Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

G MOTOCROSS Motocross des Nations ~ Mamicq Bervoels (4) was chased by 250cc World Champion Greg A1bertyn (47) and Stefan Everts (5) in the 25OISOOcc mota. Great Britain's Kurt Nicoll scored the ind ividua1 250cc class win with 3-1 mota finishes. 10 Kiedrowski eventually crossed the finish line with four seconds to sp are on N ilsson, who in tum withstood a furi ous attack by Bervoets to earn runneru p honors . Dutchman Edwin Evertsen was fou rth, Bauer fifth. #We w on that battle," Kiedrowski said . "No w we have to win the war." "1 know that Kiedrowski started ve ry poorly, but if we did not have problems with the lapped riders maybe 1 could h a ve kept him behind me," Nilsson said. "He was going very fast. so I am happy just to beat Bervoets for second." The first finish in the 125cc class wa s even closer than that of the big bikes. Dem ari a, the runner-up in the 125cc GP , series, led th roughout the moto on his O xb ow-b a cked Su zuki. but a t th e 20minute mark he threw away a sure win when he twisted his right knee in a corner and quit the race. (Du tch entry Dave Strijbos also dropped out with a seized en gine.) Bartolini, who had bee n 12 seconds back, in herited th e lead and an eight-second cushion on the rapidly rising Emig. With two laps to go Emig trailed by six seconds; halfway through the last lap he was on the ltalian 's rear fender. In ev ery com er Emig tr ied to overtake the Honda pilot. but each time Bartolini held his ground . At one po int Bartolini ra n off th e tr ack d ir ectly in front of the grandstands, raced 20 feet down the sid eline. then re-entered the' track just before a jump, but Emig could not make a pass . (Team USA jury represe n ta t ive D uke Fi nch la te r s h owed Bartoli ni's ou t-o f-bounds tire tracks to the clerk of the course, bu t no penalty was asse ssed). In the end Emig simply ran out of time, finishing less than half a second behi nd the ecsta tic Bartolini. "To beat Jeff Emig is very good!" said Bartolini tho ugh an in terpreter . "He caug ht up to me because I hit a tire at the end and lost five or six seconds. Emig is very. very fast. possibly faster than me. It is difficu lt to say wh o would have won if we had s ta rted togethe r." Bart o lin i, injured earl y in the seaso n, was the winner of the last two 125cc GPs of the year. "Working up through all those SOOs w a s tough ," admitted Emig. "They throw back su ch big roosts; I thou ght a rock broke my co lla rbone on one of those hills. But I jus t d uc ked my head and d id the best I could. I was having fun . It 's lik e yo u rid e until you win. until you reach firs t place. I didn't see the two lap board. the chec kered flag. nothing. I was going to keep rid ing until I won or Bob (Oliv er) waved me off." Bartolini and Emig wer e eighth and n inth. respecti v ely, in the co m bin ed field, 17 se cond s cle a r of third -place 125cc rider Joa kim Karls son of Sweden, who gathered up a strand of ski fence in his rear wheel in the late stages. Dewit barely missed passing Karl sson on the up hill finish . Like Bervoets' 'near-miss on N ilsson , it was one of several shor tcoming s tha t co ul d h a v e o therwise given the championship to Belgium . Goin g in to the second moto, for 250 and 125cc rid ers, Team USA led all 29 countries w ith a sco re of thr ee po int s. Sweden had five points , Belgium seven and Italy eigh t. The second race would feature the mu ch-anticipat ed match-up between Everts a n d McGrath, with Puzar and South Africa ' s two-t ime World Champion Greg Albertyn thrown in for good measure. Puzar em erged from the narrow first tum with the holeshot while Everts. McGrath. Great Britain's Kurt Nicoll, and rising French star Frederi c Bolle y filled in the top five. Albertyn ga ted approximately 10th and soon began making p rogress toward s the front. passing Bolley for fifth after three laps . At the same time, Everts was carrying the Belgian flag to the front, passing Puzar on one of the long uphills in the back. The leaders were starting to pull away from McGrath. who was himself holding off a three-man attack from Nicoll. Albertyn and Bolle y. Then Albertyn made an uncharacteristic mistake of his own and slipped out of the top 10. "I was rid ing like an idiot out there," Albertyn said. "This just isn't my day. I was really sick last nigh t and I did n't get much sleep. Now I'm riding like a n idio t." Emig led the 12Scc charge, with Bartolini. a recovered Demaria and Karlsson lined up behind him. In the back section o f the tra ck, American hopes took a rise when Bartolini go t off on the second lap and fell back to 10th 125. 30th overall. Th at was s till better th an the situation of Dew it , w ho fell right after the start and was fra ntically tr ying to co me th rough fro m a ro und 45th position. Demaria pressed Emig for fou r laps. but his day came to an end when he got cross-rutted in the same comer that had knocked him out of the first moto, and fell o n his b a d k nee. That knocked France out of the team competition and allowed Karlsson in to second. but Emig was already lon g go ne on the lea di ng Ya ma ha . Twenty m inute s la ter he crossed the finish li ne with his fis ts raised in triumph, seventh in the entire field but wi th no other 125 r id ers in sight. Karlsson was the eve ntual runnerup with Strijbos, Bartolin i and Dewit rounding ou t the top five at a distance. "I was pretty re liev ed to wi n th at thin g." Emig sa id. "It was rea lly satisfy- ' ing to beat those guys. I was looki ng for a 1-1 ins tead of a 2-1 but it was still a good d a y for m e. I guess everyo ne comes in here wa nt ing to go 1-1, bu t it's really hard to d o. I've do ne my pa rt; now I ge t to watch Jerem y and Mike." Ever ts. mean while. did his part for th e Bel g ian ca use, b eatin g Pu z ar by about 15 seconds and Nicoll by a furth er 10. McGrath came through fourth. holding off a su rprising charge from Bolley.

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