Nobody said Facebook comments were smart, but trashing a 21-year-old for winning the Enduropale du Touquet’s Vintage class because you thought the category’s name referred to the rider’s age and not the bike is a new level of reading incomprehension.
Alas, that’s what Florian Miot got.
Liliea asked, “I don’t understand, are there young people in the vintage event?”
“At 21, it’s not for him,” wrote David. “It’s a vintage.”
Vince felt that “at 21, you don’t race a vintage bike! There are other things to do.”
Jean-Michel was particularly harsh: “It’s a shame for the passionate riders of the ’80s and ’90s with their vintage bikes, only for these young, internationally competitive riders to compete. Soon we’ll see all the top MX1 riders moving to Vintage. Honestly, it’s ridiculous. Absolutely no interest whatsoever, which is a shame in my opinion.”
At least Claude was aware of the misunderstanding. He remarked, “I think many people like myself, and I’m not afraid to say it, have confused vintage and veterans.”
Not that the realization stopped Miot from getting criticism anyway. Others were more displeased that his 1996 Honda 500CR wasn’t air cooled.
“This is ridiculous, I don’t understand why a kid would ride a vintage bike with a non-air-cooled engine,” wrote Charles. “I was looking forward to watching the race tomorrow on track 21. I won’t be watching. It’s a shame, there were some great people there.”
Roger argued, “Call this the Open class instead!”
Can’t please everyone. Miot’s the one with the trophy and the bragging rights, so why’s it matter? He’s not blind to it either, even going as far as to show the middle finger on his way to the podium to taunt his critics.
“Thank you to my family, my friends, and all the haters who criticize me,” Miot proclaimed. “This little finger is for you!
“Next year, I’m back with the big boys to shut them up. Keep criticizing me. You’ve really motivated me!”
Miot previously won the Enduropale’s Espoirs and Junior races in 2017 and 2020, respectively. Although he’s done the main event before, completing three laps at his last start in 2024, he decided to move to the Vintage class.
Tonton JeeWee prepped him his bike, a 1996 500CR that was previously ridden by Nicolas Dercourt to the 2025 French Vintage championship. Dercourt had also finished runner-up to Adrien Van Beveren in the 2025 Enduropale with it.
Van Beveren, coming off a frustrating sixth-place run at the Dakar Rally and a three-time Enduropale Moto champion, looked to add a third Vintage crown on his own ’96 CR500.
Miot pressed the attack from the beginning, quickly catching Van Beveren. It was an aggressive strategy, and one that Miot said was because he “knew very well that I don’t have the fastest bike, so I wanted to put in a lot of effort on the first lap. I really wanted to catch up with the leaders.”
He tried to pass him but overshot a jump and faded a bit. Further compounding matters, he lost the rubber grip on his throttle, making it hard to twist and accelerate; ironically, he found it after crashing, but quickly discarded it since he didn’t have time for reattachment. JeeWee eventually got him a replacement, and Miot recalled him lubricating it with his spit after the piece couldn’t slide on properly.
Getting back into a rhythm, Miot caught back up to Van Beveren. The two traded the lead before Miot found an opening on the last lap, edging him out by just seven seconds.
It was the closest finish of the weekend and one of two in which the margin was less than a minute. Tom Caneele won Junior by 11 seconds over Dean Grégoire, a battle that Caneele wrapped up by sliding into the sand before getting up and celebrating with the crowd.
“The Dakar Rally, the Vintage race, and the Junior race with finishes down to the second,” commented Mathieu Dovèze, who’s done both Dakar and Enduropale.
While Dovèze didn’t take part, Van Beveren wasn’t the only rally raider present. Dakar winners Stéphane Peterhansel and Romain Dumontier also competed in Vintage, the former respectively finishing 75th on his 1996 Yamaha YZ250 and the latter in fifth with his 500CR. Édouard Boulanger, fresh off winning the Dakar as a navigator, completed seven laps in Moto and was classified 1,009th. Two-time Dakar winner Sam Sunderland was supposed to make his Enduropale debut but broke his vertebrae in an accident in late January.
After missing out on the Vintage win, Van Beveren entered the main Moto race as well on his training bike. Despite his prior victories here, which included a three-peat from 2014 to 2016, he had not run the feature since shifting his career focus to rally raid.
While “it’s been many years” since he did the main, he still came home with a solid eighth-place run.
Van Beveren and the field had no answer for Todd Kellett. After running second on Lap 1, he passed Cyril Genot when the latter was hit by a mechanical issue and faced no opposition the rest of the way.
It is Kellett’s fourth straight Enduropale victory. If he wins again in 2027, he would tie Kees van der Ven (1982–1986) for the most in a row. He also moves into a tie for the third most Enduropale victories alongside Jean-Claude Moussé, who won in 1999, 2004, 2012, and 2013.
“Coming into this weekend, I had a lot of pressure. But I believe in myself, I believe in the bike, and I believe in the team and we went to work,” said Kellett. “I feel emotional, it’s pretty crazy. It was a challenge with the weather, but I warmed up well. We had a good strategy and we trained for this.”
Kellett also secured the inaugural FIM Sand Races World Championship. He had already won the Sand Races World Cup in 2023 and 2024 before it was elevated to world championship status for the 2025–26 season.
2026 was the 50th Enduropale du Touquet Pas-de-Calais. While 2025 was the golden anniversary, there was no 2021 edition due to COVID-19.
Top ten finishers
Moto
| Finish | Number | Rider | Manufacturer | Laps | Total Time | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Todd Kellett | Yamaha | 14 | 3:10:21.363 | Leader |
| 2 | 2 | Cyril Genot | Honda | 14 | 3:12:05.658 | + 1:44.295 |
| 3 | 32 | Milko Potisek | Yamaha | 14 | 3:21:45.495 | + 11:24.132 |
| 4 | 4 | Lars van Berkel | Fantic | 14 | 3:23:30.698 | + 13:09.335 |
| 5 | 27 | Hakon Fredriksen | Honda | 14 | 3:24:52.230 | + 14:30.867 |
| 6 | 8 | Jeremy Knuiman | Yamaha | 14 | 3:26:16.560 | + 15:55.197 |
| 7 | 18 | Camille Chapelière | Suzuki | 14 | 3:328:22.102 | + 18:00.739 |
| 8 | 24 | Adrien Van Beveren | Honda | 13 | 3:10:37.342 | + 1 Lap |
| 9 | 6 | Tias Callens | Yamaha | 13 | 3:10:46.472 | + 1 Lap |
| 10 | 5 | Jeremy Hauquier | Yamaha | 13 | 3:10:51.332 | + 1 Lap |
Vintage
| Finish | Number | Rider | Manufacturer | Laps | Total Time | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 27 | Florian Miot | Honda | 7 | 1:04:01.706 | Leader |
| 2 | 1 | Adrien Van Beveren | Honda | 7 | 1:04:08.608 | + 6.902 |
| 3 | 99 | Damien Prevot | Honda | 7 | 1:05:47.089 | + 1:45.383 |
| 4 | 21 | Paul Le Gonidec | Honda | 7 | 1:08:40.111 | + 4:38.405 |
| 5 | 20 | Romain Dumontier | Honda | 7 | 1:10:13.458 | + 6:11.752 |
| 6 | 26 | Hugo Stiennes | Honda | 7 | 1:10:20.730 | + 6:19.024 |
| 7 | 15 | Thomas Pages | Honda | 7 | 1:10:49.175 | + 6:47.469 |
| 8 | 17 | Richard Fura | KTM | 7 | 1:11:48.614 | + 7:46.908 |
| 9 | 23 | Cyril Lambeaux | Honda | 7 | 112:22.640 | + 8:20.934 |
| 10 | 25 | Thibaut Roulier | Honda | 7 | 1:12:46.539 | + 8:44.833 |
Junior
| Finish | Number | Rider | Manufacturer | Laps | Total Time | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Tom Caneele | KTM | 19 | 1:32:21.044 | Leader |
| 2 | 88 | Dean Grégoire | KTM | 19 | 1:32:32.431 | + 11.387 |
| 3 | 24 | Francisco Garcia | Kawasaki | 19 | 1:33:23.482 | + 1:02.438 |
| 4 | 87 | Felix Cardineau | Triumph | 19 | 1:34:35.189 | + 2:14.145 |
| 5 | 3 | Ryan Bart van Hove | GasGas | 19 | 1:34:45.679 | + 2:24.635 |
| 6 | 91 | Tom Dukerts | KTM | 19 | 1:34:51.351 | + 2:30.307 |
| 7 | 66 | Harry Seel | KTM | 18 | 1:33:04.271 | + 1 Lap |
| 8 | 105 | Loïc Kiffer | Husqvarna | 18 | 1:34:13.286 | + 1 Lap |
| 9 | 6 | Eden Mabileau | Kawasaki | 18 | 1:34:22.690 | + 1 Lap |
| 10 | 11 | Mathis Matte | KTM | 18 | 1:34:41.259 | + 1 Lap |
Espoirs
| Finish | Number | Rider | Manufacturer | Laps | Total Time | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10 | Tim Lopes | Kawasaki | 13 | 1:03:27.948 | Leader |
| 2 | 28 | Timeo Mohring | KTM | 13 | 1:06:30.584 | + 3:02.636 |
| 3 | 3 | Romane Tessier | Husqvarna | 13 | 1:06:48.957 | + 3:21.009 |
| 4 | 87 | Arthur Annelot | GasGas | 13 | 1:06:53.821 | + 3:25.873 |
| 5 | 42 | Youness Tahere | KTM | 13 | 1:07:30.401 | + 4:02.453 |
| 6 | 40 | Leny Ristuccia | KTM | 13 | 1:07:38.747 | + 4:10.799 |
| 7 | 20 | Nonni per Lange | GasGas | 13 | 1:0823.888 | + 4:55.940 |
| 8 | 32 | Leo Matte | KTM | 12 | 1:03:57.226 | + 1 Lap |
| 9 | 54 | Timotei Cez | KTM | 12 | 1:04:03.809 | + 1 Lap |
| 10 | 12 | Aubin Ceulemans | GasGas | 12 | 1:04:43.221 | + 1 Lap |
Quad
| Finish | Number | Rider | Manufacturer | Laps | Total Time | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | Harry Walker | Drag’on | 13 | 2:41:47.923 | Leader |
| 2 | 26 | Kevin Saar | Handy | 13 | 2:43:19.306 | + 1:31.383 |
| 3 | 3 | Jeremy Forestier | Yamaha | 13 | 2:47:08.710 | + 5:20.787 |
| 4 | 21 | Manfred Zienecker | Honda | 13 | 2:50:49.446 | + 9:01.523 |
| 5 | 22 | Benoît Beroudiaux | TRP | 13 | 2:51:49.653 | + 10:01.730 |
| 6 | 8 | Pablo Violet | Yamaha | 13 | 2:53:05.524 | + 11:17.601 |
| 7 | 18 | Mike Vangrinsven | Honda | 13 | 2:54:58.566 | + 13:10.643 |
| 8 | 12 | Charly Rochereau | Yamaha | 13 | 2:56:22.417 | + 14:34.494 |
| 9 | 394 | Mark McLernon | Laeger’s | 13 | 2:56:44.977 | + 14:57.054 |
| 10 | 7 | Antoine Cheurlin | Laeger’s | 13 | 2:57:42.012 | + 15:54.089 |
Featured image credit: via Florian Miot
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