Do a rally the Austin Vince way
Orienteering, exploring and getting lost on your dirt bike on the stunning trails of the Pyrenees
‘You have to be able to properly map-read your way, old style…’
‘The very best teams will cover 230 miles each day’
Adventure rider Austin Vince has created the most analogue dirt-bike event in town. Now, in its 15th year, the Vertically Integrated Navigation Challenge Event (the V.I.N.C.E) has a gained a fanatical following which converges, every September, on a different part of the Spanish Pyrenees. It’s basically orienteering on dirt bikes or, if you weren’t in the scouts, a treasure hunt.
It’s an event that sees around 100 off-roaders travelling across Europe, to take part in a wholly un-sposnsored and in no way ACU-sanctioned ride. Riders are in teams of two, three, or four (there is no safety crew, if something goes wrong, your teammates are expected to save you) and you spend two long days riding over a 700 square-mile wilderness looking for 80 checkpoints. The checkpoints get laid out by Vince and his 16-man team a year earlier and in doing so, they test, track and ‘prove’ every inch of the trail network in the area.
Unlike a rally or enduro, this is an event where the riders themselves are choosing their route. Not only that, you have to be able to properly map-read your way, using a Spanish 1:50,000 paper map, old style. There is a new GPS class for folk who cannot cope with the map (because it is difficult) but the real thrill comes from the navigation. Austin’s crew have scouted and confirmed about 600 miles of trails but which ones you ride, and in which order, is up to you. The checkpoints are catalogued in an 80-page booklet, a checkpoint per page. Each one gets an enlarged map-thumbnail, a photo and a detailed description. The idea is that when you are close, you can actually find the metal ‘dogtag’ that the organisers placed a year earlier. Then, all you have to do is transcribe the code from the metal checkpoint plate which proves that you were there. The very best teams will ride and navigate about 230 miles a day and will get to about 60 of the checkpoints by the finish. Everyone stays in the same hotel so the adventure vibe stays alive once the riders return. There are only two rules: 1) If you really want to win, then you probably shouldn’t attend. 2) Each night you have to buy another rider a drink in the bar. There is an old-school chivalry
running through this community with a baffling contradiction of entrants who take it incredibly seriously, whilst simultaneously, stopping to help other teams if they suffer punctures and breakdowns. Unsporting behaviour incurs pretty much instant disqualification and ‘blacklisting’. There’s a story that several years ago, a rider was asked to leave for being rude to one of the hotel staff. This event is deadly serious yet is not about speed. It requires tens of hours of preparation studying maps, building home-made map tables but is incredibly relaxed. The dirt riding is serious and in places difficult yet the parc ferme is devoid of Ready to Race KTMs. Seven Dakar riders (including Lyndon Poskitt, Nick Plumb and Patsy Quick) have attended the V.I.N.C.E only to be beaten by a beardy TRF member on a CRF250L. In its early days it attracted a much more mainstream dirt-bike crowd but once the word got out about how challenging the map-reading was, those riders stuck to the mainstream.
There is no shortage of guided trail-riding all over Europe but the V.I.N.C.E. is how you get to ride the epic scenery whilst actually making decisions. For the ‘thinking’ motorcyclist who isn’t scared of a bit of what Vince calls ‘homework’ then the satisfaction of setting off, and never seeing another team all day, exploring some of the best trails in the world, is truly exceptional. It’s odd because so much motorcycle sport has an element of adrenaline but the V.I.N.C.E’s thrills come quite simply, from not getting lost. This act of successful navigation over a 12-hour day turns out to be every bit as exciting and fulfilling as any other motorcycling you’re ever likely to do.
There are 37 teams booked in for the September 2-3 event, with entrants from USA, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, France and of course, the UK and it’s not too late to join them.