Winner of the Moto Women title in 2023’s inaugural FIM Sand Races World Cup, Mathilde Denis – Yamaha will have home advantage for the sixth and deciding round of the 2025 series – the Enduropale du Touquet Pas-de-Calais – that takes place this coming weekend (13-15 February) on the cold and exposed coastline of northern France.
The thirty-year-old motorcycle riding instructor, who currently lives seventy kilometres along the coast from Le Touquet in Calais, will start the historic fiftieth edition of the fabled race – that also got the series under way twelve months ago – trailing Belgium’s defending and two-time champion Amandine Verstappen by just seven points.
“It's going to be difficult to win the championship,” admits Denis, “but I'm happy to be arriving at Le Touquet only seven points behind so I still think it's possible. I don't necessarily have any tactics, just to give it my all and we'll see the result at the end.”
A relatively late starter to motorcycle racing, Denis was twelve when she was given a Yamaha YZ85 motocross machine and – despite no family tradition in the sport – she soon showed a natural aptitude and won the first of her four national MX titles in 2014, the same year she made her debut in the FIM Women’s Motocross World Championship (WMX).
Having steadily climbed the WMX ladder to break into the top fifteen in 2019, the pandemic proved to be pivotal for Denis.
“I was making great progress and had achieved my first top-ten finish in WMX [but] Covid disrupted everything. In 2022, I decided to do the European WMX and I finished sixth in the championship with a podium finish in one event. I was thinking of going back to GPs after that, but I also turned my attention to Sand Races during that period and so it was difficult to do everything.”
With two national Sand Races crowns on her racing résumé alongside her 2023 Moto Women title, Denis has clearly found a discipline – one that combines speed, technical skills and superb physical conditioning – that suits her, although her fans may be surprised to learn she does not feel as though she excels in sand.
“It's not necessarily the surface I'm best on, but when I did my first season in 2022 I won everything so I decided to continue. Living in Calais, I’m also thirty minutes away from Loon-Plage – the most popular circuit for sand training in France – which is also convenient.”
Considered one of motorcycle sport’s most demanding disciplines, competitors must race at high speeds for up to three hours at a time and Denis and her fellow female riders have to fight it out on equal terms with their male counterparts in what is very much a gender-neutral sport once the race starts.
“It's not easy, because in Sand Races physical condition is even more important than in motocross, so the differences between the best male riders and the best female riders are greater. Although when you look at the final rankings, we're still in a pretty good position. In Sand Races, it's a bit like going to war!”
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