Wheels & Waves 2024: The Race of The Lords

By BikeBound photographer and correspondent, Kati Dalek (@kayadaek_photography)…

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome The Race of the Lords. This time at Saint-Pée-sur-Nivelle, in the hills behind Biarritz. On a 300-metre-long bumpy sand track, with a standing start and a bend in the middle of the race, two riders battle it out with their machines.

It’s not enough to make a good start and cross the finish line to shine like a lord, you also have to manage a U-turn in the middle of the race. On their fantastic Pre-1950 and Pre-1975 machines, the bikers have just one goal…to get there!

Bumpy ground, acceleration, 180-degree turn, return. It’s based on the races that the Allied soldiers used to hold with their Harley-Davidsons and Indians on the beaches of Normandy, and the rider’s art is to slow down these heavy machines without stalling the engine.

Easy to say, but the manual gearbox and foot-mounted clutch are a jackpot even for those who know these bikes very well.

Almost everyone wears the racing uniforms of the time. Wool sweaters with vintage graphics, rolled-up denim pants, wide leather kidney belts and boots. The leather boots are laced up and off we go.

The starting gun goes off, accelerate, slow down, get your butt on the fender seat, turn once, don’t crash with your competitor in the turning zone, back until you’ve left the checkered flag of the flag girl behind you. Sooner or later, they all cross the finish line, cheered on by the huge crowds that line the route from start to finish!

For the next installment, the Vintage Enduro Rally, I’ll pass the pen to my favorite rider and head of the Enduro Roadshow, the legendary Gille Leenknegt.