For the first time in the history of this event it seems that the race will be sunny, and since yesterday it’s in tee shirt that the mechanics work in Valence with a temperature of 18 to 20°C.

Most of the factory teams came from Spain, Italy or south of France where they did testing and/or photo sessions, and arrived in Valence on thursday afternoon.

Except David Philippaerts and Antonio Cairoli who will race the second round of the Italian Championship, Kevin Strijbos who recovered from a shoulder injury and Billy Mackenzie who didn’t got the permission from his team, all the top riders are there.

Winner last year and also last week in Montevarchi, Joshua Coppins spent the week alongside Jacky Vimond in south of France and will be the favourite of the race. Tanel Leok and Manuel Priem (Kawasaki KRT), Sébastien Pourcel (Kawasaki GPKR), Steve Ramon and Ken De Dycker (Suzuki Teka), Maximilian Nagl (KTM Factory), Nicolas Aubin (Yamaha Ricci), Julien Bill (Honda Martin), Marvin Van Daele (Suzuki Teka), Tom Church (Kawasaki Molson), Clement Desalle (Suzuki Inotec), Gregory Aranda (Kawasaki CLS) and Brad Andersson (Suzuki Swift) will be his main oponents in the MX1 class.

The race will be ‘open’ with three heats for all the riders, and one classification per class. In the MX2 battle Tommy Searle who never raced Valence will be the ‘man to beat’ but as Coppins he has many rivals there with team mates Tyla Rattray and Rui Gonçalves (KTM factory), Stephen Sword, Gareth Swanepoel and Gautier Paulin (Kawasaki Molson), Pascal Leuret (Suzuki Swift), Xavier Boog (Suzuki Inotec), Marvin Musquin (Honda NGS), Steven Frossard (Kawasaki CLS), Anthony Boissière (KTM HDI), Jeremy Van Horebeek and Joel Roelants (KTM Champ).

An invitational 85cc race and a KTM trophy will be also at the program.

All informations about this event, including live results can be found on www.mx-valence.com so be sure to check in on Sunday for this huge International in France.