Fever pitch...
By TMX Archives on 24th Feb 10
TONI Cairoli and Ken Roczen were the big winners at Valence on Sunday, but the feverish anticipation of the 2010 GP season, now just six-weeks away, increased yet further as three different marques made the podium in MX1, a fourth won a moto, and the top four slots in MX2 were all taken by different coloured bikes!After his stunning victory at Mantova a fortnight earlier Shaun Simpson looked on the way to more honours in France as he chased home Marvin Musquin in a KTM 1-2 in the opening race of the day, but a horrific crash soon after the start of race two put the Scot out for the day but fortunately with nothing more serious than a cut elbow.Report and Pictures: ALEX HODGKINSON
THE MX2 opener had started dramatically as pole-setter Steven Frossard misjudged the awesome power of his Pro Circuit Kawasaki and ploughed into the gate, neighbour and team-mate Jeremy Van Horebeek following suit.
Blissfully unaware of their plight, the lightweight Musquin had streaked up the hill a couple of bike lengths ahead of the opposition, indeed orange bikes filled the first five places in the opening laps.
Simpson, in second, was nibbling away at the world champion's early advantage and they were out of sight of the rest as Roczen, Yamaha's Gautier Paulin and, from dead last, Frossard sliced through the field to fill the next three places.
As the leaders started to hit the tail-enders Simpson was on Musquin, but the lappers, reacting to the blue flags to make way for the champion, were inadvertently crossing the Scot's path and one particularly severe baulking as they came up on battling ladies Steffi Laier and Livia Lancelot cost Simpson his chance.
Race two did not last long for Shaun: I don't know what he was thinking, but Jeff Herlings jumped across the track off the big jump at the top of the hill straight after turn one. He clipped my front wheel and I landed on my shoulder. Fortunately no-one hit me and, apart from a sore shoulder, I only have a cut elbow but it only needed taping, not stitches.”
Up front Musquin had the holeshot again, but Roczen was on him from the word go, hounding the champion until they came on the back-markers.
The lappers went to the right on the step-up and Marvin too. I don't know why, but I went left and was past him. And the champion had nothing to throw back at the 15-year-old.
Having swerved to avoid Simpson, Frossard had again set the fastest laps to close down the front two, but seemed to lose momentum without a clear track and never mounted a serious challenge, though the trio were well clear of Paulin in fourth.
It was Frossard's turn to gate best of the 250Fs in the Superfinal at the end of the day, and, if he could have put enough 450s between himself and Musquin, the overall was still on.
By half distance he only needed three more places, but it was the Kawasaki man who lost a place first, to a hard-charging Pourcel. Indeed his third overall came under threat from Paulin, the strongest MX2 man in the second half, indeed just half-a-second separated them at the flag.
VALENCE INTERNATIONAL MOTOCROSS
Valence, (south of) FRANCE
MX1 OVERALL: 1 Toni Cairoli (I - Red Bull KTM) 66 points, 2 David Philippaerts (I - Monster Rinaldi Yamaha) 56, 3 Steve Ramon (B - Teka Suzuki) 53, 4 Anthony Boissiere (F - Fazza KTM) 42, 5 Sebastien Pourcel (F - KRT Kawasaki) 41, 6 Jonathan Barragan (E - KRT Kawasaki) 37, 7 Clement Desalle (B - Teka Suzuki) 36, 8 Max Nagl (D - Red Bull KTM), 9 Greg Aranda (F - Bud Rockstar Kawasaki) 34, 10 Tanel Leok (EW - LS Honda) 29, 11 Xavier Boog (F - KRT Kawasaki) 29, 12 Jimmy Albertson (US - Martin Honda) 26, 13 Josh Coppins (NZ - Aprilia) 22, 14 Mike Alessi (US - Jagermeister KTM) 20, 15 Marc De Reuver (NL - Beursfoon Suzuki) 16, 16 Davide Guarneri (I - LS Honda) 13, 17 Manuel Priem (B - Aprilia) 11, 18 Christophe Martin (F - Sima Husqvarna) 11, 19 Loic Rombaut (F - Sturm Kawasaki), 20 Mathias Bellino (F - HDI KTM) 6.
MX2 OVERALL: 1 Ken Roczen (D - Teka Suzuki) 56 points, 2 Marvin Musquin (F - Red Bull KTM) 55, 3 Steven Frossard (F - CLS ProCircuit Kawasaki) 50, 4 Gautier Paulin (F - Monster Rinaldi Yamaha) 49, 5 Valentin Teillet (F - HDI KTM) 32, 6 Jeff Herlings (NL - Red Bull KTM) 30, 7 Joel Roelants (B - JM KTM) 29, 8 Jeremy Van Horebeek (B - CLS ProCircuit Kawasaki) 26, 9 Nico Aubin (F - Bud Rockstar Kawasaki) 23, 10 Shaun Simpson (GB - Red Bull KTM) 22, 11 Loic Larrieu (F - Monster Ricci Yamaha) 20, 12 Dennis Verbruggen (B - JM KTM) 18, 13 Axel Alletru (F - JM KTM) 14, 14 Nick Triest (B - Shineray KTM) 13, 15 Jose Butron (E - Beursfoon Suzuki) 11, 16 Arnaud Tonus (CH - Teka Suzuki) 10, 17 David Adam (F - YM KTM) 8, 18 Maxime Desprey (F - 2B Yamaha) 7, 19 Arnaud Aubin (F - Yamaha) 7, 20 Robin Kappel (F - HDI KTM) 6.
MX1 Moto One: 1 Aranda, 2 Barragan, 3 Desalle, 4 Philippaerts, 5 Cairoli, 6 Nagl, 7 Boissiere, 8 Guarneri, 9 Coppins, 10 Leok, 11 De Reuver, 12 Ramon, 13 Albertson, 14 Boog, 15 alessi, 16 Pourcel, 17 Martin, 18 Rombaut, 19 Priem, 20 Bellino.
MX1 Moto Two: 1 Cairoli, 2 Ramon, 3 Pourcel, 4 Philippaerts, 5 Desalle, 6 Barragan, 7 Alessi, 8 Boissiere, 9 Boog, 10 Albertson, 11 Coppins, 12 Priem, 13 Nagl, 14 Martin, 15 Rombaut, 16 Bellino, 17 Shannon Terreblanche (ZA - Sturm Kawasaki), 18 Kevin Strijbos (B - Fazza KTM), 19 Kevin Wouts (B - Sturm Kawasaki), 20 Yentel Martens (B - JM KTM).
MX2 Moto One: 1 Musquin, 2 Simpson, 3 Roczen, 4 Paulin, 5 Frossard, 6 Verbruggen, 7 Teillet, 8 Herlings, 9 N Aubin, 10 Roelants, 11 Tonus, 12 Van Horebeek, 13 Larrieu, 14 A Aubin, 15 Charles Lefranciois (F - NGS Honda), 16 Alletru, 17 Butron, 18 Triest, 19 Kappel, 20 Desprey.
MX2 Moto Two: 1 Roczen, 2 Musquin, 3 Frossard, 4 Paulin, 5 Van Horebeek, 6 Herlings, 7 Roelants, 8 Teillet, 9 Larrieu, 10 N Aubin, 11 Triest, 12 Alletru, 13 Adam, 14 Butron, 15 Desprey, 16 Jordi Tixier (F - JM KTM), 17 Kappel, 18 Jordan Lacan (F - HDI KTM), 19 Dylan Ferrandis (F - Bud Rockstar Kawasaki), 20 Livia Lancelot (F - HDI KTM).
Superfinal: 1 Cairoli, 2 Ramon, 3 Philippaerts, 4 Leok, 5 Pourcel, 6 Boissiere, 7 Frossard*, 8 Paulin*, 9 Nagl, 10 Roczen*, 11 Boog, 12 Aranda, 13 Musquin*, 14 Albertson, 15 De Reuver, 16 Teillet*, 17 Roelants*, 18 Verbruggen*, 19 Herlings*, 20 Van Horebeek*, 21 Barragan, 22 Larrieu*, 23 Alletru*, 24 Alessi, 25 Priem.
(* signifies MX2 rider in Superfinal).
For full report and pictures read T+MX, February 26
Frenchman Steven Frossard (183) avoids the stricken Shaun Simpson in MX2, while Ken Roczen (94) comfortably avoids the melee in the second race at Valance.