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Auto Car
04-07-2025
- Automotive
- Auto Car
Pride of the Valkyries: inside Aston Martin's Le Mans 24hr return
Aston Martin returned to Le Mans' top tier after 14 years away and finished the race with plenty to feel positive about Open gallery Astons were up against Porsche, Toyota, Ferrari, Peugeot, BMW, Alpine… Valkyrie #007 came 14th, six laps down, and #009 finished 12th, four laps back Track-only Valkyrie AMR Pro tops 1000bhp; LMH racer is limited to 670bhp Aston Martin is in its first hypercar season; many rivals are in their third Basing the race car on the Valkyrie road car was not the easiest option Close Thanks to the glorious wail of a non-hybridised Cosworth V12, the pair of Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR-LMH racers sounded utterly glorious as they powered through the French countryside. So while the British firm was never going to win the Le Mans 24 Hours on its return to the endurance classic's top class for the first time in 14 years, it simply couldn't be ignored. There are no prizes for fielding the best-sounding cars on the grid but this year wasn't about trophies. It was about proving that a racing hypercar based on a road-going version could work. Some patience was always going to be required: the performance-balancing measures of Le Mans' current rules make it nearly impossible for a new team to be a contender straight away. Then again, Aston Martin has had to learn patience when it comes to Le Mans. The British marque first entered the race in 1928 but it wasn't until 1959 that Roy Salvadori and Carroll Shelby took victory in a DBR1/300. And it's still waiting for overall victory number two. There has been success at the Circuit de la Sarthe more recently. Aston Martin triumphed in the GT1 class with a DBR9 in 2007 and it has won the top GT class on four more occasions. But its most recent bid for outright victory came with the best-forgotten Lola-Aston Martin B09 project from 2009 until 2011. The current hypercar regulations in endurance racing's top flight have made Le Mans hugely appealing for manufacturers and this year Aston Martin joined a very full paddock. But by choosing to turn the Valkyrie into a Le Mans Hypercar (LMH), the British firm has made life hard for itself. It is the only entrant in the hypercar class to be based on a road-legal vehicle, and the Adrian Newey-designed 'Formula 1 car for the road' is so extreme the road car's engine had to be detuned and its aerodynamics blunted to fit the rules. Aston Martin could, like Ferrari, Toyota and Peugeot, have designed its LMH as a pure race car; or, like Porsche, BMW and Alpine, made life even easier by using a spec chassis and hybrid system as the basis for a cost-controlled Le Mans Daytona Hybrid (LMDh) racer. But as Aston Martin endurance racing boss Adam Carter says: 'If we did that, it wouldn't be an Aston Martin.' 'We developed the Valkyrie because it was the ultimate hypercar,' adds Carter, who works for Aston Martin Performance Technologies, which is based alongside the F1 team. 'The Valkyrie was born to race; its foundations came from racing. Aston Martin is a sports car company. We build sports cars. And there's nothing better than when a sports car goes to race at Le Mans.' The Valkyrie's road to Le Mans hasn't been straightforward. In fact, it has taken four years longer than first planned. In a press conference to launch the forthcoming LMH rules at Le Mans in 2019, Aston joined Toyota in announcing that it would begin racing the Valkyrie in the 2020/2021 World Endurance Championship. The delay is partly because of Aston Martin's financial struggles, the takeover by Lawrence Stroll and a subsequent restructuring. But it's also because of changes in the hypercar rules. When the firm initially committed, the LMH rules were for cars based on road-going hypercars. But as part of an agreement to equalise performance between the World Endurance Championship LMH and LMDh cars, that requirement was dropped, prompting Aston Martin to scrap its plans. But the Le Mans 24 Hours has a way of pulling people in and the project was revived in October 2023 with the help of US-based motorsport team The Heart of Racing and manufacturing experts Multimatic. The race car was built and run by a squad consisting of staff from those firms. '[Aston Martin owner Lawrence] Stroll asked me about turning the Valkyrie into a hypercar so I went and looked at the regulations, spoke to officials and said: 'Yeah, absolutely it's possible.' But it's been a journey for everyone involved, including the regulatory bodies. A good journey, but a long journey,' says Carter. The base car is technically the track-only Valkyrie AMR Pro, which shortcuts some of the development. But that car produces more than 1000bhp from its hybridised 6.5-litre naturally aspirated V12 Cosworth, whereas the LMH rules peg output at 670bhp. But as Carter says: 'The Valkyrie would not be the Valkyrie without that V12. It's absolutely the heart of the car.' He adds: 'It's got way more capacity than we need so we can run it very lean burn, and it's a great, efficient demonstration of future sustainable fuels.' So the hybrid element was ditched – anyway it drives the rear wheels on the road car yet LMH rules require it to power the front axle – and the Cosworth unit was effectively detuned, although Carter says that helps to offset any loss of torque resulting from the lack of electrification. The challenge of LMH is that to emphasise efficiency, the cars are essentially set torque-based energy output parameters that they must stick within. Hybrids can help with that, which perhaps explains why every hypercar on the grid bar the Aston Martin runs one. 'Every race car is a collection of compromises and always will be,' says Carter. 'Having a hybrid presents some opportunities around torque filling, but the V12 has a very high torque response. If you have a hybrid, you have to synchronise it with the combustion unit, whereas our response is all built into one unit.' The bodywork of the Valkyrie racer has also been revised to fit the LMH class's aero rules (remember, Newey's joy in crafting the Valkyrie was not having to work to a rulebook…) while also ensuring the bodywork at the front and rear met motorsport safety rules and could be quickly changed if required. The Heart of Racing has run a pair of Valkyries in both the IMSA and WEC series this year. The results haven't been spectacular, but they were never going to be because of the Balance of Performance (BoP) regulations. This is where the story gets a little tricky to tell, because the first rule of BoP is you don't talk about BoP. Okay, it's technically not the first rule, but race organisers want to keep the focus on the track rather than a verbal fight club in the paddock, so competitors are banned from moaning about BoP. But you can read between the lines, and because it is calculated on reference data and new entrants have none, they start with the worst possible BoP. The calculations for the high-speed Le Mans track are also done separately from other events. So the unspoken belief is that the Valkyrie should be more competitive next year when any BoP measures are based on actual past performance. But that's fine, because the team still needed to learn. The hypercar programme was deliberately staffed without impacting the ongoing GT project and Carter says: 'It's a learning year and we need to learn and refine our processes as a team. It's a new group of people with vast experience brought together. We need to learn the car, and about the regulations, and how to get the most out of the car. We've focused on race pace and reliability, but we need to learn more about one-lap pace. 'A number of our competitors have been through two cycles of learning, and they're now in their third. We're on our first. Our learning curve is steeper from theirs.' And there was more promise in the results than the numbers might suggest. Getting one of the Valkyries into the 'hyperpole' qualifying session for the top 15 cars was a mighty achievement, and in the race both cars ran reliably and consistently to 12th and 14th places, four and six laps down on the winning Ferrari respectively. But it was an unusual year, with relatively little attrition among the hypercars. The most important thing, though, is that Aston Martin was in the race and the unusual non-hybrid hypercar based on an actual road car held its own against bespoke competition. The concept has been proven and the future is bright. The current hypercar field is too large and deep to suggest that Aston is on track for that elusive second Le Mans victory, but it's undoubtedly closer than it has been for decades. And even if Aston Martin has to wait a few more years, we can enjoy that glorious engine note while it does. Join our WhatsApp community and be the first to read about the latest news and reviews wowing the car world. Our community is the best, easiest and most direct place to tap into the minds of Autocar, and if you join you'll also be treated to unique WhatsApp content. You can leave at any time after joining - check our full privacy policy here. Next Prev In partnership with
New York Times
03-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
The mastermind behind the Tour de France route: ‘We have to find a little subterfuge'
For over a decade, Thierry Gouvenou's holidays have gone something like this. Driving or cycling through the idyllic French countryside, his mind begins to wander. His family can't get through to him. Gouvenou's eyes are on the road, his thoughts, meanwhile, are lost in its possibilities. 'The mind is always awake,' the 56-year-old says. Advertisement Being the chief course designer for the Tour de France is a constant job. Finding ways to enhance its route is Gouvenou's raison d'être, a former racer turned Tour lifer — this summer's edition will be his 29th as a competitor or official. When he sleeps, he dreams of cols and cobbles. The race is itself an artwork, constructed in part to sell television rights and sponsorship spots on the beauty of the French countryside. There are beaches, vineyards, and the high mountains, sometimes all within a single day. Then there is the sporting element itself, which at times necessitates being someone for everyone — fast and flat run-ins for the sprinters, peloton-splitting climbs for the GC men — but above all, variety for the viewer. These are different times from the Tour's early days. A century ago, the race was almost literally a giant hexagon. Straight lines joined France's major cities in what often amounted to over 400km stages. The route was designed for attrition and practicality, rather than entertainment. Though the need to cover every inch of France was gradually phased out, the 1990s, with Jean-Marie Leblanc as race director, saw the race settle into a more predictable format, made up of multiple formulaic sprint stages at the start of the race, long time trials and then visits to France's two biggest mountain ranges, the Alps and the Pyrenees. But since Leblanc was succeeded by Christian Prudhomme in 2005, there has been a lot more variety in the route design. 'We want to draw stages where the difficulties will alternate,' Gouvenou explains from the Amaury Sport Organisation's (ASO) Paris offices. 'We need to find interest for the public, for the spectators. We will always avoid having three sprint stages in a row. We'd cut it with a time trial, a stage for the puncheurs, the cobbles…' Advertisement This year, the Grande Boucle, or the Big Loop, is as close to its literal meaning as it has been in years. The parcours strides leisurely across northern France, from the Pas-de-Calais coast to the Breton cliffs, before diving down through the country's midriff to the Pyrenees via the Massif Central. From there, after its first prolonged bout of climbing, it races across the south to Mont Ventoux, arguably the most famous climb of them all, before climaxing with three hard days in the Alps. Gouvenou has dispensed with tradition on the final stage as well. Rather than a traditional closed-loop circuit around Paris, this year's route will pass over the climb to Montmartre three times, raising the possibility of some real racing outside the closing sprint. It is no wonder that Gouvenou gets nervous. 'My colleagues know it,' he jokes. 'I am tense, like last year when we rode on the white (gravel) roads. I had two modes — before the white roads and after. We are tense until the final kilometres of any stage, because we're always trying things, we're kind of betting at times. 'What will the weather be? Will it be too hot? Is there a headwind? Any of those things can ruin a stage. There really is constant stress.' This is the life Gouvenou signed up for after finishing his racing career, where he entered the Tour de France seven times between 1994 and 2001, finishing in a highest position of 59th during the troubled tour of 1998. His own career was spent mostly in service of others as a domestique — a role which included being in charge of designing training routes. 'It was me that traced out our paths,' he remembers. 'So it's true that maps were always something that interested me.' On retiring, he decided he did not want to work within a cycling team, but he had taken a qualification in sport business. He applied for a job at the ASO, initially designing smaller races, before replacing Jean-Francois Pecheux as chief designer in 2014. Advertisement In a sense, though his job at the Tour is more complicated, the role is essentially the same as when he planned group rides. Just as his team leader might have said they wanted to summit a certain climb, so too does Gouvenou's boss, general director Prudhomme, make it clear that the Tour must visit a certain place. The details are up to him. 'The real genesis is with Christian, who has chosen the start,' explains Gouvenou. 'That obviously has a big influence on the overall layout of the course. But Christian also has an eye on what he wants to highlight. He likes anniversaries — in 2014, the route marked sites from the First World War. Then, more specifically, obviously there are parts of the Alps and Pyrenees which we return to every year. 'But after that, there are other regions of France that we visit a little less regularly. We aim to visit each of them at least once every five years, though there are no hard rules predefined in advance. Originally, the Tour was around France, but it's now far easier to get to the centre, which means we visit the extremes a little less regularly.' Gouvenou is particularly proud of his work in this area, developing challenging stages around the Vosges, Massif Central, and Jura mountains. He describes the visit to the Vosges at the end of the 2023 Tour — where Thibaut Pinot almost won an emotional farewell victory on home roads, while Tadej Pogacar gained his revenge on Jonas Vingegaard with a stage win — as one of the finest days of his career. 'This kind of stage will motivate you for 10 years,' he says. There is a twinkle in his eyes as he remembers these days. Gouvenou still possesses a racer's mindset and once described in an interview with cycling magazine Rouleur how he wishes 'to find difficulties in every corner of France'. He smiles on hearing those words. 'Previously, we'd have stages which were 200km in a straight line,' he says. 'But we've now really shortened them because we scour the region to look for difficulties. Obviously, that now means we visit fewer regions. 'For example, in Toulouse, we usually always have a big bunch sprint. This year we revised it, there are hills in the final part of the course to try and encourage escapees. We can't offer nine or 10 stages that are completely monotonous. 'So in the 2025 Tour, we might be on the flat plain for 10 days, but by going on the ground myself, I could find interesting things for the puncheurs — at least four or five of them on these 10 stages. Twenty years ago, if we had done the same Tour, we would not have done these things at all.' These trips are a key part of Gouvenou's pre-race process — his year is filled with service stations and motorway dinners. 'It's my 29th Tour de France, so there are lots and lots of roads I know, where I don't have to adapt,' he says. 'But there are some regions where I need to go into the country to see exactly what it looks like — or, if I'm looking for very specific things, I drive my car and hit the roads, having recorded everything that interests me beforehand. I'll work beforehand with Strava, with Google Maps — I have a little overview.' Advertisement His quest to find difficulties does not always leave every competitor happy. Gouvenou will always listen to their suggestions — in the past, climbs have been suggested by members of the peloton — though he remarks that, at the finish line, he is usually introduced to the rider that has won. One regular source of debate is the presence of cobble and gravel stages in the parcours — components which raise the chances of mechanicals, potentially ruining a GC contenders' race. Due to the potential for a rider being punished for conditions outside their control, several high-profile racers have expressed their discontent. 'Last time I checked, we did road cycling,' Simon Yates, the 2025 Giro d'Italia champion, said at last year's Tour. 'You could argue that gravel is also a road, but it's not something that I really enjoy. I think there's a place for it in the sport, you have Paris-Roubaix, you have cyclocross… but I think we should stick to road racing.' 'They'll say: 'Yeah, back in the day… all the roads were cobbles…' and all this stuff, but we're in 2024 now. I think it creates a risk of punctures and crashes for no real reason, but we've got to deal with it.' For Gouvenou, this disruption is part of finding the best overall rider and is part of his contract with the supporters. 'The problem is that teams have become professional and if we can't find real difficulties — either with hills, pavé, or gravel — the stages become monotonous,' he argues. 'They're locked out by the sprint teams, there are no attacks, so you just see a peloton moving. For the sake of the event, for the sake of the viewers, it's not possible to do that. So in regions where we don't have a col, where we don't have a pass, we have to find a little subterfuge.' For similar reasons, Gouvenou is not a fan of time-trials. This year's Tour de France is notably light, with just 44km of TT kilometres, the fourth-fewest in the last 25 years. One of these is not even a traditional TT, with stage 13 comprised of an 11km climb up to Peyragudes. The trend goes across the Grand Tour board — this spring's Giro d'Italia had just 42.3km. 'And I think we still have too many time-trial kilometres,' he laughs. 'You can't feel the race. You see the riders sitting on their bikes and we have the impression of a robot, not a cyclist. Personally, it bothers me to see how technology has taken over the sensation of the shapes. 'Also, in recent years, the gaps in the mountains had been very slim. This has changed a bit with Pogacar and Vingegaard, but having more time-trials before was an opportunity to see different types of gaps.' Advertisement Gouvenou's reference to Pogacar and Vingegaard by name is more evidence of the organisers' ability and willingness to adapt to the riders on the start line. The designer has previously referenced the Team Sky years as forcing him 'outside his comfort zone' due to their ability to control the variables of the route — the presence of super-teams such as UAE Team Emirates and Visma Lease-a-Bike underscore this. 'Eighty to 90 per cent of the course is designed after the previous edition,' he explains. 'For example, this year's stage in Toulouse (stage 11) was redesigned in September after we felt there were too many sprints in the last Tour. 'Right now, I don't know at all about next year's course, not even 60 per cent of the cities. But we're able to react, and that's helped by the fact that there are only a few of us who are making those decisions.' One late adjustment this year came on the final stage, which is traditionally a flat and easy ride through Paris, made up of several short laps before a sprint on the Champs-Élysées. This year, however, organisers were inspired by the inclusion of Montmartre at last summer's Olympic Games and have introduced three loops of the cobbled 1.1km climb. 'In our dreams, or in the dreams of our president, Mr Prudhomme, there was a desire to change the last stage a little bit,' Gouvenou says. 'On the other hand, it is true that we were in a bit of a comfort zone, especially in the city of Paris, where we used to do the Champs-Élysées circuit. It worked well, there was no real questioning. 'But then came the Olympics. That stage at Montmartre struck us all, that was the turning point. We knew it could not be done in the same conditions. On the way, the road is narrow and it's on cobbles, but we do that in Flanders — it's not an issue. But it was necessary to find descents that were much safer than the Olympics. That was the challenge. 'What will the next edition bring? We'll have to see how it goes, but why not come back regularly, maybe in the Olympic years.' The notion of dramatising the set-pieces extends to the Grand Departs, which have begun to conform to a pattern under Gouvenou's stewardship. He has overseen launches in Yorkshire, Utrecht, Dusseldorf, Copenhagen, the Basque Country and Tuscany, amidst the traditional French openings. Conversations constantly arise over whether the Tour could support a Grand Depart on the East Coast of the United States, but Gouvenou is sceptical, raising issues with the logistics, rider welfare, and speculating that the wider roads in the United States may make designing unpredictable stages more challenging. Advertisement 'Personally, I would rather see it finish there,' he considers. 'There's such a significant time difference and it's better for the riders going to the United States rather than back to Europe.' In the meantime, the race will begin in Barcelona next year, before returning to the United Kingdom when it departs from Edinburgh in 2027. 'Every time we have a big departure, we try to have one big stage,' he explains. 'Basically, we want to highlight the riders that will become the GC leaders of the Tour. We're not going to break that rule. 'For example, in the UK, there will be a climb in order to put the leaders forward. It will be an incredible, popular stage. We are waiting impatiently.' (Top photos: Marco Bertorello/Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP via Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)
South China Morning Post
23-05-2025
- Lifestyle
- South China Morning Post
Where a French chef in Hong Kong eats French-style pastries, pizza and dim sum
Thomas Caro is the executive chef of Rex Wine & Grill, which is now rebranded as a French steakhouse. He spoke to Andrew Sun. I tend to eat in a very polarised way: very regimented and healthy, or purely for pleasure and comfort. Growing up in the French countryside, I remember walking to our village's farm with my dad to buy eggs and milk, and picking cherries, Reine Claude plums – also known as greengages – and apricots at my grandparents'. My grandmother, Geneviève, was an exceptional cook, making classic cuisine bourgeoise – middle-class home cooking – staples every Sunday for lunch. Grandpa Jean, who cultivated my love of food, made endless batches of jam, stored in his basement cellar to be given away during the year. A pizza from Fiata Pizza. Photo: Fiata Pizza Signature dishes at New Punjab Club, where 'everything bursts with flavour'. Photo: Black Sheep Restaurants He would spoil me at brasseries, ordering a whole sole meunière, a classic French fish dish, for my nine-year-old self. Now the only cuisine that makes sense to me in the summer is southern French.
The Sun
12-05-2025
- The Sun
We quit rat race to buy entire VILLAGE worth just £67,000 in holiday hotspot – now we'll rake in £1,000s from Airbnb
A BRITISH couple have packed in the 9 to 5 and bought themselves a whole village in France — all for just £67,000. Ben Pearson, 39, and his partner Nathan, 31, struck gold when they bought a rural French property for just £67,000. 5 5 5 The deal included a 17th-century farmhouse, five outbuildings and two hectares of land — more than they ever imagined owning. The couple first discovered the tucked-away treasure while visiting Ben's mum, Karen Pearson, 62, who moved to the same French village over a decade ago. They loved the charming, timeworn property as soon as they saw it seven years ago, but at the time, weren't quite ready to make the leap abroad. Three years ago, they started seriously looking for a retirement escape. To their shock, the farmhouse came back on the market. Ben, an RAF aircraft engineer, said: 'It was like fate. We had looked everywhere and just couldn't find anything like it. "When we saw it was up for sale again, we couldn't believe it.' They put in an offer in February 2022, which was accepted, but the deal took two years to finalise due to complex French property paperwork. The couple finally got the keys in December 2024, and are now preparing to move out permanently in July. The site is full of rustic charm — but needs serious work. We ditched the UK and bought a 200-year-old French village for just £22k The house has no toilet, heating or even running water beyond a single tap. 'There's no way we could ever afford this in the UK,' Ben said. 'You can barely get a one-bed flat for £80k back home. "Over here, we've got land, buildings, peace and a real chance to build something special.' Ben is retiring from the RAF this summer and plans to take on the renovation himself, converting the main farmhouse into a three-bed home. In the meantime, the couple will live in a caravan on the land while getting a liveable room finished within six months. The house, which dates back to the 1600s, has never been modernised. Old pots, mason jars and paperwork were still on the shelves when they moved in. Nathan said: 'It's the oldest property in the little commune. "The main house is from the early 1800s, but the farmhouse is even older. 'There's a real sense of history. "We're planning to frame some of the old documents we found — like the original land contracts.' They hope to restore the property in a way that preserves its heritage — and eventually convert the outbuildings into Airbnbs or guest houses. 'We're not under any illusions — we know it's going to cost more than we've saved,' Nathan said. 'But it's the lifestyle we want.' The couple have set aside £100,000 to start the restoration but admit it'll be a long-term labour of love. Ben added: 'We want to do it all properly — new roof, new septic tank, heating, everything. But we'll keep the soul of the place.' Despite the challenges, they say the move is the best decision they've made. 'There's no running around, no stress,' Ben said. 'It'll be a peaceful life. That's all we want.' Nathan, an English tutor, agreed: 'Even when you go into the nearest town, people are lovely and welcoming. "There's this myth that the French are standoffish — we've found the complete opposite.' The couple have documented their journey from Yorkshire to the French countryside on social media — and are already inspiring others to follow their dreams. Nathan said: 'We came here dreaming of a quieter life. "Somehow, we ended up buying a village. We wouldn't change a thing.' 5 5
