Lynn Valk gained career best result at Women MX World Championship Round 2 at the weekend finishing 5th Overall at MXGP of Portugal.
Marking the occasion as special in Valk’s career path, the young JK Racing Yamaha rider has made huge strides in her 2nd WMX full-season, from finishing 2018 WMX Championship 11th Overall to 2019 WMX Championship 5th Overall- 3 Rounds to go.
As #172 says: ‘Race 1 my start was pretty good and directly I was in 4th position close to Nancy. I found my rhythm straight away and the speed was very good especially in the first laps’.
‘After that I had a small gap on the 5th rider and finished a safe 4th. My start in the second moto was also very good inside top 5′.
‘Unfortunately Amandine crashed in front of me. Luckily I could brake but it cost me five positions. The first laps my speed was again good and I passed a few girls directly. I had a good battle with Line and at the end I passed her and finished 5th’.
For sure, Race 1 proved a game changer for Valk. Not only was #172 able to maintain speed rounding the hole-shot in 4th, but Lynn sustained gap on 5th placed Sara Andersen who was more than ready to click up gears to gain valuable points having come off back of EMX Women Round 3 win previous weekend.
Dutch born and family home country base, Lynn embraced the hard-pack, slick surface on Saturday at Agueda, then adapted to the rutty, roughed up track for Race 2 on Sunday.
#172: ‘The first moto the track was a bit slippery and the second moto there were more ruts, but I definitely enjoyed riding on this track. It’s one of my favourite tracks!’
Race 2 showed Valk’s determination to race to the chequered, no matter what place #172 holds in the field. And, Lynn confirmed how tenacious she is for claiming points, making the pass on outside of Danish rider Line Dam in closing laps of 20 minute plus 2 laps moto.
#172: ‘Fight to the finish, thats what my parents always thought me, and I really wanted to finish in the top 5. Yes definitely my fitness is on point otherwise I couldn’t do it in one of the last laps’.
With EMX Women Round 4 this coming weekend in Germany, and following Final Round in Arnhem, Netherlands June 15-16th, Lynn has all factors in place to make excellent head-way in her WMX career.
#172: ‘Next weekend the EMX Women Round 4 is on hard pack and then the last EMX is on sand. After that the main focus will be riding on hard-pack before Loket on July 28th’.
Words: Sharon Cox.
Comments are closed.