Hard charging Desalle misses the podium

Posted by Ray | 8 June 2009 | Comment

Clément Desalle dominated Saturday’s (dry) qualifying race in Ernée. However, the
treacherous weather conditions on Sunday didn’t favour the young Belgian’s chances. But
even in these difficult conditions « Panda » proved to be one of the best MX1 riders of the
moment. In the fist heat he even finished fourth without goggles. In the second heat he would
end up sixth despite three crashes. Desalle finished fourth, on equal points with Tanel Leok, in
the overall of the GP. Clément is now fifth in the World MX1 classification, trailing only one
point behind Josh Coppins. The GP was won by Max Nagl, who ended up second behind Desalle in Saturday’s qualifying race.

Clément Desalle
I had a fairly good start in the first heat. But almost immediately I had a problem with my
goggles and I had to throw them away. It was really tough to ride without goggles in rain and
mud. I ended up fourth but I couldn’t be happy with that. I didn’t have a good start in race
two, laying in 6th or 7th. Maybe I wanted too much and that meant that my back wheel just
stepped out. I remounted rather quick and was able to pass Cairoli and Leok, but after that I
slipped twice. That meant I had to come back from 13th. Finally I would finish sixth. Top five
wasn’t too bad after all. But it feels like a bit of a missed opportunity. I really feel I could have
done better.

Heat 1: 1 Nagl (DUI-KTM), 2 Philippaerts (I-Yamaha), 3 De Dycker (B-Suzuki), 4 Clément Desalle (B-LS Motors-
Honda), 5 Pichon (FRA-Honda), 6 Coppins (NZ-Yamaha), 7 Cairoli (ITA-Yamaha) 8 T. Leok (EST-Yamaha), 9 Leok A.
(EST-TM) 10 Church (GBR-CCM) / Heat 2: 1 Nagl, 2 Cairoli, 3 Leok T., 4 Philippaerts 5 Mackenzie 6 Clément Desalle
(B-LS Motors-Honda), 7 Coppins, 8 A. Leok, 9 Pichon 10 Leok A.

Eindstand GP van Frankrijk: 1 Nagl 50, 2 Philippaerts 40, 3 Cairoli 36, 4 T. Leok 33, 5 Clément Desalle (LS
Motors-Honda) 33, 6 De Dycker 29, 7 Pichon 28, 8 A. Leok 25, 9 Priem 20, 10 De Dycker 20

Tussenstand WK MX1; 1 Cairoli 291, 2 Philippaerts 261, 3 Nagl 248, 4 Coppins 238, 5 Clément Desalle (LS
Motors-Honda) 237, 6 De Dycker 228, 7 T. Leok 223, 8 Barragan 215, 9 Swanepoel 120, 10 A. Leok 118

Dennis Verbruggen In the first heat I missed my start and to make things even worse, I crashed. It took a while
before I could start my motorcycle, resulting in me being lapped. My groin injury didn’t help
and that’s why I choose to focus on the second heat. Despite a bad start my riding went
pretty well in the second heat. Too bad, I needed time to find the right rhythm. The last ten
minutes were pretty good and I was able to make up some places and end up in 16th. I had
to take some painkillers to ride with my injured groin. I hope that the injury doesn’t get worse. I
feel strong physically and my riding is improving week after week. .

Heat 1: 1 Musquin (FRA-KTM), 2 Boisiere (FRA-KTM), 3 Frossard (FRA-Kawasaki), 4 Larrieu (FRA-Yamaha), 5 Tonus
(SWI-KTM)), 6 Teillet (FRA-KTM), 7 Rombaut (FRA-Kawasaki), 8 Paulin (FRA-Kawasaki), 9 Aubin (F-Yamaha), 10
Goncalves (POR-KTM), DNF Dennis Verbruggen (BEL-LS Motors Honda) /

Heat 2: 1. 1 Musquin (FRA-KTM), 2
Roczen (GER-Suzuki), 3 Guarneri (ITA-Yamaha), 4 Paulin (FRA-Kawasaki), 5 Larrieu (FRA-Yamaha), T 6 Monni
(ITA-Yamaha), 7 Boisiere (FRA-KTM), 8 Aubin (FRA-Yamaha), 9 Roelants (BEL-KTM), 10 Teillet (FRA-KTM)), 16 Dennis
Verbruggen (BEL-LS Motors Honda)

GP of France: 1 Musquin 50, 2 Boisiere 36, 3 Larrieu 34, 4 Paulin 31, 5 Roczen 28, 6 Guarneri 27, 7 Frossard 27, 8
Teillet 26, 9 Aubin 25, 10 Roelants 22
Provisional MX2 standings; 1 Musquin 284, 2 Paulin 250, 3 Guarneri 235, 4 Goncalves 222, 5 Frossard 205, 6 Boog
177, 7 Aubin 161, 8 Goncalves 134, 9 Van Horebeek 128, 10 Roczen 120, 24 Dennis Verbruggen (BEL-LS Motors
Honda) 43

WMX – De Winter is on the move

Elien De Winter qualified in seventh on Saturday, showing some decent speed. However, she
couldn’t reproduce that same pace during the races. The winter ended the heats in tenth and
ninth which meant ninth overall. In the World championship standings Elien jumped from ninth
to eight . The French GP was won by home favourite Livia Lancelot who took both heats.
German rider Stefi Laier ended up second in front of another German rider Lasissa
Papenmeier. In two weeks De Winter takes part in the fifth GP of the season in Teutschenthal
(Germany).

Elien De Winter
“In the first heat I took a reasonable start, taking the first turn in sixth. But in the first lap I was
already losing some places. Unbelievable really. During practice everything went smooth, but
during the race things just didn’t pan out. That’s how I ended up tenth on Saturday. Today
(Sunday) I had a good start. I hung in fourth when, just before, the first jump, I tangled with
another rider. Luckily, I kept the bike upright. Besides that I had to give in during the last three
laps, until then I had been in seventh.”

Heat 1: 1 Livia Lancelot (FR-Kaw), 2 Larissa Papenmeier (Ger-Suz), 3 Steffi Laier (Ger-KTM), 4 Maria Franke (Ger-Kaw,
5 Elin Mann (SWE-KTM), 6 Nathalie Kane (IRL-Suz), 7. Chiara Fontanesi (ITA-Yam), 8 Marianne Veenstra (Ned-Suz), 9.
Marielle De Mol (NED-Yamaha), 10 Elien De Winter (BEL-LS Motors Honda) / Heat 2: 1 Livia Lancelot (FR-Kaw), 2
Steffi Laier (Ger-KTM), 3 Papenmeier (Ger-Suz), 4 Maria Franke (Ger-Kaw, 5 Marianne Veenstra (Ned-Suz), 6 Marielle De
Mol (NED-Yamaha), 7. Nathalie Kane (IRL-Suz), 8 Mann (SWE-KTM), 9 Elien De Winter (BEL-LS Motors Honda), 10.
Francesca Nocera (ITA-KTM)
Eindstand GP: 1 Lancelot 50, 2 Laier 42, 3 Papenmeier 42, 4 Maria Franke 36, 5 Veenstra 29, 6 Kane 29, 7 Mann 29,
8 De Mol 27, 9 Elien De Winter (BEL-LS Motors Honda) 23, 10. Fontanesi 20
Tussenstand WMX; 1 Livia Lancelot (FR-Kaw) 185, 2 Steffi Laier (Ger-KTM) 161, 3 Papenmeier (Ger-Suz) 148, 4 Maria
Franke (Ger-Kaw) 139, 5 Elin Mann (SWE-KTM) 128, 6 Nathalie Kane (IRL-Suz) 116, 7 Veenstra (Ned-Suz) 111, 8 Elien
De Winter (BEL-LS Motors Honda) 88, 9 De Mol (NED-Yamaha) 86, 10. Ashley Fiolek (USA-LS Motors Honda)

Tags: aubin, Barragan, boog, cairoli, church, coppins, desalle, fiolek, france, french, frossard, germany, goncalves, honda, horebeek, injury, kane, laier, lancelot, leok, mackenzie, NAGL, paulin, pichon, roczen, van, verbruggen