The FIM World Motocross Championship hit the Netherlands for the first time since March of last year. The final round ran before the series would take a four-month hiatus due to the pandemic. It would be a homecoming for multiple riders at the Oss Circuit. Including the newly announced Dutch Motocross Des Nations team, Jeffrey Herlings, Roan Van De Moosdijk, and Glenn Coldenhoff. Herlings entered the day with ambitions of taking the points lead away from Tim Gajser. While Van De Moosdijk looked to get his first MX2 win on home soil. The class is now wide open as Tom Vialle once again did not race.
Check out the recap of Millville National.
MX2 Class
Moto 1
Holeshot honors would go to German rider Simon Laengenfelder. But Belgian Jago Geerts of Monster Wilvo Yamaha would go to the point in short order. Behind them in the second corner, title contenders Maxime Renaux and Mattai Guadagnini would go down, leading to subpar finishes for both. More so for Guadanini who finishes this Moto in 14th, Renaux meanwhile just snuck into the top ten to end up ninth.
A number of other riders also hit the deck in this moto as well. Including but not limited to Ruben Fernandez, Kay de Wolf, and Thibault Benistant. Geerts would come home to pick up his first Moto win of the year with Jed Beaton second, and Van De Moosdijk third.
Moto 2
Geerts would back up his Moto 1 win with a holeshot, but his early lead did not last too long. As de Wolf would get by the Belgian to take the lead in the early goings. Unfortunately for the young dutchman, this would not last long as he hit the deck to surrender the lead back to Geerts. Van De Moosdijk, who had a shot at the overall, would be forced out of the Moto with an issue. Forcing a finish of second to last and scored zero points in the Moto as a result.
Geerts would cruise to a 1-1 for his first GP win of the season. The Husqvarna teammates of de Wolf and Beaton ended up finishing behind him both in the moto and in the overall standings as well. Renaux now takes over the MX2 points lead with Guadagnini a half dozen points back of him. Fernandez and Mayths Boisrame remain in striking distance as well. As for Geerts, after a brutal opening four motos of the season, he has scratched and clawed his way up to sixth in points. Vialle meanwhile is nearly 100 points out of first, this after scoring a 1-1 at the opener at Matterley Basin.
Top 10 Overall in MX2 Class
No. 93 Jago Geerts 1-1
No. 14 Jed Beaton 2-3
No. 74 Kay de Wolf 5-2
No. 959 Maxime Renaux 9-4
No. 711 Rene Hoffer 4-10
No. 517 Isak Gifting 7-8
No. 73 Ruben Fernandez 10-7
No. 11 Mikkel Haarup 8-9
No. 20 Wilson Todd 6-12
No. 101 Mattia Guadagnini 14-5
MXGP Class
Moto 1
The big news of the day would happen very early on in this moto. Herlings, who had a bad start due to a holeshot device issue, got landed on by Ivo Monticelli right on his shoulder. We would not know until later, but Herlings had suffered a fractured shoulder blade from this incident. On pure instinct, Herlings was able to stay out, and not only that, pick guys off in front of him.
https://youtu.be/EFl3s80ABew
Eventually, he made it up to the leaders, Romain Febvre and Coldenhoff, and made it by both to take home an improbable Moto win. Herlings’ day would end here, however, as he would not line up for Moto 2. Coldenhoff, who holeshoted this Moto, ended up second, Gajser third.
Moto 2
With Herlings out of the picture, the fight for the overall became rather interesting going into Moto 2. Coldenhoff who had the inside track ended up going over the bars on the start and took himself out of contention early. Febvre and Jorge Prado began duking it out at the front. That up until the former came literally feet away from jumping into the spectator’s area on a roller section.
Closing on the 10 minutes to go mark, Gajser had run down Prado and was able to take the lead, but this race was far from over. The 35-year-old Sicilian Superman Antonio Cairoli was about to put on one of the best runs of the entire year, anywhere in the world. with the two laps to go sign set to come out, Cairoli was able to outbattle his young protege Prado to take second. Then he would run down Gajser and get by him with about a half lap remaining to take home the Moto win.
Despite this Gajser would still take home the overall with a 3-2 on the day, and would keep his points lead intact. Cairoli would however come home second overall, with Febvre third. Herlings, despite missing Moto 2 remains second in points, tied with Cairoli and Febvre, 23 back of Gajser.
Top 10 Overall in MXGP Class
No. 243 Tim Gajser 3-2
No. 222 Antonio Cairoli 8-1
No. 3 Romain Febvre 4-4
No. 61 Jorge Prado 6-3
No. 919 Ben Watson 9-6
No. 91 Jeremy Seewer 5-10
No. 189 Brian Bogers 12-5
No. 10 Calvin Vlaanderen 10-7
No. 84 Jeffrey Herlings 1-DNS
No. 7 Arminas Jasikonis 11-8
GPs are at Loket in the Czech Republic next weekend before an off weekend afterward.
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Main Image Credit: Embed from Getty Images
