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Super motard Des nations 2003
What an event, stunning weather/brolly girls, and awesome
sideways two wheeled action in a glorious setting bathed
in the baking sunshine of the French alps...
In cold statistical terms, France took the victory,
from the Italians, (despite Lazzarini winning both of
his races and being top individual on his Husaberg),
with Germany a strong third.
There’s more to it than just the cold facts though…
The British team had a bit of a mixed day with more
disaster than success.
Warren is (as I type!), currently having an operation
in a hospital in Grenoble on his badly broken leg after
crashing out of his first race at the event...
;-(((
Despite being down to 2 riders and thus incurring two
maximum scores, (Least points wins), the team still
finished a fighting 8th overall thanks to the sterling
efforts of Christian Iddon, and Kurt Nicoll.
Nicoll also suffered a crash in his first race, dropping
it right under the nose of Christian, (who then hit
Kurt's bike and lost places!). The collision demoted
Christian from 4th place on the first laps back to 13th
place. An absolutely awesome ride without a back brake
(broken in the collision), saw Christian fight back
to a superb 7th at the flag, passing and dumping riders
of the calibre of Godfroid and Gaillard!
Meanwhile Nicoll picked himself up in 28th and last
place...One slow lap to reposition his levers and settle
himself back on the bike then he set about chasing the
long gone pack. With absolute determination and tenacity,
lap after lap, Nicoll took huge chunks of time out of
the deficit and began to claw his way back through the
pack. Lazzarini (the leader), was just behind Nicoll
and using intelligent race tactics garnered over 25yrs
of top class racing, Kurt allowed Lazzarini past and
then latched onto his tail. Staying right in the wheel
tracks of the runaway leader, Kurt then cleverly used
the blue flags that were waved for race leader Lazzarini
to storm past groups of riders. On the last lap on the
approach to the chequered flag, he slipped back past
Lazzarini to unlap himself and pick off another rider
on his final lap to get back to a fantastic 16th.(From
dead last and some 20 odd seconds behind the last placed
man!)
The second race saw the incident where Warren Steele
got injured. Bizarrely and ironically, Christian's bike
broke a gear and spat oil over the track as he sat in
6th place. Twelve riders went down in the ensuing melee,
the irony becoming apparent when it emerged that his
British team mate Warren was the rider to suffer most
with a badly broken leg...Bugger...;-(((
An entirely unavoidable and blameless incident, but
nonetheless it meant that Britain were down to a two
man team.
Well they would be if we could get Christian's 450
race ready in the 30 minute delay!
Christian was a little shaken up and concussed and
as he sat and recovered his composure, Dad Paul and
I stripped bits off the broken 650 and threw them onto
the smaller 450 'Berg. Without the wonderful assistance
of Belgian racer Christophe Bertrand and his wife(!)
wielding spanners to get the bike ready, we would have
missed the re-run....Merci beaucoup...;-)))))))
Warren was carted off to hospital, and Christian saddled
up his 450 on which he hadn't done a single lap of the
track!
A brave and concerted effort saw Iddon finish a superb
13th on a bike which had unsuitable gearing and no set-up
time whatsoever.
The final race meant that the British incurred maximum
points for Warren's no-show, but Nicoll's fighting 10th
place meant that the GB team salvaged 8th place overall
from the debris of the race weekend.
The final race was won in dominating style by Belgian
Eddie Seel in a virtuoso demonstration of the art of
rear wheel steering, followed at some distance by Marcel
Goetz of Switzerland and the first of the victorious
French team Boris Chambon. Chambon later said that he
had realised that the Swiss wasn't a points threat and
hence didn't fight back when Goetz retook him for second.
With Blot back in 5th it was enough for the French to
clinch the team victory. Despite not winning a race
all weekend, the home nation managed top 5 finishes
in all 6 of their rides and their consistency was enough
to snatch victory from the fighting Italians.
As much as anything over the weekend, I personally
really enjoyed the wild eyed gibbering enthusiasm of
the Italian mechanics and support crew...Their demonstrative
and very vocal exhortations to their riders was bloody
brilliant. After Lazzarini's individual race victories
the whole Italian troop were delirious with delight,
high fiving mechanics from other nations and anyone
who happened to be in the vicinity…Fantastico!!
In vogue with national stereotypes, the German 3rd
place was achieved with calculated mathematical efficiency
and precision. The team lynchpin was young Bernd Heimer
who was a revelation, with possibly the most stylish
riding style on the track, and astonishing speed for
his 18 yrs.
With the two young guns of Lazzarini and Heimer putting
in superb individual performances, and other youngsters
like Iddon coming up through the ranks, the established
aces must be starting to nervously check their pension
books and the lengths of their factory contracts.....;o)))
All in all a superbly charismatic, atmospheric, and
frenetically exciting event with a wonderful spirit
of camaraderie engendered by the team format. One of
the most enjoyable motard events I've been to despite
the tribulations of our national team.
If all of this doesn't make sense or is garbled, that'll
be 'cos just a few hours ago I was sitting in the mountains
at Alpe D'Huez eating dinner with the Brit' crew and
Bertrand, then driving through the night[1] to Geneva,
flying home early this morning and coming straight to
work....;o)))
If it's Monday morning it must be work right? ;-))))))
[1]Did you know that it's possible to get 184kph out
of a rental Twingo flat out down a mountain?...;o)))
Dave "Time traveler" L.
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