2010 World Championships
Valkenswaard, Netherlands - 25th April 2010

Nicholls 14th in Dutch sand and briefly leads the world

HM Plant Red Bull KTM UK sampled a bitter-sweet third round of the FIM Motocross World Championship as Jake Nicholls endured an eventful Grand Prix of Netherlands at Valkenswaard near Eindhoven. The current British Championship leader finished 14th overall but displayed some of his best speed yet in the sand, seized the holeshot in the second moto and even led the MX2 pack.

A hot and sunny weekend in southern Holland meant the Dutch terrain was perhaps not as rippled as previous years but the shallow and loose surface still shifted into a wavy plethora of bumps and knots. 20 year old Nicholls had been working diligently on his technique as part of his relocation to Belgium and process of familiarisation to the sand widely found in the Benelux/Dutch area of Europe.

A bright qualification on the KTM 250SX-F yielded 7th place, his best of the season. A decent start was spurned in Moto1 as the Englishman made a mistake and crashed while on the outskirts of the top ten and was relegated far down the field after managing to restart and rejoin the fray. A valiant chase was rewarded on the very last corner after 35 minutes and 2 laps of work with one point for 20th position. Nicholls would lead a Grand Prix for the first time in his career after emerging from the second turn heading the fastest riders in the world. He resisted for half a lap before finding his pace and holding a slot in the top ten for the majority of the distance, eventually coming home with 10th place.

Nicholls is currently 11th in the World Championship and will need 19 points over British Championship rival Zach Osborne to penetrate the top eight.

HM Plant Red Bull KTM UK will now make the relatively short journey home to prepare for the third round of the national series at Duns in Scotland next weekend. The Grand Prix of Portugal at Agueda will happen the following week.

Jake Nicholls:

“It was a strange weekend. Qualifying went well and I got a good start in the first race but made a mistake on the second lap and then had a coming-together with another rider on the fourth lap. I struggled to restart the bike and was last by miles. The team suggested that I pull in but it is not really my style to give up so I kept going the whole moto and it was worth it in the end to get at least one point on the last corner. In the second race I holeshotted and led half a lap and rode as well as I could. The sand is not really my surface but I have been working on it with Harry Everts and that effort is starting to pay-off. I held strong for a while but made a little slip in one corner that caused me to lose a couple of positions. I got back to 10th for 14th overall and it was a pretty reasonable day.”

Roger Magee:

“There are plenty of positives to take from this weekend. It was Jake’s best result on sand, he almost had the holeshot in both races and he got to experience what it is like at the sharp end for a little bit. He is really developing and I am sure we will see the fruit of these good performances at Duns next week.

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