I have spoken about it many times, of the "good old days", when we had dozens and dozens of amazing off-season races. While this off-season, we have nearly no major races in Europe. Paris SX is of course a standout, but outside of that, we pretty much have nothing with the elite riders racing.

Back in the 1990s I reported on World enduro championships for a handful of magazines throughout the world and in that era, there was a race called the Gilles Lalay Classic, which was really the start of what they now call the Hard Enduro.

The Gilles Lalay Classic (GLC) is widely recognized as the world's first true Extreme/Hard Enduro motorcycle race. Created in 1992, the event was conceived by legendary French rider Gilles Lalay, who tragically died in a collision during the 1992 Dakar Rally just weeks before the inaugural event took place. The race was renamed in his honor and ran until 2001.

Held in the Limousin region of France (starting in Limoges and finishing in Peyrat-le-Château), the GLC earned a reputation as the "toughest off-road motorcycle race in the world". Lalay's original goal was to design an event so punishing that the winner would simply be "the last rider left sitting on their motorcycle".

The event was specifically engineered to eliminate the vast majority of the field before the final stretch, with a morning loop, a 200 km traditional enduro course between Limoges and Peyrat-le-Château. Only the top 100 fastest riders were allowed to qualify for the next stage. Starting at 6am in the morning, it was the start of the toughest day of the riders lives.

Afternoon/Night Final section saw a devastating 200 km loop around Lake Vassivière featuring vertical climbs, bottomless mud bogs, and rock fields. Riders fought until a midnight cutoff time. In some years, only a single-digit number of riders finished.

The Finish LineLocated at the summit of the infamous, near-vertical "Côte du Corbeau Mort" (Dead Crow Climb). Mass crowds of spectators would gather to physically pull, drag, and push exhausted riders up the final meters. There was nothing like it and it was dramatic and exciting to be there.

Frenchman, Cyril Esquirol was the undisputed king of the event, holding the record for the most event victories (including wins in 1994, 1995, and 1999). Laurent Charbonnel, a fierce French competitor and double winner of the event and Dakar rally king, Stéphane Peterhansel, was the iconic multi-discipline champion who won the inaugural 1992 race.

It is because of the Gilles Lalay Classic, that the Hard Enduro is now a success and events like the Red Bull Romaniacs or Erzbergrodeo are so popular. For us oldies, it was an era when races or events like this were scattered throughout the winter and it sure made the GP or AMA off-season a lot more fun.