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MXGP<br />
finales in recent memory lost<br />
a third crown in a row by four<br />
points to then teammate Jordi<br />
Tixier. Herlings would have to<br />
wait another eighteen months<br />
before wrapping his MX2 hatrick.<br />
“He wrote to me and sent<br />
some nice messages of advice<br />
and what I should do next<br />
with the injury,” Prado says.<br />
“Honestly that surprised me…<br />
and I really appreciated it.”<br />
Prado might have followed<br />
Romain Febvre (2015) and<br />
Tim Gajser (2016) as rookie<br />
winners of the premier class<br />
crown at the first attempt<br />
(Herlings managed the feat<br />
in his second ‘go’ in 2018).<br />
He’ll now be able affront 2020<br />
with a softer spotlight. “All I<br />
want to do is progress,” he<br />
said of his realigned goals for<br />
the year. “It’s hard to think<br />
of the season [ahead] when<br />
I just want to concentrate on<br />
the next weeks to get back to<br />
a position where I am back<br />
on the bike and fit. I had very<br />
little time on the 450 but the<br />
bike was already ready to race<br />
and that also gives me<br />
confidence for when I can<br />
finally be in the MXGP gate.”<br />
If #61 does have a Grand Prix<br />
in mind to return to the<br />
orange awning next to Cairoli<br />
and Herlings then he’s being<br />
understandably discrete. “I<br />
really want to start riding as<br />
soon as possible mainly because<br />
I miss it!” he admitted.<br />
“But we don’t have a set date<br />
at the moment. This break<br />
needs quite a bit of work and<br />
it means I might be on the<br />
bike when the leg is not in an<br />
ideal condition. I also need<br />
to work as much as I can to<br />
build up the muscle strength<br />
again, that will be the main<br />
thing before I can think about<br />
the bike.”<br />
Verdict<br />
Jeffrey Herlings was 19 years<br />
old and on the way to a third<br />
world championship when he<br />
fractured his femur in 2014.<br />
At the time the argument over<br />
whether the Dutchman was<br />
too young and too inexperienced<br />
for the 450 and the premier<br />
class was particularly hot<br />
and was occurring in a miniera<br />
where he was smoking the<br />
best that MX2 had to offer.<br />
The future of the 450s was<br />
still a talking point at the time<br />
with Tony Cairoli having won<br />
three straight championships<br />
on the 350 SX-F and Herlings’<br />
occasionally rash decisionmaking<br />
and riding style had<br />
many claiming the bigger bike<br />
was simply a step too far for<br />
an athlete so young. The MX2<br />
class saw two rule changes to<br />
protect and then finally eject<br />
athletes aping Herlings’ dominance<br />
from what is essentially<br />
a category to funnel talent into<br />
MXGP. Prado is the first real<br />
‘victim’ of this stipulation after<br />
establishing a similar rate of
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