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The 89th edition of the legendary "Bol d'Or" endurance motorcycle race at the Paul Ricard circuit saw BMW's Team #37 dominate from start to finish. Riders Markus Reiterberger (who completed the race), Steven Odendaal, and Michael van der Mark covered an astonishing 742 laps – a new "Bol d'Or" record. They clinched victory with a one-lap lead over the second-place team and two laps over the third, securing the world title in endurance racing with this triumph.
Yet, behind these dry statistics lie countless stories – tales of individual riders, dedicated teams, and even fleeting moments from those grueling 24 hours of racing on a track featuring the perilously long Mistral Straight, where riders brake from speeds exceeding 330 km/h.
Notably, this is the same Team #37 that led last year's race only to suffer a mechanical failure just half an hour before the finish, forcing them to retire. This year's victory, therefore, must have been all the sweeter.
The same sentiment applies to Bulgarian rider Martin Choy, who, along with his teammates, put in a fantastic 18 hours from the start before their race ended prematurely due to an engine failure.
"It was a race without a single mistake," Choy commented to Sportal.bg a few hours after their retirement. "Not a single error from the riders, none from the team. We maintained incredibly consistent lap times – at night, the difference between the four of us was half a second within a single lap. We never exceeded 1:58.5 minutes during those hours; the four of us rode as one."
"After it became clear that the engine was done for, several people from the team broke down in tears. Those tears are heavy – we prepare for this race for so long, we spend a whole week testing, working through practice sessions, pushing hard in qualifying, and then in the race, we were really pushing, only for everything to fall apart because of a single mechanical failure."
Choy is a highly experienced rider with numerous victories and losses under his belt, but it's clear this retirement hit him hard. After all, he was one of those who gave everything to achieve a strong race.
"We started 16th in our class and in the middle of the pack, but by the halfway point of the race, we had climbed to 5th in Superstock and 16th overall," Choy added. "At one point, I even thought we had a chance to reach the podium; the race was going so smoothly for us. But it wasn't meant to be."
"I never suspected we'd retire due to engine failure. Kawasaki is the most challenging motorcycle to ride, but also the most robust, so this breakdown was definitely a surprise."
These few remarks only scratch the surface of the ordeal faced by Choy and Team 85 in their "Bol d'Or" adventure.
For the fans, over 100,000 of them throughout the weekend, the experience at the track remains unforgettable – encounters with people from all over the world, surprisingly good French beer (even by German biker standards), concerts, and numerous stands and marquees filled with new motorcycles, jackets, helmets, engine oils, tires, and pretty much anything you could imagine.
And for those who haven't visited Paul Ricard in a while, the pathways in the garden before entering the paddock are named after the late riders Jules Bianchi and Anthoine Hubert – fans will never forget them.
It's an opportunity to witness the relentless ambition that drives riders and their teams – battling fatigue, heat, strong winds, and the cold night asphalt to ultimately prove to themselves that their goals are achievable. Next year, the goal will be different – tougher, more distant, but just as enticing.
Speaking of meeting people from all over the world, it's worth noting that Japanese racing engineers, who typically only speak Japanese, now have an app on their phones that translates written Bulgarian to Japanese and vice versa. It's certainly a useful tool.
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