December 7th, 2017.


A broken chain just two-laps into the two-hour race ruled Sheldon Seal out of round three of the French Sand Championship at St Leger de Balson last weekend.

Seal, who started the day in third place in the championship, was sitting in fifth place in the race when disaster struck, and has now slipped to 20th in the series with three rounds to go.

Victory went to Holland’s former European Champion, Mike van Grinsven, now fully recovered from the badly broken pelvis that wrecked his 2017 season. He finished 17 seconds ahead of semi-retired French star Romain Couprie, who also set the fastest lap.

The win, and the 150 points for victory, has moved van Grinsven up to second in the series, 42 points behind the reigning champion, Jeremy Forestier, who was third on the day.

The only other Brit in action, Harry Miller, posted another fine result in 25th place of the 136 starters. However, he does not feature in the series standings, despite his string of consistent results, as the regs only allow riders competing on a French licence to score points.

The six round series moves to the beach at Hossegor this weekend (9th of December), just 15 miles north of Biarritz in the south-west of France.


Pictured: Race winner Mike van Grinsven heads the pack into turn one at the forest-based sand track at St Leger de Balson