The Virtual Reinhard
Created | Updated Mar 27, 2002
Bol d'Or 2001 Magny Cours/Pouilly sur Loire, France, September 2001
I'd always wanted to go to the Bol d'Or, one of the most famous of the 24-hour endurance motorcycle races, and since Superbike Tours had organised a hotel in the very village of Pouissy sur Loire, home of some of my most favourite French wines, it seemed rude not to go.
And so it was, that on a rainy September day we met Paul under an enormous statue of Michael Jackson outside a MacDonalds in Eindhoven (and it don't get any more surreal than that!) ready for the six or seven hours' ride down to the Loire Valley.
Maria had come along for the ride, curious to see what all the fuss
was about, although I had warned her that the weekend would involve (a)sitting in the cold rain watching tiny motorcycles go round and round, and (b)lots of blokes drinking alcohol. On our arrival at the track, we climbed up one of the stands to see the start. The flags went down, they were off... and Maria was mesmerised, instantly hooked by the high-octane roar, the frantic activity in the pitlane, the glamorous girls, and the sheer exuberance of thousands of bikers packed into one place with fast food, loud music and alcohol.
There aren't any pictures of the racing here, as I leave that to the professionials with their metre-long lenses, but we had a lot of good times at the hotel and I was blazing away in my usual drunken fashion.
The police were tremendous. For an area of about 100 square kilometres around the track, they'd protected every tree, kerb, signpost and wall with hay-bales. Then they pretty much discouraged any cars from entering the area, and let all the maniac motorcycles get on with it. And get on with it we certainly did! All day and for much of the night, motorcycles howled up and down the highways. Bikers filled the cafes, restaurants and hotels. And inside the track? The atmosphere was superb. Magny Cours is a really good track for spectators, winding as it does up and down like a paper clip so that it is possible to see as much as half the track from some of the stands.
