Since a few years now the track of Valence (France) - located in south-west part of France, between Lyon and Avignon - host one of the most important pre-season races, with Mantova (Italy) and Hawkstone Park (Great Britain). On the southern surface, most of the factory riders will be racing on February 23rd and 24th to prepare the 2008 season. Unfortunately there's only fourty gates on the grid, and many GP riders can't get an entry for this event... The club got a lot of requests from foreign riders but also from Frenchies, who will be once more numerous on the GP scene, and it was difficult for the organizer to make a selection!
 Int. Motocross in Valence (FRA) / Photo by: mediacross Winner last year, Joshua Coppins (Yamaha) will defend his supremacy on this track for his second race since the biggest desillusion of his career, when he lost the MX1 title after his injury in Czech Republic. The kiwi is more motivated than ever, and has always been successful in France! He will raced again the factory Suzuki and Kawasaki riders, his main opponents last season as Steve Ramon clinched the title while Ken De Dycker (both on Suzuki), Kevin Strijbos and Sébastien Pourcel (Kawasaki GPKR) won last year seven of the ten GP's were Coppins didn't earned the biggest trophy.
Tanel Leok and Manuel Priem (Kawasaki KRT) as well as Max Nagl (KTM), Julien Bill (Honda Martin), Tom Church (Kawasaki Molson), Marvin Van Daele (Suzuki Teka) and Brad Andersson (Suzuki Swift) will also be involved in the MX1 class, alongside French riders Thomas Allier and Christophe Martin (Husqvarna MAV), Benjamin Coisy (Honda) and Alexandre Rouis (Kawasaki GPKR). Japanese hero Billy Mackenzie (Honda Cas) could be there too...
Half of the pack will race on MX2 bikes, with the factory KTM riders (Tyla Rattray and Rui Goncalves), the complete Kawasaki Molson squad (Gareth Swanepoel, Stephen Sword and Paulin Gautier), the new factory 250 Suzuki's (Pascal Leuret and Xavier Boog), the Champ KTM (Jeremy Van Horebeek and Joel Roelants) and Suzuki Swift teams (Jake Nicholls and Elliot Banks) and all the other best frenchies of this class with Nicolas Aubin (Yamaha Ricci), Marvin and Mickael Musquin (Honda NGS), Anthony Boissière and Julien Vanni (KTM HDI), Steven Frossard, Gregory Aranda and Loic Larrieu (Kawasaki CLS).
As last year a KTM trophy and a selected 85cc race will be at the program.
 Int. Motocross in Valence (FRA) / Photo by: mediacross Provisional entry list:
Class MX1:- #6 Joshua Coppins (NZL, Yamaha)
- #8 Tanel Leok (EST, Kawasaki)
- #9 Ken De Dycker (BEL, Suzuki)
- #11 Steve Ramon (BEL, Suzuki)
- #12 Maximilian Nagl (GER, KTM)
- #15 Julien Bill (SUI, Honda)
- #16 Marvin Van Daele (BEL, Suzuki)
- #18 Thomas Allier (FRA, Husqvarna)
- #24 Tom Church (GBR, Kawasaki)
- #29 Alexandre Rouis (FRA, Kawasaki)
- #32 Manuel Priem (BEL, Kawasaki)
- #48 Christophe Martin (FRA, Husqvarna)
- #60 Brad Andersson (GBR, Suzuki)
- #90 Sébastien Pourcel (FRA, Kawasaki)
- #161 Kevin Strijbos (BEL, Kawasaki)
- #979 Benjamin Coisy (FRA, Honda)
Class MX2:- #4 Tyla Rattray (RSA, KTM)
- #5 Garreth Swanepoel (RSA, Kawasaki)
- #7 Stephen Sword (GBR, Kawasaki)
- #10 Rui Goncalves (POR, KTM)
- #11 Paulin Gautier (FRA, Kawasaki)
- #20 Gregory Aranda (FRA, Kawasaki)
- #22 Anthony Boissiere (FRA, KTM)
- #25 Marvin Musquin (FRA, Honda)
- #34 Joel Roelants (BEL, KTM)
- #44 Elliot Banks Browne (GBR, Suzuki)
- #45 Jake Nicholls (GBR, Suzuki)
- #47 Pascal Leuret (FRA, Suzuki)
- #65 Julien Vanni (FRA, KTM)
- #85 Michael Musquin (FRA, Honda)
- #89 Jeremy Van Horebeek (BEL, KTM)
- #121 Xavier Boog (FRA, Suzuki)
- #131 Nicolas Aubin (FRA, Yamaha)
- #183 Steven Frossard (FRA, Kawasaki)
- #202 Loic Larrieu (FRA, Kawasaki)
- # Thomas Ramette (FRA, Yamaha)
Source: Press release mediacross
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