Mercy at Bercy? No, not when Chad's about!
By Alex Hodgkinson on 15th Nov 07
CHAD REED is the new King of Bercy. The Australian achieved the honour with a clean sweep of all three days, his only defeat coming in the opening moto on Friday at the hands of fellow Yamaha rider Grant Langston.
The Yamaha pair were always a gear faster than the opposition and,although the world number two ranked supercrosser inevitably held theupper hand in the final reckoning, the '07 AMA outdoor champion fromSouth Africa came desperately close to registering more than just his single win.
The French self-detonated and hardly had a man left standing bySunday evening, but solid place work won the team award for theAmericans even though only two times Bercy King Andrew Short even gotclose to the two wild colonial boys''.
Jeremy McGrath, just one week short of his 36th birthday, performedhonourably on the first two nights as he stepped in to help thepromoters allay the absence of Ricky Carmichael, but even the mostsuccessful SXer of all time could not turn the clock back.
Proving that he is ready to start the clock ticking and sending outa warning shot to the American kids he will race against next year, wasMax Anstie. On his entry to the big-time aboard KTM, the 14-year-oldretained his Prince of Bercy title with a devastating demolition job onthe best France could offer in the 85cc class.
The new Bercy format, in which the twelve contracted riders and fouradditional Frenchies from the SX Tour met twice at the beginning andend of the programme, plus a KO tournament mid-evening, meant that the
public got to see the big names three times each evening for the first time since the early 90s.
BERCY SUPERCROSS Bercy, Paris, France
FRIDAY: 1 Chad Reed (Aus - Yamaha), 2 Grant Langston (SA - Yamaha),3 Benjamin Coisy (F - Honda), 4 Andrew Short (US - Honda), 5 JeremyMcGrath (US - Honda), 6 Cyrille Coulon (F - Yamaha), 7 Marvin Musquin(F - Kawasaki), 8 Josh Grant (US - Honda), 9 Eric Sorby (F - Kawasaki),10 Gautier Paulin (F - Kawasaki), 11 Steven Frossard (F - Kawasaki), 12Justin Brayton (US - KTM), 13 Nicolas Aubin (F - Yamaha), 14 Jeremy VanHorebeek (B - KTM), 15 Jean Sebastien Roy (Cdn - Yamaha), 16 SebastienPourcel (F - Kawasaki).
SATURDAY: 1 Reed, 2 Short, 3 Langston, 4 Brayton, 5 Grant, 6McGrath, 7 Musquin, 8 Coulon, 9 Coisy, 10 Aubin, 11 Paulin, 12 Poucel,13 Sorby, 14 Roy, 15 Loic Rombaut (F - Kawasaki), 16 Van Horebeek.
SUNDAY: 1 Reed, 2 Langston, 3 Short, 4 Grant, 5 Brayton, 6 MikeBrown (US) Honda, 7 Paulin, 8 Coulon, 9 Musquin, 10 Stephane Demartis(F - Honda), 11 Aubin, 12 Cedric Soubeyras (F - Yamaha),13 Sorby, 14Roy, 15 Van Horebeek, 16 Coisy.
KING OF BERCY: 1 Reed, 2 Langston, 3 Short, 4 Grant, 5 Brayton, 6 Coulon, 7 Coisy, 7 Musquin, 9 Paulin, 10 Sorby.
PRINCE OF BERCY: 1 Max Anstie (GB - KTM) 1-1-1, 2 Yohan Lafont (F -Yamaha) 4-2-4, 3 Dylan Ferrandis (F - Yamaha) 3-4-3, 4 Jordi Tixier (F- KTM) 2-3-7, 5 Jason Clermont (F - Honda) 9-5-2.
See T+MX News, Friday, November 16, 2007 for full report and pictures.