It was a tough weekend for Tom Vialle at Budds Creek. After finishing eleventh in the first moto, the Frenchman was forced to make the difficult decision not to line up for the second race.
With plenty of speculation floating around online, the Red Bull KTM rider has now explained exactly what happened and why he sat out moto two – for his own safety due to ongoing shock issues with the KTM.
Vialle posted the following message on his Instagram story:
Hey guys, I’ve seen some stupid sh*t online since Budds Creek and I just want to clear it up. I haven’t quit or anything like that. Like everyone knows, and I’m not the only rider in this situation…
We’ve been dealing with broken/fading shocks all summer. The team and I can see in the data that the shock isn’t working properly and something happened early in the moto.
It’s been really tough for me the last couple races with the shock, but I still wanted to keep racing and giving it my all like I always have my whole career. But after the shock broke once again in Moto 1 at Budds Creek, I decided not to race the second moto for my own safety. I’m sure everyone gets that.
KTM and the team are working on it, and I’m confident we’ll be good to go for SMX. See you guys there.
It’s an issue that is not ideal for KTM – hopefully they can find the answer ASAP!
