SXLille Saturday: Tomac, Tomac, Tomac & Desprey!
For the first time in thirty years, the microphones did not blare 'Bonsoir Paris' at the traditional 'Bercy' supercross, no, the whole event moved to Lille this year. Good for us residents from the Low Countries. Lille or Lille, if you prefer, is still about 200 kilometers or even more before Paris and therefore also closer!
The OSC Lille stadium, which has been divided into two for this occasion, has a beautiful course laid out and was packed with around 25.000 individuals this evening. Everyone went crazy at the presentation of the pilots. When 'Bercy Speaker' Francis Magnanou introduces local hero Milko Potisek, an enormous sound wave rages through the 'Stade Pierre Mauroy' for the first time. Then the ever popular Christophe Pourcel is introduced, the crowd goes crazy... We then get the CLS pilots with Jordi Tixier and Dylan Ferrandis. We keep hearing the audience cheer loudly, but it is noticeable that the hands are clenching louder and more enthusiastically for Dylan Ferrandis, who is shining with his gold 'MXDN' medal around his neck. A world title apparently cannot compete with a victory with the national team, which has certainly been promised for Ernee 2015.
But then back to the order of the day, after the performance of the popular Americans, the fights on the track could begin. In the 250cc class we saw two guys who kept meeting each other: Ben Watson and Maxime Desprey. The Frenchman from BUD Kawasaki managed to win the first series, simply and impressively. The second series, however, was a different story, less simple and yet dominant. In the first round we saw Watson come into contact with Desprey. The latter fell and had to pick himself up. The man did so and in his furious pursuit he soon found himself behind the British talent. The two fought a personal feud, all for second place. After Maxime Desprey had made it clear that he was not to be messed with on French supercross soil, the man on Kawasaki rode smoothly to victory. The podium was completed by Thomas Do & Josse Sallefranque. Ben Watson finished fourth.
The story of the evening among the 450cc boys, however, is a little less animated. We saw one name dominate the entire evening like never before. Eli Tomac! The man turned laps on the course like no other. For example, in the superpole we saw him turn one second faster than first pursuer Justin Brayton. Others such as Josh Hill, Christophe Pourcel and Fabian Izoird followed at a much greater distance.
The matches all gave the same picture. In the first heat we saw Eli Tomac, who quickly opened up a gap on his opposition. That opposition consisted mainly of Malcolm Stewart, Christophe Pourcel fighting for second and third place. It was the latter, Christophe Pourcel, who prevailed and finished second ahead of Malcolm Stewart. A strong Matt Moss took fourth place ahead of Dylan Ferrandis. The second moto started well for Eli Tomac who managed to take the holeshot and immediately checked out. In the commotion behind Eli Tomac, Christophe Pourcel & Dylan Ferrandis both saw their race complicated, both came into contact with the ground in the first round. It was immediately clear that these two were no longer going to compete for the podium places. Who did compete for a podium place was Justin Brayton. He rode a smart race, kept out of trouble and scored a good second place. Third place went to Justin Barcia who clearly has not yet found the same flow on his Yamaha than what he had on his old trusty Honda. Malcolm Stewart finished fourth, keeping his chances in the final standings pretty good.
In addition to these two regular competitions, we also saw a fun elimination competition. But very briefly written about. Eli Tomac showed that he is clearly the fastest here on Saturday in Lille. He won all three sprint races. He won the last and most important one ahead of Malcolm Stewart, Weston Peick and the French Jordi Tixier and Christophe Pourcel.
Text: Matthias Van Eeckhoven – Photos: CDS
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