Roan van de Moosdijk, who only joined the team as a replacement for the injured Ruben Fernandez this week, and who missed a lot of the off-season through injury, went DNF on his MXGP debut due the high temperatures and the lack of training.
A 12th place on Saturday´s time practice session gave everyone a glimpse of his early potential, and then in the first half of the qualification race, he was also battling just outside the top 10. However, as the temperatures and track conditions took their toll, the Dutch youngster, who was also making his full MXGP debut dropped down to finish 16th.
And on Sunday when the temperature gauges started rising, his job was made even more difficult on a track that has made even the best riders in the world struggle. As it was, he was just outside the top 10 in both races before removing himself from the race-track as a precaution to avoid making a mistake that could hinder his further development. He knows the speed is there, and now the work begins to make sure he can run that for a full moto.
“Tough weekend, and not exactly how I hoped my debut would go. The conditions were extremely difficult and I felt it was better to fight another day, than to push over the limit and put myself in danger. Of course I’m not happy to have to do it, especially as my speed was good at the beginning of the races but I will now have another couple of sessions on the bike to get more comfortable and fitter and I expect to do a lot better next week in Trentino.“
