IN
THE
WIND
P34
HERLING NABS FIRST CAREER MXGP
T
hree-time MX2 World Cham-
pion Jeffrey Herlings had
a memorable weekend at the
Latvia MXGP, May 6-7, where
the Red Bull KTM Team rider
captured his first career victory
in the premier MXGP division.
He also collected his first moto
win in MXGP—which he did
twice—while also winning Satur-
day's qualifying race. It was the
perfect weekend for Herlings in
the sand at the Kegums circuit,
a place he's won at several
times before in the MX2 class.
"This is the cherry on the cake,
I'm very happy being up here!"
Herlings said from the podium. "I
felt good all weekend and I'm al-
ways fast on this track; we've won
here a couple times now."
The championship has a new
points leader in MXGP: the
veteran Antonio Cairoli, Herling's
Red Bull KTM teammate. Cairoli
went 5-2 at Kegums, which was
good enough for second overall
and to get him into the points
lead. He took full advantage of
a terrible day by former points
leader and defending champ
Tim Gasjer, who had a bad start
in the first moto and finished
out the race in 14th place. But
things only got worse for him
in the second moto when he
suffered a hard get-off while
running second and was too
shaken up to continue. The
Honda rider luckily did not suffer
any serious injury. He now trails
Cairoli by 17 points.
Third overall on the day was
Honda's Evgeny Bobryshev
(3-4). "In Valkenswaard [the
race before], I had some health
problems and the week before
Kegums I was recovering," Bo-
bryshev said. "Overall the result
is good, I'm just looking forward
to getting my health and physi-
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
KTM
IMAGES/RAY
ARCHER
Jeffrey Herlings went 1-1 at
Kegums to record his first ever
MXGP overall victory.
Antonio Cairoli is the
new MXGP points leader.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
KTM
IMAGES/RAY
ARCHER
