With the cold temperatures and snow storms blitzing its way around Europe at the moment, all competitors, team personnel, media, and anyone else involved in the FIM World Motocross Championships must be looking forward to boarding their flight to Doha, Qatar, in a little over a month’s time.With temperatures in Doha ranging from 22 to 26 degrees in the last week and it expected to be around the 25 mark at the end of February, start of March then the Grand Prix of Qatar will be played out, I know I will be looking forward to packing my shorts and t-shirts and heading off to what for many people is the unknown.
Every single race in the 2013 FIM World Motocross Championships are looking to reach a certain type of peak form for round one of the series. Many teams are busy with photo shoots, testing and training, as the goal is to win in Qatar.
While the opening International of the season is a little more than a week away in Mantova, Italy, the weather forecast mentions snow or rain for that weekend of January 26 and 27, several riders have decided to remain in warmer places, such as Australian Dean Ferris who remains training in his homeland after requesting that to his boss Steve Dixon.
Dixon has actually mentioned that his team won’t officially race until the opening round of the FIM MX2 Championship in Doha.
MX1 rookie Tommy Searle of Great Britain arrives back from his training facility in America this week and his name is on the start list for Mantova, as are Belgians Clement Desalle and Kevin Strijbos, German Max Nagl, Russian, Evgeny Bobryshev and former World MX1 Champion David Philippaerts of Italy.
The Red Bull KTM Factory team have decided to start their 2013 preparation a week after Mantova, which means defending World MX1 Champion Antonio Cairoli might not come head to head with the majority of his main rivals until the Grand Prix of Qatar.
If weather in countries like Belgium, Great Britain, Italy and France remains as it is expected to for the next few weeks there is every possibility that the opening round of the FIM World Motocross Championships will be many riders opening race of the season. Frozen Motocross tracks and snow could make it difficult for the teams to get all their testing and preparation finalized.
German rider Max Nagl mentioned last week that he would be racing Mantova, unless it was covered in snow or frozen. The risk of injury for riders in those types of conditions is just not something the teams or competitors are looking for.
Whatever the weather brings in Europe in the next month, you can be sure that when the 2013 FIM World Motocross Championships begin in Qatar it will be totally different conditions than what we are experiencing at the moment in mainland Europe.
Text: Geoff Meyer
Photo: Acevedo J.P. image