I made it, I’m here in gay Paree otherwise known as Paris, France. This weekend is the annual Bercy Supercross held at the Omni Palacesports. All of us media (uhhh, that would be only me) and the riders are holed up at the Novatel hotel right next door to the arena. The Bercy Supercross is always a good time and this is my first time here since 2001. That year I was working for Nick Wey and we captured third overall on the weekend. I was making sure that many people knew that today but Nick kept telling me to shut up.
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The arena is covered in grass and is pretty cool looking. This race as been going on since '84 or something like that.
The contingent of American riders is strong but we’re down one soldier as Ezra Lusk didn’t make the expected trip over. Rumors are that he hurt his hand practicing for the race. So without Yogi, it’s still a strong line-up with a guy named James Stewart here, his new teammate Josh “Chicken-Chips” Hill on what looks to be a pretty stock 2010 YZ450, Nick Wey debuting his new Kawasaki ride, Jason Thomas in his second race on the BBMX Suzuki, JGR Yamaha’s Justin Brayton in his debut ride for that team (he’s on a 2009) and H&H’s Matt Boni.
So today the plan was just to arrive and get to the hotel to grab some zzz’s – which I did and felt wonderful upon waking up. I almost had an incident on the plane though with this lady who I wanted to punch.
Look, I know I’m a bigger guy but I still fit in a coach seat just fine; there’s no fat like leaking over the arm-rest or anything like that. So I get into my seat and my shoulder is kind of touching the lady next to me and I can see she’s kind of upset. I was reading the New York Post and halfway through it she tells me that every time I turn the page, I’m hitting her in the shoulder, so I apologize and she says that I have to move over (?!?) to give her more room. I ask her where exactly she would like me to go, keep in mind I’m giving her the armrest as well. So as the plane is taking off, I’m relaxing listening to music and she is literally throwing her shoulder into me like she’s pretending she’s LT and on the ’86 Giants. I just ignore her until she taps me on the shoulder and demands me to move! I ask her where I should go and she points and says, “That way.” I remind her that I’m in a seat, there’s an armrest on my other side and I have nowhere to go. I show her the armrest in between us and remind her that she has room. She goes to get up and asks me to move, I tell her to go the other way and tensions were high at this point. I’m not sure if she wanted me to get a meat cleaver and just start hacking away at my arm so that she should have more room or what.
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Nick Wey lines up the stickers just right. He had to put his hat on backwards for this act.
Long story short, she goes away for a while and life is bliss. She comes back and after sitting down for about ten minutes says “YOU HAVE TO MOVE OVER!” and I’m a pretty nice guy and all but I took my headphones off, looked her in the eyes and said calmly “There’s nowhere for me to go, this is it. Do not bother me again the rest of the flight.” And put my headphones on.
So the crazy lady never bothered me again.
I met up with Jason Thomas and his mechanic Dan Truman at the airport where we then jumped in a van provided by the promoters to get to the hotel. After checking in I went for a little walk and yep, everything seemed to be the same as the last time I was here. I bought a bear-claw the size of Matt Boni’s head from a pastry shop and went back to the room for some shut-eye.
Went to the stadium and basically watched the mechanics prepare the bikes. Watching Nick Wey put on graphics is always a good time as his OCD kicks in and he has to have his look top-notch. One time when I worked for him he got a new painted helmet and put on the top of the TV in the hotel room and got up to turn it every 10 minutes. This is what I dealt with back then… Anyway, his stickers look good and he has about a day and a half on the Kawasaki.
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JT's wrench Truman has help this weekend. The team even brought a whole other bike! Take that everyone else...
The Yamaha pits have Stewie, Hill and Brayton in them and there is a little area for James blocked off. I call it “Motel 7.” There are some funky looking chairs in there that I’m going to have to get a photo of tomorrow. Hill’s bike is a 2010 but looks a little haggard and I hear it was a magazine bike last week. I don’t think there are a ton of these bikes out yet!
Just got done with dinner and then a knock on my door produced Wey who wanted to hang out and talk about all his 2010 options. Sounds like there is still some things to be settled with the two-seven.
Look for more action-packed updates tomorrow where I try to get another bear-claw. Practice begins sometime around 10:00 a.m. EST!
