The MXGP of Czech Republic hosted the finals of the EMX65, EMX85 and the unique round of EMX2T series. The fastest European riders battled over two days saw the fastest riders in Europe go head-to-head for gold, silver and bronze medals!
The amazing battles throughout all categories gifted the public with an stunning show where Fantic Factory Team Maddii’s Cas Valk went on to win Gold Medal in EMX2T while Nicolò Alvisi won in EMX85 and Francesco Assini came out victorious in EMX65.
In the opening EMX85 race, Liam Bruneau made the fastest start and led the race. Bruneau kept going with the lead until the checkered flag to dominate the first race. Behind him Nicolò Alvisi had to fight his way during the whole race as the Italian found himself in 6th on lap 1 but charged forward to make great passes along the way. Alvisi even touched wheel with Riccardo Pini as they were fighting for 3rd in mid-race. Alvisi got the best of Pini to finish 2nd in the end and even put pressure on Bruneau in the last lap while setting the fastest lap. Pini finished 3rd.
Dex Kooiker was second behind Bruneau for a while until lap 8 of 12 when Alvisi and Pini powered through to overtake him. He had to settle for 4th and finish there in the end. On the podium in the last round in Romania, Dean Gregoire could not do better than 7th in the end.
In the second race, it was Juan Izaguirre who got the best start but Alvisi followed closely to make his move within the first lap to take the lead. Alvisi kept going at the lead until the end although Bruneau who quickly got to 2nd place set some fastest laps and reduced the gap with Alvisi. Alvisi responded shortly after with a fastest lap of his own. In the last lap Bruneau gave everything he had to get closer. The crowd was on its feet but Alvisi held on to win race 2 and go 2-1 to win the gold medal in EMX85. Thanks to his great speed and skills, Bruneau went 1-2 to clinch the silver medal.
Kooiker had to battle to get on the podium. He found himself 5th on lap 1 but he had to move up the rank to get the bronze medal. He quickly capitalised on Pini’s fall to get to 4th in lap 2 of 12. Kooiker kept a great pace and determination as he moved pass Izaguirre for 3rd on lap 5 which placed him on the 3rd step of the podium. Izaguirre unfortunately went down and struggled to get back up and finished 19th. Pini lost his chance of a podium with a fall on lap 2 as he picked himself up in 10th. He still managed to get back up to 7th to go 3-7 but fell short of the podium in 4th position.
Nicolo Alvisi; “The race was great, I immediately found the flow on the track since the Qualifying of Saturday. In race one I didn’t do a great start as I was 8th at the first corner then in race two I managed to do a great start and I was second and I manage to take the lead and the win. I want to thanks all my sponsors and my family”
EMX85 – Race 1 – Top 10 Classification: 1. Liam Bruneau (FRA, KTM), 24:59.283; 2. Nicolò Alvisi (ITA, GASGAS), +0:00.344; 3. Riccardo Pini (ITA, KTM), +0:10.789; 4. Dex Kooiker (NED, KTM), +0:15.859; 5. Jarne Bervoets (BEL, KTM), +0:30.786; 6. Edoardo Riganti (ITA, Husqvarna), +0:33.256; 7. Dean Gregoire (NED, KTM), +0:33.620; 8. Ryan Oppliger (SUI, KTM), +0:35.753; 9. Juan Izaguirre (ESP, KTM), +0:44.783; 10. Dani Heitink (NED, Husqvarna), +0:48.513
EMX85 – Race 2 – Top 10 Classification: 1. Nicolò Alvisi (ITA, GASGAS), 25:09.625; 2. Liam Bruneau (FRA, KTM), +0:02.850; 3. Dex Kooiker (NED, KTM), +0:18.242; 4. Ryan Oppliger (SUI, KTM), +0:30.525; 5. Dean Gregoire (NED, KTM), +0:39.864; 6. Andrea Uccellini (ITA, Husqvarna), +0:51.712; 7. Riccardo Pini (ITA, KTM), +0:55.341; 8. Edoardo Riganti (ITA, Husqvarna), +1:00.372; 9. Dani Heitink (NED, Husqvarna), +1:06.409; 10. Alve Callemo (SWE, Husqvarna), +1:10.904
EMX85 – Overall Classification:
In EMX65 race 1, the holeshot went to Francesco Assini as he took the best start and took the lead in front of Tim Lopes. The front two riders engaged in a big battle as Lopes was closing in on Assini. Lopes even set the fastest lap as he was chasing the lead but then made a mistake which left Assini off the hook for a while. Lopes came back for more but the young Italian held his ground superbly under pressure until the very last corners to win race 1 in front of Lopes.
The 3rd place was pretty open with Enri Lustus, Loan Torro and Kenzo Jaspers. Lustus started well and got 3rd for the first two laps until he made a mistake to see Torro moving up to 3rd. Lustus in the end finished 8th.Torro showed good speed but a mistake on the very last lap saw the young French rider moving down to 5th. This mistake benefitted to Jaspers who came back from 5th on lap 1 to finish 3rd in the end.
The winner of the last round in Romania Patrick Cirulis finished 6th while Harry Dale made an extraordinary comeback after a fall in the first lap. He went from the 37th place on lap 1 to 13th in the end over the space of 7 laps.
In the second race, Dale made a stunning start to take the lead. The young British showed a huge talent as he led the race from start to finish extending his gap to 13 seconds. This incredible performance put him on the 3rd step of the podium to get the bronze medal.
Behind him was Lopes who showed a lot of composure as he got 2nd from the start and chased after Dale although he could not keep with Dale’s pace. Lopes got his 2nd place under threat by Torre Van Mechgelen on the last lap. Lopes knew he had to hang on to win the EMX65 Championship when all of a sudden, he went down. Lopes was out of 2nd and picked himself up quickly to finish 3rd in the end. Van Mechgelen finished 2nd . In the meantime, Assini displayed some willpower to overcome an average start. Assini went heroically from 9th on lap 1 to 4th and force his way onto the top step of the podium with an excellent 1-4.
Francesco Assini: “Yes I did it! I’m super happy to have this gold medal, the track was amazing today, technical and difficult as I like and I managed to keep the 4th that was enough to win the European Title. I want to thank all my sponsors, all the people behind me and my family of course.”
EMX65 – Race 1 – Top 10 Classification: 1. Francesco Assini (ITA, GASGAS), 18:05.678; 2. Tim Lopes (FRA, GASGAS), +0:00.707; 3. Kenzo Jaspers (NED, Husqvarna), +0:06.099; 4. Teunis Spijkerman (NED, GASGAS), +0:06.323; 5. Loan Torro (FRA, GASGAS), +0:13.613; 6. Patriks Cirulis (LAT, Husqvarna), +0:15.504; 7. Maxim Zimmerman (SVK, Husqvarna), +0:24.374; 8. Enri Lustus (EST, Husqvarna), +0:25.814; 9. Santiago Cordero (ESP, KTM), +0:26.780; 10. Gonzalo Salvador (ESP, KTM), +0:27.339
EMX65 – Race 2 – Top 10 Classification: 1. Harry Dale (GBR, KTM), 18:42.433; 2. Torre Van Mechgelen (BEL, KTM), +0:04.927; 3. Tim Lopes (FRA, GASGAS), +0:19.484; 4. Francesco Assini (ITA, GASGAS), +0:25.812; 5. Jamiro Peters (GER, KTM), +0:28.233; 6. Patriks Cirulis (LAT, Husqvarna), +0:35.738; 7. Martins Cirulis (LAT, Husqvarna), +0:39.937; 8. Kenzo Jaspers (NED, Husqvarna), +0:40.706; 9. Kabelo Ledwaba (RSA, GASGAS), +0:44.423; 10. Maxim Zimmerman (SVK, Husqvarna), +0:48.357
In the opening EMX2T race, it was Vaclav Kovar who took the best start and the Holeshot. Kovar kept leading in front of Rasmus Pedersen and Cas Valk. Valk quickly took the better of Pedersen on lap 2 of 15. Valk kept charging forward to putt pressure on Kovar. Following several unsuccessful tries, Valk finally made the pass stick on lap 4 to take the lead. Valk edged away to get a comfortable cushion at the lead and kept the lead until the end to win the race.
After getting passed by Valk, Pedersen kept a good speed and overtook Kovar for 2nd on lap 5 but he couldn’t manage to maintain his pace until the end and got overtaken several times to finish 5th. After getting pressured by Florian Hellrigl over few laps, Kovar caught up with Pedersen and moved back up to 2nd on lap 10. However, coming back from injury, SM ACTION RACING TEAM YUASA Battery ‘s Cornelius Toendel displayed an immense performance as he found himself 17th on lap 1 to charge forward and showed great speed to move up to 3rd on lap 13 just behind Kovar. Toendel had momentum and breathed pass Kovar for 2nd a lap later to finish 2nd while Kovar settled for 3rd. Hellrigl in the end had to settled for 5th.
In Race 2, it was Valk who took where he left in race 1 as he got a great start to take the lead early on. Valk kept racing superbly at the lead and increased the gap until the end finishing the race with a 30 seconds’ advantage. Yuri Quarti, who finished 7th in race 1 got a great start a found himself 3rd on lap 1 behind Kovar. Quarti rode nicely to start putting pressure on Kovar. On lap 5 of 15, Quarti took his chance and passed Kovar for 2nd. Quarti would keep his 2nd place until the end which gave him a place on the third step of the podium thanks to Kovar’s heart-breaking misfortune on lap 13. Kovar’s bike simply let him down and completely stop robbing him of a podium.
Following an average first race in 14th position, home rider Vitezslav Marek switched on and showed his talent to get a good start going 5th on lap 1 and moving up to rank to finish at a really good 3rd place. Toendel displayed another outstanding performance as he didn’t have the best start going 10th in lap 1. The Norwegian showed his speed as methodically overtook many riders such as Pedersen and Hellrigl to finally get to 4th on lap 13 to give him a place on the podium. He also benefitted from Kovar’s retirement to gain a spot from 3rdoverall to 2nd overall.
In the end two dominant victories from Cas Valk gave him the gold medal while Cornelius Toendel went 2-4 to secure the silver medal. Getting the bronze medal with 7-2 was Yuri Quarti.
Cas Valk: “It was just the perfect weekend for sure! In race 2 the start was so important and I managed to get the Holeshot and then raced great all weekend. It was a really fun weekend and different from the EMX250. I’m super happy that I am the new champion! I will now look forward to the rest of the season in EMX250”.
EMX2T – Race 1 – Top 10 Classification: 1. Cas Valk (NED, Fantic), 29:00.766; 2. Cornelius Toendel (NOR, GASGAS), +0:12.480; 3. Vaclav Kovar (CZE, KTM), +0:20.586; 4. Toms Macuks (LAT, KTM), +0:22.893; 5. Florian Hellrigl (AUT, KTM), +0:24.969; 6. Rasmus Pedersen (DEN, Yamaha), +0:29.038; 7. Yuri Quarti (ITA, GASGAS), +0:34.084; 8. Sampo Rainio (FIN, KTM), +0:41.051; 9. Martin Krc (CZE, KTM), +0:45.726; 10. Jiri Matejec (CZE, Husqvarna), +0:49.471
EMX2T – Race 2 – Top 10 Classification: 1. Cas Valk (NED, Fantic), 31:04.889; 2. Yuri Quarti (ITA, GASGAS), +0:32.587; 3. Vitezslav Marek (CZE, KTM), +0:35.736; 4. Cornelius Toendel (NOR, GASGAS), +0:35.982; 5. Sampo Rainio (FIN, KTM), +0:54.989; 6. Florian Hellrigl (AUT, KTM), +1:01.494; 7. Sander Agard-Michelsen (NOR, Yamaha), +1:18.753; 8. Adam Fridlund (SWE, Husqvarna), +1:20.489; 9. Freek van der Vlist (NED, Husqvarna), +1:21.614; 10. Kjeld Stuurman (NED, KTM), +1:22.611
