Racereport: Devastating World Championship. Report by Martijn Jaspers

Aug 12, 2014

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 1968 times

Biggest race of the season, home country, fully packed stadium with family and friends. That sums up the great atmosphere in Ahoy, Rotterdam, a World Championship I was really looking forward to. The week after the my European medal I picked up a cold, which I couldn’t get rid of. I didn’t feel good with practice leading to Worlds, but knew with Worlds on 1 day, all could be good. The space in the stadium was used optimal, track was small but rolled good. 1st practice went well and I felt good on the track. I had some issues with the gate, but got it

solved for TT and racing. I overshot the 2nd in my Timetrial which costed me some time in turn 1, on a short track like this, I wasn’t able to get the time back and ended 29th. Not the result I hoped for, but a 12th split time in turn 1 gave me confidence for racing on Sunday.

Last practice before racing I felt great, gates, acceleration and track speed were all on point. I was ready for racing. It was absolutely devastating my Worlds was already over after half a lap. I missed my gate a bit in my 1/8 final and got cut off directly. Somehow I peddled between the hill and 1st jump and overshot it completely. I got passed on all sides and was in 6th position, but got lucky 3 guys in front of me crashed. Thought I could get passed the crash, only 1 bike fell in front of me, so I crashed as well. Worlds was over, it was hard to find emotions for that. Totally unexpected and unnecessary to end this day so soon and not giving myself the opportunity to defend my W4 from last year.

Now, 2 weeks after Worlds we are trying to find explanations and working on a better outcome. After a week of vacation we got back at it and preparing to end the season well with Worldcups in Argentina and America. I’ll keep you updated.

Cheers,

MJ92