Coupe De L'Avenir De Motocross 2018

It started with disaster. While having breakfast at 6.30 am in our Valenciennes hotel, I saw a call from Mark Farrelly coming through. He was almost in tears. Jake’s bikes had been stolen overnight from the camper at the track. Two Swiss bikes and two German bicycles were stolen also. No security at the gate. The organisers were sympathetic but that was it- no bikes for our Irish Champion 65cc rider. The Germans kindly offered a bike and another was offered from an unknown Belgian, but Jake’s teammate Gabi Golturenko offered his spare and we were back in business. Jake’s other teammate, Markuss Kalnins had his spare bike there for Jake too. That’s when it was evident that we were there as a team and not as individual riders.

The Coupe de l’Avenir was held in Belgium for the first time in 1967. 50 years later it’s still going strong as the de facto, Motocross of Nations Youth Team event. It is organized by the Motocross Club De Haut Pays and they follow the exact same format as the Adult MX Des Nations (where possible with youths). Motocross rules, dictate that it is limited to 14 countries (42 riders on start gate) and this year even with the extra national expense of the Adult Des Nations on in the USA the same weekend, two countries had to be turned away. The Coupe is the most coveted and historic Youth race in the international calendar. Over the years almost all of the most famous European Grand Prix riders have competed; Herlings, Everts, Smets, Borbyshev, Pichon and our own Edmonds and Crockard to name a few.

Back Row – Ross Simpson, Jake Sheridan, Jack Galvin, James Mackrel, Drew McCreanor – Front Row – Markuss Kalnins, Gabi Golturenko, Jake Farrelly, Reece Ross

The points in the Coupe are calculated by giving first place 1 point, 2nd place 2 points and 3rd 3 points and so on all the way to last who gets 42 points. The winner of the team event is the team with the lowest amount of points at the end of the last race. The two lowest scoring results by each team are discarded.
Ireland has never won the team event, in 1998 Gordon Crockard was the only Irishman ever to get on the top of the podium as a single rider. He was second in 1997 and Alan Morrison was third a few years previously. That’s it – out of approx. 150-podium positions- up until this year we only got 3. The countries with the most wins are Belgium (Motocross Hq in Europe), the Brits and the French are next with the most wins. Before this year, Ireland never won.

The track in Quieverain is kept to be used once a year for this event only. It’s an extremely fast and a very technical track. The ground is loam, which cuts up in dry weather to huge braking and acceleration holes. The corners start like a regular grass track and eventually berms rise from the barley stubble to a series of powdery outside and inside ruts which are never the same from lap to lap. That’s where the similarity to a grass track ends as a deep ravine zigzags through the stubble creating huge drop off and launching ramps. The club have calmed down some of these to step ups and step-downs and added random kickers to vary each jump. Some are near impossible to navigate by foot. The track is quite daunting to those who are used only to Irish motocross tracks. Along with the earthmoving machinery, there are 37 manned flag marshal positions, 2 doctors, various medics and a Medical Centre on duty all weekend.

In addition to the 65 team, we fielded an 85 team with Drew McCreanor, Reece Ross, and Ross Simpson and the older class consisted of two under 21s Jake Sheridan and James Mackrel both on 4 stroke 250s and an under 17 Jack Galvin on a 125cc 2 stroke.
Saturday was qualifying day, first free practice, then timed practice and finish with the race for gate position. Jake Farrelly on the 65s was out with a strange bike and was uncomfortable at first. By timed practice, he was starting to put in fast laps until right in front of the pits, Jake got caught by the worsening conditions and had a massive high sider but luckily he slid on top of the dust reducing the impact. For safety’s sake, he was stretchered off and with a rest, he was right for the morning. Markuss and Gabi, initially were also slow to settle down, but as the day progressed both relaxed and started to clear some of the jumps which saved them valuable seconds in qualifying. Gabi finished 27th and Marcus 32nd. The 65s qualified 12th.

On the 85s, Reece Ross, last season was the only small wheel rider from Ireland to be selected. He raced in Great Britain’s national championship all year in challenging conditions and this experience showed when he has faced with the hard bumps of Quiverain. Reece was putting rapid times in the timed practice until his Swedish counterpart blatantly upended him. Despite have taken a jarring knock on his back protector, Reece re mounted and continued on although it did take him until the next day to recover. Ross and Drew, in common with the other younger riders, improved as the day went on and settled down in the qualifying race both looking forward to race day now knowing the pace and what it would take to achieve a good result. The 85s qualified 12th.

The under 21(Coupe de l’Avenir) class saw two previous entrants James Mackrel and Jake Sheridan take their places again in the Irish jersey. They were both on 4 stroke 250s and this year the 125 2-stroke class was restricted to maximum age of 17 and Irish champion Jack Galvin filled this position. Between races, both Jake and James took some of the 65 riders out between races to show them lines and give them a few tips to help with confidence. Conditions after the sunny day meant extreme dust and difficult visibility making for very hard going. The older guys’ additional international experience was evident and both put in classy performances (James 5th, Jake after two falls 15th and Jack 33rd) to secure a confident 4th place qualifying.

Sunday morning was overcast and after the track receiving a good drenching and grading by the Haut Pays club workers, conditions were almost perfect.

The 85s were out first and all three were on the pipe until Drew hit a kicker at the base of one of the huge step-ups out the back and tumbled up the hill. He landed heavily and unfortunately had to be brought to hospital with a fractured collarbone. Ross and Reece improved their lap times every race but with a rider down and unable to score points they ended up in 13th position.
The 65 boys had two races and all three put in times of at least 5 seconds a lap faster than they were the previous day. Jake was clearing jumps that he hadn’t cleared the day before, so was Markuss and Gabi was simply faster. (Gabi 24th, Jake 27th and Markus 29th) It was obvious that they just need more time on this pace to improve even more and they ended up a creditable 10th overall.

The Coupe de l’Avenir U21 class riders all have international experience and it showed. The make up of the race group is unusual in that there are 125-2Ts, 250fs and 450fs all out together (James Mackrel was originally meant to ride a Honda 450f but he opted to ride a Yamaha 250f here). This meant that along with being 4 years younger, Jack Galvin was on a distinct disadvantage in the overall race by being on a 125 2 stroke. However, each other country also had a rider in this position so his job was to beat the other riders on the 125s. Inevitably, the 125s were at the rear of the pack in a massive battle of their own. As we qualified 4th it meant that the gate pick was 4th, 17th and 31st gate. Jake, being an ace holeshotter was 2nd gate, James in 1st and Jack had the final gate pick. The first race saw James proving what a natural talent he is by coming from 14th up to 2nd place and holding it for the most of the race until finishing a strong third. Jake finished in 7th after being in a battling group of 4 riders for most of the race and Jack was having his own trial with the 125s finishing 29th. The second race started like the first but in lap 4 James suffered a puncture on the rear, which held him back at least 3 places finishing 5th. Jake put in his usual supremely professional performance doing what was needed well, with rock solid reliability finishing in 6th position. Another strong 29th place finish by Jack saw the Irish on 71 points in second position to Great Britain two points ahead (69) with Denmark and Sweden tying third with 72 points. We had a chance!!!

James and Jake knew that they were almost in the record books if they kept on their earlier pace and it was up to them to do exactly what they did in the first two races. Jack Galvin had to excel. I spoke to Jack before he went out and told him that he had to beat the British rider to get the team result. All day long his counterpart was ahead of him. Jack looked me in the eye and said “Don’t worry Mick, he clattered me in the last race I’ll beat him- I’ll beat him”.
And he did, Jack beat him by 5 places!

Jake put in his usual professional performance with a strong start consistently putting fast laps and letting his technique and fitness reel in the riders ahead of him. Jake finished 8th and would have had two or three more positions if there were another 5 minutes in the race. James came out of the first corner in 16th and worked his way through the pack behind Jake when he was T-boned in the fourth lap. His rear brake lever was driven in to the engine casing smashing it and causing an oil leak. From the pits we could see the Yamaha smoking from the breather piper and we were waiting for the motor to blow. With his calf swollen and in agony, James never says no and this brought him and the bike to the very edge of disaster. He finished right behind Jake but could not speak with the pain when he came in.

With the complication of dropping the two lowest results, it was difficult to know where we came, but when the Race Director Peter Goliers came out of timing control and gave me the thumbs up I knew we had done it. The rest of the team managers crowded round to shake hands, smiling and congratulating and I walked back to the Irish paddock a very proud man.
Never again can they say “we don’t have the depth of rider” never can they say “there’s no talent coming through”, never can they say “not Ireland”.
We can, we have the talent, we have the guts and we are not afraid to win!
Look to the future – Irish Motocross- it’s very, very bright.

Mick Mc Ginn Irish Team manager – Coupe de l’Avenir 2018.