Last weekend the first big enduro event of the season was held, the Enduropale of Touquet Pas-de-Calais, a historic event that started for the first time in 1975 and that today, 48 years later, continues to attract hundreds of enduro fans on the gigantic sandy beaches of the Côte d’Opale.
In addition to the spectacular images that this event always gives us with dozens of motorcycles running at full speed by the sea, this year’s edition has made a lot of noise on social networks as a result of a video of only seven seconds long that shows what seems to be the deliberate running over of a participant by another rival, Some images that have not taken long to go viral and outrage the entire biker collective.
The video was recorded before the start, during the formation of the grid; in it, a participant suffers an unexpected fall and remains lying on the asphalt, and at that moment the rider with the number 322 appears and, instead of stopping his motorcycle,accelerate to go over the fallen rider’s torso as if it were an obstacle.
Fortunately, the pilot who was run over suffered no injuries, he was able to get up and set off, but the footage did not take long to reach social networks, and within a few hours he had already accumulated hundreds of thousands of reproductions and an unstoppable wave of comments and attacks against Tom Maurizi, the author of the outrage.
The organization of the race itself was forced to issue a press release denouncing the behavior of this pilot, and at the same time, requesting a “exemplary sanction” so that you avoid a similar situation in the future.
“After seeing the images of the 47 Enduropale du Touquet Pas-de-Calais, the organization immediately contacted the French Motorcycling Federation to summon rider no. 322. The National Disciplinary and Arbitration Tribunal will be summoned shortly to rule on the conduct of this pilot. Based on the various videos, it appears that the #322 pilot deliberately ran over a pilot who had fallen in front. This type of behavior is morally, sportingly and ethically inadmissible for the organization, and contrary to the values that we defend in the Enduropale du Touquet – Pas-de-Calais and we request that an exemplary sanction be imposed in this regard.” spread the organizer of the test.
For his part, Tom Maurizi wanted to take advantage of his social networks to calm things down and offer his version of what happened; this french amateur pilot says “understand people’s reaction” after seeing the images, but clarify whate “everything happened very quickly” and that his inexperience in this type of race also had a lot to do with it.
“It was due to lack of experience and having to make a decision in a split second that was not the best, but I couldn’t do anything else (the grip is very precarious with this type of tire on asphalt) and I was risking a fall. I tried to lighten the front bike as much as I could to lessen the impact, that’s all I could do.”argues Maurizi to try to explain why he chose to run over his rival instead of trying to brake and, perhaps, running the risk of falling himself.
“I played the whole race with that image in my head, As soon as I found out the pilot’s name, I sent him a message and asked about him, but he didn’t reply. I am calm after knowing that he was able to finish the race. I don’t want to apologize, I just want to offer my sincerest apologies while I wait to speak with him on the phone.” concluded Maurizi, who these days is the victim of numerous personal attacks through social networks.
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Below you can see the video that has generated so much controversy in France:
it’s too crazy #Enduropale pic.twitter.com/fhGHHiibBd
— Lrak (@combod62) February 4, 2023