Kev’s the main Man
By Alex Hodgkinson on 1st Feb 13
Kevin Strijbos went through the card for the second time in five years at the Mantova Starcross International Motocross, as half-a-dozen GP front runners went home from the European season-opener nursing wounds.
Evgeny Bobryshev pushed Strijbos hardest and Tanel Leok rounded out the MX1 podium in Italy and came as close as anyone to toppling the Belgian ace, while Glen Coldenhoff was top dog in MX2.
A glorious warm, sunny Saturday – was this really the last weekend of January? – gave way to treacherous conditions on Sunday, as overnight freezing fog left the track decidedly sketchy when the skies finally cleared around mid-day.
Max Nagl had been the man on Saturday as he romped away with the MX1 qualifier, but the German even surprised himself with the holeshot.
"We know what we want to alter to the clutch, but we don't have the parts here at the track,” said Nagl, as he debuted the 2013 factory Honda.
Perhaps the writing was on the wall as Strijbos eliminated Nagl on his way to victory in the dinner-time Airoh ‘One-on-One', and the Suzuki returnee emphatically underlined his form with three straight wins in the afternoon.
The first 20-minute encounter was a straightforward affair as the Maxxis British champion railed the outside of turn one to lead all the way, while Clement Desalle made it a Rockstar Suzuki 1-2 with a vibrant charge up the
leader-board.
The unpredictable ground had caught out Rui Goncalves as he charged towards turn two in Strijbos' wake.
The front wheel of the Ice1 KTM dropped in a hidden hole and there was mayhem.
Gautier Paulin – subdued all day in the tricky conditions – couldn't miss the
Portuguese rider.
Evgeny Bobryshev launched over the stricken KTM – "...and banged my thumb again!” – while Nagl veered into the
haybales and Leok found himself deep in the pack as he slammed on the anchors.
Some unsighted soul put Rui back on the deck and he bravely rejoined the race to carve his way back to 21st place – despite a stinging finger – before team manager Antti Pyrhonen ended his day.
After a quick breather – how else could the Italians fit in three motos between 2pm and dusk? – Strijbos encountered stiff
resistance from Leok before edging clear but there was again chaos in the pack.
Davide Guarneri went down hard on the exit from turn two and lay there for a lap before hobbling away with a twisted ankle.
Desalle was on a mission from the depths of the pack to claim an eventual fourth.
His cause was aided when Nagl, having led team-mate Bobryshev in the fruitless chase of the leaders, got cross-rutted with a lap remaining and slumped to eighth.
As the shadows lengthened for race three, Honda World found a temporary solution for Nagl's race-day gating woes, as he holeshot moto three and both Suzukis were buried in the pack.
But not for long!
Desalle made light work of the factory Kawasakis and Boog's KTM to smash his way past Bobryshev for second and then set his sights on the leader.
Four laps in they were locked together, quite literally, as their different lines exiting the slingshot turn at the top of the track converged.
Nagl was still a bike's length in front as the Suzuki's front wheel clipped his swinging arm and both riders ejected at full bore.
The Belgian escaped with a shaking, while the German, who had managed to scramble to safety under his own steam, spent the night in hospital.
"I ache all over, and my neck is black and blue,” said Nagl, after he was finally cleared with nothing more than a ‘stiff neck'.
However, the race was still on for the rest of the field as Strijbos eased his way past ‘Bobby' with a little more elegance for win number three and the overall.
Bobryshev was second after a points-tie with Leok, who chased the factory Kawasakis in vain.
FOR FULL REPORT AND PICTURES SEE TMX FEBUARY 1
RESULTS
MX1 OVERALL: 1 Kevin Strijbos (B - Rockstar Suzuki) 1-1-1, 2 Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS - Honda World) 11-3-2, 3 Tanel Leok (EW - Route77 MVR-D Honda) 6-2-6, 4 Jeremy Van Horebeek (B - KRT Kawasaki) 4-6-4, 5 Gautier Paulin (F - KRT Kawasaki) 3-7-5, 6 Xavier Boog (F - Ice1 KTM) 12-5-3, 7 Clement Desalle (B - Rockstar Suzuki) 2-4-DNF, 8 Jens Getteman (B - LS Honda) 8-9-8, 9 Kenny Van Dueren (B - Scott KTM) 14-10-7, 10 Max Nagl (D - Honda World) 5-8-DNF,...
OVERALL MX2: 1 Glenn Coldenhoff (NL - Standing Construct KTM) 1-2-1, 2 Jeremy Seewer (CH - Team91 Suzuki) 3-5-2, 3 Romain Febvre (F - JM Nestaan KTM) 4-1-7, 4 Priit Ratsep (EW - Estonian Express KTM) 6-4-4, 5 Stefan Kjaer Olsen (DK - J-Tech Honda) 12-3-3, 6 Karl Olsson (S - J-Tech Honda) 7-6-5, 7 Pascal Rauchenecker (A - Standing Construct KTM) 5-8-8, 8 Robert Justs (LV - Latvia Elksni Honda) 9-9-6,...
MOTO ONE: 1 Strijbos, 2 Desalle, 3 Paulin, 4 Van Horebeek, 5 Nagl, 6 Leok, 7 Davide Guarneri (I - Marchetti KTM), 8 Getteman, 9 Sebastien Pourcel (F - JK Yamaha), 10 Coldenhoff*, 11 Marc De Reuver (NL - Stabilo KTM), 12 Julien Lieber (B - Rockstar Suzuki)*, 13 Bobryshev, 14 Boog, 15 Jason Dougan (GB - Route77 MVR-D Honda), 16 Van Dueren, 17 Seewer*, 18 Febvre*, 19 Rauchenecker*, 20 Ratsep*, 21 Rui Goncalves (P - Ice1 KTM),... 33 (11th in class) James Cottrell (GB - Putoline Honda)*,... 37 (14th in class) Arminas Jasikonis (LT - Route77 MVR-D Honda)*,...
MOTO TWO: 1 Strijbos, 2 Leok, 3 Bobryshev, 4 Desalle, 5 Boog, 6 Van Horebeek, 7 Paulin, 8 Nagl, 9 Febvre*, 10 Getteman, 11 Van Dueren, 12 Jeremy Delince (B - RB Yamaha), 13 Coldenhoff*, 14 Olsen*, 15 De Reuver, 16 Ratsep*, 17 Stefano Dami (I - X-Offroad Yamaha), 18 Crisitan Beggi (I - Motobase Honda), 19 Seewer*, 20 Olsson*,... 28 (10th in class) Cottrell*,...
MOTO THREE: 1 Strijbos, 2 Bobryshewv, 3 Boog, 4 Van Horebeek, 5 Paulin, 6 Leok, 7 Coldenhoff*, 8 Van Dueren, 9 Seewer*, 10 Olsen*, 11 Ratsep*, 12 Getteman, 13 Beggi, 14 Dami, 15 August Justs (LV - Elksni Honda), 16 Olsson*, 17 R Justs*, 18 Delince, 19 Fabio Ferrari (I - Arco Honda), 20 Nikolaj Paschinskij (UKR - Scott KTM),... 31 (14th in class) Jasikonis,...
