Cycle News Staff | August 20, 2020
Cairoli, Herlings Top Latvia MXGP Doubleheader
Red Bull KTM’s Antonio Cairoli and Jeffrey Herlings came away with the overall wins in the 2020 MXGP Championship, following two rounds—the MXGP of Riga and the MXGP of Kegums—both held at the same venue in Kegums, Latvia, and held within just four days of each other. The MXGP of Riga was held on Wednesday, August 12, and the MXGP of Kegums, Sunday, August 16. This follows the MXGP of Latvia, that was held the previous Sunday, August 9, making it three straight races at the Kegums circuit.
The veteran, Cairoli, won at the MXGP of Riga (Wednesday). The former champ topped moto one and was battling up front late in the race when he ran into a fallen Herlings. They both got up with Herlings taking third and Cairoli fourth. Still, Cairoli claimed the overall win over the 4-2 put up by Yamaha rider Jeremy Seewer of Switzerland.
Herlings went 3-3 for third overall.
Defending champ Tim Gasjer (Honda HRC) crashed out of the first moto and took fifth in the second.
Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Arminas Jasikonis scored his first career MXGP moto win in the second race. An 8-1 netted the Lithuanian fourth overall.
Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Romain Febvre went 2-11 for fifth overall.
Consistency was the theme in MX2. Belgian Jago Geerts (Yamaha) won both motos, and Dutchman Roan Van De Moos-dijk (Kawasaki) went 2-2 for second overall. Frenchman Mathys
Boisrame (Kawaski) went 3-3 for third, and fellow French rider Tom Vialle (KTM) went 4-4 for fourth.
France’s Maxime Renaux (Ya- maha) mixed it up a bit with a 7-5 for fifth overall.
At the MXGP of Kegums three days later, Herlings got back to his winning ways, but it was Ga- jser who struck first. The Slove- nian won the first moto and was in a position to take the overall win in the second moto when he crashed, then later on suf- fered an electrical problem that knocked him out of the race.
Herlings, fourth in the first moto, came back and won the second moto, his 4-1 edging out Jasikonis’ 2-3 for the overall win.
Jorge Prado (KTM) got on the podium with 3-4 results. Cairoli (9-2) and Febvre (5-5) rounded out the top five overall.
Herlings is at the top of the championship leaderboard with 213 points, followed by Gajser with 167. Jasikonis and Cairoli are tied at third with 163 points.
“The first race was tough,” Herlings said of his win at the MXGP of Kegums. “I didn’t have a good jump, I was like 15th and then was struggling with arm pump, the riding just wasn’t good. The track was really sketchy overall the last three races with a lot of square bumps. I know it’s going to be a long series, I’ve had a lot of injuries in the past, and I try to be at every race, maybe not be dominant but just try to be there and be consistent, until now it’s actually been working out. I haven’t won that much, because when I got here, I was 4-4, 3-3 and 4-1, but I’ve been the most consistent over the races and it’s been paying off in the championship.”
In MX2, Geerts (2-1) and Vialle (1-2) traded moto wins, but Geerts was awarded the overall victory by winning the tie-breaking second moto. Van De Moosdijk, Brit Ben Watson (Yamaha) and Renaux completed the top five overall.
Vialle is still the championship lead with 217, but Geerts isn’t far behind with 209. Van De Moosdijk is third with 153 points.
Click here for all the latest MXGP news.