P172
CN
III OBSERVATION CHECK
BY KIT PALMER
Y
es, it was indeed only a
matter of time that Jeffrey
Herlings would grace the
over of Cycle News magazine
with the words "Cycle News
Rider of the Year" printed right
next to it. We just didn't know
what that number would be. Now
we know—2018.
It probably could've been a
slightly smaller number when he
was tearing up the MX2 class
from 2013 through 2016. There
were times that it was a forgone
conclusion that the young Dutch-
man was going to win whenever
he slipped on his helmet and po-
sitioned his factory KTM behind
the starting gate. It was truly rare
when Herlings didn't win. And
when the unthinkable did hap-
pen, it was usually because of a
silly fall, an injury, or a mechani-
cal, not because someone just
plain beat him to the checkered
flag. The last rider to really do that
was early in Herling's MX2 career
and that guy was Ken Roczen.
Once Roczen left the GP scene
and came to America in 2012, the
MX2 class belonged to Herlings;
he flat-out dominated the 250
scene on the GP circuit for years
and ended up racking up three
MX2 World Championships. It
could easily have been more,
too, had it not been for injuries—
some of them caused by freak
accidents that didn't necessarily
happen while racing.
Herlings finally made what
some people thought was a long
IT WAS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME
