No doubt about it, for the last six to eight months the fastest motocross rider in the world is Jeffrey Herlings. Coming off his handful of MXGP victories in 2017, the “Flying Dutchman” has taken GP wins in Argentina and Holland and stands atop the MXGP championship points.
Taking his tally to nine GP wins in MXGP, and his total tally including MX2 victories to 69 GP wins. It won’t be long before he closes right down on Antonio Cairoli and Stefan Everts as the very top of the all time list.
While it hasn’t been all about easy wins for Herlings, his victories have been as impressive as most of his MX2 victories combined. Beating Antonio Cairoli in stunning fashion in both rounds one and two, the Red Bull KTM Factory rider has shown that for the moment, the MXGP class is his.
Not getting carried away with himself, though, Herlings knows that Cairoli didn’t win his nine World Championships by fluke, and the Italian legend will come back fighting in Spain this coming weekend and until the championship is finally decided.
We caught up with Herlings and asked him about the horribly cold conditions last weekend and also his season so far.
Obviously you train a lot in the winter, but have you ever ridden in conditions like that?
It was extreme, because normally when we have these types of temperatures we go to Spain where it might be around five degrees, instead of riding on a half frozen, sketchy track. Last weekend, with the wind it felt like minus five or minus ten degrees. It was horrible with the hands and a lot of riders were struggling with cold hands.
This is the second weekend that you have dominated with your speed. Antonio to me is maybe the best ever at race strategy. He is very crafty, and it’s like you did an Antonio Cairoli to Antonio. How do you see it?
The thing is, he always holeshots for some reason. His average starts in the Italian championships and also the GPs, he has taken a bunch of holeshots. He stays out of trouble and does his own thing while I am working my way through the field fighting with other guys to get to the front. Once I get to second, I still have to make up like five or ten seconds. Obviously, the last two races I didn’t have the best gate pick and from my feeling the start gate wasn’t straight, so you have even more meters from the outside. All the good guys lined up inside from Saturdays qualification. I was around 8th to 10th. But coming back to your question, I don’t think he even needed a strategy because he started out front and he just did his thing and tried to pull away. I just need to work my way to the front and close the gap.
There was a moment in the second moto where you were catching Tony and you looked a little tired. Was that the case?
No, not at all. I could have done even more laps no problem, and I wasn’t riding over my head at all. I just kept charging, and I knew it would get tough because the track was really rough because of the rain and the cold. The track got really gnarly, and sometimes I was unlucky with lapped riders and sometimes he had trouble. I feel really good physically, and I had to burn a lot of energy—a lot more than Antonio.
You have pretty much the same form as in the second part of 2017, and at the time Tony mentioned that you didn’t have the pressure of a championship and he had backed it down a bit to win the championship safely. I mean Tony is possibly the greatest GP rider of all time—he is probably riding better than ever—so it must be even more gratifying because of that?
Yes, for the moment it does but it’s just two rounds in, and Tony is a big champion and an icon in our sport. We can’t write him off, because he might find the speed I have at the moment. Until now I am faster on pure speed, but that isn’t a guarantee that I am faster in the next few rounds. For now, we want to work on our starts. We have already made a big improvement, but still trying things and new parts to improve it. As a rider and team, we are still working and once I am top three in the start on a regular basis, that will be a big advantage for myself. The tracks we have so far have been easy to pass, but tracks like Arco—you start 15th or 10th—it’s hard to still win the moto and we will work on that. I am sure we can improve it.
For many of us—as motocross fans—we want you to get a bad start, because it makes for sensational viewing. I guess you can understand that?
Sure, as a fan I understand it must be fun, but for now it’s been the bad gate pick why I wasn’t straight up there. If I had a better gate pick like in Argentina and Saturday in Valkenswaard, it would be different. In Argentina, I got a holeshot and in Valkenswaard on Saturday I also had a good gate pick and was second into the start. I think if I have a good gate pick I can get out well, and I am not saying I can beat Tony out of the start, because he is a great starter (he is also kilos lighter than Herlings). At least if I can be top three, I am happy with that. Being realistic, Tony is a better starter than me, I can live with that, but I want to beat him out of the start one day.
I know you like the record and stuff, and you won for your 8th time in Valkenswaard, and you are the first motocross rider to win eight times at one single circuit. How does that feel?
At least I broke some records in the sport. Being the most dominant Dutch rider in history and now having this record, and one day I hope to get to the 101 GP wins. I am 69 right now, and we need 32 more. Those wins are not coming as easy as the MX2 times and I am only 23. I can be on the top for many years. The main priority now is to keep our eye on the Championship and stay consistent and see what we can do. Hopefully keep fighting until the end and it seems that will be against Tony.
Redsands you rode a lot in the winter, and I am not sure if Tony has ridden there. It seems he prefers to ride in Italy in the winter. Does that give you an advantage, and what do you expect from the track in Spain? I was speaking to Pauls (Jonass) about it and he said it’s like Latvia.
It is like Latvia actually, it really depends on how they work on the track. If they rip it and work on it, it’s like a real sand track. If it’s windy and they don’t work on it or water it so much, it can get like hard pack. Depends on how they work on it. I have ridden it in all conditions.
Ray Archer images
