Red Bull KTM’s Glenn Coldenhoff has cited bad luck as one of the main reasons for failing to post his first podium result on the 450SX-F since joining the factory team for his second season in the MXGP class.
The 25-year-old has negotiated a comprehensive phase of testing in the initial period of what is two-year deal in the works set-up run by Claudio De Carli and next to Tony Cairoli. The Dutchman has not classified in the top 10 for the last seven motos but was robbed of a confidence-boosting result in the first race at last weekend’s Grand Prix of Spain due to a technical problem. “A lot of bad luck lately,” he commented on Sunday in Talavera. “I know I have been struggling the last few races but I have the ‘feeling again’.”
After earning a maiden MXGP victory last year in Latvia and also making a rostrum finish at his home event in Assen more was expected of #259 in 2016 but he has been slow to figure at the front of the pack. Coldenhoff claims he has found the right set-up with the 450SX-F and it has taken some time.
“We have done quite a lot of testing in the last few weeks because we have some work to do and we are realistic about it,” he says. “I think I have a really good set-up at the moment. We have done quite a lot of work on suspension. I am always struggling with the balance of any bike – even last year with the Suzuki. I feel it on some steep braking bumps and if I don’t get that right feeling I’m off the gas coming into the same section for the next lap. We are trying to figure it out and have found a few good changes. I think in the next weeks we’ll be out training and just riding and not discussing for two hours what we should do. We will keep it the same base now and it is time for hard bike time.”
“People see that my results are not good enough yet and I am really feeling it, so I was disappointed,” he said of the first moto retirement in Spain. “We know we can do it but it hasn’t come together. I know the hard work will pay off soon.”
