Jorge Casales is going through one of his most difficult seasons as a professional rider. If in 2020 he surprised with a spectacular performance at the national and international level, in 2021 his results are far from the real level of driving of the Galician.
In his first season as an official GASGAS rider under the umbrella of the KTM group, Jorge finished the world championship with four podiums, finishing fourth, just seven points off the podium. At the nationals, he was on the podium during all the races and finished runner-up.
With this background, there is no doubt that this 2021 season should be the one of consecration for the GASGAS rider. The novelty in the team was the promotion of Miquel Gelabert, who now had an official TXT, like Jorge. In the sporting field, everything went wrong in Arteixo, the first round of the national trial championship, where he suffered a fall in the interzone on the day before the race that forced him to stay hospitalized with a strong dorsal and abdominal trauma. Thus he missed the start of the CET, which on the other hand his teammate won after a chaotic race in terms of regulations.
GP OF ITALY, THE ORDEAL BEGINS
However, the biggest blow came at the Italian GP, when the stewards forced Jorge to abandon the race on the first lap, after a positive PCR test was detected. With this, he gave up the 40 points that were at stake and the season went awry as soon as it began, without him being able to do anything about it, not even repeat the tests to try to start the race on the second day of Tolmezzo. What followed was a harsh 15-day confinement in a hotel room; A fact that ended up undermining the morale of a rider favourite to dispute the world title.
Since then, Jorge Casales has not found the rhythm or the enthusiasm during the season. In the CET of Pobladura de las Regueras there was a critical episode, with Jorge fainting at the end of the first lap and a truly worrying situation for those who saw him live. It was an anxiety crisis that showed that Jorge was not well and needed to start a process of psychological recovery to return to his true level.
A break that was not really in the field of competition, since he was present in the Italian, French and Spanish GPs. However, with results that do not represent Jorge’s true level at all.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN IN THE UPCOMING 2022 SEASON?
Now, a few days before the end of the 2021 World Championship, there is no official confirmation of how the official GASGAS team will be configured, so Jorge’s continuity is not assured. If this happens, it would trigger other movements of brands and pilots.
The official confirmation of Takahisa Fujinami’s retirement leaves a place free in the official Montesa structure, where Marcelli could climb and leave the Montesa satellite free. On the other hand, GASGAS has also not confirmed the continuity of Gelabert, who has had a good 2021 season and could have more proposals, although it seems obvious that he would not return to Sherco or Vertigo. There is also no news on what will happen to Jeroni and Sherco in 2022.
In any case, the protagonist of this article, Jorge Casales, has a pre-season period ahead of him to rethink his sporting strategy, regain his confidence and physical situation. He knows that his place in the standings is very different from the current one and he wants to work to get back to his level. A situation that, on the other hand, is not at all simple in terms of the level of equality and performance of their rivals.
