You know those memes where they show a duck on top of the water looking all calm and composed but underneath he’s paddling like crazy to stay up? Le canard would be an apt metaphor for the 2021 Paris Supercross, which took place on the Saturday night after Thanksgiving. This race, the crown jewel of overseas supercross races since 1984, didn’t happen in 2020 due to the global pandemic, and almost didn’t happen this time either.

“Safe to say for Paris, the whole project was a plan A to plan B to plan C type of thing,” says Eric Peronnard, one of the key organizers behind the iconic French race. “We went through the entire alphabet by the time we were at the final version.” To emphasize just how difficult it was, Peronnard switches to a more uncomfortable metaphor: “Seriously, this race was the hardest baby ever for us to deliver. Overweight, sideways, headfirst. This thing was super painful. Fortunately, the result made us feel good because we felt like it turned out to be really good.”