The motocross season will officially start this weekend with the first round of the Italian International Championship at Riola Sardo; considered to be the first opportunity of the year for the teams to see their competitors in action.
Ahead of this, the JTech Honda team have been conducting their pre-season tests in Sardinia with Jens Getteman, Nick Kouwenberg and Vsevolod Brylyakov clocking up the miles on their Honda CRF250Rs. The three have been working hard on fine-tuning their performance and maintaining fitness ready for the first races.
“Testing is going well,” says Brylyakov. “We started to prepare myself and the bike earlier this year. The bike is good, setup is good, and now we work on the small things. The next race, Riola, is not so important to me; everybody knows that Riola is probably the most difficult track we have. I want to see the condition of myself and the other riders, see what we can do there and have fun”.
“I think my riding is on a better level than it was before,” added Kouwenberg. “I’m pretty positive: the bike is great and the people around are working hard to get everything we want done. I’m really looking forward to seeing where we are with the Italian International Championships and what we can work on from there.”
“I’m really surprised with the bike.” Says Getteman. “Last year I was in MXGP, so coming from the CRF450R to the 250 is very different. The JTech guys have done a good job with the engine and everything and so far it’s pretty good. For me, Riola is the first race in a while because I was injured last year but I’m not stressed and I’m looking forward to it and to see how it’s going to be”.
The team will be continuing to test in Sardinia this week leading up to the first round of the Italian International Championship.
For Brylyakov and Getteman the MX2 season will start 27-28 February in Losail, Qatar, while for Kouwenberg and Albie Wilkie (fourth JTech Honda rider and 2014 Honda 150 European Champion) the European MX250 season will start 18-19 April in Pietramurata, Italy.