Joël Doeksen debuts in MX3 on SundayUPDATE:
10am Thursday. Joel is not on the entry list because they made a mistake ? His starting number is 111.
I will send you some pictures of the bikes tomorrow. At the moment we are in a Hotel in Ancona,Italy and will leave on the ferry tomorrow to Patra, Greece. 16 year old Joël from Clevedon in rural East Auckland is in Europe to experience the top level of motocross. He is racing in the MX3 World Championship and will be 17 on 14 May. Joël updates Moto-Media. Here is an update from the last three months since we've arrived in
Europe. From a rough, cold start in England picking up the truck we (mum,
dad, my brother Jan and I) headed to Lommel in Belgium where our container with
all parts and gear was stored after arriving from New Zealand.
From there we drove straight over the border into Holland and headed to
a village called Zwartebroek where Brouwer Motors, KTM importer and dealer for
over 40 years are based. This is who I get all my bikes, parts and gear through
and I'm really grateful to be supported by such a great shop and group of good
people.
 There we got two 350cc KTM's, one standard and the other one a Cairoli
replica - both equipped with a Doeksen Space Kit. A week later, after we got
all the bikes and parts ready, we took off to the south of Spain. To Malaga, a
2500km journey where we joined John van den Berk's training camp.On the way down we got in contact with our team mate Stijn Blom who was
training in the North of Spain and he was able to organise for us to ride the
famous GP track of Bellpuig. I was a little nervous not riding for two months
but ended up having one of the most fun rides on a bike. The next day I was
struggling to walk from extreme muscle ache.
We went to another great circuit 100 km north from Barcelona where
Jeffrey Herlings and Jeremy van Horebeek were also training. Riding went real
well and just watching the factory KTM riders made me learn allot.
Straight after that we continued to Malaga. When we arrived John gave us
a run down on how everything would work during the training. The programme was
riding 6 days a week.
Monday -
Technique training, everything and anything about corners and also get watched
by Amel Advocaat, Holland's #1 enduro rider and John’s
co-worker.
 There was 10 different tracks that we could train on. I was there for 5
weeks but took a few days off or else it would’ve been too much. Lots of
top riders such as Kevin Strijbos, Ceriel Klein Kromoff, Carlos Campano, Martin
Miteck etc. It was always good to compare lap times as Tuesdays and Thursdays
was transponder days.
For the first few weeks it was just getting used to everything. By the
last week everything looked promising as I had fastest lap-times consistently.
I was feeling strong and happy with the bike set up.
Weather was awesome as well as the hotel which was right on the water
and 5 minutes away from Malaga Centre. Chicks were amazing too!!!
We drove back up to Holland, stopped on the way to see good friends from
the Caribbean that now live in South of France. Also managed to ride there, at
a track called Navarrenx.
We arrived back in Holland at Brouwer Motors, got the bikes ‘refreshed’
and prepped for the deep sand riding in Holland. Tracks there are soo
different, rough, every jump lined with like fifteen ruts, some criss-crossing,
but learnt alot in two weeks.
I raced a Club Day on 26 March in the MX1 Inters Class. Got a 2nd and a 5th for 3rd overall. I wasn't happy with the way I rode as I made way too many mistakes. Second Moto I crashed three times! Now I’m training on nice hard pack tracks getting ready for my first MX3 GP on 17 April at Megalopolis in Western Greece. It is also Round 2 of the Women’s World Championship. Big thanks to my sponsors: Brouwer Motors KTM, Valvoline, Twin Air, Pirelli Holland, Fox and Alpinestars back in NZ and of course my parents. Vangst u later
Joël Doeksen
Via Facebook: Wednesday 13 April. Sunday had an awesome day riding ended with a nice 35 minute moto, yesterday went for a 100km cycle and then got everything locked and loaded to leave today for the first MXx3 GP this weekend in Greece ! Annnnd now just left..... yeeeeeah BOY!!! |