Jeffrey Herlings on the road to recovery

Four-time Motocross World Champion Jeffrey Herlings might be on the couch again, resting from yet another injury, we all know the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider is already dreaming about 2021 and his chance to add to his 90 Grand Prix victories and picking up another World championship.

Having led this years MXGP championship race by 60 points the Dutchman crashed in Faenza and damaged his back:

“I could move my neck and head, but that was it. I could feel a little bit my fingers, but I struggled for 30 minutes. After about 20 or 30 minutes I started to get feeling again and then after about an hour, I felt like new again. At 4pm on Sunday afternoon I was out of the hospital and I walked out of that place.” Herlings said of his crash in Faenza.

Fortunately he was quickly ready to go racing again, although having spoken with the team, they decided to get an operation on his damaged ankle and come into 2021 fully fit.

“I could start riding three weeks after my crash, but I wanted to get my foot fixed and I had that fixed last week. It is starting to feel better each day and it takes some time to get it recovered and I should be back on the in four weeks, but there is no hurry.”

Now, with two years of missing out on a chance for an MXGP championship because of injury, Herlings will go into next year motivated and ready to have more success. Injuries are a part of the sport, but no doubt the 2018 MXGP champion knows that, and let’s hope he can remain fit and once again lead the best riders in the world to another brilliant season of racing.

“That last two years have been really bad, because I could ride with it (his injured ankle), but I couldn’t be my normal self. I still have a three year deal with KTM, so I will do those three years, and I got to get some wins, because if you look at my GP wins compared to my world championships, it doesn’t balance out. I have 90 GP wins and only four world championships and most riders with four world championship only have like 40 GP wins, so I need to improve on that.”

As fellow MXGP legends Antonio Cairoli and Tim Gajser are set to go into the winter and take some rest from this very tough season, both mentally and physically, you can be sure that Herlings will start his preparation early, and come into the first round in 2021 ready to surprise his opposition.