Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128630
World C h ampionship R oad R a c e S e ri e s R oun d 1 2 : P o rtu g u e s e Grand P r ix inconsistent. On e lap it would a lmost b low you off the tra c k. The next tim e - n ot hing . You d idn 't know wh at to expect. " Gibernau gr adua lly dr opped ba c k , but was still lying fou rth wh en he had a massive crash on the fastest co rne r of the tra ck . He was lucky to escape unhurt a s his Honda cartwh ee led to destruction. S ignific antly he wa s the onl y front-runn er to choose a 17 -inch re ar t ire. Th e re st were all o n t he stick ier 16.5-inch. Second pla c e we nt to a ste adfast Kenny Rob erts J r. o n the Telefon ica MoviStar Suzuk i, unable to stick with McCoy in th e clo sing minute s , b u t more than willing to mount a n e xtra ordinar il y murd erous attac k o n a lapped rider with one lap to go , a nd then to ho ld off a cha rg ing Va lentino Rossi o n the Nastro Azzurro Honda . Rossi had pi ck ed his wa y thro ugh from a s low sta rt to se t faste st lap of th e ra c e on th e final lap . Rob ert s was voca l a bout his atta ck o n la pped rider Sebasti en Le g re lle , openly ad m itting that he 'd tried to push the V-twin Honda ride r off the track. "He's not a ba c km a rker," Rob erts said. "He 's one of those gu ys just riding in the bu bb le, with no attention to t h e marsha ls, the other rid ers, o r By MIC HA EL S COTT P HOT OS By G OL D & G OO SE ESTORIL, PORTUGAL, SEPT.3 u s t r a l ia ' s la t e s t ra c in g hero Garry McCoy rode the stor m in o rtu g al to b e c o m e o nly t he third pers on th is yea r to win more th a n one 500cc -c1a ss GP. Unlike the Red Bull Yamaha r id e r ' s opening South Afric a n win , however, this one wa s a lm os t start to fin ish , after starting fro m his first -ever pole position . It sure ly marked his coming of a ge. The only other leader of the firstever race at the Es toril circuit outside Lisb o n was Repso l Ho n d a ' s Sete Gibern a u, who shot through from the third row of the grid to le a d the first five of 28 laps . But McCoy's g re atest enemy was th e incessant near galefo rc e win d th at threatened to bl ow him and the ot her riders clea n off the twisting 2.592-mile ci rcu it loo ping up and dow n the ro c k y foot hills over looking the seaside resort to wn . "I only lo o ke d back o n ce d ur ing th e who le ra ce ," said McCoy. "Winn in g that way wa s s o m e t h in g I' v e never ac h ieved before , so I'm pretty p le a s e d , es pecially after my poor resu lts mid -se a so n. But tha t was the wind ies t it's been all weekend , a nd so t£ 6 S EPTEM BER 13 , 200 0 · e y e I e n e _ s wh at ' s g oing on around h im . I was stuc k beh ind him for ha lf a lap . Some of the s e guy s shou ld qu it riding right n ow . Thi s is the se cond tim e I've come up aga inst the same g uy - I had to kick him out of the way in Spa in. Coming onto the straight I tr ied to get him off th e track , but he c a me ba ck a nd we tou ched ." Bea t ing Ross i, albeit nar row ly , ex te nded his points lead to 44 , with four ra c es remaining. Marlboro Yamaha 's Max Biagg i was fourth , close behind Rossi and luck y to escape be ing in volved in G ibernau 's crash , whi ch happened jus t in front of him . Then came Reg is Laconi o n the second Red Bull Yama ha , fe nding off A lex Criville's lat e c ha rg e, as well as Tadayuki Okada o n another Repsol Honda , with Dutch priv ateer Jurgen van den Goorbergh hang ing on gamely to th e ba ck of this gr oup o n his out -powered but we llridden V-twin Rizla Honda . Earlier, the decis ive m ome nt in a processiona l 2 50cc race had co me e a rly on, when e rstwhile leader Toh ru Ukawa c ras hed his S h e ll Advance Honda in the s lowest corner of t he track. Following r id e rs Marco Me landri and O livier J a c qu e got past safe ly, bu t Chesterfield Yamaha 's Sh inya Naka no's view was blocked at th e back of the group , and he ran straigh t in to t h e fall en b ike . He crashed out specta cularl y a nd was stre tchered a way , but was later diag nos ed with nothi ng wo rse tha n bruis es a nd contusions . By the n race winn er Da ijiro Katoh and his Axo Honda were a lready in fr ont , and the rookie ran away t o cl a im his second win of the season , not surprisingl y at on e o f the onl y tracks where nobody has any prior track knowledge. Jacque was a safe but distant sec ond , to e xtend his po ints lead, with Melandri an even more remote th ird , his first podium fin ish s inc e joi n ing the class th is year. At th e finish , Aus tralian Anthony West on the second Shell Adva nce Honda had closed to withi n six seconds of th e Ita lia n , and was fe nding off Apri lia -mou nted Klaus Noehles. Ralf Wald mann was anoth er t o crash out, fa lling ea rly o n a fte r overtaki ng We st to take m uc h of th e sting out of the battle for the le a d . A cras h -st rew n 125c c GP saw ea rly leade r Youichi Ui c huck th e race away inc hes ahead of h is young De rb i t ea m ma te Manue l Po g g ia li on ly for the It a lia n to break dow n