Jeffrey Herlings will make his return to the FIM Motocross World Championship this weekend at the MXGP of Russia, KTM announced today.
The reigning MXGP World Champion returned to racing last week, competing in the Dutch Masters at Rhenen on Thursday, where he won the first moto and finished third overall. He also raced the ADAC MX Masters in Austria over the weekend and took second overall behind Jeremy Seewer.
“I’ve just been on the bike for three weeks and it has been going ok,” he said in a statement. “I’ll be going to Russia with a different mindset to usual. It will be the first of three races in a row and those will be important weeks to build-up race-rhythm for the rest of the season. I did two national events and my speed was there but I was struggling with the normal things you get on the way back from injury: arm-pump and running with other riders again. It will be even tougher with a whole bunch of top guys in Russia! I don't have a position in mind. I’ll do my best of course and I’ll be happy with something between 5-10 but we have to keep realistic. When we go to Latvia next, which is a bit sandy, then we can look and see and maybe think a bit differently.”
In 2018, Herlings won 17 of 20 GPs, scored 19 podiums and 33 moto victories from a possible 38 on the way to his first title (the fourth of his career) in the premier class in just his second season in the division. He sustained a foot injury in January in a training accident in Spain and has missed the first seven rounds of the championship.
