Herlings And Improvement

Five-time Motocross World Champion, Jeffrey Herlings knows a lot about losing championship for not being in the long game. Dozens of injuries have cut is title chase on probably half of his seasons racing in the MXGP or MX2 seasons and despite the fact he is already a legend of the sport, he continues to want to improve.

Now, at 31 years of age, the man many once called the fastest man on the planet isn’t looking at lapping complete fields, beating opponents by minutes, but just getting the job done and not pushing himself to a limit, even he cannot sustain.

In Trentino last weekend, the Dutchman came back from two poor starts to go 1-2 and win his 114th Grand Prix and while his opening race was the Jeffrey Herlings we all remember from his MX2 days and early MXGP career, but the second race it was about being smart and backing it down when a race win wasn’t on the cards.

“I just looked at it like,” Herlings said. “This is an endurance race. We have like 57 Races and you have to be there every single time. I don’t want to disrespectful to Romain, but Tim was leading the championship and Lucas was faster, but Romain was the guy who won the championship, because he was always there. That is how Ryan Dungey won so many championships. You don’t always have the be the fastest and I feel I had the most speed today, but there are days like Sardinian, where I am not the fastest and I have to just go 2-2 and go home safe. Some races I can get a poor result and some Lucas might have that.”

Of course, there is one element of his victory last weekend, that probably stopped him from getting the 1-1 and that was his starts. On a circuit that doesn’t allow quick passes or making up quick time, Herlings had to find lines nobody else was riding, and make up ground, that only Jeffrey Herlings could make up.

“I need to work on my starts but otherwise my speed was really good all weekend. I came from 15th to first in the first race and 10th to second in the second race, so it was good. I found a good flow and had some good lines in both races and even though it is a small track, I had to be creative. It was really good to pay back all the hard work from all of Honda HRC Petronas, they’ve all worked really hard to put me in the position to win and it was important to get these points for the championship standings, even though we have a lot of racing to go.”

Having won more Grand Prix’s than anyone else in the sports history, nobody needs to tell the HRC man how to do much of anything, yet still, coming from behind at 31 years of age, against youngsters like Lucas Coenen, Kay de Wolf or Tom Vialle is only getting fast and for sure, when those guys can all pull a start.

“I just manage to get a good flow and find some good lines. I was in traffic the whole time and you start to pick up some good lines. At one point I just had a good flow and was two or three seconds quicker than everyone else. It gets difficult when you get to say the top four it gets difficult to pass, when you have these guys next to me. I think I have a good fitness, and I work out every day. If I had starts like Tom (Vialle) or (Jorge) Prado, I would have even more wins. That is one of the only things from my career and the injuries (that is bad). My starts have not always been great, but now I have a great bike, so I need to make myself better.”

One thing is for sure, Herlings will race nearly every weekend leading into the French Grand Prix, at Lacapelle Marival on May 24 and 25, and amazingly, despite being something of a veteran in the class, Herlings still feels he can improve and maybe add to his already record breaking 114 wins.