Relief for Herlings
By TMX Archives on 8th Mar 13
A limping Jeffrey Herlings put the mid-week internet hysteria over his possible injury into context when he arrived in Qatar.
"I must admit that I thought my race was in danger at one point,” he explained. "But now I'm just a little sore. I crashed the day before I flew out here and banged my left upper leg on the bars. It was a pretty hard smack as my kneee brace was completely destroyed, but the worrying thing was that I had very little time for treatment before I was due to fly here to Qatar.
"The doctor checked me out and I had physio before I got on the plane and again since I got here. I was a little stiff for a couple of laps of first training, but it was not a problem after that. If I get beat, then it will be because I'm not fast enough.”
But, low and behold, in MX2 qualification the Dutch teenager had to settle for eighth place!
"I got the holeshot but I looked across in the first turn and ran off the track,” he laughed. "That would have been OK, but as I rode back onto the track I hit somebody else's rear wheel.”
The world champion found it hard work to come back through the pack: "It was pretty much one-line out there and I guess I could have gone five seconds a lap faster on a clear track, but I didn't ride well either. I'm missing racing practice a little after only getting the one race in Italy before we came here.”
