[Features]

MXGP INSIDER #23: CAIROLI OUT!

9 years ago | Words: David Bulmer

Transmoto’s weekly web-exclusive column, the MXGP Insider, penned by David Bulmer, presented by KTM Australia. 

The big news this week is that Antonio Cairoli is finally succumbing to his arm injuries and taking the next couple of GPs off to allow the fracture below his left elbow to heal. Obviously, this pretty much rules him out of the title race and his chance to make it six in a row in the MXGP class. In a season that started with so much promise, we have now lost Ryan Villopoto, Antonio Cairoli, Max Nagl and Clement Desalle to injuries at different times, robbing us of such a potentially great championship. This is to take nothing away from Romain Febvre’s performance and he’ll have fully deserved this title – if he does indeed eventually win it. The young Frenchman has had a couple of crashes but by and large stayed off the deck, whilst others haven’t. Ryan Dungey has received criticism in the past about only winning titles because others got injured, but it is a necessary skill to master in motocross and Romain Febvre seems to have it nailed. Throughout his career, he’s rarely missed races. That played a key role in his EMX250 success a few years back, and now looks likely to play a major role in his (potential) MXGP success in 2015. Febvre’s nearest challenger, Gautier Paulin, is 68pts back, so he isn’t completely out of contention. But Paulin has only beaten Febvre in four GPs this year and really doesn’t look likely to close the gap.
There is some good news regarding those other injured riders, though, as this week I’ve seen photos and video of Max Nagl back riding again. I’m not sure if he’ll be at Loket this weekend but it’s still good to see him on a bike. One rider who does look likely for Loket is Clement Desalle who, despite not feeling 100%, does seem as though he’ll be gutting it out. To be honest, it’s a bit strange for him to be coming back ‘early’ when essentially there is nothing on the line for him, and the rumours surrounding his proposed move to KRT Kawasaki get more and more concrete. You would have thought that he wouldn’t want to risk that deal, but Desalle has always been a rider who gets on with it and does his job.
Switching subjects now to the Junior World Championships, which were held in Spain this past weekend … the temperatures were pretty hot and the track needed a lot of water to keep it from turning into a dust bowl, but overall it held up well and produced some awesome racing – especially in the 125cc class, where Maxime Renaux ended up holding off Conrad Mewse for an entire 30-minute moto to claim the title in what was just a great example of two-stroke racing. Australia’s Hunter Lawrence wasn’t able to get off the gate well enough to mix it up with these two, but he proved he was the best of the rest and took third place Overall.
I actually hung out with the Aussie team a fair bit over the course of the week and all the riders seem like good kids. The team is well organised and they come completely prepared for the job at hand, and although some results didn’t go their way, I think they all left the weekend with some valuable experience that’ll make them better riders in the future. Unfortunately, the Championship will be held in Russia next year, so we’ll see what level of riders are able to attend that. But I’m sure the Aussie contingent will be as strong as ever.

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