Roan van de Moosdijk Joins Honda HRC MXGP as Fill-In Rider
Last week in an Instagram post, Roan Van De Moosdijk confirmed his departure from the Fantic Racing Team. After missing the first two rounds of the season, the Dutch rider left his new team before even making a single gate drop in the FIM Motocross World Championship (MXGP). Today, Honda HRC MXGP announced the Dutch rider has joined their team as a fill-in rider for injured rider Ruben Fernandez. Fernandez suffered a torn ACL in the first turn of the opening round qualifying race and has undergone surgery. With Fernandez sidelined indefinitely, van de Moosdijk was brought in as a fill-in rider.
The following press release is from Honda HRC:
NEWS: Roan Van De Moosdijk joins up with Team HRC
Dutch rider Roan Van De Moosdijk has joined Team HRC in a replacement deal for the injured Ruben Fernandez. The Spaniard injured his knee in a first-turn incident at the MXGP of Patagonia-Argentina and has since undergone surgery, which will leave him on the sidelines for the foreseeable future. As such, Team HRC decided that bringing in another rider was the right decision, and with v/d Moosdijk available and ready to race, the deal was swiftly put in place so that he could line-up at the third round of the 2024 MXGP World Championship in Riola Sardo, Sardinia.
After an injury-hit 2023 campaign v/d Moosdijk was still able to finish within 20 points of fifth place in the MX2 championship, including two podiums and one race win. But with the age-rule meaning he had to move up to the MXGP class this year, and with rides at a premium, the rookie wasn’t able to make his debut in the first two rounds of 2024, and has instead kept training in the hope of getting an opportunity to impress at a later date.
However, that opportunity has arisen quicker than even he expected, with Fernandez getting injured in the first turn of the first qualification race of the year, and although the #70 did try to make it to the line at his home GP in Spain a couple of weeks later, it just wasn’t meant to be. This has opened the door for the 2019 EMX250 champion, and although the single-week of preparation on a brand-new machine isn’t the ideal way to make your debut in the toughest motocross championship in the world, the talented 23-year-old will give it everything he has to establish himself at the top of the MXGP class.
Team HRC has had a great deal of success spotting and nurturing young talent, with Tim Gajser and Fernandez both showing that the Honda CRF450R is a great platform to make that big step up from the MX2 class, and now it is v/d Moosdijk’s turn to make that leap, starting on April 6-7 in the deep sand of Riola Sardo.
#39 Roan Van De Moosdijk
“When I heard about this opportunity, I knew I had to take it with both hands. The chance to ride for Team HRC doesn’t come along very often and I am hopeful that I can show everyone what I am capable of, in what will be my full-time debut in the MXGP class. It certainly won’t be easy to get up to speed on the Honda CRF450R straightaway but seeing how well Tim (Gajser) has been riding it, I know that it is a very competitive bike and I’m excited to get started and get comfortable on it. Thanks to everyone that has supported me, to get me to this moment, and I can’t wait to get to Riola and get lined up for that first gate-drop.”
Marcus Pereira de Freitas, HRC General Manager – MXGP:
“We are very excited to have Roan join us for this next stage of the season. Obviously with the nature of Ruben’s injury, there is no exact timeframe for his return so Team HRC decided that it would be a good idea to have another rider fill-in, and when we started those conversations, we looked at Roan and knew right away that he would be an excellent rider for our team. We had to work quickly because there are a lot of races coming up in a short amount of time, so a big thank you to all our sponsors who were very supportive of the decision and to everyone who helped make this happen so swiftly. Riola Sardo is a very tough race to make your debut in, and Roan obviously won’t have long on the bike but we are excited to see how he does over the weekend and then also once he has settled in.”
