MXGP 2022

MXGP riders split on return to two-day format for 2022

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Herlings, Prado and Gajser share their thoughts on return to two-day format.

Words: Adam Wheeler

The 2022 MXGP World Championship calendar should be released before the end of October and one of the defining features of the schedule will be the return to a two-day grand prix schedule with practice and a qualification heat on Saturday.

MXGP has run a one-day timetable since the beginning of the pandemic and since the sport had to adjust to multiple-events at the same venues during the summer of 2020.

The reversion to the traditional structure has split opinion. The motives for bringing back the free practice and qualification races for MXGP and MX2 are to give more track time, thereby more visibility and more value to organizers who will have a stronger case for two-day ticket sales, even if the championship has so far run a full European and support classes program on Saturdays. Some riders prefer the intensity of the single day routine for the obvious benefits.

“We should just stay to one-day – less travelling, less risk, cheaper for the industry,” commented MXGP series leader Jeffrey Herlings. “I don’t see the point in going back to two-days. I think you can also have a longer career with a one-day event.”

“I think the same,” added Red Bull KTM teammate Jorge Prado. “I think we already ride enough on one-day. We race already so much, so to put another day and more track time makes no sense.”

In contrast, current world champion Tim Gajser sees a wider picture, one that will also include more sessions for set-up (an asset that the KTM riders might need in 2022 with brand new 450 and 250 SX-F models to develop).

“I cannot wait to go back to two days because a world championship should be two days,” the Slovenian reckoned. “If we look to MotoGP or F1 they are racing [on-track] already on Friday. I think it’s good for the sport and to have more track time would be good.”

The topic prompted an interesting interchange between title rivals Herlings and Gajser in the Spanish GP post-race press conference last weekend. The two did concur that the exertions of a qualification heat and a victory should lead to greater reward when it comes to positions in the start gate.

“If you go to Arco [di Trento] and take pole position then it’s for nothing… You can take a good start from 20th position,” stated Herlings. “If you want to do that [a qualifying heat] then do it like F1 or MotoGP where it gives an advantage, otherwise it’s 20 more races, 20 times more risk and possibly more injuries. I don’t see the point of it – but I’m just a rider.”

Gajser agreed, but stopped short of saying a motocross gate should be staggered as in other motorsports: “Everywhere they [the top qualifiers] have an advantage, but if we go this way then it’s not motocross.”

“Then it should be like Lacapelle (the Grand Prix of France) circuit with a slanted start and tight left inside first corner where being on the inside gives an advantage,” Herlings replied. “If you do two days at a GP, then at least get an advantage from it.”

MXGP is also rumoured to be targeting 20 events in 2022 and a return to overseas grands prix, as well as a February-September plan ending with the 75th Motocross of Nations (MXoN) at RedBud in the United States.

AMA Adds 8 to HOF

The American Motorcycle Association has announced eight new members added to its Hall of Fame for 2021.

Although the inductees are drawn from a wide background, there is one common theme among almost all the new members: They mostly have ties to racing. The only new Hall of Famer without a racing background is the late Nancy Davidson, wife of H-D’s longtime insider Willie G. Davidson. She was inducted into the AMA’s hall for her lifetime of promotion of motorcycling and support for the riding community.

Otherwise, the other seven new members all came from some sort of racing background, even if they weren’t racers themselves. For instance: country music singer Loretta Lynn is an inductee in 2021 because of her long support for motocross racing through the annual AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship held at her ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. While Lynn herself certainly has no #1 plate-winning history, her property has become one of the most important scenes in American dirt bike racing.

Ryan Villopoto also enters the AMA’s Hall of Fame for 2021, as perhaps the most famous racer in this year’s group. One of the winningest racers of all time in AMA Supercross and Motocross championships in both 250 and 450 classes, Villopoto thanked his family upon his induction, saying his success all started with his grandfather’s help.

Scott Plessinger, a top offroad racer from the ’80s and ’90s with GNCC and Hare Scrambles titles, was also inducted. Tommy Hays, an AMA flat track hero who died in an on-track accident in 1941, got the nod to the Hall. So did Gary Denton, on the strength of his eight consecutive AMA ATV Grand National Championship championships after switching from moto racing in the 1970s to ATV racing in the 1980s.

The AMA also remembered the people behind the race teams. Tuner/builder Kenny Tolbert was voted into the Hall for his work in prepping racebikes for Chris Carr and Jared Mees (themselves Hall of Famers), bikes that won scores of races and several 600 cc championships. According to the AMA, Tolbert’s bikes won 12 AMA Grand National Championships and 121 Grand National races.

Finally, longtime American Honda insider Dave Arnold also enters the Hall. Arnold worked for Big Red from the 1970s through 2013, and helped develop race programs in AMA Motocross and Supercross. The AMA says his work “contributed to 60 titles on Honda factory and factory-supported teams over the years, transcended race operations to production-level research and development, resulting in advancements in production motorcycles that impacted motorcyclists all over the world.”

Carl Cranke...Loved to Ride!

The Purist

By Scott Rousseau

Former Six Days hero Carl Cranke says he can’t recall ever riding an AMA National Enduro.

“When I started out, I started riding short track,” Cranke said. “I liked to go fast. Enduros, having to keep time, just didn’t do it for me, whereas in Six Days you could just ride your pace and always be on time or early. You never had to look at the clock. I wasn’t a timekeeper. Truthfully, I never even had a wristwatch!”

Cranke started riding amateur flat track in Northern California when he was 16 years old.

“My first race was at a little place called Three Star Raceway near Sacramento, and I loved it,” Cranke said. “I loved short track. I lived in Orangevale, and Dan Haaby lived there. Some of the top Northern California guys were like Bugs [Dick Mann] and Mert [Lawwill]. That was my time. I rode short track and scrambles, and then when I turned 18, I started riding Class C stuff.”

If Cranke had stayed with flat track, then his might be another name made legendary in Bruce Brown’s iconic film, On Any Sunday. Instead, Cranke chose a different path, ultimately one that was more single tracked of purpose.

During the 1970s, Carl Cranke collected seven ISDE gold medals.

“I was high-point novice short tracker in the nation in 1968, but what happened was that in 1969 I had to make a decision, because to move up we had to switch from [two-stroke] 250cc to 500cc [four-stroke] bikes,” Cranke says. “I was doing all my own engines at the time, and I couldn’t afford that and didn’t have the interest in pursuing it. So, I bought a little 73cc Hercules and started riding desert races, and anything and everything.”

That included motocross, which was developing into a big sport in America in 1972.

“I rode CZs mostly,” Cranke said. “I raced against Brad Lackey. Brad had a brother named Randy, who was fast, and there was another guy, Bob Grossi. Northern California was very competitive.”

An opportunity to ride a two-day trial then changed his life forever.

“Penton had moved its distributorship from Oregon down to Sacramento,” Cranke said. “They talked me into going up to one of these two-day qualifiers up in Trask [Oregon], so I went up there and rode it like a motocross. My score said that I won, but nobody could believe that I won, so they adjusted my score so that I ended up second [laughs]. I was okay with that—I was just a hippie, and everyone else was real serious about it. But I just loved it. I mean, here you were out in the woods, and I was from California and had always done a lot of trail riding anyway. It just kind of grabbed me.”

Cranke soon found himself absorbing all the information he could about the International Six Days Trial (later renamed the International Six Days Enduro).

”I’d read all the magazines,” Cranke says. “What I really liked was the little bikes, the little 50cc 8- and 10-speed bikes. I thought, ‘God, I’d just love to do that someday.’

“So, after I got back, the guy that was running Penton West, John Penton, and told him, ‘I told you this guy was good,’ but John Penton believed that anyone from the West Coast had only ever ridden in the desert. So, he said, ‘If he’s so good, then send him back here to Ohio for the last qualifier.”’

Once Cranke got there, Penton didn’t hesitate stacking the deck against him just a little bit.

“Penton gave me and [Dick] Burleson and some guy named [Bob] Grodzinski 175cc Puchs, and they were just pieces of shit,” Cranke remembers. “Penton was playing with the Puchs because he was thinking about importing them. Of course, he had two Penton teams there, with all the boys. So, I took my die grinder back there and reworked [ported] Burleson’s and my Puchs so that at least they would run with a good 125. The event was just a mud bath, and I ended up being second overall to Carl Berggren on a 250cc Husky, and only the two of us got gold medals. And the Puch team won the team trophy, which just humiliated everyone.”

Penton had seen enough, and Cranke says that the next thing he knew, he was offered the chance to ride a Penton on the trophy team for the ISDT in Czechoslovakia in 1972.

“I rode in the 125cc class,” Cranke recalled, “and that’s how it started.”

Cranke went on to earn a gold medal at every ISDT from ’72 through ’76, an incredible string that was broken when the ISDT returned to Czecho in 1977, where he earned a silver medal. All of these were earned aboard Penton motorcycles, the brand to which Cranke is closely linked.

“Then in ’78 I didn’t finish,” Cranke remembered. “I was riding a Yamaha, and I punched a hole in the primary case on the first day. That was the only time I didn’t finish.”

Cranke returned to form in ’79, however, landing a gold in the 500cc class aboard an SWM in West Germany. Ultimately, he earned seven golds and two silvers in 10 attempts.

“Then I was just done,” Cranke says. “I’d had a long and wonderful career.”

Now [2005] living in Washington, Cranke manages a tooling manufacturing plant. He still rides often with his two teenage sons, and he says he still does it for the same reason that he always did—and gold medals have nothing to do with it.

“My whole thing was that I love riding motorcycles,” Cranke said. “If you ask Dick Mann what he really liked about racing, he would tell you that he loves to ride motorcycles. Malcolm Smith loves to ride motorcycles. For me, I never cared if anybody ever recognized me or talked to me as long I got to ride motorcycles. That’s what I did.” CN

Carle Cranke was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2000. He passed away in 2020 at the age of 71.

Gajser looking to challenge for the win in Spain

The Intu Xanadu track in Arroyomolinos, near Madrid Spain is hosting the 13^thround of what is one of the most highly contested MXGP championships in recent years. Three riders are separated by just 10 points, with Team HRC’s Tim Gajser determined to come out on top in what should be an intense battle during these final six rounds.

The MXGP series visited the track at Arroyomolinos for the first time in 2020 with Gajser’s three-two results helping him open up a gap at the top of the championship standings from which he never looked back, eventually taking his third MXGP crown by over 100 points. On that day, solid starts were a key component to his success and he’ll be looking to get out of the gate well in these two motos after some disappointing races in France last week.

Still, with the points battle so close, the Honda CRF450RW rider knows that a replica of the German round just two weekends ago, where he took the overall with a three-one performance will see him regain the momentum and head into the Trentino triple-header – a track he really favours – with renewed belief that he can win his fifth world title in just seven years.

As always, this year, the MXGP class will take place purely on Sunday 17^thOctober, with a joined free and timed practice to determine gate pick, followed by the two motos in the afternoon.

Tim Gajser: I’m definitely looking to put last weekend behind me and I head to Spain in a positive frame of mind. That is the good thing about all these races in a short space of time, there is no time to dwell on the results, you just have to keep working, training hard and move onto the next round.
Last year was the first time we went there and I thought it was a decent venue for a race. I hope they learnt from that event and tweak a few things but overall, it is a good place and hopefully I can perform well and get back to challenging for the win.

Marcus Freitas: Last weekend was tough but I’m confident that Tim can bounce back and regain the red-plate. Obviously, we rode here last year so we have a bit of a base to go off, which is already an improvement over the French track, but Tim knows that he needs to get out of the gate well in order to fight for the win and that’ll be the focus for this race. We don’t really need to add any pressure to him, because he knows what he needs to do, our job is just to support him and give him the best possible platform to go out there and get the victory.

Are Euros Better?

What does Jett think?

There is no doubt in my mind that Jett Lawrence has the potential to be the biggest star in our sport, even bigger than Jeffrey Herlings, who seems to be the most polarized rider in the World and for good reason.

While Herlings is for me, the best motocross rider I have ever seen, including Stefan Everts, Ricky Carmichael, James Stewart or Antonio Cairoli, his career has been littered by injury and even in 2021 he has dodged a bullet a handful of times (often not his own error).

But less about the Dutchman and more about Lawrence, who just oozes confidence and has a character that is very likeable. Already an AMA 250 Motocross champion it is easy to see this teenager score a handful of AMA championships and I wouldn’t even be surprised if he one day returned to Europe to try and catch himself a World title.

Just like watching Herlings, watching Lawrence is a lot of fun, because you are never sure what type of line he might take or what he might do to surprise us.

Now we hear all the time (from American media) how supercross is the reason that the GP riders are better than the AMA guys at the moment, and I always found that to be disrespectful to the GP riders and organizers, because in my opinion and that of many others, MXGP rules because of the gnarly circuits, the diversity of the circuits and the ridiculous competition between a handful of legends in the class, plus an age rule that pushes the best MX2 riders into MXGP. Not to mention a much higher quality of young riders coming through the EMX championships. Nothing to do with supercross, and just a fact the whole structure of MXGP is so damn good at the moment.

Cooksey and The Coach 38 a very good podcast show on YouTube caught up with the Aussie and asked him some pretty cool questions about the difference between USA and Europe when it comes to tracks.

Below are some comments from Lawrence from the Cooksey and Coach show and once again, Lawrence sets the record straight as to why GP riders rule the World now.

Jett Lawrence: There are some amazing tracks in Europe. You have so many tracks in France and Belgium, you have several tracks within 30 minutes of each other and to me they smoke the American tracks. In America everything is prepped nice, they are all man made and big jumps and in Europe, they are more natural track. I find it is better for learning and learning a flow. A lot of tracks I rode on a 85. I really liked Lommel. There are a lot of sucky days in the winter, but also some fun days.

100% the tracks in Europe make you a better rider. I don’t want to diss the American amateurs and I am sure there are some great riders, but I am sure most of the European amateurs would beat the American amateurs. They are riding rougher and gnarlier tracks and training 20-minute motos and the American amateurs are riding four lap sprints to try and qualifier for Loretta Lynn’s. It isn’t their fault, that is just the program. I don’t think it is a good program and I am glad I only had to do one amateur year in America, because if I had to do more I would have flown back to Europe. I even think a local bandit who rides Lommel has a higher skill than the American or Australian amateur riders. They are riding tougher tracks and they learn fast.

The lines in Europe are way better formed than at the AMA Pro races. At the GPs they open their lines, like car racing lines and at the Nationals they suck, because they go from one turn, and they put it on a string and go straight to the next turn. Also, the motocross tracks are like a supercross track, that has crossed over to Outdoors.

Weymouth Beach Motocross...Wild and Crazy

THOUSANDS of bike enthusiasts flocked to Weymouth this weekend for the return of the much-anticipated Beach Motocross competition

See more at www.dorsetecho.co.uk

Eli Chasing More Titles

Eli Tomac takes first Yamaha ride; eyes more Supercross and Motocross titles

By Dan Beaver

 

MonsterEnergy.com

Eli Tomac climbed onto his new Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha this week and took his first ride as he sets his sight on the 2022 Supercross and Motocross seasons The Supercross seasons kicks off Saturday in just three months, January 8 at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, Calif.

After finishing third or better in points in both Supercross and Motocross every year since 2017 on a Kawasaki, the change could not have been easy to make, especially since he was still winning championships. His last SX title came in 2020. One year earlier, he was victorious in MX.

But then he saw what Dylan Ferrandis accomplished in the 2021 and the decision to join him as a teammate was not so hard.

“The new change definitely makes it easier to get up in the morning and to get to work,” Tomac said at MonsterEnergy.com. “It’s something that I’ve been looking forward to. I think they can give me, as a racer, a really competitive package in both supercross and motocross. Dylan Ferrandis had really good success in motocross this year, so I look at that and it gives me confidence for what we have coming in the future.”

Motocross and supercross are both grueling disciplines. It is not a matter of if a rider is going to land hard and break some bones, but rather when and how often. It’s that adrenaline that gets them back on the seat after crashing.

But after seven seasons, the perspective changes slightly.

“You get older and you kind of process things differently,” Tomac said. “When I am on the starting line it’s kind of more of a calm feeling now. You’re ready to go and you’re chasing the checkered flag, but it’s a different calm and I just think that’s age.

“As the years go by, you kind of figure out what works for you and what doesn’t work for you, so I think that is part of the calming too. I don’t know if there is a direct line that you can refer to in our sport, but yeah, I’m getting a little bit older and I feel like I can totally be competitive until I’m 30 in this sport. I turn 28 in November.”

Are there more Supercross and Motocross championships on a Yamaha in his future? Tomac certainly believes there is.

“(Winning the championship) is absolutely doable,” Tomac said. “I wouldn’t have signed a new contract if I didn’t think I could do it and we can do it as a team. That’s the only thing we’re shooting for and that’s winning.

Hart Wins Reno Endurocross

Trystan Hart has taken his first and KTM’s win of 2021 AMA EnduroCross series on a gnarly track in Reno with a perfect 1-1-1 scorecard ahead of championship leader Colton Haaker.

Another exciting night of EnduroCross racing began with the top 14 pro riders running hot-laps to open the evening programme and earn their gate picks for race one.

Points leader and reigning champion Haaker set the fastest time of 56.129 ahead of Cooper Abbott second with a 57.789 lap. Will Riordan rounded out the top three narrowly behind on his RPM KTM with a 58.101 lap time.

Max Gerston was fourth ahead of Tim Apolle with Hart back in seventh after dropping his bike, it just enough to get onto the front row of eight riders.

Three motos, one winner

Haaker, Hart and Gerston blasted to the front to start the first moto and Abbott had to fight his way up to fourth after a mediocre start. Haaker ended up going down and that allowed Hart to pass him and then Haaker had a second fall that allowed Hart to open a safe gap.

Haaker held onto second place in the moto while Abbott made a late-race pass on Gerston for third. Gerston finished fourth and Cory Graffunder was fifth.

Second moto gate picks are reverse order and Utah’s Nick Thompson took advantage to lead the first lap with Spencer Wilton and Ty Cullins chasing. Hart was the first of the top riders to work through the pack and was up to third by the end of the first lap.

Hart took the lead on the second lap though while Haaker took another lap to work his way into second.

By that time Hart held a safe gap and went on to take his second moto win of the night. Abbott, who crashed on the first lap worked his way through the field to take another third place. Gerston finished fourth again and Cullins finished a strong fifth.

Show-stopper third moto

The third and final moto proved to be a real show-stopper with the fastest three riders battling for the win and fast pace all race.

Hart, Haaker and Will Riordan exited the first turn in the top three. Abbott was fourth and quickly around Riordan to join the battle for the moto win. Those top three riders were close for several laps before Abbott made a move past Haaker for second and applied heavy pressure on Hart for P1.

Haaker closed back in but got stuck at the bottom of the Rocky Mountain ATV/MC rock garden and lost touch with the top two. Abbott was the fastest rider on the track and pressured Hart for a few laps before a mistake in the firewood pit allowed Hart to get away for this third moto win of the night. Riordan finished fourth in the moto and Gerston rounded out the top five.

 

Hart’s perfect night, the first of his career, delivered a timely overall for himself and the KTM team who must be missing the EX race wins since Cody Webb departed. Haaker’s 2-2-3 was good enough for second and Abbott’s 3-3-2 rounded out the overall podium. Gerston’s 4-4-5 earned the GasGas rider fourth overall. Graffunder had a quiet night for fifth overall on his SRT Yamaha with 5-6-6 finishes.

Riordan was sixth overall with 8-8-4 moto finishes on his KTM and for the third race in a row was the top finishing rider in the under-21, Junior standings.

Cullins finished seventh overall on his TM with 10-5-7 scores. Ryder LeBlond was eighth overall on his Husqvarna with 14-7-9 finishes. Ninth overall went to Thompson with 11-10-10 finishes on a KTM and Anthony Johnson rounded out the top ten on a Sherco with 7-13-11 results.

2021 Reno AMA EnduroCross Rnd 3 results:

1. Trystan Hart, 1-1-1, KTM
2. Colton Haaker, 2-2-3, Husqvarna
3. Cooper Abbott, 3-3-2, KTM
4. Max Gerston, 4-4-5, GasGas
5. Cory Graffunder, 5-6-6, Yamaha
6. Will Riordan, 8-8-4, KTM
7. Ty Cullins, 10-5-7, TM
8. Ryder LeBlond, 14-7-9, Husqvarna
9. Nick Thompson, 11-10-10, KTM
10. Anthony Johnson, 7-13-11, Sherco
11. Noah Kepple, 9-9-14, Husqvarna
12. Spenser Wilton, 14-12-8, GasGas
13. Brandon Petrie, 12-11-13, KTM
14. Cody Miller, 13-14-12, KTM

Say what? Top 3 riders explain their nights…

Trystan Hart was happy to get his first win of the season. “I don’t take losing very well and my team manager was putting some pressure on me to get it done. This track was technical and suited my style and I just rode really good. I had a lot of pressure on me from Colton and Cooper in that last moto but I was steady and it feels so good to win all three motos.”

Colton Haaker said it just didn’t go his way in Reno. “I just had a few too many mistakes tonight. That’s just EnduroCross because I had the speed but sometimes the track bites you. It is hard to be one hundred percent perfect at EnduroCross and I tried my best. I am happy with that and I will be back for the next one.”

Cooper Abbott had another strong night for third overall. “The first two motos were pretty tough and I had to work hard to get up to third in both of those. In the final moto I got up to Colton and Trystan and we were pushing the pace. That was the first time I have ever passed Colton straight up so that felt great and I am happy with third but want more.”

Craig Thompson took his second win in a row in the Vet 35+ class, dominating a large field on his Husqvarna ahead of Michael Taylor and Dan Hayakawa in third.

Riley Bender won the Junior Trials class – limited to riders that are 12 to 17-years old – riding an Electric Motion bike. Dylan Lozano finished second and Ruffin Dodson was third.

The 2021 GEICO AMA EnduroCross series move onto Prescott Valley, Arizona for round four on Saturday, October 23.

Written by Jon Pearson
jon.pearson@enduro21.com

Herlings Wins French GP

Herlings and Vialle on their French GP wins plus Cairoli and Prado

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The Grand Prix of France and round twelve of eighteen in the 2021 FIM Motocross World Championship saw Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Jeffrey Herlings and Tom Vialle own the MXGP and MX2 classes together for the fourth time this season.

– Herlings regains red plate with 95th career win, fifth of 2021 and tenth podium finish

– Vialle sends home crowd into rapture with fifth MX2 success and fourth from the last five GPs

– 2nd place for Mattia Guadagnini as the Italian rookie returns to the MX2 podium

– 5th overall for Tony Cairoli and 14th for Jorge Prado as Hofer classifies 6th in MX2

 

LaCapelle-Marival, scene of the popular and traditional pre-season International race, welcomed Grand Prix action for the first time this century. The MXGP and the MX2 classes had to acclimatize to a narrow, twist and bumpy hard-packed course that placed extra emphasis on race starts for podium contention. A vibrant atmosphere was created by a 25,000 crowd (weekend figure), most of whom could get near the action and the close trackside fences.

 

MXGP

 

Jeffrey Herlings’ eighth Pole Position of the season was also his fourth in a row and after clocking the fastest time in Turkey, Sardinia and Germany previously. The Dutchman roared clear to lead seven laps of 19 in the first moto before Romain Febvre’s superior pace dropped him to 2nd. By the end of the race Herlings was on the charge again and reduced a seven second deficit to just seven tenths of a second by the finish line. Tony Cairoli, amazingly competing at LaCapelle for the first time in his 18-year career, rode to 5th place ahead of Tim Gajser. Jorge Prado, racing one-week after surgery to fix a cut on his upper arm, managed to collect 5 points for 16th.

 

Cairoli blazed to the holeshot in the second moto but the Sicilian is still struggling with his left rib injury and had no answer to the speed of Herlings, Febvre and Gajser. 4th by the flag meant 5th overall. Herlings led, diced with Febvre and then produced a tense but thrilling move with only minutes remaining to claim the win both on the track and with the overall points for the day. Prado was able to improve his pace to finish 12th for 14th in the final ranking.

 

The 2021 MXGP title dispute is still tremendously close. Herlings has the red plate for the second time but by only 6 points over Febvre, with Gajser 10 away in 3rd. Prado is 4th and 62 adrift while Cairoli is still in the game in 5th and 73 from the top.

 

Jeffrey Herlings:“A pretty good day. I already knew this morning that Romain would be good here and I had to step-up my game. The set-up I had for the first moto was pretty hard and there were a lot of off-cambers I was struggling with some arm-pump. Romain made a pass and I had to let him go. At the end of the moto I tried to close him back but I was just a bit too late. He won fair-and-square. I had another good start in the second moto and tried to pull away but it was tough. I entered a turn too hard and just washed out a front wheel; luckily I didn’t lose too much time and again managed to close it back down to Romain. We had a bit of bar-banging with the pass but I knew on this track you had to make a statement. I won the moto and the overall and now I’m looking forward to next weekend.”

 

Tony Cairoli: “It seemed better today compared to last week in Germany but I’m still struggling a lot. It’s four weeks now since I’ve been able to ride during the week. I didn’t do much before Sardinia because I knew it would be a heavy GP but then I crashed and haven’t trained since. I cannot do much cardio either because the ribs hurt. It’s hard to keep my condition like it was before. Today I was 5th in the first moto and could push until the end but in the second I started to suffer. It was good to get the holeshot in the second and be 3rd. I was riding a bit conservative but Gajser was chasing me a lot and I started to get cramps in my side and back. I was hard to hang-on anymore. It was a shame to be 4th because another few laps would have given me the podium. I have to accept that things are not easy for me at the moment in this condition and with the training. I can only hope that this week I can do a bit more than I could recently and regain some more speed with the bike.”

 

Jorge Prado: “Coming here this weekend I didn’t know if I could even ride the bike but I had the mentality to try. I’m in the fight for the championship and to get some points is something. After these two motos the cut looks OK and it’s not worse. It was a rough day because I didn’t feel there was much strength in the arm. I didn’t get a good lap in Timed Practice, so I didn’t get a good gate and then actually touched the gate for both starts with my front wheel! I did what I could, and I began to feel better in the second moto. We got some valuable points and now we’ll get ready for the home GP because I want to bounce back as soon as possible.”

 

French MXGP