Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

FIM 250cc WorldMX Cham Frederic Bailey pion Frederic Bolley from number-two on a three-man team to numberone in the world. When I held the lead the championship the of the vear, verv ten was alreadv A start about winningI wasintitle: The se. Iion backatthe~ thinking the tens was much worse than now . I wa s in fact not too disappointed to be in second place in the cham pions hip as long as lied at the end. With half the seaso n gone, I just thought abou t riding eac h GP a t a tim e, not thinking abo u t the cham pions hip . I eve n told myself that winnin g was not the most im portant thin g, just score good points at each GP. Your style this year has been so smooth that many people said you even looked a little like S te an Everts, with your great bike control. What changed.so much in the off-season? I always felt I wa s ge tting bet ter an d bett er. I knew with the experiences of 1998 I wo uld come into this A yea r the best I ever have. Also, the fact that we had the best bik es thi s yea r. The Honda mach ines have been brilli ant, the y make riding look easier. By Geoff Meyer P 28 roportiona tely spea king, for its size , France has produced a healt hy nu mber of big nam es in the world of motocross. You might have heard some of them : Jean- Michel Bayle, Mickael Pichon, Stepha ne Roncad a. Yves Demaria, Mick ae l Maschio, Sebas tie n Tortelli, and now, Frederic Bolley. If you attended this year's U.S. 250cc Gr and Prix series final at Budds Creek, you witnessed Bolley wrap up his first World title and Honda's third in four years . This year's title run was ju st abou t as exciting as it gets, with Bolley jumpin g ou t to an early lead , falling back, and then ha vin g to chas e d own series rival Pit Beire r. The ou tcome wasn' t officially d ecided until the final lap of the final moto of the final rou nd of the 16round serie s. Alt ho ug h Boll ey d id not w in at Budds Creek, he d id win 10 out of 32 mot os throughout the course of th e year on his Radson Honda CR250, a nd remained fairl y con sistent, which was just enou gh to give Fra nce its second 250cc title in two years. Last year, Tortelli edged out Stefan Everts for the title. A few days after the Budds Creek race, we got the chance to sit down with the new ly crowned champ and relive so me of the high and low poin ts of his '99 season. Most of them, how ever, we re high . Wh about when Stefan Everts go t inj the Q startatof th e year. ride rthinatthe team.ssure?ured atwere D id add pre You now the number-one lt d id little. I tried think about too much. A Stefan awas stillth thenotattoman yand also itPrix andme around Grands he helped me a lot wi pressure making feel I was rea dy for the cha m pions hip. Maybe th at' s why I felt a little more nervous at the start of the year also. Once Everts returned I was only getti ng help, from him , and from the fact tha t everyone was payin g attention to his return. Q A That Grand you n Q A littlfir. stI like you Pri x in Spain,tha t? wogotwith 1-1t resu lts Were surpris ed by e. Spanish track and I grea A rstart,tso P th a t thehad a was ast expected.toI geta some taking the win really felt grea cha nce a fte tha G I N erv es had been a ma jo r part of winning th is year's champ ionship, how did you manage t o hold your nerv e? . GOin g into U.S. GP Q 1-2-2-1-1-1-3the do that? yousuhad scored 1-1-3-1-8results. Wh at dden ly gave you so m uch con fiden ce to th at Kester, A Iwthink Iinwone bfirst BelgiumaGndra nd Prixup all th e o th m ot o s ma d e hen s o, y o u are the new 250 cc World Motocro s s Ch am p ion, how does it feel ? Su nd ay was the best day in my life. I am so happy for m yself an d also for eve ryo ne in the team . Coming into the U'S. GP I was ve ry 'nervou s, and when I fina lly crossed the finished line in the second moto, I felt a hu ge burden leave my should ers. Q momen tum up for the following races.

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