Jeffrey Herlings is a true reference in the World Motocross Championship (MXGP) and is considered by many as one of the best ever, and who seems to hold the KTM rider in high regard is also Jorge Prado, new Kawasaki recruit and current world champion.
The Spaniard was present in a lively conversation on the YouTube channel Gypsy Tales where he talked about the Dutchman who in recent years has suffered some serious injuries that have kept him out of competition for some time.
However, and under the right conditions, #84 seems to always have an enormous capacity to shine, and earned the praise of the current world champion who revealed part of his rival’s secret: ‘I think he makes the difference with the lappers, I drop laptimes just because there are people on track, he can hammer those laps when there are people in between, that’s an advantage and a skill he has and it’s incredible’.
Remembering his first season in the premier category, Prado recalled how Herlings was the reference and how his desire to beat his opponent served as extra motivation: ‘I told Jeffrey, you are the motivation I am still here in GPs, when I signed my first 450 contract, I signed because I wanted to beat Jeffrey, that was the only goal. My goal was to beat Jeffrey and then the championship, but first Jeffrey’.
Prado then remembered that he thanked the former world champion: ‘I told Jeffrey thanks, because you were my motivation all this time, you were the guy I always looked too in the GPs, I need to beat this guy’
And he concluded: ‘So fast, I feel like he rides the bike very good, he’s aggressive he rides in a different way but if you look carefully he does very nice things. He looks aggressive but at the same time he is smooth, it’s hard to explain if you see him turning he is is so smooth but he is hard on the throttle, but he is smooth kind of, I always look up to him’.
By: António Mendes
