Desalles climb – All Time Great?
Tuesday, May 30, 2017 at 8:02PM Desalles climb
World championships seem to define if you are an all-time great or not, but sometimes there are the exceptions. Some riders, like Sylvain Geboers (14 GP wins), or Marniqu Bervoets (19 GP wins) fit right in with those legends, but never get the respect they truly deserve.
Both Geboers and Bervoets were racing in eras dominated by names such as Joel Robert, Torsten Hallman, Stefan Everts or Joel Smets. Both Geboers and Bervoets fought hard with the legends, often getting a GP win, and standing tall at the top of a Grand Prix podium. They both came close to winning world titles, but luck or just that little bit of speed didn’t see them to a world title victory.
Another of those men and another Belgian is Clement Desalle. Desalle continues to move up the all-time GP winners list and is now in reach of the top twenty. An amazing feat for the Monster Energy Kawasaki rider. His first GP victory ciming at the Loket circuit in 2009, and since then he has been one of the main-stays of the MXGP class. A multiple runner-up to Antonio Cairoli in the 450 class point standings, and a rock for his country of Belgium.
Another statistic is that Desalle is the only non-world champion in the list. Not something you want to brag about, but still shows how good the Belgian has been in the era of Antonio Cairoli. Like Marniqu Bervoets before him (who had to contend with Stefan Everts and Joel Smets), sometimes you are just born into the wrong era.
Another GP win and Desalle joins a very impressive list of riders in four times world champion Harry Everts, three time world champion Dave Thorpe, and double world champions Alex Puzar, Rolf Tibblin, and Sten Lundin.
Of course at the top of the all-time winners list, and seemingly in a safe place to remain at number one is Stefan Everts, but two men are closing fast. Antonio Cairoli and Jeffrey Herlings are the only current riders capable of catching The King.
Top 25 GP winners
Stefan Everts 101
Antonio Cairoli 80
Jeffrey Herlings 62
Joel Smets 57
Joel Robert 50
Eric Geboers 39
Mickael Pichon 38
Thorsten Hallman 37
Roger De Coster 36
Heikki Mikkola 32
Gaston Rahier 30
Georges Jobe 28
Andre Malherbe 28
Paul Friedrichs 28
Dave Strijbos 27
Alessio Chiodi 26
Jeff Smith 25
Harry Everts 22
Dave Thorpe 22
Alex Puzar 22
Sten Lundin 22
Rolf Tibblin 22
Clement Desalle 21
Sebastien Tortelli 20
Hakan Carlqvist 20
Ray Archer image
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