Jan Deitenbach SuperMoto of Nations

Jan Deitenbach with Team Germany in fourth place at the World Championships

At the season finale, Jan Deitenbach achieved fourth place with the German national team at the World Team Championships in Italy.

Intensive weeks lie behind the BERGOS Ravenol Racing Pilot. Directly after the last German championship run, the team went to Belgium. At the world’s biggest supermoto race, Deitenbach took a strong tenth place out of more than 300(!) participants. From there, they continued on to Italy with a short stopover in their home country. There, the Husqvarna rider was nominated as one of three riders for the German team in the SuperMoto of Nations. But it was a hectic week for the team. The reigning world champion Marc-Reiner Schmidt had to cancel at short notice due to an injury. At the last minute, a replacement rider was brought to Italy so that the team could compete at all. “Of course, that was a bitter blow, because with Marc we had absolute chances of making the podium,” explained Deitenbach. “But of course we were happy to bring in another good rider in rookie Eddie Frech.”

After the first test on Friday, the long track proved to be not so easy. The team around Jan Deitenbach tried a lot to adjust the bike optimally to the conditions. Nevertheless, the rider still did not feel quite so comfortable. On Saturday, the official qualifiers started, with each rider first competing in his or her group.
Jan managed sixth place in his group in qualifying, but the right flow was still not there. It was not until the final qualifying race that the two-time German champion got up to speed. In the end, he crossed the finish line in fifth place, not even a second behind fourth. “As the race went on, I felt more and more comfortable and had confidence in myself and the bike again. The small changes my crew made to the bike felt good,” said Deitenbach. Overall, this put the team in sixth place for Sunday’s races.

There, two riders from each team always competed in the three heats. In the first race, Jan still had time to observe his teammates. They broke the team into fourth place in the intermediate standings with results of seventh and eighth. In the second run Jan then went into the race. From sixth place he showed one of his very good starts and brought the Husqvarna to fourth place after the first corner. He was able to defend this position against the world’s elite for seven of the ten laps, then he made a small mistake off-road. Immediately an opponent was over and Jan got a little out of rhythm. So two more riders passed by the finish line and he finished seventh. Despite his teammate’s 12th-place finish, the team remained in fourth place. “I got more and more tense during the race, then came this little mistake, crap,” he was annoyed despite the good race.

Not even an hour later, it was time for the last race. Despite the short break, Deitenbach was confident. The start worked well again, but in the first turn he got trapped and almost crashed. Thus only tenth place after the first round. But he consistently stayed at the front of the pack. Five riders chased each other around the course within centimeters of each other, but there was no chance of overtaking, everyone was too perfect. Only at the end did it move up to ninth place, and in the end it was only centimeters short of eighth place. In the very last lap, Deitenbach then drove his fastest lap of the entire weekend. “That was one of my strongest races this year,” Jan said happily afterwards. Even though the course doesn’t look that great, the Frenchman directly in front of me has just become world champion with his team. In the end, Germany finished in an excellent fourth place under the circumstances.

“We gave everything, no one made a major mistake, and our rookie was also a class act,” summed up Deitenbach after his personal ninth World Team Championship. “Sure, fourth place is always kind of thankless, but realistically that was it, the optimum.” Now the season is over and Deitenbach is going on a well-deserved vacation. And after that, planning for 2024 will begin.

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