| 7th out
of 58 starters. Quali: 9th. ~1,000 spectators One of my strongest asphalt performances to date in slippery conditions secured a 7th overall result. Offroad was very sandy, very special conditions where I had my weak spot compared to the front runners. Bike setup was on wet tires although it was dry almost all day, but because of the dirty and overall slippery track, there was no way to go on slick tires. |
| The bike was still quite worn from last weekend and not much time
to get ready for the race. Quite a lot had to be done: cleaning, new
chain and sprocket, oil change, wheel change, etc. I ran into some
complications on Saturday, so most of the day was needed for
preparation for the race. All got finally done in time and this time I just hoped for better weather and a decent track. |
| It rained over night but was dry in the morning. The offroad was
deep sand and fully under water. They worked on the offroad to make it
better, but after the Euro and Pro classes, it was decided to change
the track and prepare another entry into the offroad. In the end, the
first two turns in the offroad were ok, then a long, deep sand section
with ruts, which continued around a corner and a little jump. Sand is
very special for Holland and I'm not really used to it nor good in it.
The entire track was dirty with only a few really dry corners, so
everyone rode wet tires on front and back. I still had the same rear
tires as from last weekend where the right side was pretty used, but
this course had more left corners - perfect ;-) The qualifying went ok, I had some good rounds in the offroad, but almost always some traffic. Same for everyone though. I also crashed once after the little jump in the offroad with no harm done. All in all, I gotta say that others had way more trouble than me, but the front runners again were flying through the sand. It's a shame for the Supermoto sport if in the end, the motocross part is so dominating. Overall 9th gave a good starting position in the third row. Quali result: 9th |
| Off to a good start into the first corner, came out of the first
turns around 7th position. Up to the offroad, I could have ridden
faster but were held up by the ones in front of me. This meant that I
could not put some gap between me and the following rider, which lead
to losing two positions in the offroad, so after the first round,
I was where I started. In the second lap it was again similar, I was
held up by the two in front of me and thus was under pressure in the
offroad. Again lost a position in lap two and another one in lap three,
dropping me down to 11th position. I knew I could ride faster laptimes
and in lap six, I made a pass on the asphalt to climb to 10th. In lap
ten, I gained another position, again making a pass on the
slippery aspalt section. I realized how much faster I was on the
aspalt, but always had to put some buffer between me and the following
rider in order to "survive" the offroad. Having said that, I had some
laps where I got fairly well through it, but towards the end of the
race I made more mistakes again. Then in the last lap, I was surprised
by a mistake of the rider in front of me, passed and finished the race
on 8th position! The best I could do in these conditions. Race 1 result: 8th |
| Second start I tried to gain positions inside but didn't quite make
it. The guy in front of me closed the door and there was no space left
so I had to break really hard, almost coming to a stop. Still kept my
position. I had the winner of the first race right in front of me and
he slowed me down on the asphalt. Then one rider behind me took the
opportunity passing me and him on a little straight. Caught me totally
by surprise! Then we entered the offroad part for the first time and
off he was - that's what made all the difference, he was superior in
the offroad to anyone else - not quite the idea of Supermoto to have
the offroad part as key element to the win. There was no way to
compensate on the asphalt what you lose in the offroad! I came as 10th
out of the first lap. Now a great battle started for position 9. The guy in front of me was faster in the offroad, but I was way faster on the asphalt - where it is harder to overtake. In lap three or four, I got him on the asphalt, but was passed back right away in the offroad again. In lap five, I managed to pass him early in the asphalt section so I could put a little gap between us before the offroad. And I could keep him behind in the offroad! Now I was able to move away enough before the offroads so he couldn't pass me there anymore. But then I got tired and made bigger mistakes in the offroad and in lap nine, he could pass me again and I was too far away after that offroad section to attack on the asphalt. Now I was in the bad spot and knew I couldn't make up for that anymore. So I finished in 9th position in race two, but due to the consistent results, 7th overall for the day; very happy about this, it made again the best of the conditions. And the asphalt performance was a real motivator for the last two races in Lelystad. Race 2 result: 9th Overall: 7th |
| The next race is on 9 October in Lelystad, definitely less offroad there! |