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and he pulled a nice line coming out of
the starting gate ahead of Bolley, Beirer,
Vuillemin and Maschio. Hughes held
eighth place, just behind the front
group.
Vuillemin made a move when they
arrived at a sweeping left-hander, with
Beirer slightly in front of Bervoets and
Maschio. It looked likely that the three
would again be in for a long tussle.
Then, suddenly, Beirer clipped an outside berm, spearing him back into the
path of Bervoets and Maschio. All three
fell, and all three got up a long, long
way behind the charging pack.
"Pit came over on me hard," said
Bervoets. "He really made a bad move. 1
got up in last place. It took me three laps
before 1 even came onto the second-lastplaced rider."
Beirer was a little luckier.
"1 rode too aggressive," he said. "For
it to be Marnicq who 1 hit made it all the
worse. I think I was about 20th, so 1 stilJ
had some work to do."
Hughes just missed the crash and
moved into fifth place. The Californian
looked determined to get a podium finish.
"I wanted to keep my momentum
going," Hughes said. "The track was not
wet, but it was very bad. They did nothing to it between motos, so it was not fit
for racing on. 1 didn't want to make a
stupid mistake, but I also did not want
to lose any places."
By lap four, Hughes had moved into
fourth place and was now chasing
Dutch sand specialist Leon Geisbers. It
was a battle that caused both some
trouble.
"Man, he was hard to pass," said
Hughes. "I tried once and he moved
over on me. I backed off and waited for
my moment."
With Vuillemin setting a blistering
pace up front, second-placed Bolley
looked settled in for another consistent
race.
"I just wanted to finish with some
good points," Bolley said. "I didn't
care if 1 win the overall; 1 want to win
the championship, so I just took my
·
time. "
The two Winfield riders, Beirer and
Bervoets, made some serious ground on
the top 10, with Beirer in 14th place on
lap 13 and Bervoets an amazing 11th.
Beirer was all over the place, though.
"I crashed again," Beirer said. "Going
over a jump, 1 got out of control. I collided with Dugmore. My bike landed on
me and by the time 1 got up, 1 was so
sore. My legs, arms - everything was in
pain."
Beirer was not the only one crashing,
. (Above) Pit Beirer (3), Frederic Bolley (5), Hughes (70)
and Brian Jorgensen (57) moments after the gated
dropped In moto two.
(Right) Ryan Hughes went 3-4 for fourth overall.
(Below) Beirer won the first moto but crashed out of
contention in the second.
though. Hughes and Geisbers, who had
almost crashed into each other a lap earlier, made the mistake of banging bars
one too many times. As the two exploded into the air on one of the many jumps
on the Megalopolis track, they collided.
Hughes was up quicker and got going,
only losing a place to the Yamahamounted Alessio Belometti.
"It was just a part of racing," Hughes
said. "He had done the same thing to
me a couple of laps earlier. When 1 got
up, he called me a name. 1 then realized
he could speak English."
Hughes was joking, of course.
Geisbers, howev. er, was not laughing. The Dutchman
felt Hughes had
taken him ou t.
"I think it was
his mistake," Geisbers said. "I was
angry. I told him he
was an arsehole. 1
broke my handlebar
off, so from that
moment on, 1 could
not ride properly."
Now in fourth
place, Hughes was
soon on Belometti,
and without too
much of a fight, the
American moved
into third place.
Vuillemin was
now some five seconds ahead of Bolley, with Hughes,
Belometti and ew
Zealand's Josh Coppins making up the
top five places. Further back, Bervoets
had passed another bunch of riders and
held ninth place, with Beirer 12th. Maschio, though, had made a brilliant
charge, moving up from 27th on the first
lap to sixth by the race's final lap.
"It was a long race," Maschio said. "I
just rode as hard as 1 could. Everyone
wanted to survive; I think that made it a
little easier. 1 like this track. Maybe all
Frenchmen like this track."
The French riders obviously liked the
Greek track, as VuiIlemin went on to
win the moto and the overall ahead of
fellow French rider Bolley and then
Hughes. Maschio's sixth place gave him
third overall. while Hughes ran another
consistent fourth place to go with his
third place overall in round one a week
earlier in Spain.
"Man, 1 )'Vanted third," said Hughes.
"But, hey, if 1 can get good points at
every round, I'll take that. Today 1 had
some bad luck. 1 feel I was faster and
stronger than just about everyone today.
I can do better, though, and I will."
_
Megalopolis Motocross Track
Megalopolis, Greece
Results: March 27, 1999 (Round 2 of 16)
MOTO 1, 1. Pit Beirer ()(aw); 2. Mickael Maschio
(Yam); 3. Mamicq Bervoets (Kaw); 4. Fred.erik Bolley
(Hon); 5. David VuiUemin (Yam); 6. Ryan Hughes
(Hon); 7. Leon Geisbers (Suz); 8. Gordon Crockard
(Hon); 9. Josh Coppins (Suz); 10. Serge Guidetly (KTM);
11. Justin Morris (rM); 12 ~ka Kovalainen (Hon); 13.
Collin Dugmore (Suz); 14. Frederik. ViaUe (KTM): 15.
Peter lven O