CAIROLI CLOSES IN AT THE
MXGP OF LOMBARDIA
J
ust as the 2018 MXGP World
Championship was looking
like it was essentially over, with
Red Bull KTM's Jeffrey Herlings
dominating moto after moto, and
event after event, leading to a
62-point advantage over rival and
KTM teammate Antonio Cairoli,
news hit that Herlings broke his
collarbone in a practice crash
a few days before the MXGP of
Lombardia, June 17.
The result was somewhat
predictable: Herlings missed
the event, Cairoli went 1-1 and
clawed 50 points back on Her-
lings, who remarkably still leads
the championship by 12 points
despite missing the entire event.
Cairoli got the holeshot in the
first moto—which he's been do-
ing a lot of this year—and pre-
dictably ran away with it, while
Romain Febvre (Monster En-
ergy Yamaha), Clement Desalle
(Monster Energy Kawasaki) and
the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna
duo of Gautier Paulin and Max
Anstie fought over second place.
Desalle eventually secured the
position and finished over 11 sec-
onds behind Cairoli, just in front
of Anstie, Paulin and Febvre,
who crashed out of second in
the early part of the moto.
In the second moto, it was
Kevin Strijbos (Standing Con-
struct KTM) who got the holeshot
over Desalle, but Cairoli went by
them both in the first few turns to
take the lead. While it looked as
if Cairoli would run away again,
he made a costly error and fell
on the second lap, remounting
fourth. He went back to work,
IN
THE
WIND
P28
Toni Cairoli took full
advantage of Jeffrey
Herlings' absence
at the MXGP of
Lombardia by winning
both motos.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
RAY
ARCHER/KTM
IMAGES
