1 8th Annual Phil ips Bercy SUpercl"OBS
BY GEOFF MEYER
PHOTO S BY STEVE BRUHN
PARIS, FRANCE, OCTOBER 27-29
~ ith two finals per night and
'II .... three days of racing , the most
famous European Supercross has a
lot of 'pote nt ia l for confusion when it
comes to choosing an overall winner,
but there wasn 't much doubt regarding the recipient of this year's King of
Be rc y . Team Yamaha's David
Vuillemin completely domina ted the
event, going 1-1 -1 -1 -1-1 to successfully defend his title . It was the first
time in the history of the event that a
rider had gone through the three
nights undefeated. And the wins came
easily , as not even Mazda/Yamaha 's
J e r e m y McGrath could stop the
F r e n c h m a n ' s Pa risian monopoly.
S uc h utterances border on blasphem y , but the major question coming
o u t of Bercy is whether o r not
McGr ath s ti ll h a s the legs to stop
Vuillemin whe n th e AMAl EA Spo rts
Su per cros s S er ie s ge ts unde rwa y.
Mc G ra th h a d a m e re ly o rdi n ar y
weekend - someth in g to which th e
ult r a -tal ent ed Sup er c r o s s er has
be co m e un acc ustomed. Friday-night
6
NOVEMBER 15, 2000'
cue I
(A b ove) The Bercy Supercross has
l o n g been t he Granddaddy of
European Supercross races an d Is
k n ow n f o r Its spectacu lar rider
introductions and pre-ra ce shows.
(Right) David Vu illemln raced to a
perfect sc o re o f six w ins In six finals
to easily w in th e King of Be rcy title f o r
the se cond ye a r in a raw.
problems with his fork cost him dearIy, yet even with a fresh factory fork
flown in from the USA for Saturday ,
he cont inued to struggle , and the
Californian was u ltim ate ly unable to
score a win on the tight Bercy c irc uit.
It's not the first time McGrath has
had troubles in Paris. Two ye ars ago ,
he failed to qualify for the Fr iday
night finals , and last year a broken
ca rbureto r needle robbed him of the
overall title . In fac t , a decade of try ing has resulted in just tw o King of
Bercy crowns . T h o u g h that 's not
so mething he ca n be ha p py wit h , it
cou ld also se rve as ev idence that
Mc Gra th cou ld pull it all together in
time for the 200 1 season - as he no rma lly does .
McGra th wen t 2 -2 -3-4, the n faile d
to ride th e Sunda y night' s fina ls after
inj uring his thumb in a S aturda y -n igh t
e
n
e
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