Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
Cairoli’s<br />
Hope<br />
Italy, Rnd 11 of 20, June<br />
Early June 2018. MXGP is rocked by<br />
news filtering out of Belgium that series<br />
leader Herlings – vanquisher of the last<br />
four Grands Prix in a row – has snapped<br />
his right collarbone in a training crash.<br />
Red Bull KTM confirm a fourth set of<br />
surgery on the Dutchman’s upper torso<br />
and damage to the plate that had already<br />
been inserted. The rest of the MXGP<br />
pack can smell a break in more ways<br />
than one. Herlings is cursing his luck,<br />
what he would call ‘a bump in the road’<br />
on social media, but Tony Cairoli strides<br />
through the open door back into title<br />
contention at round eleven of twenty with<br />
barely a second glance.<br />
#222 aces both races in front of an eager<br />
home crowd at Ottobiano and Herlings’<br />
hard-earned 60 point gap at the top<br />
of the championship is hacked down<br />
to just 10. At the time it felt like a title<br />
‘reset’ that had neutral fans rubbing their<br />
hands: what could Cairoli do from here?<br />
However less than three weeks after he<br />
tasted a surgeon’s knife, Herlings had<br />
managed to drag the ship back onto<br />
course and the waters became significantly<br />
calmer as he reasserted the same<br />
pre-injury routine.
Change language