Ladies first - Laier quick as a breeze

SEVLIEVO
(BULGARIA), 9 April 2011 - The girls are back on action and for the
fourth year running the FIM Women’s Motocross World Championship
season started at the Sevlievo track in Bulgaria. This year though
all the practice and racing was held on Saturday with 2010’s World
Champion Stephanie Laier replicating what she did a year ago and
taking the overall win.

The day started with last year’s
usual suspects inside the top-ten during the free and qualifying
practice sessions with Laier leading the way from Lancelot, Fontanesi
and Papenmeier. Maria Franke and Natalie Kane were the most
noticeable absentees this weekend with the latter going under wrist
surgery this past week. 


Race
1 - All against the wind

On
the first moto an invisible adversary in the form of a “wind-kick”
kept trying to blow away the riders on the highest jumps, greatly
affecting their performance, though that couldn’t prevent Red Bull
Teka KTM factory rider Steffi Laier of grabbing the holeshot on what
was the start of the first WMX race of the season. 

The
defending WMX Champion instantly positioned herself in the lead but
not without some initial opposition from Livia Lancelot who came
under pressure from Chiara Fontanesi for the first half of the race.
The Italian rider didn’t hold herself back even having two WMX
World Champions right in front of her. 

This fight for
second position actually ended up with both Chiara and Lancelot
making mistakes and allowing the German KTM race leader to extend the
gap for the second place to almost 18 seconds, lapping everyone up
until Marielle de Mol’s sixth position.

In fourth position
came Larissa Papenmeier who also had a race of her own after losing
ground with the top-three. The German rider who had the pole position
in the Bulgarian hard-pack circuit a year ago is still trying to
adapt herself to this year’s taller KTM machine; much different
than the “compacted” Suzuki she had in 2010.


Race
2 – Increased challenge

For
the second moto of the day the WMX riders were already anticipating a
worse scenario on the track with a mixture of low sunshine and gusty
winds producing some severe clouds of dust. 
Laier holeshoted
again and managed to stay up front but not without some trouble
coming from Chiara Fontanesi who showed this weekend that she’s not
going to make it easy especially for the German girls on the
KTMs. 

It was actually a completely different outing for
Larissa Papenmeier as the KTM Sarholz rider kept recovering time on a
fast pace passing Fontanesi for second position nine laps after and
ending the race a bit more than three seconds behind the
leader.

Livia Lancelot didn’t have the best of starts in
fourth position and crashed after the finish line with only one lap
to go benefiting Francesca Nocera who got fourth spot overall after
going fifth on the first moto. The Italian rider will certainly
battle her way to the podium in the next rounds.

Fighting for
sixth position were Britt van der Wekken and Sara Petterson with the
first getting the better of the Swede after recovering all the way
through the field up until fifth position from tenth at the start.
Marielle de Mol was also stronger in the end pushing Petterson back
another position. Seventh overall went to Marianne Veenstra with two
solid rides for the Dutch Suzuki rider.

Although it might look
like Stephanie Laier is on the good course to take the title again
there’s still a lot to race so expect some warm fights for the
lead. The FIM Women’s World Championship’s next stop will be on
the April 16th weekend in Megalopolis, Southern Greece, now with t0he
MX3 boys as spectators.


What
they said:

Stephanie
Laier: “I came back from last year with the red plate and I still
have it! It was a tough race, a lot of sun, wind and dust in the air
but I’m happy that it ended this way.” 

Larissa
Papenmeier: “My first race wasn’t that good, I couldn’t find my
rhythm and it was bad but the second was awesome; I felt incredible
as I had a great start.” 

Chiara Fontanesi: “I made a
big mistake and crashed on the first moto; I lost a lot of time and
hurt my back again. I really like this track where everybody can go
fast but it’s harder than last year. Third overall is good for the
beginning of the championship.”


WMX Race 1 top-ten: 1.
Stephanie Laier (GER, KTM), 24:15.517; 2. Livia Lancelot (FRA,
Kawasaki), +0:17.714; 3. Chiara Fontanesi (ITA, Yamaha), +0:41.201;
4. Larissa Papenmeier (GER, KTM), +0:50.760; 5. Francesca Nocera
(ITA, KTM), +2:05.855; 6. Marielle De Mol (NED, TM), -1 lap(s); 7.
Marianne Veenstra (NED, Suzuki), -1 lap(s); 8. Britt van der Wekken
(NED, Honda), -1 lap(s); 9. Elien De Winter (BEL, KTM), -1 lap(s);
10. Sara Pettersson (SWE, KTM), -1 lap(s);

WMX Race 2 top-ten:
1. Stephanie Laier (GER, KTM), 24:48.542; ; 2. Larissa Papenmeier
(GER, KTM), +0:03.374; 3. Chiara Fontanesi (ITA, Yamaha), +0:26.694;
4. Francesca Nocera (ITA, KTM), +1:49.183; 5. Britt van der Wekken
(NED, Honda), +2:01.013; 6. Marielle De Mol (NED, TM), +2:10.662; 7.
Sara Pettersson (SWE, KTM), +2:12.078; 8. Marianne Veenstra (NED,
Suzuki), +2:12.632; 9. Elien De Winter (BEL, KTM), +2:13.147; 10.
Joanna Miller (POL, KTM), -1 lap(s);

WMX Overall top-ten: 1.
Stephanie Laier (GER, KTM), 50 points; 2. Larissa Papenmeier (GER,
KTM), 40 p.; 3. Chiara Fontanesi (ITA, Yamaha), 40 p.; 4. Francesca
Nocera (ITA, KTM), 34 p.; 5. Marielle De Mol (NED, TM), 30 p.; 6.
Britt van der Wekken (NED, Honda), 29 p.; 7. Marianne Veenstra (NED,
Suzuki), 27 p.; 8. Sara Pettersson (SWE, KTM), 25 p.; 9. Elien De
Winter (BEL, KTM), 24 p.; 10. Livia Lancelot (FRA, Kawasaki), 22
p. 



Complete results available
at www.motocrossmx1.com/reslists.aspx 


Photos
available
at www.motocrossmx1.com/gallery 




LINKS

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FIM 
Grand
Prix of Bulgaria

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