Harsh Latvian Test for Pocock and Osborne's Injury Misery Continues
The tenth round of fifteen in the FIM Motocross World Championship saw the series visit Latvia and the sandy Kegums circuit, for the first time. For the Utag Yamaha.com team the second Grand Prix of three consecutive meetings was an unlucky experience as Zach Osborne was again forced to postpone his return to action and Mel Pocock failed to register any points.
The impressive circuit and complex near the coast drew 32,000 spectators who witnessed the riders tackle a jumpy, technical and rough course that made acute physical demands of the participants. Osborne successfully came through practice after believing his wrist had healed sufficiently to rejoin the GP fraternity and run at pace. His illusion was shattered in the qualification heat when a small crash and a relentless fight against the churning track – rather than riding with it – dropped him to 23rd place and forced a re-think as to his potential. The American decided to withdraw from the event and miss Sweden next week to utilise the following three week summer break to prepare in earnest for a fight-back to form and true speed.
Pocock's first moto on a humid and cloudy Sunday was unhinged by a flying rock that broke his goggles and gave him a black eye. The teenager also suffered with his stamina late in the race; something that the team will look into before the Swedish GP next week. Pocock finished 23rd and 27th in the two motos.
Utag Yamaha.com will now journey north to Uddevalla for the Grand Prix of Sweden. The eleventh stop on the world championship calendar.
Mel Pocock: "That was a hard weekend and a really heavy-going track. Things were OK at the start of the first moto but then this rock smashed out the lens of my goggles and completely trashed my right eye. I kept going but felt quite drained halfway through the race. I wasn’t so comfortable for the second moto but did the best I could even though it was tough work again. We will see if there is anything wrong physically before we go to Sweden."
Zach Osborne: "I did my best yesterday to get a result. I went out in the first practice and it was OK because the track was still smooth and I felt alright. As it began to get rougher then it got worse and worse for me. I slipped off in the qualifier and while it didn't affect my wrist I could see that I was not ready to run at that pace with the strength I have in the wrist. It is a big disappointment for all of us because we are all paying for something that was not our fault. I was fifteen points down from the guy who now has the red plate when I had the accident and that is disheartening. Now we are just going to wait until I am 100% and we know I can win another race."
Steve Dixon, Team Principal: "Zach trained last week and thought everything would be OK but the demands of this track when the bumps started to come up was too much to run at a pace good enough for the top ten. We are going to continue to rest him now until he feels he is completely ready. Mel had a great race on Saturday but seemed to lose energy in the first moto on Sunday, even in spite of the incident with the goggles. This happened in Brampton also. He will be in Belgium this week so we will get him checked out."
