Desalle Wins Valence International MX1 Class

Rockstar
Energy Suzuki World MX1 completed its first competitive motocross race
of 2011 with victory in cold and wet weather conditions at Valence in
France as Clement Desalle took victory with two wins and a third
position and team-mate Steve Ramon was eighth overall.

The
shallow hillside circuit just south of Lyon was battered by rain
through Saturday evening and Sunday morning and forced a generous
gathering of Grand Prix stars to take their opening meeting of the year
with a degree of caution: Overtaking was difficult on a terrain
chiselled into one line.

2010 MX1 World Championship runner-up
Desalle, on the RM-Z450WS, roared away with the first 20-minute moto
after obtaining the holeshot and working a lead of over 10 seconds from
Ramon; equally-comfortable in second place. But the works RM-Z450s
could not formation-fly in the second race as Ramon was not as
prominent out of the gate and even slipped off once on his way to 10th.
Desalle was into first place by the second lap and didn't look back,
even during two moments of brief pressure from Sebastien Pourcel.

In
the third and final sprint of the day, Desalle was holding a
comfortable second position but suffered rear brake trouble courtesy of
an errant stone. In the final laps he had a small tumble and finished
third. Ramon hit the mud in the opening phases and eased his way
through the rest of the race distance.

"Yesterday we tried
some new parts on the bike and it was good to try but I was not
super-sure for this track so we kept with the same set-up we had
before," said Desalle. "The results were good today because the track
was very slippery and I struggled when the stone hit my rear brake in
the last heat. I did not want to crash and hurt myself like last year."


"It wasn't too bad today," commented Ramon. "The first moto was
OK with a good start even if I did have a bit of arm-pump. The track
was really difficult because it was so slippery and hard to get any
traction. The second moto start wasn't great and my rear brake was
playing up so it was tricky on those downhills. In the third moto I was
riding well and trying to push but the bike slid away and I lost a
bunch of positions. My right elbow and hip were bothering me so I just
saw the rest of the race out."

Suzuki's factory team will now
remain in the southern region of France over the coming week for
further tests and participate in a local event at Lacapelle-Marival
next Sunday.

Valence International overall result:

1. Clement Desalle (Rockstar Energy Suzuki World MX1)
2. Steven Frossard (Yamaha)
3. Sebastien Pourcel (Kawasaki)
4. Shaun Simpson (Honda)
5. Gregory Aranda (Kawasaki)
6. Julien Bill (Honda)
7. Loic Larrieu (KTM)
8. Steve Ramon (Rockstar Energy World MX1 Team)
9. David Guarneri (Kawasaki)
10. Jonathan Barragan (Kawasaki)