Le Trefle (The Clover) is a three day motorbike enduro event with 700 competitors and many thousands of spectators – it is huge! We went along to support The Sheepskull Enduro Riders team with a couple of guys from the Isle of Man and a few guys from the UK. The event is based in a place called Mende which is near to the stunning Gorges du Tarn so we got to do some sighseeing between tests too. After approximately 200km of riding each day, every night the riders return to Test 5 on a hill above Mende (making The Trefle shape) to entertain thousands of spectators before parking up in Parc Ferme ready for the following day. What a spectacular event!
Our spectating began with watching the riders turn to come along the top of a cliff face down to the road. It was all a bit slippery due to the rain the night before so Pete ended up the hill helping riders to get turned in time and I sat at the bottom taking photos. That was until one of Antoine Meo’s team members said he didnt want help and then proceeded to ride straight off the edge of the cliff. Luckily he didn’t land on his bike and miraculously wasn’t hurt. I ran over in full first aid mode and was amazed to find him ok (although sensibly he did go off to hospital to get checked over) !
The next test we repeatedly replaced the tape where riders kept going wide on a off camber corner – so there was always something to do while we waited for our guys to come through.
Test 5 had an amazing back drop of Mende city and cathedral.
And on the last night Test 5 had the top 30 riders compete in motorcross heats and then a final race for the top place and prize money. Great fun!
The area that we drove and cycled around for the three days was just stunning with vast valleys and steep, lush green hills.
It was a great three days and lovely to meet all the team and their families. It was a shame that one of our guys broke his collar bone on the first day but he became a great asset to the spectating team.
Here is Parc Ferme with the top 100 guys back but still to be filled with the remaining 600 riders at the end of the day.
