The Paris Supercross will be back in action on Saturday 27th of November; Europe’s largest indoor arena will be ‘the place to be’ for all the fans of Supercross and FMX for a unique event.
Barcelona, Lyon, Dortmund, Genève, Stuttgart – all these major cities have surrendered and for the second year in a row will not organise their annual Supercross this winter. Paris had to cancel the 2020 Supercross, but the organizers have put all their energy into finding solutions this year and, even if the date has been pushed back a couple of weeks by outside forces, the event will finally take place in the afternoon (doors will open at 10.30, and the show will go from 2.30 to 6.10 pm) of Saturday November 27. Paris will be the sole capital to organize a Supercross this winter – the 38th in the history of the event!
An unusual line-up
As travel restrictions still exist and with some managers not prepared to allow their athletes to travel outside the US borders a few weeks before the opening round of their championship, the organizers had to be highly innovative to present as always a strong line-up in Paris. There will be top riders from the USA in Paris – with a Frenchie and an Aussie at their helm! Marvin Musquin and Chad Reed, each based in the USA for many years, will be two of the favourites. Twice winner of the event and the first rider to be crowned King of Paris in the Arena in 2017, Marvin remains one of the greatest rider in the US Supercross series; victorious at Salt Lake City a few months ago and on the podium of the final round the factory Red Bull KTM rider is finally back in Paris. Chad Reed and Paris Supercross have a long and illustrious relationship; the Australian came there for the first time in 2000 and won in 2007. The three-times US Supercross champion now returns as he didn’t want to miss this opportunity to race in Paris one last time. Another iconic figure lining up this year is nine-times MX world champion Antonio Cairoli, while the US charter features Justin Brayton. a former Paris SX winner, Justin Bogle, Alex Martin, Josh Hill and Ryan Sipes racing the SX1 class while Kyle Peters and Joey Crown will be wild card in the SX2 class. Paris will welcome for the first time Canadian Dylan Wright who has recently had a taste of Europe as he raced the last few GPs of the season.
From Grands Prix to Supercross
Grand Prix rider have always show interest in Supercross, but never before have so many top GP riders been involved in the event! Leader of the list is of course Antonio ‘Tony’ Cairoli, who will make one of the last appearances of his career as he officially announced his retirement at the end of the season; Antonio raced in Paris a few years ago, and since this first appearance he has won ninety-four Grand Prix, nine world titles and the Motocross of Nations in September. He retires at the same moment as fellow Italian icon Valentino Rossi and Paris will give him a unique opportunity to race against another legend, Chad Reed! After each battling all season long for a World title Maxime Renaux and Romain Febvre are each coming to Paris for the first time; Maxime is the new MX2 World Champion, while Romain battled until the last moto of the season for the MXGP World title. He was eventually runner-up but no-one doubts that both his and Maxime’s success will be celebrated by the fans. Alessandro Lupino, another member of the Italian team which was victorious in this year’s Motocross of Nations, completes the GP line-up.
Many Frenchies on track
As always there will be many French riders behind the gate, both in the SX1 and SX2 class. In the SX1 category we’ll find the top six riders of the French SX1 championship with French champion Maxime Desprey, Thomas Ramette, Gregory Aranda, Cédric Soubeyras, Adrien Escoffier and Anthony Bourdon. The SX2 class will be the final round of the French SX Tour; Julien Roussaly holds a strong lead in the classification, but once more his main rivals – apart the US Wild Cards – will be Calvin Fonvieille and Brice Maylin; the promising Coenen twins form Belgium will make their first appearance in Supercross alongside Quentin Prugnières. In each class the riders will race two Sprints and one Main event, and the SX1 riders will earn their starting position during the Superpole.
Words: Mediacross
