Those of my readers with an historical bent (I don’t even want to KNOW about all the other “bents” 🙂 ) would recognise the above as today’s date, the 14th of July, spelt in French. Of course it rates a mention today because today IS France’s national day. It was on this day in 1789 that the peasants and theri sympathisers stormed the Bastille, the central prison in Paris, liberated the prisoners (many of whom were just ordinary criminals rather than those of a political persuasion) and so put in train the process that would lead to the downfall of the French monarchy and the commencement of the French Revolution. It is an interesting sidelight that, the effects of that revolution are still being felt in France today over 200 years after the event. One of the major changes made to the system of government post-revoultion, was a rigid and fanatical separation of church and state (given the excesses of the Roman Catholic church pre-revoultion this is hardly surprising). And the attempts by the current French government to ban the wearing of the burqua, the traditional Muslim headdress, are as a direct result of the maintenance of this fanatical separation.
But, let’s look at matters less political, but certainly still French. To what do we owe the French? Well, the invention of car racing, and probably motorcycle racing as well. We owe them the certain invention of and popularisation of motorcycle endurance racing, which arrived in force during the 1970’s in the heady days of the Godier/Genaud Kawasaki team and the instigation of the Bol d ‘Or (The Bowl of Gold) 24 hour endurance race.
We owe them the wonderful Sarron bothers, Dominique and Christian, both aces of their day in both the Grand Prix arena and endurance racing.
Christian.
and Dominique.Â
Casting the net a little wider we owe them the iconic marques, Peugeot, Citroen and Renault which continue to this day as well as many other, lesser-known manufacturers whose names exist now only in history. Bugatti, whose achingly beautiful Type 35 is still regarded by many as the most pure of car designs.
And Delahaye, who took art-deco to its limit with their pre-war designs.
Incidentally, Boyd Coddington’s “Whatthehaye” was the late custom car designer’s homage to the art deco designs of the Thirties.
So, vive la France and happy Bastille Day to any of you who are of French extraction. Thanks for all your nation has done for us.
Valentino Rossi completed his second test overnight, lapping the Brno circuit at just 1/10th of a second outside Cal Crutchlow’s pole time from the weekend. Even on RACE tyres, he was just .6 of a second off the Yamaha man’s race time. Amazing. Doctors and his team are assessing the results and it’s looking increasingly likely that he will at least enter and attempt to qualify at this weekend’s German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring.
And yes, that IS is injured leg.
Off the bike he is still on crutches, but don’t bet against him racing on Sunday. I am reminded again, as I often am, of Bruce Brown’s “On Any Sunday”. “What kind of men are these, that take tremendous chances, that saw off a cast and ride with a broken leg?”
On a far less bright note, Chris Vermeulen’s accident on Sunday at Brno, where he was trowelled up by Jacob Smrz in the first corner, has had far-reaching consequences. It has re-injured his already fragile knee and he has been advised to take the rest of the season off to recuperate. This means no racing, and no testing of the 2011 ZX10-R. I sincerely hope for a complete recovery for CV, one of my all-time favourite riders, but I also hope that the the development work that goes on doesn’t take the new bike in a direction that will not suit Chris’s riding style when he gets back. Time will tell, I guess.