Column: If the ideal world had existed for Roczen and Herlings
Long before they had even ridden one meter in the Motocross World Championship, there were already sky-high expectations for two children of the gods. Two children of the gods of a quality that had hardly or never been seen in motocross. Their names? Ken Roczen and Jeffrey Herlings! Columnist Matthias Van Eeckhoven now examines how their respective careers compare to the expectations of the past and what it could have been like in an ideal world.
Saying and writing, Ken Roczen is the most discussed and well-known pilot in 2008 in the motocross world. Logically, the German has had a manager since childhood who knows how to draw sufficient attention to his pupil. Unlike others, however, Ken Roczen is not overhyped by his entourage. With his results alone, the young German had (eventually) caught our attention. For example, in the United States he will participate in Loretta Lynn's and the Mini O's, among others, with the support of Suzuki and Red Bull, and he already wins as a thirteen-year-old in 2007 on a Suzuki 250F! After missing the first four grand prix races of the 2009 season due to being too young, the German wins in his fifth participation ever, in front of his home crowd in Teutschenthal!
Meanwhile, someone in the Netherlands is gritting their teeth as they wait for their fifteenth birthday. Because even though both Ken Roczen and Jeffrey Herlings were born in 1994, the German can participate in the World Championship in the MX29 class from his birthday on April 2 and Jeffrey Herlings has to focus on the European 12cc championship until September 250.
German, Dutch, European and World 85cc Champion
The Dutchman has flourished on his 85cc Suzuki in the three previous years, slightly more under the radar, thanks to the support of Laurense Motors Boekel. In 2008 he won the titles in the German, Dutch, European and World 85cc Championship! The Austrian KTM smells an opportunity and brings in the fast Dutchman. The brand will have the teenager skip the 125cc category to see him contest the European Championship on their more powerful KTM SX2009F in 250. The switch from the small 85cc two-stroke machine to the powerful 250cc four-stroke went smoothly, with 8 series victories and 3 overall victories in the European Championship, but also a third place in the Open Dutch MX2 Championship.
The first professional competition for Jeffrey Herlings, which will take place after September 12, is the Motocross of Nations. The Dutch federation can hardly ignore him and takes him along. With a seventh place in the qualifications, he drags the Dutch by their hair to the A-final! On Sunday the matches are a little slower, but no one really thinks about that in the evening. With two fifteen-year-olds who are already showing such a level, our sport is set for a hegemony of years, right? The ten titles of Stefan Everts and the sixteen (10mx & 6 SX) titles of Ricky Carmichael, ... All records will be broken wherever they ride! However?!
2010 is their real full season in the MX2 World Championship for both. They will have to deal with a strong performing Marvin Musquin who manages to extend his world title. However, the Frenchman cannot prevent spring chick Jeffrey Herlings from winning his home race in Valkenswaard at the age of barely fifteen, the third grand prix he will contest. The Dutchman leaves Ken Roczen behind in both heats, how could it be otherwise...
That season, Jeffrey Herlings would win two Grand Prix races, only to suffer a shoulder injury during the Grand Prix of the Czech Republic, leaving a wonderful first season with a slightly sour aftertaste. Suzuki pilot Ken Roczen was struggling at the beginning of the championship, and his chain came off the bike several times while he was in an excellent position for victory. Things turn around in Lommel, on the favorite surface of his great rival, Ken Roczen wins his first Grand Prix of the 2010 season, followed by victories in Brazil and Italy.
Roczen seeks out De Coster's trusted wings!
In the run-up to the 2011 season, a real transfer bomb explodes. Ken Roczen moves from Suzuki to KTM. This is for several reasons, one of which is simply that the Austrians' engine is many times better than the Japanese Suzuki on which it has competed so far. After Suzuki was blindsided to pick up Jeffrey Herlings from Laurense Motors, who had already put “the man” on Suzuki, the brand is now also letting Ken Roczen slip away. The fact that Ken Roczen is getting a better engine at KTM is one reason, the fact that KTM immediately allows him to get a taste of American Supercross under the wings of Roger De Coster is one of those other reasons. The Belgian team manager, who senses that the Japanese from Hamamatsu have no desire or desire to invest in motocross, also opts for an adventure with the Austrian KTM, which has not yet managed to gain a foothold in America. Roger De Coster has become one of Ken Roczen's confidantes during his trips to the USA for Suzuki... KTM will not only bring in Roger De Coster and Ken Roczen during the transfer period, but also Suzuki's main sponsor TEKA, who will tie their fate to Ken Roczen.
Herlings has to share leadership due to Roczen transfer...
The signing of Ken Roczen by KTM is quite difficult for Jeffrey Herlings. The Dutchman had taken on the role of leader entirely for himself in 2011, now that Marvin Musquin had started working in the USA. They just brought in his biggest competitor... Ken Roczen has to get through his first supercross season unscathed, but the man from Mattstedt does that with flying colors. In the 250 West Coast Supercross championship, the German finished with the necessary crashes, as the best 'Rookie' in sixth place with three nice podium places, including one victory in Las Vegas. He also competes twice on the 350cc in the Supercross class. The then almost 17-year-old finished 7th and 8th together in Houston and Daytona respectively. Jeffrey Herlings, in turn, is preparing for the world championships in his home country. For example, I remember a race in Halle where the Dutchman already set the competition, especially Jeremy Van Horebeek, Joel Roelants, Harri Kullas, Jordi Tixier, Petar Petrov, by more than a second in qualifying and also displayed that dominance in the races. .
So it would be an interesting world championship between the two fighters. A duel between the two who hardly dropped any points and it was only opponents who went above and beyond themselves such as Tommy Searle and Gautier Paulin who were occasionally able to take a series victory, but only very occasionally. At the end of the season, Ken Roczen is crowned MX2 world champion with a lead of only 19 points over Jeffrey Herlings. A lead mainly built on the harder courses. Kenny Roczen wins 8 Grand Prix that season and Jeffrey Herlings 5.
The German will then leave for America, to attack all American records after his world title in the MX2 class, right? And Jeffrey Herlings, freed from his tormentor, his German counterpart, his “Greg Albertyn”, was ready to smash all the records here. Something with which the Dutchman started perfectly by winning the MX2012 world title in both 2013 and 2! After these two titles, everyone expected that the Dutchman would advance to the MXGP class on the pink cloud of winning and humiliating the opposition. But things turned out differently, officially because Jeffrey Herlings wanted to match the three 125cc MX2 world titles of Gaston Rahier and Harry Everts. Common sense tells us that KTM may have had some fear of too many roosters in one yard and therefore wanted to keep Antonio Cairoli and Jeffrey Herlings separated for as long as possible. Whatever it was, it created special situations. In 2015, Romain Febvre became world champion in the MXGP class straight from the MX2 class. And in 2016 we saw Jeffrey Herlings claim his third world title in the MX2 class, while Tim Gajser (the European 80cc champion of 2009, Jeffrey Herlings' debut year in the MXON) crowned himself world champion in the MXGP class.
From the side into the ditch, injury after injury!
How is it possible that one of the best motocross riders of his time, perhaps even of this century, was wasting his time in the MX2 class? That third title, which actually seemed like a futility, turned into quite a delay. What do you mean, why, ... Naturally, injuries alternated a little too quickly and sometimes the wrong decision was made? If you ever see the X-ray of Jeffrey Herlings' femur with which he contested the match in Mexico, you know what bad decisions are. At the same time, it shows the risks these boys take, from the age of fifteen and younger, it shows how deep the desire to win was and very likely still is!
Whether Ken Roczen still has the will to win is a question that only he can answer. Rumors have been circulating for some time about a possible return to the MXGP world championship in combination with the new supercross world championship. Does that come from it? Possibly if someone in the paddock is willing to pay enough money, because both gentlemen, and rightly so, have their sheep on dry land for the rest of their lives. Why right? Because nothing they have achieved is a gift from god or the universe that provides talent. Both spent hours on their motorcycles, first with the father on the side with his instructions and then with better mentors... No one came to do their rehabilitation in their place. The injuries prevented the records we hoped for. However, they gave us more. Literally their bodies. After every heavy crash: From both arms of Ken Roczen to the back injury that made him feel nothing for a while and the injury to the thigh and both ankles and feet of Jeffrey Herlings.
Only the two greatest promises of their generation, the two better ones of their generation, can tell the full story. Because taking into account that top sports careers last between 10 and 15 years, we can perhaps look back on their impressive track record.
Did our sky-high expectations sometimes lead to the wrong decisions?
But first it is time to look in the mirror and admit that the sporting expectations we had of the then fifteen-year-old boys, who were simply pursuing their hobby, were extremely high. They were going to kill record after record, and America wouldn't know what happened to them after Hurricane Roczen. We expected the same from Herlings, with Ken Roczen out of the way he could only dominate and eat everyone. They may have broken few records, but their honors list has few gaps. Both can call themselves former MX2 world champions, Herlings 3x and Roczen 1x. Both managed to win with their country in the prestigious Motocross of Nations, for Roczen with Germany in Lommel 2012 and for Jeffrey Herlings with the Netherlands in Assen 2019. In addition to his victory in the MXoN in 2012, the German has one AMA record 250 West Coast Supercross title and two AMA 450 outdoor titles. For dessert, Ken Roczen also finished second in a championship 7 times.
Jeffrey Herlings, in addition to his MXoN victory and the three MX2 world titles, has also won two MXGP world titles. In addition, this “menneke” is close on the heels of the record for most Grand Prix victories in a career 101, which now stands in the name of Stefan Everts. With 99 grand prix victories already under his belt, that is a record close to being perfected and then written into the motocross history books with a thick marker in italics after his career!
What were their own expectations actually in 2009?
Text: Matthias Van Eeckhoven – Photos: Red Bull Content Pool & Red Bull Media
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