I dont know him bud500 - can you tell us more about him?
Shamelessly copied from http://www.dakar.com/dakar/2015/us/rider/065.html Jurgen Van Der Goorbergh is a man of challenges. Having lived various adventures on the Dakar, on a bike (17th in 2009), in a single-seater buggy and in a truck, he's now decided to take on the malle-moto challenge. And that should be quite something for a man who has lived a first career under the spotlights as a MotoGP rider. Used to having close to 20 mechanics around his machine, he will this time be completely on his own, doing the Dakar the hard way, like in the good old days. And because he remains a fierce competitor, he wants to win his class. During the Dakar, Jurgen will be supporting the Wings For Life Spinal Cord Research Foundation that his friend and Dakar legend Heinz Kinigadner cherishes so much. And not only will he be riding for Wings for Life, he'll also be taking part in its World Run next May, in his home city of Breda.
J.V.D.G.: "Last year I had a lot of fun in the truck with Kees Koolen. It was totally different to what I'm used to. Quite exciting but almost too easy. I was happy to finish but didn't want to do it again. I needed a new challenge and I'll be in the malle-moto class to win it. I don't only want to finish, I want to win. My other goal is to be in the Top 25 and that should be fairly tough. I've always been used to having mechanics around me, now I'll be on my own. I'll need to change my style of riding and probably go 10 to 15% slower to keep the bike in one piece. For me, it's back to basics, a last real chalenge. It's more of an adventure. I trained a lot with Robert Van Pelt (last winner in malle-moto). He will be in the Yamaha team this year. I was joking with him, telling him he was scared to come back because I'm in the class now.”
And from Wikipedia:Born in Breda, Netherlands, Van den Goorbergh won the Dutch 250cc road racing national championship in 1991.[2] He began his Grand Prix career in 1991 in the 250cc class. In 1997 he moved up to the 500cc class racing a privately sponsored Honda. MuZ hired him to race for them in the 1999 season and in 2001, he raced for the Kenny Roberts-Proton team. The 2002 season did not start off well for van den Goorbergh, scoring only 21 points in first 10 races. At the end of season he made his best result in Australian Grand Prix, finished on 5th place only three hundredth of a second behind third Tohru Ukawa.
From 2003 to 2005, van den Goorbergh raced in the Supersport World Championship. He is considered an expert in wet racing. In the wet 2005 Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai, van den Goorbergh substituted for the injured Makoto Tamada. He began from in 19th position and finished a respectable 6th place for the Konica Minolta Honda team.
In 2006 and 2007 van den Goorbergh did not join a road racing team, but tested MotoGP tyres for Michelin. He raced in the European Enduro Championships, the Dutch trial Championships and in Supermoto competitions.
Topic: Dakar 2017 (Read 120864 times)
