While all Flamme Rouge fans were waiting for the release of the long-awaited Grand Tour extension, Lautapelit surprised us with this simplified BMX-themed version of the game supposedly meant for a younger public. I admit I did not pay much attention to it when it came out: I am more interested in road or track cycling than in other disciplines, and I let myself be fooled by the childish artwork (which I still do not like that much) and by the game being labelled for a 6+ public. The (unexpected) fact is that when I finally had the game in my hands, I instantly loved it. When will I understand that, most of the time, I have a six-year-old mentality???

Left: beginner's configuration; right: a track with more obstacles, including a jump.

 

The track consists of 4 double-sided segments which can be arranged in any combination (which gives us 16 different track configurations, all of them 28 squares long) plus a jumping ramp (also two-sided) which can be placed on any space of the track for further variation.

 

 

 

 

 

Once assembled, the board measures 29 x 29 cm, a comfortable size for the 25 mm wooden cyclists. (The box measures 26.5 x 26.5 x 5 cm, in case you wonder).

We also have a somewhat oversized 3 cm wooden die which changes weather conditions for each game turn (not so realistic, if you think about it) and wooden speed tokens which work in the same way as Flamme Rouge's cards do, but without all the shuffling which has always been the major drawback of Flamme Rouge. Here, each player has a cloth bag with the speed tokens inside, from which (most of the time) he draws three random tokens, chooses one and puts the other two back in the bag, before revealing it, simultaneously with other players.

The game mechanics are very similar to the original Flamme Rouge, including the aspiration rule (when the die marks one, see below), the exhaustion rule (represented here by grey speed tokens with value 1 to be added to the player's bags), and of course the simultaneous play.

 

 

Some track terrains have special rules: descents (draw 4 tokens instead of three) and bumpy tracks (tired riders receive two grey tokens instead of one). There are also sharp road segments (only one rider allowed on these spaces, obviously) and chicanes (called "canyons" in the rules). All of them make for a varied race, with a lot of jockeying for position, and where a small advantage in a curve might prove decisive... or maybe not. All in all, though luck is quite important in the game, the race is fast, exciting, and surprisingly realistic, at least for us non-experts in BMX.

 

 

To add to this realism, there is a jump in the race. It is a tile to be placed on any space of the track. Riders landing or moving through it at the exact speed indicated by the white number immediately move forward the number of extra spaces marked in the arrow. The jump tile is reversible. Though there will be only one jumping ramp in the race, it can either be a big jump (4/+2) or a smaller jump (3/+1).