The past years haven’t been easy for Jeffrey Herlings with the rider facing a lot of injuries but now his level and consistency seem to be catching up, and the way he is performing is showing, as the rider himself is feeling he is growing.
This weekend at Maggiora, the KTM rider was second overall, just two points away from the overall winner, after being at Kegums the winner.
When looking at his performance, Herlings started by saying exactly that he is feeling better: ‘I feel I am getting better and better each weekend and, here, even my starts were OK! Being on the inside kept me safe and at the front. Hard to overtake in the first moto. With all the rain we had and because it was a tight track it was just so hard to pass when the speed was very close. I tried all I could but not making that move unfortunately cost me the Overall’.
His main opponent was Tim Gajser, with him managing to beat the Honda fellow, who still deserved some compliment: ‘I was on Tim’s [Gajser] rear wheel all the time in the second moto but it was like being in a paintball game because I was only eating roost! He was riding perfectly and with good lines and I couldn’t get him until he made a small mistake and that was to my benefit’.
In the end Herlings took 45 points: ‘So, 3-1, but the most important thing is that I am closing to the gap to the others guys. If you see the races at the start of the season [then] they were pulling away from me but now I’m coming closer and closer. We’ll keep fighting from here’.