Tornasz
Gollob takes
home the
win, but
Jason Crump
tightens his
grip on the
title
STO RY AND PHOTOS BY
JOH N H IPKISS
o 0 '5 ron , rum
his Championship dreams we re shattered th e re last year w he n he got himse lf
e xcluded
in t he semifi nals and
De nmark's Nicki Ped erse n clinched the
title by e ight points ,
"I am in a stronger position than I was
last year, and stronger mentally too,"
Crump said. "I'm just going to go the re
and be cool, and do what I have been
doing at every Grand Prix and give it 100
percent,"
Gollob's victory was his th ird in a row
in the Polish GP and sparked some wild
ce lebrations from a fanatical and adoring
20,OOO-strong crowd, but Bydgoszcz 's
reputation for serving up the best Grand
Prix of the year suffered a night of unexpected erosion, a slicker than normal surface curbing the racing lines and resu lting
0585 n
in a lackluste r event. It was arguably the
dullest GP of 2004 rather than the best.
What deb ate and contentio n the re was
seemed to follow home hero Go llob. He
was lucky not to get himse lf excluded for
riding a wide line tha t forced Bjarne
Pede rse n off in heat 14 - the Dane
thrown out instead - and in the first run ning of the final , the Pole fou nd himself in
the fence when he tangled with Rune
Holta as he tried to cut across from the
outside gate.
Holta had also tested the air barrier in
the first semifina l, w ith Gollob again
involved, and he aggravated a season-long
neck injury that he picked up in an open
meeting at Bydgoszcz in March . The
Norwegian recovered to finish second in
the rerun, behind Gollob, with Le igh
www.cyclenews.com
CYCLE NEWS • SEPTEMBER 29, 2004
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