Column: Geert Gelaude March 2018.
The season got underway last weekend under favorable conditions in a radiantly sun-drenched Patagonia, Argentina. A long, and already predicted by myself, beautiful Grand Prix season has started. In other words, the head is off, and how! It was time to see which of the top players had made good use of the winter to complete their homework properly. In the races prior to the start of the world championship you could already see some riders bursting with self-confidence. However, this is not always an indication of good results in the first real race of the season.
At KTM they have not been idle during the winter, that much is clear. Harry Everts again next to his pupil Jonass immediately showed during the free training that they will defend the number one on the motorcycle hard. And based on what we know after the weekend, we have to put the reigning world champion high on the ranking again in the rush to a second title. Thomas Kjer Olsen also understands that it will be a long season and it is better to stay focused from the start. Will he be the one to make it difficult for KTM to win the world title? Or are there privateers on the coast? Yes, and more than we think, because drawing conclusions and saying that things will continue like this would be bullshit. Still, you can say that there are guys who have worked very hard and it is paying off. What to think of the American Sanayei on the Kawasaki, shame about the dropout in the opening series, otherwise he would have been on the podium afterwards, that's for sure. The key question for him is whether he can maintain that line? Who can do that, and who we already saw nice flashes of last year, is Hunter Lawrence. The Aussie, who was still under the wings of the Everts family last season, was forced to look for another team during the winter period. He soon had an offer from the American Geico Honda team to compete in the States from the 2019 season. Hunter was keen to compete in Grand Prix competitions for another season and will be competing for the 114 Motorsports Team led by multiple Women's World Champion Livia Lancelot. No stranger to the pits, and if you know that Giacomo Gariboldi is the owner, then that circle is complete and you can say with great certainty that Lawrence will have top engines. But the Belgian KEMEA Yamaha team has also had a good winter and can go home with their heads held high. Ben Watson thanked the team for accommodating him with two fourth-place finishes. My Russian friend Brylyakov was behind the starting gates again after ten months without a race counting for the world championship. Vseva showed beautiful things. If you look at the lap times in race two you will notice that he is doing well because between lap one and lap eighteen, the last, he is no less than two full seconds faster! So we are looking forward to the match in Valkenswaard where he was hit hard in the shoulder last year. For a moment it even looked like Brylyakov would have to stop driving. But those Russians are of an even different caliber than many other guys. Who also showed up very strongly in Neuquén was the Belgian prodigy Jago Geerts, with a twelfth and tenth place in the heats, the son of Kempen was in more than good shape. The Belgian team led by former Grand Prix rider Marnicq Bervoets has all three riders in the top ten after the first race. I think you would be happy for less.
When I turned on my social media on Saturday evening, my stomach immediately started turning from what I saw flashing by. And immediately an old saying came into my mind. “The best helmsmen are on shore”, my god what good analysts we have on the many social media! One of the two Dutch contenders for gold in the world championship was razed to the ground before the real race had even started. The Bullit once again received a lot of criticism, Cairoli would again grab the title with his fingers in his nose this year. His tenth equals the hitherto unbeaten record of Stefan Everts.
Herlings, who did not travel to Argentina in top condition and was suffering from the flu, did not care that he finished “only seventh” in the qualifying race. I will be there on Sunday, he must have thought. And Jeffrey was there and how... I can go into more depth about the race, but this has already been discussed in detail so I'll leave it at that. What I do want to say is that we will see more of this this year. But what gives me so much pleasure is that apparently the showpiece of “the little general”, namely the last five minutes of driving everything and everyone into a pile, has been destroyed by Herlings. Because just when you think Cairoli is coming or going, it was now The Bullit who managed to pull off the feat. A true promotion for our sport, and if this happens several times this year, the writing press will also make a re-entry, believe me, even if this is a day too late and they can stay where they are now on their thick paid football stands.
The best follower was the quiet, affable Belgian Clement Desalle, who had a quiet winter. Let's hope he is spared from injuries and can compete for the title again. But then he will have to tighten the throttle a bit more, I'm afraid. Unremarkable in the opening weekend was the IcOne Racing Husqvarna rider Gautier Paulin, who finished sixth twice, limited the damage to the competition somewhat and probably came from the Yamaha camp with a very strong Jeremy Van Hoorebeek, Romain Febvre and Shaun Simpson who knows that Valkenswaard can give a completely different picture after the race there. Great performance by the newly promoted Julien Lieber at the Factory Kawasaki. The Belgian, slightly injured at the start, is in eighth place in the standings and will make him happy. Glenn Coldenhoff also showed that he will perform better this year. Who also pleasantly surprised me was Bobby, competing for tenth place on an almost standard Suzuki without proper preparation is very nice. Especially when you know that he rides for the BOS Suspension Team, which is taking its first steps in the world championship with two riders who are not tied to a motorcycle brand. Bobryshev, substitute for the suddenly departed Benoit Paturel, will continue the championship on Suzuki, while teammate Jordi Tixier (wrist injury) will ride on KTM. Team owner Olivier Bossard emphasizes that his core business is the most important and makes it clear that he has super good suspension in store for every bike. I think I passed my first test with a ten out of ten. Unfortunately, I have to count Max Anstie among the disappointments, who everyone thought seemed to be on his way to a top five in the first races after his strong performance during The Nations. Kevin Strijbos, Arminas Jasikonis, Tanel Leok and Petar Petrov should also be able to get more out of this, even though there are extenuating circumstances and we have to look forward to Valkenswaard because all of the boys with a lower report are good sand riders...
Dutch second hope for the world title Nancy Van de Ven has now undergone a third, and hopefully final, operation. The Yamaha pilot is in the final stretch to her first of the season in Pietramurata (Trentino), Italy, on April 8. Where she wants to appear at the start at all costs after her serious tibia fracture. It will be a tough nut to crack, but it proves once again how passionately the entire family is committed to our sport. And especially a lot of respect for Nancy herself because she has to do it anyway. The soil in Zeeland is fertile soil and it would not surprise me that Van de Ven, from Vlissingen, participates nicely in two excellent series in Italy at the beginning of April...
Posted: Steven van Kempen/KEMCO
By: Geert Gelaude
Photo: Kawasaki
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