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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128614
World C hampions h ip Roa d R a c e S e r ie s Rou n d 5 : F ren c h G r a nd P r ix When Criville took ov er in se cond he was some 2.3 s e conds b eh ind Ro be rts . Abe follow ed him past Chec a o ne lap la t e r , o n la p e ig ht , while at th e same t ime Rossi had gotte n the better of an inte res ting pu shand-shov e sess ion with the Honda s of teammates Barros and Capirossi, and was cl o sin g o n t h e g rou p a hea d . Ross i e nded up setting th e fa ste st la p of th e ra c e in the process - a ne w record. By lap 10 he was with them , a nd Barros had lost touch , tak ing a littl e lo nge r to get pas t the fad in g Ch ec a . Now t he ra c e sett led, the gap between Robe rts a nd Cr iville re maining a mazi ng ly consta nt fo r the next few lap s . Th e n b y h al f-.d istan c e it sta rte d to s hrink - Roberts 's rear t ire was going off, a nd in his cons idera b le dis comfort he wasn't a ble to us e rid ing te chniqu e to com pens a te . "T h a t wa s one fac tor , " he sa id la ter. "Anothe r was th at we we re a littl e o ff wit h o ur se tti ngs . Wh e n the other guys c aught m e the re wa s noth ing I could do , but try and keep m y own pa ce to the finish ." T hey 'd ca ug ht up qu ite qu ickly once the rot had begun , and Cr iville took the lead at the fast first corner a t the start of lap 19 , with Abe following him th rough a little way furthe r on into Chapelle, the first tight U-turn. It to ok Ross i a no th e r fou r laps be fo re he also powe re d past Rob erts into th e first corne r, and now th e ch ampi on ship le a d e r was dropp ing ba ck quickly. Up front , it was ex c iting . Abe wa s finding the pa c e relative ly e asy , he sa id la te r, and on la p 2 3 he passe d C r iv ill e and set off for what he thou ght m igh t be his second win of the year. He th ou ght so without tak ing into ac count the mental strength of th e d efend ing c ha m pio n , howe ver , a nd not o nly di d Criville stay close , but Rossi a ls o closed up , saying later that he ha d it in mind that he might give Honda their 139th win . Criv ille's crucial move came into La Cha pelle, a nd he he ld off Abe all the way to the fla g , with Rossi push ing hard behind th e Yam ah a . It was a s uperb finish , a nd a win to be prou d of. McCoy was m ak in g t h e p a c e behind, a fter his slow start an d some m id-ra ce troubl e with oi l on h is boot m a k ing it sli p o ff th e b ra k e . He 'd sp ent the first half of t h e ra c e in eighth , es corting teammat e Reg is La c on i. Then the pair of th em came upon Capiros si a t ha lf-d ist ance, and wh ile McCoy got past de c isively and set off to clo s e a gap of jus t ove r a s e c o n d on Checa , th e Frenchman never did get by. McCoy was ahead 20 n MAY 24, 2000' cue I e e vv s (Above) With Roberts out of the picture, the race for the victory came down to a thriller between Alex Criville (1), Norick Abe (6) and Va lentino Rossi (46). (Left) Criville ended up winning the race. It was the defending World Champion's first victory of the 2000 Grand Prix s e a s o n. (Ri ght) Fourth place went to Austral ian Garry McCoy (2 4 ) despite the fact that the Red Bull Yamaha r ider started slowly. Hi s teammate Regis Laconi (55) ended up ninth. of Ch eca three la ps late r, a nd now cl os ed rapidl y o n Barros , taki ng a couple of more lap s to get pa st him by which tim e both had a lso passed Rob erts quite ea sily . At t he end McCo y wa s almost a second clear of Barros a nd only just over three seconds behind Rossi. "If the ra c e had be en a c ouple of la ps longer it might have been a different story," McC oy said . Roberts e n d e d up four second s down on Barros and only two ahead o f Chec a - e n o u g h, however , to extend h is title lead by a po int. Ca pi rossi was close behi nd Checa,