There’s no confirmation of this yet but it is believed that while racing at the Everts and Friends Charity Race Jeffrey Herlings crashed in the first moto of the 85 class and is suspected to have a broken femur.
Update: 13:45 21/07/14
MX Pure’s Alex Hodgkinson is reporting that KTM race chief Pit Beirer said: “We do yet know the full extent of Jeffrey’s injuries to date, but he has broken a femur and there is also something with his hip.”
We’ve heard that the MX2 world champion was hunting down Roan van de Moosdijk in the first moto of the kids versus champs 85cc race when he went off hard.
If the reports are true then this kind of injury is very likely to have ended his chances of wrapping up a third consecutive championship.
Update: 14:36 21/07/14
Looking at the standings, Herlings is 145 points ahead of his nearest rival and with 200 points left on the table Jordi Tixier would have to win six of the remaining eight motos to snatch the championship away from his team-mate. There are a number of other permutations were Tixier could grab the championship, for example he could finish in the top three of each of the remaining motos and still take the title from Herlings. But let’s wait and see what’s confirmed before we look at this further!
Update: 15:20 21/07/14
Our man Adam Wheeler reports on the Herlings injury.
Update: 20:48 21/07/14
Official Herlings update is in from KTM – Herlings has fractured his femur and has now undergone successful surgery. No word yet on when he might be expected to be on a bike again but crucially they haven’t said that they’re closing the book on 2014.
Update: 16:04 23/07/14
We look at what KTM had planned for Herlings’ US Outdoors set up if his dream hadn’t been blown apart – this is an interesting read.
Update: 17:24 24/07/14
Jeffrey wrote on Instagram: “God puts me though a hard and difficult season. He shows me winning isn’t easy, Even the fastest doesn’t always win. But I like a challenge, And I would like to win this challenge. I have 7.5 week till Mexico. I’ll try to fight nature again. Deep in my heart I would like to race the last race in Mexico. To keep the championship alive. I’ll do my best. I deserve this mx2 world championship.”
