2002-2022: TWENTY YEARS SINCE THE FIRST ISSUE OF TOTAL OFF ROAD
A kick up the Arras Fifty vehicles stuck on a green lane? Part and parcel of an old-school French randonnée. But when all the bumping causes the crate of beer in the back of your Jeep to start exploding, that’s when you know you’re really in trouble… Words and pictures: Alan Kidd
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e’re stuck. The lane’s so narrow, no-one can get round us. All there is to do is reverse. But we can’t do that, either. There’s a convoy of fifty vehicles behind us. And none of the first three motors on the road have a winch. Yes, this is definitely going to be a tough one. Alongside giants like the Mille Rivières and Croisière Blanche, the Triangle Vert is not the best known of France’s many randonnées. But
it attracts more British entries than any other. A one-day event that’s usually held around Easter time, it offers a mixture of wide open farm tracks, rutted lanes and the occasional sea of mud – and what attracts so many entries from across the Channel is that unlike many of France’s more famous randonnées, it’s held within a stone’s throw of Calais. The 2002 event was in fact a little further afield than usual, being based in the town of
Béthune (look on a map and you’ll see that in the greater scheme of things, it’s still not far from Calais). The organising Hors Macadam Club says it’s started having to limit numbers in order to avoid arousing the wrath of local ‘antis’ – a sign, perhaps, that these events, which have at times provided some spectacularly chaotic scenes, are going to have to start becoming a lot more disciplined in future. Not that that was very apparent as the gaggle of 4x4s waited for us four hapless Brits at the head of the convoy to get our act together. Two standard Discoverys, a Cherokee and a winchedup 90 on big mud tyres… and which one do you think we chose to lead the way? So here we are in our Cherokee, third in line with the 90 behind us, finally the Discoverys have got through and now it’s our turn. We’re on BFG
The competitive element of events like the Triangle Vert comes from spotting code boards and stopping off at various landmarks along the way to answer what the organisers call ‘touristic’ questions. It’s not unknown for people to ignore this completely and just treat it as the mother of all lane runs
4x4 2pp Triangle Vert 2002.indd 58
01/08/2022 23:49
