On Track Off Road No. 195

MXGP
PRADO SETS GOAL OF WANTING TO
“PROGRESS” DURING MXGP DEBUT SEASON
The British Grand Prix will
open the FIM Motocross World
Championship for the first
time this century on March 1st
but the initial round of twenty
in ’20 will be without double
MX2 title-winner and one of
the star names of the series,
Jorge Prado. The Red Bull
KTM rider underwent surgery
to fix a broken left femur mid-
December and is pushing to
regain fitness and eventually
ride the works 450 SX-F again
before considering his debut in
the premier class. 2020 MXGP
starts at pace with four Grands
Prix occurring before the first
weekend of April.
Presently, Prado is focussing
more on rehab rather than
training but doctors approved
a greater degree of prep ten
days ago. “It’s only been four
weeks, so it is still very early
but I can now cycle and get in
the gym to work on strength in
my upper body,” the recentlyturned
19 year old said. “I cannot
run yet. People are really
impressed with the progress I
am making. It was a pretty serious
injury and a complicated
operation but the surgery could
not have gone any better.”
The Spaniard – who will be the
focus of attention at just his
second home Grand Prix at the
new venue of intu Xanadú – Arroyomolinos
in Madrid on April
18-19 and could well be racing
by that stage – has had to deal
with the consequences of the
largest setback of his young
three-year world championship
career to-date. “In the first
weeks
you are
full of
medicine
and pills
to reduce
pain and
infection;
it takes a
while to
feel normal
again
because
there is
swelling around the tissue and
the side-effects mean you don’t
feel hungry and generally a bit
miserable,” he described. “So
it was a hard time…”
PRADO MIGHT HAVE FOLLOWED
ROMAIN FEBVRE (2015) AND TIM
GAJSER (2016) AS ROOKIE WINNERS
N AT THE FIRST ATTEMPT (HERLINGS
MANAGED THE FEAT IN HIS SECOND
‘GO’ IN 2018). HE’LL NOW BE ABLE
AFFRONT 2020 WITH A SOFTER
SPOTLIGHT.
Prado suffered the break after
losing grip and balance on the
450 SX-F around the Malagrotta
track near Rome; the
regular training base he uses
with teammate and mentor
Tony Cairoli. “I’ve not thought
that much about the crash,”
he admits. “For a day or two
afterwards I was replaying in
my mind what had happened…
but I didn’t make a mistake
and there was no problem with
the bike: it was just bad luck.
It had started to rain and I lost
grip over a very easy jump! I
think an amateur could crash
there…but there is no way a
rider at my level should do
that. The circumstances mean
that it hasn’t affected my confidence
or my desire to get on
the bike.”
MXGP teammate and 2018
world champion Jeffrey Herlings
was one of the first to
message Prado once news of
the accident filtered through.
The Dutchman snapped the
same bone with a commanding
145 point lead in the 2014 MX2
world championship and while
riding an 85cc machine at a
charity event. Eight weeks (and
one stomach infection) later
Herlings was able to hobble
back on his KTM for the final
race of the season in Mexico
and despite a valiant 11th place
finish overall in one of the
most dramatic championship