Van Horebeek cautious for 2015 title chances
The 2014 MXGP Vice-World Champion Jeremy Van Horebeek has the potential to become the successor to Steve Ramon who won the world title in 2007 for Belgium. The Yamaha Factory Racing Yamalube rider is fully aware of the dangers that can happen to the riders during the longest Grand Prix season ever. The calendar features no fewer than eighteen races and thirty-six heats and 'JVH' knows all too well from the '14 campaign that mistakes are easily made. His impressive run on the YZ450FM also came to an end due to an ankle injury in 2014.
“I said to the team… we have only one goal, the world championship” if we had to finish top three that would also be great, but disappointing,” he said during the official Yamaha team presentation. “That's just how racing is. If you look at Stefan Everst, one year he was champion and the next he hurt his knee and just came back. You never know what will happen in motocross.”
The 25-year-old puts some pressure on his shoulders to live up to these great expectations, a status he has acquired through his twelve podiums in seventeen matches last season. The highlight was undoubtedly his first victory in the MXGP during the Grand Prix of the Czech Republic in Loket, where he put world champion Antonio Cairoli under pressure and allowed him to make a mistake. It was a great experience that he can use in the coming months.
“I know if you can stay on Tony's wheel he will make mistakes,” he says. “It is a point where you can beat him and I think we have already proven this. If you can put pressure on him, he will start to make mistakes. That's the key: stay with him and then you can beat him. I was already on the podium a lot for Loket and was therefore able to take a step forward by finally taking the victory, which was already 2009 ago. I was really happy with this. Maybe I won't win that many GPs and I'll remain Mr Consistent, but I'm happy with that too. Still, I would really like to compete for the title this year.”
Van Horebeek and the Italian factory team believe that '89' will become one of the leading riders in this year's premier class. “There are certainly a lot of good riders and I think there are seven or eight riders who can win a GP,” he claims. “It will be a long and tough championship. If I can do the same as last year, will I have failed? I do not believe it. You also have to have a bit of luck in this sport. You can have the same speed as the others and only finish fifth because you couldn't find the place to pass. Did you drive poorly because you only finished fifth? Again, I don't think so. Every year you have some injuries and that is the downside of our sport. You make a stupid crash and end up injuring yourself, this happens every season and that's why you can't predict them."
It has been almost a year since JVH took his first podium in MXGP at the 2014 Thai Grand Prix. The FIM World Championship will no longer go to Si Racha but to a new location west of Bangkok in Nakhonchaisri. Van Horebeek naturally hopes to achieve his first podium place a week earlier during the opening Grand Prix in Losail on February 28.
Text: Adam Wheeler / OTOR
Photo: Yamaha
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