Motocross season in full swing
By Sean Lawless on 3rd Feb 16
Hot on the heels of this weekends Hawkstone International, the season gets into full swing on the continent with the Valence International in southern France on February 13/14.
There's a pretty stellar line-up with MXGP world champion Romain Febvre and two-time MX2 world champ Jeffrey Herlings signed up to race along with a long list of GP regulars including top Brits Shaun Simpson and Max Anstie.
"I race the first two rounds of the Italian series and then I will do Valence to end my training before Qatar,” said Romain.
"The team let us choose our races and I wanted to be back in Valence.
"I raced there in 2013 with team Martens, we had nice weather and it will be pleasure to race again there and to meet the French fans.
"It's a nice race with many top riders and I just hope that the weather will be sunny like in 2013.”
Winner of the last four Valence Internationals, Clement Desalle will also be in action along with former world champ Ben Townley who won there 10 years ago.
BT is joined by his team-mate Kevin Strijbos, the 24MX Honda team of Ken De Dycker and Matiss Karro and a long list of French riders including Xavier Boog, Nico Aubin, Greg Aranda, Miko Potisek and Valentin Teillet. Lewis Gregory (GL12 Yamaha) will be mixing it with the four-strokes on his super-quick stroker.
The MX2 field is stacked with factory teams. Red Bull KTM fields Herlings, Pauls Jonass and Davy Pootjes, Rockstar Husqvarna has entered Anstie, Thomas Covington and Conrad Mewse and Aleksandr Tonkov and Julien Lieber will race for Wilvo Standing Construct Yamaha.
Suzuki will be represented by Jeremy Seewer and Bas Vaessen and Adam Sterry (Wilvo Virus KTM) and Livia Lancelot will also be in action.
Both classes get practice from 2pm on Saturday then two motos each and a Super Final on Sunday.
For more details go to www.mx-valence.com.
