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Herlings himself has said, the Honda is not as good in the sand as it is on hard packed. They have done a lot of job to get to this point in the sand.
You think after 15y on the big bike steel chassi and KTM specifically, after like 5 races and 3 months, that's as good as he will be in the sand on the Honda?
He also said he didn't think even Jett could hang with Lucas, saying Jett is faster than him currently, in the sand. Sorry, but Herlings would beat Jett 9 out of 10 times in rough sand if you put him back on the KTM. I don't think anyone would argue that.
What's he supposed to say? "if I was on my KTM it would have been more of a battle"? Where he is now with that team and bike, yes he was beaten fare and square.
Tell me, what exactly was wrong with Herlings' pace and/or rythm last weekend? Everyone else was gapped up to a minute. How "good in the sand on the Honda" do you want him to be then? Gapping everyone up to a minute and a half? Two minutes? Lapping up to 3rd place? Or what?
There's nothing wrong with the Honda. There's nothing wrong with Herlings. So, to answer your question, yes, that's as good as he will be in the sand on the Honda, at this moment. Could be he gells even more with his new bike in June (Latvia) and August (Lommel and Arnhem).
What was wrong with it is that Herlings at his best gets beat by nobody and he got beat.
Probably age, injuries, and new bike catching up but anyone trying to make the argument that he's better than he ever was and still getting smoked is high
Not sure why you keep insisting there is nothing wrong with the Honda. And of course at this moment, it's as good as he will be on the Honda. That's the point 😄
There is zero chance that he after 2 sand races and 3 months, have nailed the Honda as good as the KTM, when he had said that the Honda is not as good in the sand.
So yes, that's the 1 and 19 sec margin erased if he's on the KTM.
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Well, because there's nothing wrong with the Honda? As proven in past years and this year? He won a GP on the Honda on his very first attempt, which was a quite surprising sandy track. He nearly won the GP last weekend. So what I don't understand is you keep insisting it's the bike to blame he didn't win. There was a guy who was (slightly) better for the overall. Why is that SO hard for you to admit?
Sorry 31 and beat up pretty bad. The guy has a fused foot. I don’t think it takes away from the argument. Jesus if herlings does manage to beat Coenen this year on sand some people on here will be pulling their hair out. He’s 31 and his body is very tired. He still blew away a lot of quality riders. L
Herlings had one weekend off and used it to ride a borrowed bike at Ironman, along with all the other guys from GP's who have done it over the years. What do you think they're doing on any other weekends off; they're training, testing etc. GP guys keep being told "well, yeah, come over here and prove your speed!" and they keep doing so. Time for a few US riders to return the favour.
Pretty lame excuse tbh..
Have you even seen their schedule over the past years? Do you know how ridiculous it is in terms of traveling and shipping?
Guess what's between Netherlands and Turkiye. Yeah right, Ironman. You think it's a good idea to come over for Ironman for example and then have a straight 6 week schedule with Sweden > Netherlands > USA (Ironman) > Turkiye > China > Australia.
The only single free weekend that makes sense this year would be Southwick and even that one is right between the South Africa GP and the Britain GP. I hope they come over for that race, but considering Lucas will be in the title fight (most likely points leader) I'm not optimistic.
Here an example of their stupid schedule (on top of that the people in charge thought it was a good idea to hold an WMX round in Australia lol).
Also Herlings said he only did it because he was mathematically out of the points that year.
Ben Townley developed in NZ!
Think we might see Coenen in Redbull KTM next to Tomac and Prado next yr.
Jett, Deegan, Prado, Coenen, Hunter etc bring it on.
He still showed up and put his reputation on the line on a track he'd never seen, on a bike he wasn't familiar with. The whole AMA v GP thing was insane back then. He had a lot to lose and the US fans would've slaughtered him online if it hadn't gone well, but he showed a lot of self belief and balls to do it anyway.
There will be a lot of US riders also mathematically out of the points by mid season. It'd be great to see some come over and do a GP.
I havent said there is anything wrong with the Honda. Herlings has said, it's not as good in the sand as on hard packed.
I still say, if he was on a KTM he could have gone with Lucas and probably beaten him. For sure if he gets better on the Honda later this year in sand, it will be hard to argue he wouldn't have been competitive past weekend if he was on a familiar bike rather than one he spent 3 months on.
That's why there needs to be an US GP again. The last time there was an US GP there were multiple AMA riders both 250 and 450 participating. Absolutely sucks there is none anymore, the people in charge rather go for parking lot tracks to make sure their own wallets keep gettin bigger.
There is a reason why MXON is the greatest MX event of the year.
I dont think there's anything crazy about JH saying Jett couldn't beat Lucas on a "real" sand track. I'd be interested to see if Jett could keep it respectable. He's the best sand rider in the Nationals by a mile. Any other track surface, Jett has him covered. Its pretty damn impressive how good Lucas is at 19, thats for sure! Great things ahead
We have not seen Jett on a real sand track for a couple of years now, but he was a great sand rider when he raced EMX and with his bike skills, i belive that he would do pretty good if he gets a week to set up the bike for sand.
Yesterday he was apperently forgotten everything again......
Hindsight people, gotta love 'em. Especially because you draw conclusions after one GP.
Average weekend indeed, but: he still won on Saturday, his first crash in the first race was just bad luck getting crossrutted (remember he was in second place already) and in the second race he lead for most of the time until that tip-over and still came in 3rd. Over the entire weekend he lost 10 points on Herlings, 10 points on Gajser and 5 points on Vialle. Status quo with De Wolf. He gained points on everyone else. Not that bad after an average weekend on a track that doesn't suit you, as it never has in the past.
Not sure as your glasses seem orange-colored (not meaning KTM), but have you seen how many riders made mistakes past weekend? Herlings crashed on Saturday and in that second race trying to catch Tim he made some mistakes aswell, that's why he had to tone it down in the end. Vialle crashed (could've been much worse getting his bike on his back), Febvre crashed, Adamo crashed,...
But hey, it's only Coenen who made mistakes.
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Like last year,he made too many mistakes and lost a lot of points at thoses gp‘s which doesn‘t suit him.So,he should learn to stay calm and not to rush,let the race come to him.
Well, that's exactly what he did in that second race: stayed in second place behind De Wolf for a long time, until De Wolf made a mistake on the uphill so he could make the pass. Okay, he crashed out of the lead later, but those things happen. Like I said, the error load was high with almost all the riders.
It will be difficult for belgian to believe this . I have absolutely Nothing against de coenens and am a fan of there too...it has Nothing to do with what i occasionally say about them......
I understand that I may come across as biased because I'm Belgian aswell, but actually I don't care what nationality he has. For all I care he was French, Italian, Dutch or a Mongolian rider named Altantülkhüür Myagmarsüren, I would've made the same comments.
He crashed twice in the first race and lost a lot of points.Besides that,he was lucky to have great starts during the entire weekend.He will take his lessons.Like you say,in the second race he took it easy but it didn’t help.
There's no such thing as getting "lucky to have great starts". That's skill, not luck.
Lucas is clearly an outstanding rider for a 19 year old. Still maturing though and learning how to regulate his determination to win. You look how Herlings was at that age - utterly focussed on getting to the front as quickly as possible and at any cost. But now he bides his time and still wins but using his head.
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