Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Cycle News 2000 05 24

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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World Championship Road Race S erie s Round 5: French Grand Prix B y M ICHA EL S COTT P HOTO S BY G O LD [, G OOSE LE MANS, FRANCE, MAY 14 le x Cr iville is back. The defend ing Wor ld Champ ion 's ret u rn occ urred at t he Fren ch Grand Prix, by le s s th a n half a secon d , a ft e r a t h rillin g race in fro nt of a c a p a c it y crowd of more than 65 ,000 in the first GP he ld at Le Mans s ince 1995. But his first victory - and Honda 's 13 9th - eq uali ng MV Ag usta - ca me as more of a n in te rr u p tio n than an e nd to their agony, as the other factory Re pso l Hondas of Tadayuki Okada a nd Sete Gibernau struggled to 14th and 15th place, respectively. And it owed as much to accidents to top riva ls as to Criville's genuinely heroic effo rts . Ma r lb or o Yam a ha 's Max Bia g g i ha d another d isastro us race after q ua lifying on pole for the second time in s uccession . Ju s t two weeks ago , the Italian crashed on t he warm-up la p. Th is time he laste d until th e A 18 MAY 24 , 2000' "" II "" I e fourth of 28 la ps of the revised and sl o wer Bugatti ci rc ui t at Le Ma ns be fo re cra shing o ut. He was in t he lead at th e time. Ch ampion ship points le a der Kenny Roberts J r. ha d crashed th e Telefoni ca MoviS ta r S uzu ki the day before at the end of pr a ctic e . And while he took ove r the lead from Biaggi , he was too battered and bruised to be able to compensate with riding sty le w hen t he ti re s went off, and he dr opped ba ck to finish s ixth. The other potentia lly troub lesome rider was Marlboro Yamaha's Carlos Checa, but he too ran into problems. After cold and wet pract ice days, Sunday afternoon was warm and sunny - and he made a poor choice of rea r tire for t he changing condition s . He slip ped backwards for mos t of the ra c e to eventua lly finish se venth. This left Cr iville battling with nonfactory riders - Japanese GP winner Norick Abe and his Ante na 3 Yamaha and class novice Valen tino Rossi o n nellVs the Nastro Azzu rro Honda with t he trio c rossing th e line just ove r a sec o nd apa rt. Th e Sp anish rider's firs t win si nce Im o la last y ear was an imp ort ant mil es to n e n on e t h e le s s , after a sea so n wh en th e new 2000 Honda NS R has be en a huge d isap pointment. Cr iville was rid ing a 19 99 machine , but felt he m ig h t have turned the corner nonethe less. He also made an uncharacteristically fierce attack on the Spanish p ress after the post-race co nfe re nce. "Everybody 's been saying I'm finished: he said. "I've s hown to day I'm as strong as ever , an d t h e bike's oka y . I d emand respect, and after what I did last year I deserve it. People have been burying me, but I've s hown I'm still a live." Roberts bla med h is in ab ilit y t o compensate whe n the t ires we nt off for fading to sixth , b ut sa id: "Afte r the way I.felt this mo rn ing , it's better than I could have hoped for." He 'd batt er e d his righ t leg and hip in his cras h a t the e n d of th e final p rac tice sessio n , but Chec a 's ra c e p roblems m e a nt he 'd still managed to ex te nd his le ad in th e title c ha s e . Red Bull Yamah a ' s Garry McCoy had a ls o c ras he d in p ract ic e , but pull ed throu gh after a ca ut ious race s t art t o finish a stro ng fo urth a fter passi ng not only Lo ris Capiross i but also his Emerson Ho nda team mate Alex Ba rros , who followed him to the flag. "I' m a b it disappoi nted, be c au s e m y 16. 5 tire was good a t the finish , and if I'd gone harder at th e s tart I may have done better: McCoy sa id. Shell Advance Ho n d a ' s Tohru Ukawa claimed his first win of the year in a 250cc race of wildly changing fortune s. He had overpowered the Ches terfie ld Ya ma has o f Sh in y a Naka no a nd Olivier J ac q ue a fte r ea rlier losin g a n early le a d a fte r an off track exc u rsion. Ap rilia ' s Marco Melandri was third , a nd works- bike rookie Anthony West ended up fourth - a career-best for each of them. But th e other he ro of the day wa s another

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