Hopeful, but flu ruins Nicolas Vennekens' first race
The start of the season for Nicoloas Vennekens was scheduled for Lierop. But that was canceled because Nicolas still had to serve a week of rest. A consequence of the previously suffered concussion during training in France. That week of rest also brought complete recovery. Last Wednesday the motorcycle was trained for the first time in Genk. Very good news until then, because the dizziness had completely disappeared. The Wintercross in Frankenbach, near Heilbronn, was positively anticipated.
Got sick but still persevered
After that good training, something unpleasant happened again. Although something that happens to every person, it does not fit into a training structure. On Thursday, Nicolas started to suffer from muscle pain all over his body. On Friday there was a stuffy nose and coughing fits. Despite the emerging flu, they still traveled to Frankenbach on Saturday. After the Saturday motorcycle inspection came the track walk. Frankenbach is a nice circuit with many short bends, but above all very narrow. Also the start, because there were only 18 fences and a maximum of 36 pilots started. 48 riders were registered in Nicolas' series. It looked like a mini-ADAC Masters, so there really had to be some good cycling in the qualifications.
Despite everything, a good start
The flu hit hard on Sunday and Nicolas felt miserable. Despite this bad feeling, he trained well and in the qualifying of his group he set the ninth fastest time. Meanwhile, the public had arrived en masse. Nicolas was forced to dispel the discomfort with some Dafalgan. His start was decent and he came through the first corner in tenth place. A little later, in the first lap, a rider fell in front of him. Nicolas dropped to 21st place. He was still making progress, but the best seemed to be off. The race was stopped early after another rider fell and Nicolas came in completely empty on 17de place.
Still persevered
After the first race, Nicolas crashed in the bus to recover as much as possible. And that paid off, especially at the beginning of series two. Despite the flu, he resolutely took the holeshot and held the lead for two full laps. A few laps later the decline started and the pace gradually decreased. Completely depleted, he was passed in the last corner and eventually finished tenth. He had really gone to the extreme. Afterwards he could hardly hold his bike anymore. Showed character to go so deep!
Run its course first
We learned that under ideal conditions there would have been much more there. The speed at the beginning of the second series was really good. It looks like last winter's hard training has paid off. It's a shame that the physical discomfort flattens that curve somewhat. Hopefully the worst of the disease is over. There will be no training this week so that Nicolas can start fit on Sunday in the Dutch Masters in Harfsen. Then the season really starts with the first European Championship match in Spain.
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