ago, the driver from Racquinghem in Pas-de-Calais will be on the starting line of the Enduropale on Sunday February 27.
The crossing of the desert is over: after four retirements in four editions of the Dakar, Adrien Van Beveren recovered his health and morale in fourth place in the 2022 edition, in a more than respectable time and in a handkerchief of pocket with the best. He will keep from this 2022 edition, the image of a real sporting comeback. Today, he announces that he is participating in the Enduropale 2022, the flagship sand racing event, which he has already won three times.
- What is your assessment of your Dakar 2022?
Super positive. Of course, there is the frustration of finishing at the foot of the podium, I was still in the lead two days from the finish, on the podium for almost the entire race… But you really have to be positive! In particular, after the previous tests and the convalescence, the mechanical breakages. I’m able to win again and that’s what I’m fighting for. This is the challenge of recent years.
- The pass of the 4 retirements in the Dakar was hard to digest?
Yes, four successive: two accidents and two on mechanical breakage. I questioned myself. Did I have the abilities, the skills to do it even if deep down I never stopped believing in it… I had been one of the best rally-raid drivers in 2018, I ‘ve shown that I can ride fast while sailing. Today, I regained physical and psychological capacities. It’s fun.
- Why Enduropale “for fun”?
I hesitated to do it just for that. I knew people didn’t understand, but today I’m trained to ride at 150 beats per minute for 12 days for seven hours a day. If you ask me to run a three-hour event like the Enduropale, at 170 beats per minute for the duration of the event, I will not be performing. It’s like telling a marathon runner to do a 100m without training.
Know that when I was doing Le Touquet, I was 4 to 5 times a week on the Loon-Plage training circuit, from September to February. There, I had to go to Loon-Plage 7 times in all. The difference between the Dakar and Le Touquet is that between a marathon and a sprint. On one side you have a virgin track without traffic where we are at 120 km/h on average with peaks at 170 km/h and a 170 kg motorcycle with a navigation system and 32 liters of petrol. On the other, it’s 3 hours of sprinting with a 100 kg motorcycle, traffic on an 8 m wide track. This has nothing to do with !
- Your news after Le Touquet?
I would keep continuing the rally-raid world championship, but unfortunately Yamaha has other ambitions in GP. It is therefore possible that I will leave Yamaha, even if I wanted to spend my entire career with them. It’s being decided. I will let you know in March.