Mathilde Denis (Yamaha), the 2023 Moto Women champion in the FIM Sand Races World Cup, will have a home advantage at the final and deciding round of the 2025 season. The race is the famous Enduropale du Touquet Pas-de-Calais, taking place 13–15 February on the cold northern coast of France.
Denis, a 30-year-old motorcycle riding instructor who lives in Calais (about 70km from Le Touquet), will start the historic 50th edition of the event just seven points behind Belgium’s defending two-time champion Amandine Verstappen. Denis admits the title fight will be tough, but says she will simply give everything and see where she ends up.
Denis started racing later than many riders. She began at age 12 on a Yamaha YZ85 and quickly showed talent, winning the first of her four national motocross titles in 2014—the same year she entered the FIM Women’s Motocross World Championship (WMX). She climbed into the WMX top 15 by 2019, but Covid disrupted her momentum. In 2022, she raced the European WMX series and finished sixth, while also turning her attention to sand racing.
With multiple national sand race titles and her Moto Women World Cup win, Denis has clearly found a discipline that fits her speed, skills, and fitness. Interestingly, she says sand isn’t even her best surface, but living near France’s top sand training area Loon-Plage helped her develop quickly.
Sand racing is one of the toughest motorcycle sports, with riders racing at high speed for up to three hours, and women competing directly alongside men. Denis says the physical demands are extreme, calling sand races “like going to war.”