Stunning blue skies were in contrast of the gnarly black sand here in Valkenswaard for round three of the FIM Women’s Motocross World Championship where Bud Racing Kawasaki’s Meghan Rutledge put in two solid and consistent performances to take home her second WMX round victory this year.
When the gates dropped for WMX’s second race this morning, Bud Racing Kawasaki’s Meghan Rutledge nailed the holeshot but was quickly passed by both Team One One Four’s Livia Lancelot and HM Plant KTM UK’s Natalie Kane. While Lancelot went on to pull a small gap and lead eleven solid laps for her first WMX race win of the season, a vast game of cat and mouse was in play between Rutledge and Kane.
Meanwhile back in fourth, local Dutch heroine Nancy Van De Ven was holding off Team Dragon Moto’s Stephanie Laier, while yesterday’s race one winner Chiara Fontanesi was on damage control after a mistake early on in lap one left her buried at the back of the pack.
As Fontanesi continued to pick the riders off one-by-one, which was made a little easier when Van De Ven crashed out of fourth, the battle between Kane and Rutledge started to get serious. With lap traffic coming into play and four laps to go, a determined Rutledge took the advantage and second place.
Heading into the last lap of the race it appeared a battle for the win could have unfurled between Team One One Four’s Livia Lancelot and Bud Racing Kawasaki’s Meghan Rutledge, but after passing pit-lane and realizing she had the overall win in the bag, Rutledge chose to back off and settle for a safe second only one second clear of HM Plant KTM UK’s Natalie Kane in third. Race one winner Chiara Fontanesi put in a remarkable ride to redeem fourth with Team Dragon Moto’s Stephanie Laier rounding out the top five.
Although Chiara Fontanesi had a tough second race, her win in race one in combination with her fourth in race two was enough for second overall and to claim the WMX red plate for the first time this season. Meanwhile Natalie Kane added up two third place finishes for third overall and now sits second in the overall standings one point behind Fontanesi. The Australian Meghan Rutledge was consistently second this weekend and now jumps from fifth to third in the championship standings, only two points short of the red plate.
Due to a mechanical failure in race one, race two’s winner Team One One Four’s Livia Lancelot only finished ninth overall for WMX’s round of The Netherlands and has now dropped back to fifth in the overall standings trailing the lead by twenty-two points.
WMX Race 1 top ten: 1. Chiara Fontanesi (ITA, Yamaha), 26:20.086; 2. Meghan Kat Rutledge (AUS, Kawasaki), +0:04.392; 3. Natalie Kane (IRL, KTM), +0:06.894; 4. Nancy Van De Ven (NED, Yamaha), +0:21.413; 5. Stephanie Laier (GER, Suzuki), +1:05.213; 6. Marianne Veenstra (NED, Husqvarna), +1:24.911; 7. Anne Borchers (GER, Suzuki), +1:27.478; 8. Larissa Papenmeier (GER, Suzuki), +1:45.634; 9. Gabriela Seisdedos (ESP, Kawasaki), +1:47.792; 10. Joanna Miller (POL, Suzuki), +1:55.694
WMX Race 2 top ten: 1. Livia Lancelot (FRA, Kawasaki), 26:06.326; 2. Meghan Kat Rutledge (AUS, Kawasaki), +0:05.394; 3. Natalie Kane (IRL, KTM), +0:11.851; 4. Chiara Fontanesi (ITA, Yamaha), +0:30.727; 5. Stephanie Laier (GER, Suzuki), +0:32.093; 6. Nancy Van De Ven (NED, Yamaha), +1:02.877; 7. Larissa Papenmeier (GER, Suzuki), +1:15.291; 8. Marianne Veenstra (NED, Husqvarna), +1:25.336; 9. Anne Borchers (GER, Suzuki), +1:40.392; 10. Nina Klink (NED, KTM), +1:50.628
WMX Overall top ten: 1. Meghan Kat Rutledge (AUS, KAW), 44 points; 2. Chiara Fontanesi (ITA, YAM), 43 p.; 3. Natalie Kane (IRL, KTM), 40 p.; 4. Nancy Van De Ven (NED, YAM), 33 p.; 5. Stephanie Laier (GER, SUZ), 32 p.; 6. Marianne Veenstra (NED, HUS), 28 p.; 7. Larissa Papenmeier (GER, SUZ), 27 p.; 8. Anne Borchers (GER, SUZ), 26 p.; 9. Livia Lancelot (FRA, KAW), 25 p.; 10. Joanna Miller (POL, SUZ), 20 p.
WMX World Championship Classification Top Ten: 1. Chiara Fontanesi (ITA, YAM), 121 points; 2. Natalie Kane (IRL, KTM), 120 p.; 3. Meghan Kat Rutledge (AUS, KAW), 119 p.; 4. Stephanie Laier (GER, SUZ), 104 p.; 5. Livia Lancelot (FRA, KAW), 99 p.; 6. Nancy Van De Ven (NED, YAM), 93 p.; 7. Larissa Papenmeier (GER, SUZ), 85 p.; 8. Marianne Veenstra (NED, HUS), 75 p.; 9. Francesca Nocera (ITA, SUZ), 68 p.; 10. Anne Borchers (GER, SUZ), 68 p.
WMX Manufacturer: 1. Kawasaki, 138 points; 2. Yamaha, 126 p.; 3. KTM, 120 p.; 4. Suzuki, 104 p.; 5. Husqvarna, 75 p.; 6. Honda, 20 p.