Mickael Pichon rains on
Stefan Everts' homecoming parade
STORY AND P HO TOS BY GEOFF MEYER
he ap proximate ly 20 ,000
Belg ian fans that attended
the Grand Pri x of Belg ium
didn't get to see their Belgian
hero Stefan Everts pull off
the Grand Pri x of Belgium victory, but
they did get some satisfaction seeing the
defending champion cap off the day with
a hard-fought win in the second MX I
moto. But in the overall category, it was
French ride r Mickael Pichon who came
away the spoiler after posting a winning
1-2 tally. Pichon did, however, get some
help from an unl ikely source - Everts
himself, who crashed in the opening
moto, which all but placed the victory
onto Pichon's lap.
Everts was in a tense battle with
Pichon in the opening moto when he
stalled his bike on a tricky downhill section and crashed into the fence, injuring
his forearm. He got up in sixth and realized that any chance he had of taking the
overall was pretty much gone.
T
For Pichon, however, the overall victory was now only a moto away.
" I knew all I had to do was stay on the
bike:' Pichon said of his second-mote
runner-up placing. " If I did that, the Grand
Prix was mine . I didn't panic and just rode
my own pace.
" This was really a tough Gra nd Prix,
very demanding, and t he track made it
hard work for sure:' added Pichon, who
proved that he's recovering we ll after his
big crash a few weeks ago in Germany.
" It' s not a very easy year for me, and I
would like to have more weekends like
this one. We work really hard with team
Tiscali Honda, and we were expecnng
more wins, but after my accid
Germany, it took time to get rn
back. Since a couple of ORs, I
ing closer and clo
happy to Will
because it's
GP win
diffi
