Report: Lille-Bercy Supercross
By TMX Archives on 18th Nov 15
Weston Peick became the 18th American winner of the event formerly known as Supercross Paris Bercy in the second edition of the race to take place in the immaculate surroundings of the Stade Pierre Mauroy in Lille.
The JGR Yamaha rider was an unfancied candidate for the crown coming into the weekend but the 25-year-old's success with a 1-2 scorecard through Saturday night and Sunday afternoon was easily good enough for him to add his name to the list of winners of Europe's biggest SX.
In light of the horrific scenes the previous night in Paris some of the glitz was brushed away from Supercross Paris Lille – but it was impossible to take your eyes away from the track layout.
The dirt was soft and rutted – Christophe Pourcel cited the humidity inside the covered stadium as a possible cause – and the circuit very technical, although it was simplified with the flattening of specific zones and a lowering of the whoops throughout the weekend.
Racing was frantic and the whoops section was the clearest divider between Americans like Peick, Cooper Webb and James and Malcolm Stewart and MXGP riders including Valentin Guillod, Shaun Simpson, Romain Febvre and Dylan Ferrandis.
It was encouraging to see the speed, confidence and competency of riders like Guillod, Simpson and Febvre progress markedly from the first practice sessions and the sheer unpredictability that surrounded the American contingent was a mine of entertainment.
Many expected James Stewart to walk the races in what was his first outing in France in five years.
But on the back of controversy following his double U-turn regarding a race appearance in Australia set for two weeks after Lille, Stewart looked nervy and unsettled.
He crashed in the sole sandy corner while leading the Semi Final and then didn't last a lap in the Main after being hit on the switchback before the whoops by his brother.
The 29-year-old initially tried to retrieve the Yoshimura Suzuki but was hobbling and then had to be carried off the track as the adrenalin ebbed away.
As is a frequent occurrence with the Stewart camp, there was littleand generally muddled information coming out regarding the injury – some claimed a damaged ankle, others a knee.
Malcolm also retired – apparently without brakes after hitting Ferrandis so hard in the second turn that he broke the Frenchman's handlebars – and on Sunday he front flipped out of the Main so spectacularly he could have entered the final round of freestyle.
Saturday night was the highlight. Without the Stewart brothers it was left to the Yamahas of Peick and Webb to go for the chequered flag and it was a tense battle all the way to the line with Webb claiming he misjudged the last lap.
Webb made another wrong call on Sunday and a hefty get-off left his chances of overall victory in tatters.
Husqvarna's Christophe Pourcel rode to a popular win from the first lap but Peick rode smart for the overall.
"Obviously we came over here to win but it was a ‘play it safe' kinda race,” he was able to comment before being pushed into a surprise drug test.
"The track was super-rutted-out and crazy. I didn't go over my head and those others crashed. It was a bummer for them but I stayed up and got the King of Bercy.
"I'm stoked on the performance. It is awesome to be on the list of people who have won it, especially coming here in just my second year.”
After Pourcel and a groggy Webb was Guillod as ‘best of the rest' as the Swiss rider – with a stock Yamaha, a Yamaha Motor Europe contract but no team – suffered several crashes but was largely error-free in the Mains and went 4-4.
Febvre was slowed by the second-corner incident on Sunday that saw a holeshotting Simpson clipped and sent off the jump and into part of the adjacent freestyle ramp.
The Frenchman went on to take seventh overall after weathering periods of arm-pump.
Simpson tweaked an ankle but his Hitachi Construction Machinery Revo KTM was wedged between jump and ramp and his shot of repeating another fight for fourth with Guillod from Saturday – until the Scot crashed and dropped back – evaporated.
