Cycle News Staff | August 10, 2020
After months of cancellations, rescheduling, and more rescheduling, the FIM Motocross World Championship finally resumed on a sunny weekend in Kegums for the MXGP of Latvia, August 8-9. It was the first of three races that will be taking place in Latvia, with the MXGP of Riga and MXGP of Kegums both due to take place this week, in the FIM Motocross World Championship’s first triple-header. The MXGP of Riga will be held Wednesday, August 12.
Like MotoGP in Brno this same weekend, where KTM nabbed its first-ever win, so did the GasGas brand at the MXGP of Latvia with Dutchman Glenn Coldenhoff (Standing Construct GasGas Factory) at the helm. (KTM recently purchased the GasGas brand, much like it did with Husqvarna in 2012.) Coldenhoff finished second to defending champ Tim Gajser (Honda) in the first moto and put the icing on the cake in the second moto with the win over Jeremy Seewer (Monster Energy Yamaha).
“It was an amazing second race, I did not make any mistakes and just did my own thing,” Coldenhoff said. In the end, Jeremy was pushing hard and then I saw on his pit board ‘pass for the win’ and I didn’t know where Gajser was, so I really pushed hard for it, and I’m so happy for the win.”
Gajser ended up second overall via 1-5 motos. Gajser was pressing Coldenhoff for the lead in the second moto when Gajser went down.
“I was feeling great, riding was good in the beginning,” Gajser said. “It was not so easy to find a line to pass, so I followed Glenn for half the race and then I got really close so I tried to pass him then I switched the line on the waves and got sideways; I had a big crash, thankfully I could re-join.”
After sitting out the first two MXGP earlier this year with an injury, Romain Febvre (Monster Energy Kawasaki) was happy to nab third overall with 3-3 rides.
Points leader Jeffrey Herlings (Red Bull KTM) just missed out on the podium after going 4-4, but he still leads Gajser by four points in the championship.
In MX2, Tom Vialle (Red Bull KTM) took the overall win with 2-1 results to extend his championship points lead over Jago Gerts (Monster Energy Yamaha), who crashed out of contention in the first moto, to 22. Gerts came back to win the second moto.
Third overall went to Dutchman Roan Van De Moosdijk (F&H Kawasaki) who went 2-4. CN
2020 FIM Motocross World Championship
MXGP of Latvia
Kegums, Latvia
RESULTS (August 8-9, 2020)
MXGP
1. |
Glenn Coldenhoff |
(GG) |
2-1 |
2. |
Tim Gajser |
(Hon) |
1-5 |
3. |
Romain Febvre |
(Kaw) |
3-3 |
4. |
Jeremy Seewer |
(Yam) |
5-2 |
5. |
Jeffrey Herlings |
(KTM) |
4-4 |
MX2
1. |
Tom Vialle |
(KTM) |
1-2 |
2. |
Roan Van De Moosdijk |
(Kaw) |
2-4 |
3. |
Mathys Boisrame |
(Kaw) |
4-3 |
4. |
Ruben Fernandez |
(Yam) |
3-7 |
5. |
Ben Watson |
(Yam) |
6-5 |
Click here for complete MXGP results.