Date: 6 June 2010

Round 7 of the MX1 Motocross World Championship headed to St Jean D’Angely in France this weekend where Gareth Swanepoel and his CAS Honda team were greeted by a well prepared and spectacular hill-side circuit. Hot weather on Saturday made for a hard and stony surface, however overnight rain changed things totally for Sunday as deep ruts challenged everyone.

Swanepoel gelled well with the rough circuit and rode to a solid 12th position in the 20 minute and 2 lap Saturday qualifying race, securing a decent gate pick for Sunday.

With a great start in moto one ‘Swanie’ was on the gas and rounded out the opening lap in 8th position. During the long and challenging race the South African battled with a gaggle of different riders, but keeping his head down and out of trouble Swanepoel brought his number 8 CAS Honda home in 11th position.

In the second race of the day ‘Swanie’ didn’t get a great start and was racing mid-pack on the opening lap. A small fall slowed his progress, but in the end Swanepoel rode a clean race as he pushed through the pack into 13th position, awarding him a 10th overall for the day.

“The overnight rain made the track really tough today” commented Swanepoel. “ I got an awesome start in the first moto but made a small mistake on one of the down hills and lost four positions. I settled into a race rhythm but then got tired towards the end and had to fight the track. I struggled to get going in the second moto after a bad start and then went down with another rider as I was trying to get past. I quickly got up and settled into the race and managed to make a pass on Coppins towards the end of the moto.”

Image CDS

Results

Moto 1

1 Cairoli, Antonio
2 Ramon, Steve
3 Philippaerts, David
4 Desalle, Clement
5 Guarneri, Davide
6 Leok, Tanel
7 Boissiere, Anthony
8 Strijbos, Kevin
9 de Dycker, Ken
10 Aubin, Nicolas
11 Swanepoel, Gareth
12 Coppins, Joshua
13 Bobryshev, Evgeny
14 Goncalves, Rui
15 Pourcel, Sebastien

Moto 2

1 Philippaerts, David
2 Desalle, Clement
3 Cairoli, Antonio
4 Boissiere, Anthony
5 Ramon, Steve
6 de Dycker, Ken
7 Boog, Xavier
8 Guarneri, Davide
9 Leok, Tanel
10 Pourcel, Sebastien
11 Strijbos, Kevin
12 Goncalves, Rui
13 Swanepoel, Gareth
14 Coppins, Joshua
15 Aubin, Nicolas

Overall GP

1 Philippaerts, David 20 25 45
2 Cairoli, Antonio 25 20 45
3 Desalle, Clement 18 22 40
4 Ramon, Steve 22 16 38
5 Boissiere, Anthony 14 18 32
6 Guarneri, Davide 16 13 29
7 de Dycker, Ken 12 15 27
8 Leok, Tanel 15 12 27
9 Strijbos, Kevin 13 10 23
10 Swanepoel, Gareth 10 8 18
11 Pourcel, Sebastien 6 11 17
12 Aubin, Nicolas 11 6 17
13 Goncalves, Rui 7 9 16
14 Coppins, Joshua 9 7 16
15 Boog, Xavier 0 14 14

World Championship Standings

1 Cairoli, A. 304
2 Desalle, C. 236
3 Philippaerts, D. 229
4 Nagl, M. 218
5 Ramon, Steve 211
6 de Dycker, Ken 201
7 Boog, Xavier 181
8 Leok, Tanel 162
9 Guarneri, D. 140
10 Bobryshev, E. 123
11 Strijbos, K. 109
12 Boissiere, A. 107
13 Coppins, J. 106
14 Pourcel, S. 92
15 Swanepoel, G. 92