Kegums rewarded commitment, confidence, and flow. The slip was nevertheless surprising and his face of thunder on the podium (not before he’d sportingly congratulated Gajser on a 2-2) was quite a picture. Herlings is still nursing a fractured left shoulder blade that is not yet fully healed and his fatigue was noticeable. Herlings had claimed the first race in style ahead of world champion Tim Gajser but played a safe game in the second behind Prado and in heavy rainfall. Febvre was fourth overall, Cairoli was fifth but Herlings’ last lap mistake in the second moto, while holding second behind Jorge Prado, cost the Dutchman overall victory and dumped him to third on the box. The likes of Monster Energy’s Romain Febvre-the winner in deeper, softer and kinder (!) sand in Belgium last Sunday-and Tony Cairoli were victims and, perhaps most demonstrating of all, Jeffrey Herlings. It means the bikes are constantly jacking-out sideways, and unexpected slick and flat areas sent riders to the floor. The fast layout and the fine sand barely hide hard and unforgiving edges under the top layer. Which one of those riders would race? It’s not known yet, but with France having so many solid riders available, The Netherlands will have a job on their hands to grab the Chamberlain Cup two years in a row. I couldn’t be happier.”įrance has so much talent that could fill out an MXoN lineup-grouping Romain Febvre, Dylan Ferrandis, Marvin Musquin, Mathys Boisrame, and former world champion and RedBud team-winning member Jordi Tixier together gives France an envious batch. “The track was so sketchy in some places with the hard edges, but I was quick to find my rhythm today. “I could make good passes and keep the pace up,” he said in near faultless English. He finally attached starts to consistency and a ruthless approach. He still would face a massive uphill climb to repeat as MX2 World Champion.įor now, it’s Renaux time to shine. He is KTM’s likely best hope in MX2, although reigning world champion Tom Vialle (yet another Frenchman) drilled his way to fourth overall despite two iffy starts and a lack of race fitness due to that fractured right hand. When it comes to the Austrian crew, Guadagnini again showed he deserves the mantle of ‘the next Cairoli’ (and ensures that Team Italy will have a tidy squad for Mantova in September with the #222 and perhaps Alessandro Lupino-eighth in Kegums-making the trio). KTM has ruled MX2 with its 250 SX-Fs for a long time now, but Hans Corvers’ Kemea Yamaha MX2 set-up is firing on full burners. Geerts has gained strength, however, as the affliction has slowly healed and four trophies from the last five Grands Prix means he has surged up the rankings and is now third, just 36 away from the burgeoning form of Renaux. Geerts, the Belgian, entered the season with a knee injury, and bagging only 33 points from the first four motos of the year would indicate that the 2020 runner-up would be struggling for billing as a title contender. Yamaha’s riches extend to another debutant (and another Frenchman) Thibault Benistant, the reigning EMX250 European Champion, who was fifth overall in his first GP turn at Kegums but the other podium spot was filled by the third rider on the team, Jago Geerts. In both motos the 21-year-old was untouchable and the 1-1 was not only the first clean sweep of his career and the second overall of the season on the works YZ250F but the full haul of 50 points helped deepen the shade of the red plate on the front of the bike with a margin of 34 over the Italian rookie in the standings. Renaux hunted and scalped Red Bull KTM Mattia Guadagnini on a day of rain and shine at Kegums and a brutal track that punished errors and sapped energy. France could be crowning their fifth different world champion in the last 11 years in MXGP and the performance of Monster Energy Yamaha’s Maxime Renaux at the seventh round of the season was the most emphatic statement yet from this former Junior 125cc World Champion. Team France have an abundance of feisty and fast talent and options to choose from, and their 250 athletes alone could fill the roster. If there is one team at the Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations that will not have an issue with rider selection then it is the country that ruled the competition between 2014-2018.
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