Clement's Gain In Spain
By TMX Archives on 15th May 14
Jeffrey Herlings continued his MX2 winning ways in Spain but Tony Cairoli saw his MXGP points lead slashed in the final GP before Matterley Basin as Clement Desalle shrugged off stomach pains to surge to an unchallenged double win.
None of the GP Brits could match the Euro successes of Steven Clarke and Lewis Gregory but Jake Nicholls ripped to sixth in the second MXGP moto to end the day on a high note.
Onlookers could hardly believe their eyes on Saturday afternoon when Cairoli posted the slowest time in practice bar the local hero, but the champion was not disturbed.
"I played poker and sat in the pits because they had put down so much water,” he explained.
"But when I did go out I broke up my first two attempts after mistakes and on the final lap another rider fell in front of me after I had set two segment best times.”
Just to rub it in, he holeshot from the outside gate to run away with qualification.
But Sunday was a different story.
After a slow start in the opener he advanced just two places in
32 minutes before meeting a brick wall in the form of Evgeny Bobryshev.
"He was weaving all over the track and filling me in,” said Cairoli.
"I had no tear-offs left at the end and never saw Strijbos coming.”
The Italian crossed the line sixth, equalling his worst finish of the season so far.
Race two went better as he charged from fourth to second with a couple of aggressive passes but there was no way he was going to catch Desalle.
The Belgian would have been the last person to wager on his success on Saturday. "I woke up with stomach pains and they lasted all day,” said Desalle.
"I got some medicine in the evening but I still didn't sleep well.
"However the team had worked hard on set-up on Saturday and it paid off on Sunday.”
The MX Panda didn't holeshot either moto but he moved quickly past Xavier Boog in the first and Kevin Strijbos in the second to score two emphatic wins and cut Cairoli's points lead to 24 points.
Jeremy van Horebeek ended the day second overall after two strong rides, for the sixth consecutive podium for the Yamaha lone gun.
Shaun Simpson sat in tenth all through the first moto on the one-line track.
"I rode the rear brake so hot that I had nothing left in the closing laps and had no chance to attack at the end,” he admitted.
A poor start wrecked his chances in race two.
Jake Nicholls had charged hard from 18th to 13th in race one but his hands were covered in blisters by the end, which made his second ride from 11th to sixth – easily his best score to date in MXGP – all the more remarkable.
Matiss Karro had a frustrating day as the Latvian spent most of race one in 12th before dropping two places with arm pump.
Race two was short as he collided with Dennis Ullrich as they disputed seventh and had to quit in a daze.
As usual Jeffrey Herlings reserved his errors for qualification and for once he got a good start – from 16th pick – in the opening GP moto.
The race was a yawn with the only movement throughout the pack – bar a
tit-for-tat battle between Tixier and Febvre for fourth – being a dramatic ride from Valentin Guillod.
The quali winner went down in a collision with Christophe Charlier leaving turn four, charged back into the top 15, binned it again, burst back from outside the top 20 to 13th including one dramatic swoop past five riders at once and had the top 10 in his sights when the Toomer ground to a halt – the radiator hose had been severed in the collision with Charlier!
Max Anstie had run into the back of Guillod but pressed on for a point despite being lapped, while Mel Pocock started and finished 14th.
Race two was a cracker in the dust!
Herlings got his usual appalling start as Jose Butron holeshot and led for 11 exhilarating laps despite non-stop pressure from Tim Gajser and then Romain Febvre. The Frenchman was getting frustrated and eventually jumped off the track which sent the signal to Herlings in third to attack.
The Dutchman quickly disposed of Gajser, ran down Butron in a lap and with a phenomenal series of switches burst past and pulled away for win number two.
Tonus followed him through by leaning on Butron a few laps later but immediately threw it away and a revived Febvre again ran out of track trying to pass the Spaniard.
Butron, having withstood pressure for 34 minutes, dropped his guard in the final half-lap and fell and an amazed Gajser, generally the king of crash, inherited a surprise second.
Anstie languished in the lower points positions all moto and Pocock grabbed 19th from dead last on lap one.
