Last weekend saw many of the leading Grand Prix riders race their National Championships. Many rode to prepare for this weekend’s Grand Prix of Italy. Leading the victory call was Belgian Clement Desalle of the Rockstar Energy Suzuki World team. Desalle had decided not to race in his own National Championship in Belgium, and that gave him the chance to take the win in the MX1 class of France Championship.
CLS MX1 Kawasaki Monster Energy Pro Circuit rider Tommy Searle won the MX1 class at the British Motocross Championships, while Red Bull KTM Factory rider Ken De Dycker won the MX1 class at the Belgian Championships. These three will obviously be well prepared for the hard pack of Arco de Trento in a few days time.
Desalle showed great speed in France, winning the MX1 moto, and also the Superfinal at the second round of the French Championship held at Lacapelle Marival.
Sebastien Pourcel finished second overall in front of Milko Potisek. Valentin Teillet won the MX2 moto in front of Dylan Ferrandis and Benoit Paturel.
In Belgium De Dycker continued his amazing form of 2013. Always looking to have good speed the Red Bull KTM Factory rider went 1-1 ahead of Rockstar Energy Suzuki World rider Kevin Strijbos, and Honda World Motocross rider Evgeny Bobryshev. In what was probably the most impressive of the National Championship starting line-ups also in the field were Kawasaki Racing Team Jeremy Van Horebeek and TM Ricci Racing Shaun Simpson.
At the small village of Lyng Searle showed his muscles as he went 2-1-1, dropping a moto win to Tanel Leok, with Leok going 1-2-2, third in the MX1 class was Latvian charger Matiss Karro, who scored 3-3-3 results.
MX2 in England also showed off some FIM World Motocross Championship talent with Valkenswaard podium finisher Jake Nicholls going 1-1-1, finishing ahead of Elliot Banks Browne who scored 3-2-2 and Nathan Watson. Other GP riders Steven Lenoir, Graeme Irwin and James Cottrell finished in 7th, 8th and 9th respectively.
With Red Bull KTM Factory riders and red plate owners in both the MX1 and MX2 classes Antonio Cairoli and Jeffrey Herlings both taking the weekend off to train and enjoy the odd free weekends from the FIM World Motocross Championship season maybe the likes of Desalle, De Dycker, Searle and Nicholls can feel like they are a little more prepared for what lays ahead in Italy.
With Frenchman Romain Febvre injuring himself last weekend in practice and Australian Dean Ferris still recovering from his shoulder injury you can be sure Nicholls will want to produce something special in Italy. Just five points of 8th placed Ferris (64pts to 69pts) and 34 behind Febvre (who will miss a few GPs), plus a bunch of riders around the 70 point mark, Nicholls has a great chance to move up the series points, as high as third place is possible with an impressive GP.
Herlings already 49 points ahead of second placed Jordi Tixier the job of any of the other MX2 riders looks like fighting for second place in the MX2 Championship, and that is something that Nicholls wants badly.