FIM Europe News

After a stifling hot week, there were much milder temperatures today in Orlyonok, Russia. The track had already taken a hammering from the extreme weather conditions over the days prior; therefore it was pretty dry in areas with jagged holes popping up left, right and center. It was all about line choice thereafter, which was an extra challenge for the talented kids that ventured out here to contest the 2016 FIM Junior Motocross World Championships and the European Open 65cc Cup, where Jago Geerts, Rene Hofer and Kirill Vorobyov were the gold medalists in their respective classes. All three riders also won a Scott mountain bike, thanks to the team at Scott Sports. An uphill start right into a hairpin that heads straight downhill made things interesting for the little guys contesting the European Open 65cc class. When the gates dropped it was the young Latvian Edvards Bidzans who recently

After a stifling hot week, there were much milder temperatures today in Orlyonok, Russia. The track had already taken a hammering from the extreme weather conditions over the days prior; therefore it was pretty dry in areas with jagged holes popping up left, right and center. It was all about line choice thereafter, which was an extra challenge for the talented kids that ventured out here to contest the 2016 FIM Junior Motocross World Championships and the European Open 65cc Cup, where Jago Geerts, Rene Hofer and Kirill Vorobyov were the gold medalists in their respective classes. All three riders also won a Scott mountain bike, thanks to the team at Scott Sports.An uphill start right into a hairpin that heads straight downhill made things interesting for the little guys contesting the European Open 65cc class. When the gates dropped it was the young Latvian Edvards Bidzans who recently made

 The city of Veszprém, in Hungary, hosted the European Bajas Championship. At the end of two days of races the winner in the Motorcycle class was Pedro Bianchi Prata from Portugal (in the photo), in front of Rudolf Lhotsky, from Czech Republic, and Raffaello Manenti, from Italy.In the Quad class, the winner of the overall was Josef Machacek from Czech Republic, with Pawel Otwinowski and Tomas Kubiena on the side steps of the rostrum.In the UTV class, Italian Stefano Cavaciuti won in front of Zavrtalek-Sevcik, with Fossà in third position. Photo: @Elisabetta Caracciolo  

The city of Riga, in Latvia, hosted the final of the European Pairs Speedway Championship, which was held in front of around 1200 spectators. The meeting was run on a wet track but thanks to big work of the local organizers the track was ready for the race. Because of the weather conditions there were problems with the track and the jury decided to stop the race after Heat 18. According to the rules the first 14 heats were calculated because the track became even dangerous during the next hits (15-18) but there were no injuried riders. It was a very tight, competitive race meeting. At the end Italy was on the top of the rostrum because they had the most individual wins: in fact they had the same points as Denmark and Latvia, which closed in second and third position.      

Spanish Miquel Gelabert (Sherco, photo1) clinched the last title still to be assigned in Grossheubach, Germany, for the final round of the 2016 FIM Europe championship. Gelabert broke a tradition of 9 years in which no Spanish rider had been crowned with an European trophy in the top class: the last was Daniel Gilbert riding Montesa in 2007. Gelabert closed the 2016 season with a convincing victory in front of Francesc Moret (Vertigo) exactly as it happened one week ago in the previous round. Also the third place was the photocopy of the round before occupied by British Iwan Roberts (Beta). Only fourth position for Dan Peace (Gas Gas): after winning twice in France, the British rider was a strong contender for the title, but the Brit started without a big motivation, maybe because he was aware that the gap from the leader was too big to recover. On the

The city of Veszprém, in Hungary, hosted the European Bajas Championship. At the end of two days of races the winner in the Motorcycle class was Pedro Bianchi Prata from Portugal (in the photo), in front of Rudolf Lhotsky, from Czech Republic, and Raffaello Manenti, from Italy. In the Quad class, the winner of the overall was Josef Machacek from Czech Republic, with Pawel Otwinowski and Tomas Kubiena on the side steps of the rostrum. In the UTV class, Italian Stefano Cavaciuti won in front of Zavrtalek-Sevcik, with Fossà in third position. Photo: @Elisabetta Caracciolo

The city of Riga, in Latvia, hosted the final of the European Pairs Speedway Championship, which was held in front of around 1200 spectators. The meeting was run on a wet track but thanks to big work of the local organizers the track was ready for the race. Because of the weather conditions there were problems with the track and the jury decided to stop the race after Heat 18. According to the rules the first 14 heats were calculated because the track became even dangerous during the next hits (15-18) but there were no injuried riders. It was a very tight, competitive race meeting. At the end Italy was on the top of the rostrum because they had the most individual wins: in fact they had the same points as Denmark and Latvia, which closed in second and third position.

Spanish Miquel Gelabert (Sherco, photo1) clinched the last title still to be assigned in Grossheubach, Germany, for the final round of the 2016 FIM Europe championship. Gelabert broke a tradition of 9 years in which no Spanish rider had been crowned with an European trophy in the top class: the last was Daniel Gilbert riding Montesa in 2007. Gelabert closed the 2016 season with a convincing victory in front of Francesc Moret (Vertigo) exactly as it happened one week ago in the previous round. Also the third place was the photocopy of the round before occupied by British Iwan Roberts (Beta). Only fourth position for Dan Peace (Gas Gas): after winning twice in France, the British rider was a strong contender for the title, but the Brit started without a big motivation, maybe because he was aware that the gap from the leader was too big to recover. On the

With temperatures hovering well above 30 degree’s Celsius, combined with scorching humidity, the world’s fastest motocross kids took on their first challenge of the weekend here in Orlyonok, Russia, where the qualifying sessions for the European Open 65cc Cup, took place. The sun baked rocky surface of Orlyonok meant traction was scarce, and throttle control and line choice was of the essence. On a track so slick, and hilly, the key is to carry momentum. You don’t want to be getting hard on the gas and lighting up, wheel spin means you’re not accelerating and on a surface this hard, all you’ll be doing is burning rubber and destroying your tire. In The European Open 65cc Cup welcome to the Alexey Orlov show! Orlov was on fire today as he stomped the qualifying session with an amazing time of 2:08.604. The little Russian put on a fine display of riding

British Jack Peace on Gas Gas and German Therese Bäuml on Beta (in the photo with the chairman of FIM Europe Trial Commission, Anders Minken) clinched the European titles in the Youth class and Women class in the last round held in the Bavarian town of Grossheubach, in Germany: around 80 kilometers from Frankfurt, in a valley between the Spessart and Odenwald foothills, it is very well known in the Trial circus for the important events organized in the past. No doubt for the title in the women  class: Therese Bäuml (in photo2) won even this fourth and last round and deserved to climb the highest step of the podium. She collected 14 points in the first loop, gaining soon a significant advantage on the couple formed by Norwegian Ingveig Hakonsen (Beta) and German Bianca Huber (Scorpa), who had scored 22 marks. In the second part Ingveig rode in superlative