Our final preparations before the start of the Gibraltar Race motorcycle raid

12 days of timed events, 500 kilometers daily, 50% to 60% off-road, that's the program that awaits me during the Gibraltar Race motorcycle raid. How to spice up this already spicy event? By waffling heavily on the bike 3 weeks before the race!

After telling you about my bike preparation and physical training for the race, it's time to get to the heart of the matter. What's on the agenda? My pre-race state of mind, the final preparations, their hazards and the final briefing on D-1. Happy reading!

In the words of the organizers, it's a motorcycle adventure challenge. This endurance race takes place over 12 days, with 400 to 500 km to be covered daily. Depending on the year, the route is 50-60% off-road. Endurance is really the right word, because you have to manage your effort over 12 days!

The Gibraltar is above all a regularity race. In other words, you have to respect a given time to complete the links and special stages (the day's events). Running late? Penalties. Arrive early? Penalties.

Finally, it's also an orientation exercise. For each special stage, you have to cross all the waypoints. It's up to you to prepare your navigation correctly so as not to miss a waypoint and avoid a penalty.

Friday June 16th

After many ups and downs, we finally hit the road, heading for San Sebastian in Spain. What conditions am I in? Mentally, I'm exhausted. The workload at the moment is enormous, with preparations for the Ixtem Games, managing the sales, repairing the pressurized bike, etc... Yes, you read that right: repairing the bike. As if "simply" preparing this race wasn't enough, I crashed my bike 3 weeks ago on the way back from off-road training in the Cantal region of France. Nothing like an unintentional slip on a patch of melted tar to ruin both mount and rider!

And physically? Not much better. I really hurt my shoulder. I had one doctor's appointment after another. A real emotional elevator. At the ultrasound scan, I was told my shoulder was fractured; at the CT scan, the fracture disappeared, then at the MRI, it reappeared. Finally, I was given infiltrations to relieve the pain for the duration of the ordeal. In short, I've had better...

What about the bike? The T700 is up and running again! We finished the preparation/repair yesterday at 6pm. We're wide open! A final tease of fate? The tablet's power supply. No juice, no navigation. That would have been a shame for an orienteering race. But, all's well that ends well, we're ready!

This morning, we set off at 11am. Bruno is my comrade in this adventure. He's also the brave man who will have to help me (suffer?) to lift and push my bike after my falls. We make a stopover near Bordeaux, at the home of Aurélien, the boss of SW-Motech, who has kindly put us up. We didn't want to spend the night in a hotel, leaving the bikes on a trailer in a parking lot. So here we are on June 16: the bikes are ready and the riders are in pretty good shape.

Saturday June 17th

A little surprise this morning? We realized at breakfast that we were a day ahead of schedule. Registration is tomorrow, not today! This is excellent news, given our state of fatigue. A lazy day will do us a world of good. How is it that our two brains combined got it so wrong one day? We can think of two possible explanations: we were in too much of a hurry and impatient, or we were just too rinsed and overworked!

Today, we're slowly making our way down to San-Sebastian, to see if it's crowded yet, and take advantage of the afternoon to relax.

Sunday June 18th

The team is complete! Well, almost. OurAxuri Trail comrades have joined us. Unfortunately, we'll only be 5 out of 6, as Vincent crashed the same weekend as me. Except that for him, the toll is much heavier: double fracture of the foot and rupture of the Achilles heel.

Administrative check? OK. Technical inspection? No problem. Medical inspection? Well, let's just say that the doctors were a bit reluctant when I told them I had a shoulder in the bag. I reassure them that it happened "a long time ago", that there was nothing "broken" (according to the scan) and that infiltrations had been carried out. Under the worried eyes of the doctor, I still received the precious stamp allowing me to get on with the race.

As you can see, I'm not off to a great start. So I'm going to have to be particularly vigilant about my state of physical fatigue. I'll be extra careful not to aggravate the situation, the idea being to ride in pairs with Bruno to support each other and save each other in case of a fall. Well, that'll do it. I'm off confidently.

What's next? Sorting out my belongings. I have to prepare my gear skilfully, including what I'm taking with me on the bike, the next day's gear, which is transported in a trunk by the organization's vehicle, and finally what goes in the Axuri Trail 4x4 assistance vehicle. Don't screw up! Once I've started the race, it'll be too late to realize that I don't have my puncture kit with me on the bike. As a reminder, calling on the organization's assistance vehicle obviously means missing crossing points and therefore incurring penalties.

As far as the weather is concerned, it's very heavy and very hot. There was a thunderstorm yesterday, so the tracks are likely to be soggy. And it's expected to rain tomorrow for the first day of racing. So it's not looking good.

6pm, briefing

In Spanish, Italian and French. The organizers go over the course of the race. What's new this year? Trackers/loggers have been replaced by telephones. They will be used both to geolocate us, validate our passage through the waypoints and also to contact the medics in the event of a fall. It's a rather strange innovation, but we'll see if it makes sense in practice.

Tomorrow, departures start at 08:00. As number 34, I'll be setting off at 08:34. My aim is to be able to ride with Bruno, so that we can support each other if anything goes wrong. Are we riding at the same pace? We'll soon find out.

Tomorrow, June 19, is D-Day: the start of the Gibraltar Race 2023 motorcycle enduro raid! To be honest, I'm still full of questions: will I be up to it physically? Will my shoulder hold out? Will I be up to speed on the navigation?

I'd like to share this adventure with you, by recounting my testing days in a series of articles. My goal? To finish this challenge. And incidentally, if I finish in one piece, that won't be bad!