By A lot of French road racers honed their real roads craft, from national hill-climb road races.
This type of motor sport is very popular in France as is circuit racing, as shown in recent times at Le Mans with EWC (Endurance World Championship)/Moto GP races, the victory for Johann Zarco on home soil in front of a record crowd (311,797 spectators during this year’s French Grand Prix).
2025 permanent IRRC Supersport participant, Alsace’s Mathieu Rieder is the current Supersport Champion of ‘Championnat de France de la Montagne’ from previous season.
Last weekend coinciding with IRRC Hengelo, CIVS at Deruta/Castelleone, the public road in Bocognano, Corsica Island, hosted the 2025 season opener for this Championship.
Steven Bellavoine (P5 Superbike, P7 Supersport time-trials at Bocognano), for the past two years was a full-time IRRC Superbike rider, in 2022 finished overall third in the Superbike – European Hill Climb Road Race Championship.
It is good to state again that France, has a strong presence within all classes for TT 2025 with solo riders, Pierre Yves Bian, Amalric Blanc, Wayne Bourgeais, Julien Cregniot, Gerald Dath, Eddy Ferre, Jonathan Goetschy, Timothee Monot and Lancelot Unissart.
They will be supplemented by Sidecars entrants, Bruno Mathern/Mathilde Jully, Steven Palacouer/Yann Druel plus Sidecar passengers Emmanuelle Clement (with English driver Todd Ellis), Anais Rosset (with Australian Eric Lenser) and Maxime Vasseur (with another UK Sidecar pilot Mick Donovan).
Top 10 finishers for Superbike/Supersport categories from Bocognano are follows:
Superbike:
1st – Thomas Verdoni
2nd – Francois Poletti
3rd – Davy Vasta
4th – Jean Francois Monti
5th – Steven Bellavoine
6th – Simon Perret
7th – Paul-Toussaint Serre
8th – Arnaud David
9th – Franck Fournier-Bidoz
10th – Damien Duck
Supersport:
1st – Dominique Pietri
2nd – Hugo Grange-Martin
3rd – Sebastien Galeazzi
4th – Damien Galfre
5th – Cedric Battistel
6th – Simon Romieu
7th – Steven Bellavoine
8th – Joe Thauront
9th – Pascal Polidori
10th – Loic Sirot
Next rounds of ´Championnat de France de la Montagne´ will be at:
31st May-1st June – Chanaz
14th-15th June – Marchaux
5th-6th July – Panissieres
26th-27th July – Petit Abergement
16th-17th August – Marlhes En Montagne
30th-31st August – Frangy
Photo credit: Michael Wincott
Words by Jan Vavra
