Van De Ven is the Duchess of Valkenswaard but....
FIM Women's MX World champs 2016
Courtney Duncan won the second moto and should have cleared off in the first but was ultimately fortunate to remount from a heavy crash and take fourth to preserve her championship lead.
VALKENSWAARD (The Netherlands), 28 March 2016 - Valkenswaard is a beast of a circuit for anyone, so for the worlds fastest female motocross riders, they had their work cut out for them this weekend as they battled the rough terrain here in The Netherlands for round two of the FIM Women’s Motocross World Championship where local lass Nancy Van De Ven did it for the Dutch with a 1 – 3 result that landed her on the top step of the podium.
Race one winner Nancy Van de Ven got of to a cracking start and led the way through the ‘S’ bend first turn with the red plate holder Altherm JCR Yamaha’s Courtney Duncan hot on her heels. Van de Ven led 99.9% of the first lap but Duncan carried more speed through the finish line section and was logged as the as the first lap leader as she made the move on the home rider over the finish line jump.
With the lead in her hands, Duncan got her head down straight away and pulled a gap of 4 seconds on the following lap. Behind the two Yamaha protagonists, the defending WMX World Champion Kiara Fontanesi had her Honda singing as she went to work in effort to catch Van de Ven.
Just as the race ticked over the half way mark, Fontanesi dropped the hammer on Van de Ven and railed an inside rut that gave her better drive through the up hill wave section which was enough to take second. A lap laterTeam One One Four’s Livia Lancelot snuck in on the battle and almost pulled the same move on the Dutch lady but couldn’t quite make it stick.
Lancelot continued giving Van De Ven a world of grief while Fontanesi distanced herself just a smidge. Next minute, Fontanesi crashed with a lapped rider, which collected Van de Ven as well. Lancelot narrowly missed the carnage and inherited second while Fontanesi and Van De Ven had to remount and kick-start their bikes.
Meanwhile the “Kiwi Girl”, as her butt-patch reads, was in a league of her own once again and checked out for yet another massive race win, her third of the year. Twenty-five seconds later Lancelot crossed the line for second with Van de Ven salvaging third ahead of KTM Silver Action’s Amandine Verstappen and Natalie Kane.
It was an epic weekend for Nancy Van De Ven who topped the box here at her home round, two points clear ofAltherm JCR Yamaha’s Courtney Duncan who bounced back from a massive spamming while leading race one yesterday, to win the final moto which was good enough for second overall. The former WMX World Champion,Team One One Four’s Livia Lancelot, made the most of an average day in the office to round off the podium in third.
Courtney Duncan holds onto the red plate with a seven-point lead over Livia Lancelot.
WMX Race 1 Top Ten: 1. Nancy Van De Ven (NED, Yamaha), 25:47.623; 2. Kiara Fontanesi (ITA, Honda), +0:16.171; 3. Livia Lancelot (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:17.388; 4. Courtney Duncan (NZL, Yamaha), +0:17.442; 5. Amandine Verstappen (BEL, KTM), +1:17.147; 6. Britt Van Der Werff (NED, Suzuki), +1:18.266; 7. Stephanie Laier (GER, KTM), +1:22.104; 8. Shana van der Vlist (NED, Yamaha), +1:26.773; 9. Larissa Papenmeier (GER, Suzuki), +1:29.184; 10. Frida Östlund (SWE, Honda), +1:56.481.
WMX Race 2 Top Ten: 1. Courtney Duncan (NZL, Yamaha), 26:21.232; 2. Livia Lancelot (FRA, Kawasaki), +0:25.449; 3. Nancy Van De Ven (NED, Yamaha), +1:18.615; 4. Amandine Verstappen (BEL, KTM), +1:36.226; 5. Natalie Kane (IRL, KTM), +1:47.105; 6. Julie Dalgaard (DEN, Honda), +1:52.733; 7. Larissa Papenmeier (GER, Suzuki), +1:56.708; 8. Stephanie Laier (GER, KTM), +1:57.274; 9. Shana van der Vlist (NED, Yamaha), +2:08.571; 10. Frida Östlund (SWE, Honda), +2:26.782
WMX Overall Top Ten: 1. Nancy Van De Ven (NED, YAM), 45 points; 2. Courtney Duncan (NZL, YAM), 43 p.; 3. Livia Lancelot (FRA, KAW), 42 p.; 4. Amandine Verstappen (BEL, KTM), 34 p.; 5. Stephanie Laier (GER, KTM), 27 p.; 6. Larissa Papenmeier (GER, SUZ), 26 p.; 7. Julie Dalgaard (DEN, HON), 25 p.; 8. Shana van der Vlist (NED, YAM), 25 p.; 9. Natalie Kane (IRL, KTM), 23 p.; 10. Frida Östlund (SWE, HON), 22 p.
WMX Championship Top Ten: 1. Courtney Duncan (NZL, YAM), 93 points; 2. Livia Lancelot (FRA, KAW), 86 p.; 3. Nancy Van De Ven (NED, YAM), 83 p.; 4. Larissa Papenmeier (GER, SUZ), 60 p.; 5. Amandine Verstappen (BEL, KTM), 57 p.; 6. Natalie Kane (IRL, KTM), 53 p.; 7. Kiara Fontanesi (ITA, HON), 52 p.; 8. Britt Van Der Werff (NED, SUZ), 42 p.; 9. Shana van der Vlist (NED, YAM), 40 p.; 10. Anne Borchers (GER, SUZ), 39 p