Dutch people have good prospects in all classes
Four classes will start during the MXGP of Arnhem, three counting for the world championship, one for the European championship. For the World Championship, the classes are MX2 (for riders up to 23 years old on lighter motorcycles), MXGP (the top class, in which riders ride on heavier motorcycles) and the WMX, the class for women. The European Championships will be held in the EMX250 class.
Given the results in the competitions held so far, we can expect excellent results from the Dutch participants in advance. In the MXGP, Glenn Coldenhoff and Calvin Vlaanderen have been doing very well in recent weeks. Flanders won a round in the Czech GP, Coldenhoff finished third in the overall standings in both Belgium and Finland. As far as he is concerned, the Wilhelmus can be played for him after the GP. Jeffrey Herlings made his return in Finland six weeks after suffering a broken cervical vertebra and his performance there suggests that he can certainly go for the win in Arnhem. Foreign opposition will come in the form of the Spanish classification leader Jorge Prado, the Frenchman Romain Febvre, the former world champion Tim Gajser from Slovenia, who has recovered from a broken leg, and the Swiss Jeremy Seewer.
In MX2, Kay de Wolf and Roan van de Moosdijk have already been on the podium this year, De Wolf even won the GP of Latvia. Both have recently had to deal with injuries, which has caused them to fall slightly behind in the World Cup standings. Rick Elzinga, the 2 European MX2022 champion, is doing well in his first year in the GPs. Can he achieve his first podium place in Arnhem? The ranking is led by the Italian Andrea Adamo, who performed slightly less well on both the sand tracks in Latvia and Lommel in Belgium than on the hard tracks. There could be a good result for the Belgian spectators, because Jago Geerts, Liam Everts and Lucas Coenen have already reached the highest step of the podium this year. Another candidate for a podium place is the German Simon Längenfelder.
A very interesting class for the Netherlands is the WMX, the class for women. Last year, Nancy van de Ven became the first Dutch world champion. Unfortunately, she is now out of action for a long time due to a serious injury. But there are more Dutch drivers who perform very well. Such as Lynn Valk, who finished second in the World Cup last year and is now in fourth place after four of only six games. For Shana van der Vlist, the Arnhem GP will be more or less a home race, because she comes from Apeldoorn. Due to an ankle injury, she has not yet been able to show how good she is this year; last year she finished the World Cup in fourth place. The highest ranked Dutch player at the moment is Lotte van Drunen, who turned 16 this week. She occupied third place and won two heats. Earlier this year she became undefeated European champion by winning all twelve rounds. The rankings are led by New Zealand's Courtney Duncan, with Spain's Daniela Guillen in second place.
Kay Karssemakers takes second place in the EMX250. He finished in the top six in all the heats held (twelve of them) and therefore performs very regularly. He won a heat once, but was not yet an overall winner. Ivano van Erp is the latter, because he triumphed in the match in Latvia. Van Erp is now sixth in the rankings. One place higher goes to Cas Valk, who, after his European title EMX125 last year, became European champion EMX2T last month in the Czech Republic, a class exclusively for two-strokes.
Setup of a Grand Prix
Each of the four classes starts training on Saturday. The first training is a free training, the second a timed training. For the WMX and the EMX250, the timed training determines the starting grid for both heats, the first of which will be held on Saturday and the second on Sunday. For the MXGP and MX2, time determines the line-up behind the starting gate of the qualifying race. The result of that race determines the starting grid for both heats. New this year is that the MXGP and MX2 qualifying races will also be rewarded with points counting towards the world championship. The first ten receive points, from 10 for the winner to 1 for the tenth.
In both rounds, World Cup and European Championship points can be earned for the first twenty. The winner is awarded 25 points, 22 for second, 20 for third, 18 for fourth, 16 for fifth and then one counting down to twentieth place. In the MXGP and MX2, only the points achieved on Sunday in both heats apply to determine the daily rankings. The first three per class will be honored immediately after the second round.
Posted: Steven van Kempen/KEMCO
Gallery: Fantic
Also to read
List of participants MXGP of Galicia in Lugo
The sixth MXGP of this year will be held in Lugo, Spain this weekend. After the Portuguese mud bath of Agueda, the World Cup toppers will have a different kind of circuit under the…Test: Polisport's unbreakable levers
Brake and clutch levers have sometimes broken off in a crash, but it has never been different. Polisport has thought deeply about this subject and now has an unbreakable lever on the…Jens Walvoort about his Portuguese Grand Prix
In Agueda, Jens Walvoort managed to make a big impression during the fifth Grand Prix of the season. The KTM rider finished sixth in the daily rankings, Walvoort is now sixteenth...EnduroGP: Interview Jamie McCanney
Manxman Jamie McCanney made EnduroGP history last year by winning the E1 in Slovakia as a privateer. The 29-year-old veteran has had a long and illustrious career, but…
Your reactions