TMX SAYS: MX is brutal but beautiful
By Sean Lawless on 29th Jul 15
The Charge of the Light Brigade, the Battle of Rorkes Drift, Enrys Hammer flooring Muhammad Ali all moments in history that make a man proud to be British. And to that list you can add Brad Anderson swinging his leg over a 250cc two-smoker and smashing out two wins in Loket. Its enough to get my stiff upper lip all atremble!
A last-minute entry thanks to the generosity of GL12's Bob Buchanan, Ando rocked up with a bike he'd barely ridden and dominated the EMX300cc class despite giving away 50cc to most of the opposition. Now factor in Jack Bintcliffe coming within a whisker of winning the EMX150 class and Max Anstie's race one victory in MX2 and all-in-all it was a pretty good weekend to be a Brit in Czecho.
The fruit of '80s bruiser Swervin' Mervyn's loins, Mighty Max was looking good for the win in race two until he spammed himself but this year's MXGP of the Czech Republic claimed an even higher profile casualty when Jeffrey Herlings binned it and then used his body to cushion Jordi Tixier's landing.
Motocross reminds me of an old squeeze of mine – beautiful but brutal – and also demands considerable cojones to ride. Even a good day can hurt but it seems to me that this year more than most the attrition rate of top racers – on both sides of the Atlantic – is unusually high.
Simple
Tony Cairoli is injured, Max Nagl is injured, Clement Desalle is returning from injury, ditto Tommy Searle and Jake Nicholls, Eli Tomac, Ryan Villopoto, Aleksandr Tonkov, Mel Pocock and Dylan Ferrandis are out for the season and now Herlings has joined them.
It's a problem with no simple solution – danger is part of the attraction after all – but modern track design combined with advances in suspension and engine tuning form a potent cocktail that can put the world's best on their backs, fronts and sides without a moment's notice.
In other injury news, Marc de Reuver appears to have un-retired. The Dutchman broke a bunch of stuff – including his back – earlier in the year and reckoned it was time to hang up his boots. Well, now his Facebook feed is filling up with riding-related news which is great to see.
I remember watching Marc at the Irish GP at Desertmartin in the early noughties. Fresh on the back of saying he was going to be the next big thing in the AMA, Mike Alessi had a wildcard ride there and Marc passed him like a soft stool, looked back over a tabletop and with a wave of his arm ‘encouraged' him to keep up. Alessi had nothing for him. In the second moto Alessi tried
to go around the outside of Billy MacKenzie and the Scot stuffed him like a turkey but that's another story.
Right, that's enough nonsense – tune in next week when hopefully Sutty will have recovered from the lurgy and normal service will be resumed...
