Bench Racing Ammo: EuroTrip
Overseas races are in full swing now, and this past weekend there were four big supercrosses in Europe: Stuttgart, Germany; Madrid, Spain; Milan, Italy and the Bercy SX Classic in Paris, France. American riders were very successful at three of the four events, so let’s start with the latter, Bercy.
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Chad’s closest competitor was his best friend, Grant Langston, who got the better of him in the very first race of the weekend when #22 stacked it up in a tight whoops section.
However, Reed is going to have to go back there a few more times and dominate in order to match the best Bercy run ever. That belongs to David Vuillemin, the French SX hero who was absent this time around as he preps his new Makita Suzuki. DV12 had a very impressive run at Bercy for a few years.
“I won the 125 class in ‘96 and ’97,” Vuillemin told us. “Then I then won on the 250 in ‘99, ’00 and ’01, and then I won on a 250F in ‘03. I won also won two main events in ‘06 but DNFed the first night.”
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Winning Bercy is a pretty major accomplishment no matter how you cut it. It even gives you bragging rights of winning something—maybe the one thing—that Ricky Carmichael never did. He only rode it once in ’99 on a 250. DV12 told us, “He raced the first night, don't remember what he got, and he broke his collarbone in practice the second day.”
Moving due east to Stuttgart, Germany, American riders were very dominant there, as well. Florida’s Jason Thomas, who rides for the DNA Energy Drink/BTO Sports/ Rick Case Honda team here in the States, used a 2-1 showing to take the overall win. In fact, it’s “JT Euros” third consecutive win at this particular event. Even more peculiar is that fact that he’s won it every year with a 2-1!
Here’s the overall results from the SX1 class in Germany, which show a lot of U.S.-based riders on working vacations over there:
SX1
1. Jason Thomas (USA, Honda), 27 points
2. Florent Richier (FRA, Kawasaki), 23
3. Rodrig Thain (FRA, Suzuki), 17
4. Joe Oehlhof (USA, Kawasaki), 17
5. Bryan Johnson (USA, Honda), 15
6. Jeff Northrop (USA, KTM), 15
7. Cole Siebler (USA, Honda), 12
8. Daniel Siegl (GER, Suzuki), 11
9. Doug Dehaan (CAN, Honda), 8
10. Vincent Berthome (FRA, KTM), 7
11. Manuel Chittaro (GER, Kawasaki), 5
12. Jacob Saylor (the USA, Kawasaki), 4
13. Stefan Ludwig (GER, Kawasaki), 3
14. Joaquim Rodrigues (POR, KTM), 2
15. Antoine Letellier (FRA, Kawasaki), 1
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1. Mike Brown
2. Manu Rivas
3. Davi Millsaps
4. Nathan Ramsey
5. Tyler Bowers
6. Jonathan Barragán
7. Álvaro Lozano
8. Xavi Hernandez
9. Adrián Garrido
10. Daniel Blair
And finally, all though there weren’t any Americans competing, there was another SX race in Milan, Italy, in which the 2007 MX2 World Champion Antonio Cairoli took the win. Check out the results:
Final
1. Cairoli Antonio (ITA, Yamaha)
2. Degli Esposti Davide (ITA, Suzuki)
3. Izoird Fabien (FRA, Honda)
4. Bill Julien (SUI, Honda)
5. Dami Stefano (ITA, Suzuki)
6. Cinelli Alessandro (ITA, Honda)
7. Maddii Marco (ITA, KTM)
8. Valade Mike (FRA, Honda)
9. Ramette Thomas (FRA, Kawasaki)
10. Ferrari Fabio (ITA, Kawasaki)