Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

MOTOCROSS (Above) The Belgian team Stefan Everts (left ), Joel Smets (r igh t) and Marn leq aervoets (not pictured) • celebrates its win at the 1997 Motocross des Nations held in Nlsmes , Belg ium. The same team wo n t he '95 des Nati ons In Slovakia, (Left) When John Dowd pulled out 01 the secon d moto with ignition problems, Team USA' s eighthplace finish was beco mi ng a reality. After a motor swap, Dowd finished 11th In the third moto . By Davey Coombs . ,.... ..... Q) .!:l o ..... u o 10 ISMES, BELGI UM, SErf. 14 earn USA s u ffe re d it s wo rs t defeat in the modem Mot ocro ss des Nations era w hen the trio of jeff Emig, john Dowd and Steve Lamso n slipped, br oke and faded to a disastrous eighth in the 1997 EI. M. Motocross des Nations in Nisrnes, Belgium, in front of more than 30,000 fans . This after 14 win s and two runner-up finishes in the last 16 ye ars. The host na tion , Belgi um , won the eve nt wit h 23 total poin ts, followed by Italy (31), Great Britain (34), Swed en (38) and France (40). Team USA totaled 61 points a nd fin ished eigh th, ri gh t betw ee n New Zealand (52) a nd Denmark (80). Th e Belgian tea m was compri sed of 250cc World Ch ampion Stefan Eve r ts , 500cc Wo rld Champion joel Srnets and 250 vice champion Marnicq Bervoe ts. Th e top ind ividu al score rs w er e Grea t Britain's Jam es Dobb in the 125cc class (11-6 overa ll , 3-1 i n class), Bel- gium's joel Smets (3-5 overall, 3-2 in the 500cc division ) and Germany' s Pit Beirer, who ran away with two moto wins in the 250cc g ro u p. Kawa saki's Emig finished 2-12 in two 500ec moto s (tho ug h he was rid ing a 250), Honda's Lamson was a crash-ind uced 15-21 in the 125cc class, and Yam ah a's jo hn Dowd blew an ignition and DNF'd th e first 250cc moto and th en fought for 11th the las t tim e ou t. "Th is is tou gh for m e m entall y because it' s lik e, 'W ha t th e he ll hap- pened ?'" sa id Em ig , who easily won bo th 500cc motos last yea r in Spain and had won his class overall four times in the last five years. "As a team, we just did not have a good day - this mu st be the w orst day in Motocro ss des Nations history for the United States team , and I'm on it! Th e g uys a t home might be thi n k in g , ' H ey, w ha t th e heck ha p pened?' But they just weren't here to see th is place," The Americans w ere-not undertalented nor overconfident. Instead, they were o ve rw hel me d by an a lmos t surreal Nismes track that was extreme ly rocky and overwatered . Under bright, sunny skies that had the track dry and almost dusty on Saturda y, the watering crews indi scriminately dumped countless ga llons of water on the track, turning Sunda y morning's practice session into a muddy mess. But they weren't finished. Whil e the rid er s were back in the pits tryi ng to clean up for the first moto, the Bel g ian wa te r w agon s ac tu ally w ent back out and this time turned the track into a hopeless quagmire. "This is the wo rst mo tocross track .I have ever seen in my life," sai d Emig after pr actice. "I can' t believe they did th at. It we nt from okay to horr ible ." Conspi racy theori es buzzed through the p its - th e Belgia n fede ra tion d id thi s because Smets and Bervoe ts are said to fa vor mud, a nd it must be obvious to eve n th e lowiest Belgian tra ck offici a l that it doesn't rain inside a lot of Am erican stadiums. Regardless of the motives, the race track was ruined. "I am em ba rrassed that they would do this," said Team USA manager Roger DeCoster. "There are four or five very good race tracks within 20 miles of this pl ac e, bu t they put it here because of politics." The Nismes track was litera lly carved from the remains of an old rock quarry, with rocks and actual bric ks littered around th e extremely ha rd-pack cou rse . Seve ra l jumps and a couple of tabletops lined the hilly circuit, and the effect of the wide, off-eambe red comers was eliminated by the man-made quag-" mire; almost everyone drifted low in the corners to the far outside berms where the mu d had piled up into berms. Pa ssing was ext re mely d ifficult on the fas t track, as was evidenced bv the first-mote score sheets: With an average lap time of tw o minutes, 30 seconds, and half the field competing aboard 125s, 29 of 39 riders s till ma naged to finish on the same lap as the race wi nner, Kurt Nicoll. The order of the first five rid ers on the first lap was the same order as on the last lap. The se tu p for the 51st Motocross des Nations was a little different than it has b een in ye a rs past. Ea ch of the 32 nations en tered brought three rid ers to the event in three d ifferent classes : 125, 250 and s OOcc. However, the rider desig nated for the s OOcc class cou ld elect to rid e a 250cc motorcycle. And scoring reflected each rider's finish in the overall field , not just as compared to riders in his class. The five best scores of each team's six would count. After a fairly clear and dry Saturday afternoon practice session, the. watering crews went about the business of turn-

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