Cairoli Stars in Mantova
World MX1 champion Tony Cairoli took his factory 350 KTM to overall victory in Sunday’s Mantova Startcross international in Italy, but only won one of the three races. Jeffrey Herlings and Evgeny Bobryshev also won a race each.
In a three-race format that saw MX2 and MX1 bikes mixed in together, Cairoli romped to a first race win from 250F man Herlings who passed ex world champ David Philippaerts for second.
The Italian was then demoted a further place on the opening lap by Russian factory Honda rider Bobryshev who said he had arm pump in the rough, sandy conditions.
Race two saw Herlings clear off to an easy win after Cairoli was left mid-pack after a first corner clash. Much to the delight of the 5000-strong crowd, he pulled back through to second place after demoting Philippaerts. Bobryshev crashed, remounted then later stalled.
The final race was the best, as Cairoli pulled the holeshot but was hounded all the way by Bobryshev. The pair stayed locked together for the whole race, but with two laps to go Bobby put his all-new factory Honda in front and Cairoli had no answer. But his overall win was guaranteed. Herlings rode a lonely race to third place after passing fast-starting Marc De Reuver.
Cairoli took the MX1 overall from Philipparts and Bobryshev. The MX2 overall was totally dominated by the factory KTM team with Herlings best, followed by Jeremy Van Horebeek and Jordi Tixier.
