The 22nd En’duo du Limousin was to be a big celebration for the return of competition in the south-east of Creuse after two years of absence due to the health crisis. Volunteers, bikers, the public all responded present. More than 150 volunteers mobilized for the two days of competition, 430 pilots at the start, hundreds of spectators along the course in the woods. But this Saturday, November 5, around 7 p.m., the race had to be neutralized for safety.
Arrows removed or reversed
People have deflected part of the route in the town of Saint-Marc-à-Loubaud. Indications have been removed or reversed. “At one point, we arrived on the road with a stop sign, testifies the Creuse pilot Léo Joyon. We had an arrow pointing us to the right except that afterwards, on the road, we had nothing for five to ten kilometers. We met other crews who were lost. We drove around for half an hour. After a while, the marshals of the organization arrived to show us the right way.“.
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A dangerous sabotage
Completely disoriented when in addition the dark night had fallen, bikers got lost, some ran out of gas. Worse, some have been victims of hypothermia. As of this writing, the organizers are still looking for pilots in the woods, “two ambulances are placed at the ends of the circuit”, explains Boris Labrousse, the president of the enduro club Aubusson, organizer of the race. “We found pilots more than 40 km from the track. Some therefore in hypothermia“.
Because of the inverted arrows, “pilots nearly telescoped” continues the angry organizer. “If there is a pilot injured because of irresponsible people… Even I would blame myself. We wanted to have a party, we’ve been working on it for 8 months, to help people discover the Creuse…“. This is a deflecting action due to “evil people, insists Leo Joyon. They can put arrows in places where you shouldn’t go because it’s dangerous. And then we also met people on the side of the road who tried to stop us. It’s a shame, everyone is a little frustrated. It’s very unfortunate that various causes finally prevent us from doing what we love and above all “sabotage” a race and an event of this magnitude which brings Aubusson to life for a weekend.“.
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We do not know the identity or the motivations of the people who removed the signs. What we do know is that the organizers have worked for a long time “with the State services, the biodiversity office, the National Forestry Office, the Ministry of Agriculture to establish the route that respects the environment as much as possible. Even if it did not please some people on the Millevaches plateau“explains Boris Labrousse, although we had messages of sympathy from the inhabitants of Gentioux“. Indeed, during the week, opponents of the passage of the En’duo in the town of Gentioux-Pigerolles made themselves known. They denounced the passage of 430 motorcyclists in a Natura 2000 area. A dozen demonstrators blocked part of the route in the afternoon this Saturday. In agreement with the organization, they managed to deviate part of the race, but everything went peacefully. “We targeted an action on the springs of the Thaurion and that’s itdefends Jean-Paul Gaulier. We are claiming our action but we have not made any diversions of tracks, especially since doing more kilometers in the woods would cause an environmental impact is even worse“.
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