So the mystery is finally revealed...
According to tradition, the title holder in the bike category wears the number 1. However, after an initial glance at the list of participants, eagle-eyed readers will have noticed that this year this honour has been granted to Marc Coma, who strangely was 15th in the last edition. After a rapid inquiry, it would appear that this starting hierarchy is the wish of Cyril Despres himself. Usually not particularly superstitious, the three times winner followed a fairly logical line of thinking before asking the organisers for this special dispensation: “In my garage, the bikes from my three victories are parked side by side and they all bear the number 2. I thought it would be nice if I could add a fourth, so I asked for this small favour. Since Marc is the current world champion in the discipline, it was fairly coherent that he inherited the number 1 and fortunately he agreed to it”. It is uncertain whether the Catalan is a believer in numerology, but during his two successes, in 2006 and 2009, he was also riding with the number 2. Indeed, to find a rider who triumphed with the number 1 plate, you have to look back through the archives to 2002 and the victory of Fabrizio Meoni.
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