Martijn Jaspers Race report: Pre and post Worldcup #3 Berlin. By Martijn Jaspers
Jun 16, 2014
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With World Cups Manchester and Papendal as first peak part of the season, the weeks after Papendal were all about training. We spent a lot of hours on the BMX track and did some heavy gym and other training sessions. It were tiring weeks, but I felt good and strong and knew with some rest I would be good to go for Berlin. 2 weeks after Papendal we had 2 Euro League races in Klazienaveen, Netherlands, this weekend was the first starting the Olympic Points Qualification for Rio 2016 for countries.I felt good, practice went well and I was ready for the races. I was unlucky in the 1st moto on Saturday, clipping out just before the 2nd jump and crashed. With 2 thick and stiff knees I was able to ride and fight my way into semi finals. There I was in good position going into the first turn, when I decided to take the inside lane and pass World Champ Liam Phillips, I turned too tight and crashed again. Really disappointing to crash twice and miss the final, because I knew I was good enough to achive a good result. On Sunday the knees were too stiff and painful to give full power.
I managed to qualify easy for 1/8 finals, where I was on the wrong spot whole lap, so it was quickly over for me.
The week after Klazienaveen we went to Berlin to train on the Worldcup track. I spent some good time on the track, which is really different to other Worldcup tracks, with steep jumps and a lot of turns. We had a lot of fun working on it and find some lines to pass.
On our way back to Holland we did a 3 Nations Cup in Ahnatal, Germany. Next to most German, Belgian and Dutch Elite riders also riders from Australia, Latvia and Czech were attending, which made it a big race. I qualified easy for semis, which I won and had a good final. I made a mistake on 2nd straight which cost me a spot, but I still made the podium in 3rd, behind Twan van Gendt (NED) and Matthew Juster (AUS).
After two days at home we went back to Berlin for Worldcup #3. On Thursday I felt flat during practice, having no power at all. After a good warmup Friday practice went way better. I was automatically qualified for Saturdays racing and raced a Top 16 Super Final, where I got 8th I had a good group on Saturday and rode a great lap moto 1, winning it. 2nd moto I was unlucky touching someone first jump and crashing together. Third moto I had a perfect gate and was sitting easy in 2nd, I don’t know what happened, but totally lost control mid air at the end of second straight and crashed again.
Totally unnecessary my weekend ended. It were already crash 9 and 10 of the season, which is way too much. I never had something like this before. I’ll have to find a solution for that, but not analyze it too much.
I know thanks to all of the support of my sponsors and team I have everything needed in my package. I’ll keep moving forward and work hard, everything will fall into place soon, that’s one thing for sure. First back to training towards the BIG championship weeks.
Cheers
MJ92
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.