Some of the leading riders for the Monster Energy Motocross of Nations are in danger of missing out on the event. Of course already riders like Marvin Musquin, Blake Baggett, Jason Anderson, Benoit Paturel, Arminas Jasikonis, and Pauls Jonass won’t be racing due to injury or lack of a team, but after last weekend, Tim Gajser, Clement Desalle, and Tommy Searle had weekend ending crashes.
Gajser and Searle walked away and should be ok for next weekend’s French GP, and of course the MXoN, but Desalle might be another story. Kawasaki released their comments on the Belgian, saying on their official website that he had a season ending injury as their headline on their press release. Below is their comment. Unfortunatly no comment from Desalle, but it was a massive crash and while he did walk away from it, he looked in a lot of pain as he hunched over the trackside fencing.
“The 28-year old Belgian, a two-times GP winner this summer, had advanced strongly to sixth place until he crashed on the third lap of the opening GP moto at the rugged sand track built in front of the main grandstand of the famous road-racing facility in the northern part of the Netherlands. He was unable to contest the second moto and undergoes medical exams; he is now fourth in the championship standings, twenty-seven points shy of third prior to the season finale in France next weekend.”
Fortunately for Belgium Kevin Strijbos is coming into great form, and he has always been a good MXoN rider, so all is not lost of Desalle is out of the MXoN.
Gajser failed to race the second MXGP moto, and Roger Harvey was clearly disappointed with the situation for the team and his rider.
“To sum up the day here at Assen, it is safe to say it has been a total disaster. It started off well as Tim was fastest this morning in warm up, and had a good start in race one. This enabled him to run at the front for a while until he was hunted down dropping to third. He was riding well, and was very comfortable and relaxed. This all changed when he sat a little too far forward over a wave section, clipping the back wheel and dropping the front wheel into wet heavy sand causing the bike to flip straight onto him. Although we hope there are no injuries, he has suffered trauma to the abdomen, so after investigation from both the medical team and by our own physio, it was decided that unfortunately he would not race the second race.”
Steve Dixon texted us and mentioned that Searle was ok, just a bruised foot, but Tommy Searle is a little concerned as his comment below reflects.
“The first race was OK; the result is just average but I knew that it would be difficult as I didn’t ride so much in those conditions this year due to my injuries, but I was enjoying this race. In the second one I got hit in the second corner by a flying bike and unfortunately the bike landed on my ankle and I had a lot of pain; I had a check and hopefully there’s nothing serious.”
Marc De Reuver mentioned to us on the Saturday, that Pauls Jonass would not race the MXoN.
