WIMA France founder Agnès Acker organised this Continental division rally and wrote the report which Anke-Eve Goldmann translated (we presume for WIMA News). 15 participants came from Austria, Finland, France, GB and Germany.
By Monday afternoon almost everybody has arrived and the first competition, the orientation ride is about to start. You have to find your way from simple sketched maps, through a jumble of 31 crossways covering 12 km. The terrain is narrow field roads, tracks through the woods, meadows, streams and farmyards with squawking hens. The secret control points are patrolled by husbands and boyfriends. Normally the heavy bikes are handicapped on a course like this, but Captain Ellen Pfeiffer manages to be fastest on her BMW R 75/5, followed by two confident off-road Finnish girls.
Tuesday: Mini-Rally. The first four letters of a motorcycle brand of your choice have to be visited with the aid of a local Michelin map. The winner is the rider who has travelled the least km, measured as the crow flies. This competition doesn’t ask for speed but intelligent thought. Traudl wins ahead of Edda, Anne and Christel. The local population was not impressed by the popular wave of riding motorcycles in France and were rather annoyed by the invasion of ‘Amazons’, which didn’t make it any easier to collect stamps. Especially if these Amazons were talking in a strange barbaric language. In the evening, basically everybody had stories to tell!
Wednesday: The big day for the special trial. Early in the morning everybody is sniffing the weather, but unfortunately it is dull and grey. Bang on 9 am the mountain trail starts. It is 1.7 km long and needs to be completed twice. The police of Epinal and Remiremont have closed off the road and the TV is getting cameras and microphones ready.
The French Master of 1965 Paul Wolff is opening the Trial on his Kawasaki 500 and finishes with 1:03.8. But Captain Ellen, an experienced member on the circuit is getting very close with 1:04.9. The final result is: Ellen 1:04.9, second Agnès 1:10.8, third Christel 1:12.4, fourth Anne 1:13.5, fifth Traudl 1:17.0, sixth Marie France 1:22.4, and Edda, whose time was 1:04, was disqualified.
In the afternoon, it was time for the lightweights. Trial: the tricky course is marked with little flags and goes over meadows, slippery rocks (it has been raining) and through shrubbery. Here the Finnish participants feel right at home. Astonishing how they manage the course. Tuula finishes without penalties, followed by Ellen who manoeuvres her BMW like a moped through the terrain with 3 minus points. Then Ninie and Agnès with 5 minus points each, Marie-France with 8 minus points, Jo with 14 minus points.
In the evening everybody relaxes during the slide show about the history of WIMA on the continent from 1958 till now. Late at night Jean Sutton and Shirley Tarrant arrive on their nice Triumphs, accompanied by Jean’s husband Dick Sutton, a Six- Day Trials rider.
On Thursday a relaxed ride out is on the agenda. WIMA and company ride through the Vosges and visit Riquewihr where a wine tasting takes place in the cellar and also a visit to the vintage collection of Herr Karl in Barr. Everybody is in a good and relaxed mood whilst enjoying the winding roads riding back to Col des Croix.
Friday is the day of Orientation ride. 12 small villages, marked on a map have to be visited, covering 125 km. There are seven checkpoints and the time limit is 3 1⁄2 hours. With thunderstorms passing by, Jo wins in two hours 52 minutes just ahead of the Finnish Girls Tuula and Raila.
There were also a few theoretical exams to pass on this trial, for example six motorcycles and six racing riders had to be named (with a time limit) or 14 items from a Honda 350 and Kawasaki had to be identified correctly (with the aid of a sketch) and finally you had to get the mixed-up combustion cycle of a two and four-stroke engine in the right order (as quickly as possible). During this task, Traudl, Christl, Tuula and Raila show that they can also use their brains as well as their bodies, when on a motorbike.
But then Christl has covered 200,000 km on a motorbike and the Finnish girls (aged 17 and 18) have been travelling since beginning of July with their awkward bikes. Once they had to dismantle the whole engine on a campsite, which obviously didn’t do it any harm. By the way, it was their teacher who sparked their interest in motorcycles. He also accompanied them on their first ride. They were four of them on two bikes and they always drew straws who was going to be pillion rider. Therefore, quite often the huge Matti was pillion whilst a petite student was riding the bike. You have to imagine the faces of the locals, when the Finnish girls were describing how they fixed a tyre at minus 20 degrees …
On Saturday a few more friends join in; the Debonville couple from the north of France, plus more people from the UK and also from Besançon and Lyon. One of them is Geneviève Delorme on her Honda CB125. Everybody applauds the ‘WIMA Woman of the Year 1970’, Traudl Schuster who won the Otto Pokal trophy for the furthest travel to the rally. Other prizes are handed out and films of races and a short film of Dreyer about the beginning of motorbikes are screened. Then it is time to say goodbye. But one thing is certain; we all will meet again in Germany next year, where we will once again laugh, enjoy ourselves on the road and have fun in a pub somewhere. The core point of the meetings is your friendship, which is provided by the common love of motorbikes.
