NICKI SITS OUT SWC EVENT ONE

Saturday 23rd June 2012, 14:17

Danish star Nicki Pedersen will miss Event One of the FIM Monster Energy Speedway World Cup in Bydgoszcz on July 7, as national boss Anders Secher tracks a youthful side.

The SGP title contender, who races in the FIM Gorzow SGP of Poland tonight, has opted out of the opening round to recharge his batteries after a hectic first half of 2012.

Pedersen will return for the Race-Off or Final at Malilla on July 12 and 14 respectively, should the Danes make it past Poland, Russia and the USA.

The in-form Niels-Kristian Iversen is the only rider with any previous SWC experience and he is joined by Leon Madsen, Michael Jepsen Jensen and Mikkel B Jensen.

All three newcomers have served as wild card in the FIM Dansk Metal Danish SGP at Copenhagen’s PARKEN Stadium and the trio are really making their presence felt in the sport this year.

Madsen has regularly returned double-figure scores for Vetlanda and Tarnow, while Jepsen Jensen has emerged as a man capable of beating the best this term.

MJJ scored seven points in the Danish SGP on June 9 and Mikkel B also left that meeting with four. The 17-year-old track reserve celebrated a famous victory over world champion Greg Hancock, Peter Ljung and Pedersen in one of his races.

SGP trio Kenneth Bjerre, Hans Andersen and Bjarne Pedersen all miss out after enduring difficult runs in the World Championship of late. Despite making such a bold call to leave these riders out, Secher has no fears about giving youth a chance.

He said: "You can say that it is a very young team, but all the boys have shown what they are made of and what they can do.

“On a good day, we can push straight up with the Poles. But we go to Poland with the sole purpose to qualify, so a second or third place would be a satisfactory result.

“When we go to Sweden, the team will be reinforced with Nicki and with a little more luck than last year, we’ll make it to the podium.”

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