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Yamaha Monster Motocross Team’s Joshua Coppins is facing a rush to be fully fit for the opening round of the 2008 FIM MX1-GP World Championship in two weeks after an incident while training Saturday morning (22nd March) caused the New Zealander to break two toes on his right foot and undergo immediate surgery.

The 31 year old travelled to the Dunkirk circuit in France to begin his motos in the early stages of Saturday morning to avoid a crowded venue later in the day. However his intentions were curtailed after he crested a hill only to find a local rider picking up his machine. Coppins’ right foot bore the brunt of the subsequent collision as he caught the other bike’s footpeg. With counsel from renowned motocross surgeon Dr Claes, Coppins went under the knife successfully the same afternoon and did not require the insertion of any metalwork into the two smallest toes on his foot.

The natural healing process means that one of the strongest favourites for the MX1-GP title is now staring at the possibility of missing the first meeting of the GP series at Valkenswaard in the Netherlands on April 6th.

“I cannot believe my luck, this is the third injury in a row that I have had that was not my fault,” he said. “Valkenswaard is 50-50 at the moment. My foot has to heal naturally and we might run out of time; I’m not too sure how things will go at the moment. We will have to assess things over the next few days. I am trying to stay positive but clearly this was not what I wanted. It is a long season though and we have to keep looking ahead.”

Coppins had won races in Italy and France over the last six weeks in a promising pre-season period on the works YZ450FM. He claimed five grand prix victories in 2007 and was leading the world championship by 107 points until a freak accident at the Grand Prix of Czech Republic, four rounds before the end of the campaign, caused him to surrender what would have been his first crown.

More info at www.joshcoppins.com

The opening round of the Dutch Motocross championship at Gemert, Holland, wasn’t a good day for the Honda Martin rider, who hurt his ankle and is waiting for a scan result. Neither a funny race for Wyatt Avis and Joel Roelants, who suffered injuries too.

It was better for Tyla Rattray and Ken De Dycker, the event winners on MX2 and MX1.

PODIUMS

MX1: 1 Ken de Dycker 2 Steve Ramon 3 Maxi Nagl

MX2: 1 Tyla Rattray 2 Rui Goncalves 3 Jeremy Vanhorebeek

Managers, please take notes for your team roadmap!

mxforum.be is one of the most famous and visited forums / motocross sites of Belgium, if not the most. Our friends there are being a great support so far.

We are even in the homepage news when you go to www.mxforum.be, and we are sure of they are significant contributors for the 86 belgian registered teams.

That amount made Belgium the second country in number of teams at Motocross Virtual, only behind the United Kingdom (125).

Thanks guys! À bientôt!

Today is 5th. 30 days left to the first GP at Valkenswaard (Netherlands). 30 days to make your team and select your riders. Maybe to stay agile for last-hour injuries or new riders incoming, as the announcement Joaquim Rodrigues made this weekend about his coming to GP’s on 2008. Or having a look to our statistics.

It’s been 4 days from the launch of Motocross Virtual to the world. It’s not bad, we are 193 teams so far and we still have a month to get new managers. You probably like to know something about our statistics, specially if I say that UK is the country with more teams: 99, followed by Spain with 51, Belgium with 10 and USA and Australia with 8. Where are the french, italian, dutch and all nordic motocrossers? We are waiting for you! Latin American fans have to come too.

Riders. Interesting… as I said before, please stay alert, probably new riders are coming, as former USA Factory Connection team contenteder Joaquim Rodrigues, who announced last weekend that he will ride the GP’s on 2008. He will be a crack to consider, sure.

But you want to know about the most selected riders, don’t you? Ok, here we go. The rider on most teams so far is… NOT JOSHUA COPPINS! Yes, call it a surprise, he is Tommy Searle! He is selected for 124 teams, and second in the list is Coppins, with 121. Next is Cairoli, followed far by Rattray, Mackenzie and Ramon. De Reuver, Barragan, Seb Pourcel and Strijbos are in the middle of the table and then there are a lot of riders between 10 and 20 selections: Philipaerts, Brown, Swanepoel…

Things surely will change when Italian and French teams have their incoming to Motocross Virtual.

Please, remember to read the rules and don’t forget that you can’t select riders you selected in last 3 races.

Surprises are coming… GOOD LUCK!

“I feel good with the KX250F-SR – I already have a great set-up with the bike – so I decided to change a little bit for this race and ride the 450 machine instead,” said Paulin. “In timed qualification I tried to cut a new line and I was riding close to the bank and I couldn’t see the tyres in the mud. There was one tyre sticking out slightly more than the others and I hit it and it high-sided me. I came down on my hand and the result is that I have fractured a small bone there. Now I need to wait three or four weeks before I can race again but I’ve worked hard this winter and my general fitness is good and the bike is good so I think I’ll be ready for Valkenswaard.”

www.motocrossmx1.com

Although the original diagnosis of a broken shoulder blade has proved to be correct Tanel and the Kawasaki Racing Team remain focussed on round one of the world championship at Valkenswaard in April.

www.motocrossmx1.com