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 his mark on the world when he won the European EMX65 Championship a month ago, who took the holeshot over Russian Kirill Vorobyov.
Bidzans may have already been thinking about his Fox Europe prize he just won by claiming the Fox Holeshot because Vorobyov passed him relatively easily at turn two. Bidzans tried to respond, but Vorobyov was already carrying far more momentum and managed to make the pass stick.
Five minutes in and Bidzans got fevered. He showed Vorobyov a wheel and challenged for the lead before unexpectedly loosing the front and crashing pretty hard. The kid that was the quickest in qualifying yesterday, Alexey Orlov, then inherited second place, but had some ground to make up on the leader.
Patients, strategy and smarts is not something you expect from a 65cc rider, but Orlov has it, and he dropped the hammer with two laps to go and got right on the rear wheel of Vorobyov. Unfortunately, it was too little, too late and he had to settle for second despite setting the fastest lap time.
At the checkers, the top five finishers were all Russian. Kirill Vorobyov took the flag ahead of Alexy Orlov, Karlis Reisulis, Sergey Glebkin and Ilia Krasnitskiy. Bidzans, on the other hand, pulled in for a pit stop but returned to the race and managed to salvage seventh.
Race two saw a bit of carnage at turn one with Bidzans getting hung up and the race one runner-up, Orlov, going down. On the flip side of all of that, the race one winner, Vorobyov, crossed the Fox Holeshot line first.
On completion of the first lap, the Russian prodigy, Vorobyov, already had a standing ovation from the crowd who were absolutely buzzing over the speed of their Russian star on the rise. As he inched away, the Latvians, Karlis Reisulis and Edvards Bizdans, tried to keep him in check, but in the end, they couldn’t match his pace.
At the checkers, Vorobyov made it a perfect weekend with yet another race win while Reisulis edged out his fellow countryman, Bidzans, for second. Orlov had a sassy few laps where he diced his way to fourth; he rode well but was done in by his first turn mishap. Arseny Grishchuk rounded out the top five.
Kirill Vorobyov topped the box with a double moto victory while Karlis Reisulis stood on the second step with Alexey Orlov on the third.
Full results on FIM Europe website: http://www.fim-europe.eu/events/256
Photos @Youthstream
