By Race Chapman

France has produced some of the best Supercross racers of all time, so it's appropriate that Marvin Musquin emerged as the King of Paris in his home country this past weekend.

Having just captured the Monster Energy Cup in Las Vegas, the 27-year-old earned the overall win at the Paris Supercross for the second straight year by dominating both 15-minute plus one-lap main events on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at U Arena.

Saturday Sprint & Finale

Cole Seely, Zach Osborne, RJ Hampshire, and Jeremy Martin were among the American 450 riders to make the trip to Paris, where they battled with fellow Monster Energy Supercross rivals Dean Wilson from Scotland and Musquin, along with a host of Euro racers.

Wilson had a great start to his racing in the first event of the weekend, known as Sprint 1. He got out front early and held off Musquin for the win. Seely finished behind Musquin to round out the podium, with Osborne close behind in fourth.

For the most part, the racers were required to follow the leader, so holeshots were key. Passes could be made in the very wide corner before the dragon's back, in the whoops section, and coming down the long landing of the finish line.

Wilson's holeshot was a one-time affair, however, and in Sprint 2 Musquin lit up the home crowd by taking the holeshot and the win. Seely finished in second this time, with Wilson in third and Osborne again finishing just outside the podium.

During Saturday's Finale — or the main event as it would be called in America — Musquin put on a clinic and won the race with a comfortable four-second lead over Osborne. Osborne put in the fastest lap of the race but not consistently. Wilson was disappointed to finish third ahead of Seely.

For the Paris Supercross format, there were four sprints and two main events during the weekend, and the results from Saturday's and Sunday's results during all six races were combined to crown the overall winner and King of Paris.

At the end of Saturday, Musquin was in the lead with five points, Wilson in second with 10, Osborne in third with 12, and Seely one point out of the top three with 13.

Sunday Sprint & Finale

Musquin was the man to beat for Sunday and started off the first Sprint race with an easy win. However, Seely took the second Sprint putting him within 10 points of Musquin for the weekend total. Considering that Musquin had not finished outside the top two positions all weekend long, it was unlikely he would finish poorly enough in the final main to lose the overall.

Musquin started the Sunday Finale with a holeshot over Seely, who was very close for the first few laps, and appeared to be faster through the long set of whoops. But he didn't have enough of an advantage to make a pass, and eventually settled into a distant second. Wilson was all alone in third, with Osborne coming back from a terrible start to finish an impressive fourth.

But the King of Paris crown would fall upon the head of the French native Musquin. Seely and Wilson shared 22 points in a tie for runner-up, but Seely's better finish in the last Finale gave him the nod for second place. Osborne's poor start in the Sunday Finale likely cost him a podium overall, as he would have tied with Seely and Wilson without his fourth-place finish.

The other Americans in the 450 class, Hampshire and Martin, finished eighth and 14th, respectively. Martin's results were hampered by a crash in practice which precluded him from racing at all on Saturday. He finished fifth in the Finale on Sunday, directly behind all four of the other U.S. Monster Energy Supercross competitors.

Tyler Bowers performed well in the 250 class, as the lone Yankee. He won the Sunday Finale in that class and finished fourth on Saturday for third overall. Frenchman Yannis Irsuti won the title Prince of Paris with his first- and third-place finishes — beating out Bowers' fourth and first, as well as fellow Frenchman Thomas Do's pair of seconds.

Perhaps the biggest surprise over the weekend was the level of parity in the 450 class. Musquin, Seely, and Wilson all won at least one race each, and Osborne showed that he had enough speed on the 450 to battle with the top racers.

While Musquin was pretty much unbeatable when he had the holeshot, Seely was still able to stay right with him, and Musquin wasn't always able to make passes of his own. It is a good taste of the 2018 Supercross season, where the other factory riders will really make things interesting.