Tim Gajser_Returning to Form

Defending world MXGP champion Tim Gajser hasn’t had the same explosive season that he had in 2015 and 2016. With an MX2 and MXGP title to his name, everyone expected him the battle the likes of Antonio Cairoli and Jeffrey Herlings in 2017.

Down in fifth place in the series standings, with 310 points, he isn’t close enough to the top four to make too much ground up before the end of the season, and behind him is 2015 MXGP champion Romain Febvre, just one point behind.

At the start of the season Gajser looked like he would be the man to beat as he led the MXGP championship points, until crashes and eventually an injury ruled him out of a handful of races. Now getting back to his best form the HRC rider knows that he can start looking at winning again.

“The most difficult thing was so much pain,” Gajser said. “In Germany and France I was having trouble with it and I knew I had an injury. At the beginning, it was really not fun. I couldn’t train and I had to just watch. Going to Italy was good for me. In Italy the shoulder was painful, but I wanted to race so bad. I hadn’t ridden much before Italy, just four times and I did a race back home.”

Now with his body back to what it once was, you can be sure that Gajser will want to fight for races and GP wins. He has enjoyed his experiences at the Loket circuit and goes into this weekend with a lot of confidence.

“I have used the last three weeks to get fit with the focus on coming back stronger this weekend. I have spent some time out mountain biking and just enjoying training again. Loket is very slick hard surface but I really like tracks like that and last year here I had a really good race with Max Nagl so I hope that I can have some good battles again this weekend.”

His last Grand Prix, in Portugal, Gajser was more than happy to finish with consistent results and build for the Grand Prix of Czech Republic.

“I was quite satisfied with Portugal, every race is getting better, step by step. In the first moto, I didn’t have a good start and I was struggling a little bit with my stomach, it wasn’t very nice to ride like that but I got on with it. The second race was a lot better, it didn’t feel so bad all round even though the track was rough. We had some time off, and I focused on getting back in shape and to come back stronger for the Czech Republic.”

Author:

Geoff Meyer