Teammate Jeffrey Herlings collided with several riders entering the first corner of the MX1 sprint and crashed heavily; fortunately the Dutchman was unhurt aside from some bruising to his back. Countryman Glenn Coldenhoff rode to 11th and 9th positions while nursing a sore left hand as a consequence of a minor training accident the previous week. #259 was limited with his clutch operation and opted to gain safe and valuable race mileage.
"The crash wasn‰Ûªt too bad but getting run over wasn‰Ûªt much fun!" Herlings said. "I was lucky that it wasn't too bad but the bike was pretty damaged so that meant it wasn't possible to continue. A shame we couldn't race; at least this is an upgrade from this time last year when we came away with a broken hand! Aside from today I‰Ûªm feeling good with the bike and we‰Ûªll go again next week."
Glenn Coldenhoff will get more treatment on his injury in an affort to be at peak fitness for the MXGP season opener in March.
‰ÛÏThe first race in the books. I picked up a small injury last week during practice so my speed and riding wasn't the best today but I was still happy that I could race. I‰Ûªm going home to get some treatment now and then we‰Ûªll look towards the International at Hawkstone Park," Coldenhoff said.
