Elien De Winter remains ninth

Photo: Ray Archer

The Swedish was the penultimate round in the WMX series. Replicating her MX2 team mate Dennis Verbruggen, De Winter finished the GP in eleventh on her CRF250 R. However Elien had few reasons to be overwhelmed with joy because she produced a great start in every moto. Regrettably she failed to make the best of those starts. In the championship standings she remains the best Belgian and highest placed Honda lady. The GP was won by Steffi Laier in front of Maria Franke and the Irish Nathalie Kane scored her first ever career podium. The world’s fastest girls travel to Holland, Lierop at the end of August to compete in the final round of the championship.

Elien De Winter: “Looking back on Uddevalla I’m not really satisfied. In fact I pulled off my best starts of the weekend twice, getting out of the gate in third, but this weekend I lacked the confidence needed for a strong performance. At the start of the moto my times were pretty good, then they would drop and I bounced back by the end of the race again. That’s surely something that I need to work on. On top of that, I had a hard time to find the right rhythm on this track. I’m not looking for excuses, although I have to admit Uddevalla is not a track that I’m particularly fond off! The changing soil switching from sand to hard pack or gravel stone makes it pretty difficult to read. So in that respect it was good to get the GP of Sweden out of the way!”

Heat 1: 1 Steffi Laier (Ger-KTM), 2 Franke (Ger-Kaw), 3 Nathalie Kane (IRL-Suz), 4 Mann (SWE-KTM), 5 Larissa Papenmeier (Ger-Suz), 6 Marielle De Mol (NED- Yamaha), 7 8. Sara Petterson (SWE-KTM), 9 Chiara Fontanesi (ITA-Yamaha), 10 Brenda Wagemans (BEL-KTM), 11 Elien De Winter (BEL-LS Motors Honda) / Heat 2: 1 Steffi Laier (Ger-KTM), 2 Maria Franke (Ger-Kaw), 3 Kane (IRL-Suz), 4 Larissa Papenmeier (Ger-Suz), 5 Mann (SWE-KTM), 6 Marielle De Mol (NED- Yamaha), 7 Nicky Van Wordragen (Ned-KTM), 8 Borchers (Ger-Suzuki), 9 Sarah Whitmore (USA-KTM), 10 Marie Romlin (SWE-KTM), 11 Elien De Winter (BEL-LS Motors Honda)

GP of Sweden classification: 1 Laier 50, 2 Franke 44, 3 Kane 40, 4 Papenmeier 34, 5 Mann 34, 6 De Mol 30, 7 Romlin 25, 8 Whirmore 20, 9 Elien De Winter (BEL-LS Motors Honda) 20, 10 Fontanesi 20

WMX World Championship standings: 1 Steffi Laier (Ger-KTM) 261, 2 Papenmeier (Ger-Suz) 224, 3 Maria Franke (Ger-Kaw) 223, 4 Nathalie Kane (IRL-Suz) 194, 5 Elin Mann (SWE-KTM) 191, 6 Livia Lancelot (FR-Kaw) 185, 7 De Mol (NED-Yamaha) 145, 8 Veenstra (Ned-Suz) 140, 9 Elien De Winter (BEL-LS Motors Honda) 128, 10 Nicky Van Wordragen (NED-KTM) 104, 15. Ashley Fiolek (USA-LS Motors Honda) 80

No Kickash in Uddevalla

Photo: CDS

We just have received some sad news. Jim Fiolek, Ashley's dad, has informed us that unfortunately they can't make it over to Uddevalla, for the penultimate round of the WMX series. Of course Ashley is disappointed and so are we, it's always great to have her on board. She brings a lot of energy to the team even when she's not on the bike...

However Kickash is currently riding in a league of her own in the WMA series for the Red Bull-Honda team. So we like to think that her European boot camp -racing the Bulgarian and Portuguese GP'- has been a fruitful preparation for the American championship! Fiolek is actually defending her crown in the US and she continues to make waves stateside. Ashley has just been nominated for the important ESPN ESPY Award. She is one of four nominees for the award of Best Female Action Sports Athlete. We keep our fingers crossed...

Mediocre German GP for Elien De Winter

Photo: CDS

The German GP has been a cornerstone for the women’s series for some time now. This time the home crowd had even more to cheer about with three German lasses (Laier, Papenmeier and Franke) capturing the podium! LS Motors-Honda rider Elien De Winter was not so happy in former East-Germany. The experienced WMX rider from Denderleuw, Belgium came home 12th overall after 10th and 12th place finishes. She drops one place in the world standings to ninth, seven points adrift from Marielle De Mol. De Winter an aspiring physiotherapist heads back to her books preparing for her upcoming exams, but she’ll be back on track in a fortnight for the sixth round of the WMX series in Uddevalla. In Sweden Elien will be joined by American guest rider Ashley Fiolek. Kickash is currently in great shape, having won all fourrounds of the WMA series in the US so far!

Elien De Winter “Practice went okay, but I couldn’t string together a fast lap in qualifying due to traffic. So tenth was not too bad, and we were all very close to each other anyway. I was only one second off from Chiara Fontanensi in sixth. My first race was no good at all. I reacted too slow at the gate and on top of that my first few laps were not very inspired either. Setting up a good rhythm was simply impossible, however things changed for the better on Sunday. Again I didn’t exactly have the snap when the gate dropped but still I dove into the corner around fifth place. I lost some ground in the opening stages, but at least my riding was better for the remaining laps.”

Freecaster pre-race show with Elien De Winter!

Photo: CDS

Today LS Motors-Honda's WMX rider Elien De Winter was featured on the Freecaster.TV pre-race show with Lisa Leyland and Stefan Everts. Elien was joined by the Irish up and comer Nathalie Kane.

You can check the video here: http://freecaster.tv/mx/1008351/wmx-pre-race-show-from-the-mx-gp-of-germany?page=5

Solid result for Elien De Winter in France

Photo: CDS

Elien De Winter qualified in seventh on Saturday, showing some decent speed. However, she couldn’t reproduce that same pace during the races. The winter ended the heats in tenth and ninth which meant ninth overall. In the World championship standings Elien jumped from ninth to eight . The French GP was won by home favourite Livia Lancelot who took both heats. German rider Stefi Laier ended up second in front of another German rider Lasissa Papenmeier. In two weeks De Winter takes part in the fifth GP of the season in Teutschenthal (Germany).

Elien De Winter: “In the first heat I took a reasonable start, taking the first turn in sixth. But in the first lap I was already losing some places. Unbelievable really. During practice everything went smooth, but during the race things just didn’t pan out. That’s how I ended up tenth on Saturday. Today (Sunday) I had a good start. I hung in fourth when, just before, the first jump, I tangled with another rider. Luckily, I kept the bike upright. Besides that I had to give in during the last three laps, until then I had been in seventh.”

Elien De Winter gets ready for the mud!

Photo: CDS

This weekend’s French motocross GP in Ernée will be the fourth round of the WMX, The Women’s MX World championship. Twenty year old Elien Dewinter who hails from Denderleeuw in Belgium is with a provisional ninth in the standings, the best Belgian rider in the WMX. After suffering from an heavy injury (a complex pelvis fracture) things have been on the up for Elien. She aims to improve further in Ernée. The French GP being the first in a crucial series of three in one month’s time.

On the French GP I regularly compete in France but strange enough I have never ridden in Ernée. It’s the first time they hold a WMX GP as well. From what I gather it’s a typical French track: located on the side of an hill, hard pack and very technical! I don’t know if we will be able to jump all obstacles because some pretty heavy rain is expected towards the end of the week. Let’s hope things won’t be too bad. As far as the GP goes, everybody will be expecting Livia Lancelot. Especially because its her home race. It will be hard for her to deal with that pressure. Last year her race in Saint-Jean-d’Angely was her worst performance. Personally I feel pretty fit, last week I did a fitness test with my trainer, Yves Demeulemeester. The test was quite positive. But at the end of the day you just have to perform on the bike!

MX as a distraction Right now I’m in the middle of my exams (Elien is studying Physiotherapy at the Brussels University). It’s a good thing that I don’t have to do all of my exams this month. After the French GP we’ll have the German GP in two weeks time and early July the Swedish GP. Because the way my exams are spread I have to do some of them in July and August. That way it looks a bit like I’m constantly in the middle of my exams.

WMX level is rising Sometimes it annoys me to get passed by girls I used to beat on a regular basis earlier on. But it means the level is just getting better and better. Besides that, the top girls are totally committed to racing. They have been living like Total pros for quite some time now. Because of their higher training intensity they sometimes seem to be in a league of their own. I’m pretty realistic about that. My goal is making the top 10, if I’m doing better I just take that as an added bonus. Because female riders hardly make any money at all, I find it a bit strange to commit solely to racing. My study prepares me for a professional career besides motocross.

Another top ten for Elien

Photo: CDS

One week after Agueda in Portugal the Womens Motocross World Championship moved to yet another new location on their calendar : Bellpuig. The Catalan track would turn out to be a positive experience for Elien. Two ninth places and a good rythm confirmed the good streak of Belgium’s leading MX lady. De Winter took also ninth overall and remains ninth as well in the WMX point standings. Because of her American commitments Ashley Fiolek was not present in Spain. The next GP of the WMX championship is the French GP in Ernée on june 6-7.

Elien De Winter: "There was a huge difference with Portugal. Things went a lot better this weekend. I got a good

feeling right from practice. That feeling was confirmed in the qualifications. In the first heat I got a good start when I was third. I wanted to follow Laier and Papenmeier but lost the front in a corner. As a result of that my front brake lever got destroyed. I didn’t lose a lot of places because of the crash. But riding without a front brake was not easy and that’s how I ended in ninth.

In the second heat I had a real bad start and it took a while before I could find the right rhythm. After that my pace was ok. But I was behind American rider Sarah Whitmore for most of the heat. Even if I was quicker it was really difficult to pass her because there was only one line. That was a bit of a bummer, but I know now that I need to be more aggresive in the beginning of the heats. I’ll be working on that in the next few weeks."

Manicq talks about Bellpuig

Photo: CDS

Talented Belgian Clément Desalle (LS Motors-Honda) will be aiming for an encore this weekend in Spain after his podium in Agueda Portugal. The Spanish GP is the sixth round of the 15-round series and will be staged at the hard-pack, fast Bellpuig track. The track in western Catalunya also welcomes the girls for the third round of the 7-round FIM women’s World championship. Bellpuig hosts the combined Spanish GP now for the eighth consecutive time, after a string of 125 GP’s in the nineties.

While the 1.6 kilometre offers plenty of spectacular jumps and step-ups under normal circumstances the hillside course has also been prone to produce mud races in recent years, most notably last season when the second race of the MX1 GP even had to be cancelled. LS Motors-Honda sports manager Marnicq Bervoets, himself a former Spanish GP winner looks ahead.

On Clément Desalle It’s obvious that Clément is still making headway week after week. He is an all-rounder who can make his marks on all sorts of tracks really, that’s how talented he is. Although he is the youngest rider (19) in the MX1 top ten he quickly makes up for his lack of experience because he rides with his head and learns fast. For the moment just Cairoli and De Dycker seem to be out of reach, but he can sets his sights on a first heat win now and with some riders out his chances of getting a first GP win are becoming more realistic as well. Whether he picks up that first win soon or at the end of the season doesn’t matter, sometimes you need a little bit of luck as well. On the other hand it will certainly fuel his motivation even more.

The will power of Elien De Winter never ceases to amaze me. She pulled off a major coup by racing at the first round of the WMX series after a dreadful back and pelvis injury just weeks before. We understood that she wanted to race there, but on the other hand we were worried that it would set her back a little as well. That’s my experience when you want to recover so fast and it’s only human! So Elien needs to be a little bit patient to build up her speed again. She’s now ninth in standings and having back-to-back GP’s will suit her fine to gain more valuable time on the bike in competitive conditions.

One step forward and two steps back that’s about the best I can describe the situation Dennis Verbruggen is in. It’s crystal clear he’s having a hard time, but we had hoped that he would have stepped up his game after the encouraging results he had in Valkenswaard. Dennis will need to dig a lot deeper to get out of this rut because not only is the MX2 level really high at the front, the depth of the field makes things even harder.

'Kickash' does it again!

Photo: CDS

WMA Champion Ashley Fiolek (18) steered her CRF 250R to a third place in today’s WMX GP of Portugal. The fast American was also third on Saturday. This not only meant that ‘KickAsh’ took her second consecutive podium but also that she was second in WMX standings, laying 14 points behind points leader Lancelot. However, this was Ashley’s last race for now because from now on she will focus on defending her American Women’s title. Elien De Winter will look back with mixed feelings on Agueda. After a severe injury Elien is gaining momentum but she clearly needs to rack up race miles to up her speed. Elien was 12th on Saturday and 10th on Sunday. In the WMX standings however she gained two spots jumping from 11th to 9th. Both LS Motors-Honda lasses served as camerawomen this weekend. Ashley rode some laps with an helmet camera as Elien put in some laps to show the track to the TV audience.

Ashley Fiolek: "On Saturday I missed my start but my riding was also lacking. It seemed like I was stuck in a rut. On Sunday it was a different story with deep ruts all over the track. But that’s how I like it! I clinched the holeshot and was able to attack more than during the first moto. It was good to be able to follow Lancelot’s pace in that second heat. On the other hand I’m a bit sad to say goodbye to the GP’s now that I’m second in the points standings. But I knew beforehand that my priority is defending my American title with Red Bull/Honda. Hopefully, some day I will be able to do the whole GP series. But I’m still young so I have plenty of time!"

De winter and Fiolek are ready to rock!

Photo: CDS

LS Motors-Honda’s hard charging ladies Ashley Fiolek and Elien Dewinter fly to Portugal for the second round of the FIM WMX series this weekend. Agueda is new to the WMX calendar, but the various elevation changes, remarkable red dirt and cool layout should provide the fastest female riders in the world with a great playground. Belgium’s Elien Dewinter braved the pain in Bulgaria where she came back from a severe back and pelvis injury, but she is keen to test her improving pace in Portugal. Ashley Fiolek on the other hand enjoyed a great start to her season seizing another podium in Sevlievo. The 18-year old from Florida is known to give the established riders a run for their money and ‘KickAsh’ should be helped again by her great starts!

Ashley Fiolek: 'I am not sure what to expect in Portugal... (smiles) I heard the food is pretty good! I think I am more ready now, because for the race in Bulgaria, I hadn't raced in a long time and it was just nice to get back to it racing. Guess we will all just have to wait and see... The track looks pretty sick. It looks like several of the tracks that are in the US in Georgia which is not that far from my house. I am pretty excited, to ride on it should be a blast!'

Podium for Fiolek!

The LS Motors-Honda girls started their season in style. American Women’s MX champion Ashley Fiolek grabbed another podium spot, her third podium from her five GP starts so far! Ashley finished 3rd in both races and left a very good impression. Fiolek took the holeshot in both moto’s and enjoyed held the leader spot for a couple of moments. On Saturday as well as on Sunday German Laier and reigning World champion Lancelot proved to be a bit faster. Lancelot won the GP in Sevlievo in front of Laier and Fiolek. However Ashley was the best American girl on Bulgarian soil with Tarah Gieger coming home ninth while Aubrianna Dunn unfortunately didn’t score any points.

Belgium’s Elien De Winter ended up 11dth in the overall standings. That was a surprisingly good result l given her injuries (Elien is on the mend after suffering a broken vertebra and a dislocated pelvis). In the first race on Saturday Elien finished in 8th. In the Sunday she had to ride through the pain barrier but clinched an honourable 13th position nevertheless. De Winter became 11th and first Belgian in the overall standings. Brenda Wagemans was 13rd and Morane de Barquin 24th.

Elien De Winter and Ashley Fiolek kick off WMX series

Photo: Red Bull Photofiles

In Bulgaria LS Motors welcomes the ever enthusiast American Ashley Fiolek. Ashley will defend the LS Motors colors during a few selected rounds of this year’s WMX World championship. Last year Ashley clinched her first podium in Sevlievo and ended 6th in the WMX’s final standings despite missing one GP. Just like Elien, Ashley oozes with

professionalism and stamina. LS Motors-Honda is very proud of fielding this duo that combines speed, charm and personality. Both Elien and Ashley ride a Honda CRF250R. Their main competition will come from reigning World champion Livia Lancelot, strong German girls Stephanie Laier, Maria Franke and Larissa Papenmeier. Peurtorican Tarah Geiger, the first every woman to compete in the Motocross of Nations, will also be behind the starting gate in Sevlievo.