CEV Valencia, 11.-13.11 2011

The Spanish motorbike championship visited Valencia where the last but one race of the CEV series took place. The Czech motorbike rider Miroslav Popov raced in this championship in the middle of June with success as he came second at that time. He started the Valencia race well too with the fifth fastest qualifying time on Saturday putting him on the second row for the start.

But the weather was against the riders today. It was raining in the morning and the track was wet before the start of the 125GP/Moto3 class. And as there were still heavy rainy clouds over the Ricardo Tormo circuit Miroslav Popov took a chance and chose wet tyres for this 18-lap race. The rider of the ElleGi Racing team made a good start and was competing for p4 during the race’s introductory laps. He gradually built up speed and tried to catch the leading riders.

But the expected rain did not come and the track surface started to dry out making it extremely hard going for wet tyres. Without being cooled their effectiveness dwindled and they deteriorated rapidly. As a result Miroslav Popov started to fall back and finally came to the finish in p24. In fact, looking at his rear wheel it was a miracle that he even made it to the finish of today’s race. The rear tyre was completely destroyed.

The last event of the Spanish championship will take place next week in the southern Spanish city of Jerez and Miroslav Popov will match his strength against the riders of one of the most prestigious European motorbike series there.

CEV, Valencia (6/7) – 1. Miguel Oliveira (POR, Monlau Engineering), 2. Josep Rodriguez (SPA, Wild Wolf-Racc MS), 3.  Alex Márquez (SPA, Catalunya Caixa Repsol), 4. Alex Rins (SPA, Catalunya Caixa Repsol), 5. Niccolo Antonelli (ITA, Italia Gabrielli) … 24. Miroslav Popov (CZE, ElleGi Racing)