Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127268
MOTOCROSSw~~~~~_OO_~_M_X_~_~~~R_oo_~_7~~~~~~~~~_ ~"-..Ii~ ~ England's Kurt Nicoll , w ho is currently fifth in the series point standings, h ad one of his bes t rides of the sea son with two second place finishes. I Geboers 1ยท1 in Italy; Liles injured' By Alex Hodgkinson CINGOLI, ITALY JUNE24 , hat look ed to be a promising year for Am er ican Bill y Lil es, turned to di saster a t th e Itali an 500cc GP a t Cingoli. Liles, th e series poi nts leader go ing into the event, crashed o ver a co ntrove rsia l tabletop jump during practice and broke the femur bone in h is leg , putting him o ut for the rest o f the season. With Li les unable to rac e, it was clear sa il ing for Belgian Eric Geboers, who went I-I for the overall victory at Cingoli, The 27-year-old Belgian now effecti vely leads the Championship by 53 points over England 's Dave Thorpe a nd Holland 's Dirk Geukens, who are eq ua l with 136 points, whi le Kurt Nico ll is one po int further back. Lil es' accident happened 15 minutes befor e the end of free training a nd Belg ian Geo rges J ob e was o ne of the fir" o n th e scene: '" ap proached th e drop-off a nd just o ne flagman was there holding a yellow flag sta tio na ry. ' said J ob e. " You co u ld n' t roll off th e lOp of th e drop, as it was too severe, a nd e-ven though , bra ked hard, , jumped off to see Bill y lying motionI ~" o n the track. , just m issed him ." .J oh ~ was then -i n strurnental in do ubling' back to stop o ther riders a nd the n h ~ ru shed off do wn the adjacent ... 'ad 10 alert th e med ical sta ff. Liles " ';IS brou ght under medi cal su perviv.on to the Ital ian federat ion 's o ntrac k mob ile surgery. Docto rs th ere con firmed that Lil es had no internal it-juri es. but they immed iat ely diagnos ed a bro ken ri ght femur with a s~ri() us separa tio n of the bone, as well as s l i~ h t co nt us io n of the muscles in I h~ hac k. Li les tol d h is m ech a ni c J ohan Lu yten in th e hospital th at he had hi t a hum p j ust befor e th e dro p-off. This had forced h is rear whee l to kick a nd he- was throw n over t he bars wh ils t ~o i ll~ do wnhill. lhe inc ide nt prom pted the ride rs to ta ke matter s in to their own hands and W Belgian Eri c Geboers (3) moved into the series points lead by winning bo th motos in Ital y, while former ser ies leader Billy Liles broke his leg during p ractice. Defending 500cc World Champion David Thorpe was in the hunt for the overall victory, but the hot weather slowed his drive. H e finished third in both m!?tos. I stop practi ce until medi cal care got to Lil es and som e o f th eir dem ands for a ll improvement in sa fety on th e track were mad e. Close friend of Liles' , England's Kurt Nicoll, said , "We all said that the drop-off wa s dangerous before training, but we were not strong eno ugh to join together and get rid of it." J obe co nc urred: " T he drop was so steep that it was impossible to walk up it, but' didn't realize just how steep it was until' went off it o n the first lap of training." The co urse was later changed to mak e th e tabletop jump safer. After even mo re di sputing over so und testing 'a nd ov erly dusty tra ck co nd itio ns, th e ga te finally dropped sig na ling th e co m me nce me nt of the first mot o. KTM 's Kees Van del' Ven snatch ed th e lead o n th e uphill sta rt, but on o ne of the fir st do wn hi ll s, Geboers surged past to remai n the on ly clean rider at th e finish, as the Cingoli club had fin ally made up for th e deficien cy. o f water throu gh out tra ini ng b y ove rwa tering for the race. I The Belgian had a lready sprinted clea r befor e Nico ll a nd Thor pe pa ssed Van der Ven o n lap two, a nd neither Englishme n would threat en his lead. O cca si onall y Ni coll would cl os e slig h tly, bu t th e Belgian had everything under co nt ro l a nd immedi at ely rein stat ed his seven seco nd lead. T horpe was soon in trouble. Having difficulty passin g hi s co m pa trio t, he wa s ge lli ng co n tin uous ly roosted with mud a nd h is go ggl es were go ne long befo re half d istance. A lap lat er, half o f hi s fronr -fender had also di sappea red, while he had no protection for hi s eyes from hi s o wn front wh eel. A sto ne in the left eye left him struggling for vision. J ack y .Ma rtens had been pu shed back a p lace by a ha rd cha rgi ng Paul Malin early o n, as th ey both eased past