Images: MotocrossMX1.com
Under magnificent weather Team USA have won the 64th running of the Motocross of Nations at the prestigious Thunder Valley Park, Lakewood, Colorado.
With each country providing their best riders out of three divisions MX1, MX2 and Open, every position counting towards the overall meant the team with the lowest overall score from three races wins.
In the end with a total of 23 points over Belgium’s 30 points for 2nd and Germany’s 44 points for 3rd, few could argue that Team USA showed a global audience that they are once again the dominant motocross nation with an undisputed 6th Motocross of Nations (MXoN) title on trot.
Fantastic starts from key Team USA members Ryan Dungey (MX1) and Andrew Short (Open) in their respective moto’s meant the two yanks were never in doubt of pivotal race control from the drop of the gate.
Andrew ShortThird Team USA member MX2 rider, Trey Canard, touted as being the rider to decimate the MX2 division, suffered from shocking starts all day long. Despite Canard’s brilliant back-of-pack charges making for crowd erupting displays of skill and craft, German whizz kid 16 year old Ken Roczen (MX2) was truly sensational in both his races battling with more powerful 450cc machines on his Red Bull sponsored Teka Suzuki RMZ250; even leading the early stages of the second MX2 + Open race.
Team USA MX2 rider Trey CanardRoczen was to be the standout rider from Team Germany with team members Marcus Schiffer (MX1) and Max Nagl (Open) both individually finishing strong but eventually dropping the teams’ overall podium hopes when Nagl suffered a huge high side, knocking him out early in race 3 (MX1 + Open). Nagl’s crash effectively ended Team Germany’s run for 2nd overall leaving the door wide open for the super consistent Belgian’s of Clement Desalle (Open), Steven Ramon (MX1) and Jeremy Van Horebeek (MX2) who only racked up 30 points in total for 2nd overall behind the Americans, leaving Germany in 3rd on 44 points.
Great Britain’s last minute put-together team of Dean Wilson (MX2), Brad Anderson (Open) and Jake Nicholls (MX1) put together a string of strong finishers for 4th overall with 45 points; narrowly missing out on an MXoN podium after a nail biting Race 3 (MX1 + Open) result with both Jake Nicholls (MX1) and Brad Anderson (Open) going 11th and 12th respectively. Either one of them unable to make the jump on Australian Jay Marmont for 10th that would have provided them with the much needed points to claim 3rd overall.
Italian stallion and MX1 rider Antonio "Tony" Cairoli Team Italy’s boy-wonder and newly crowned MX1 World Champion Antonio Cairoli, aboard his KTM350SXF, at times showed immense speed in the first race against Ryan Dungey, but inevitably lacked the tenure to make the pass for a class win gradually slipping off the pace late into Race 1. In Race 3 Cairoli’s early bad start left him with too much lost ground against the flying Americans of Dungey and Short. Awkwardly for Team Italy the strong individual efforts from Cairoli’s countrymen, Alessandro Lupino and Manuel Monni still weren’t enough to clinch a podium finish for Italy, finishing 5th overall on 50 points.
Dominant Australian rider, seasoned AMA professional Brett Metcalfe (MX1), with the aid of Jay Marmont (Open) lead the Australian campaign with solid finishes helping Team Australia climb to 6th overall on 54 points.
After a promising start in the early stages of Race 1 (MX1 + MX2), Team France’s hopes of glory dissolved like candle wax in a cauldron when newly crowned MX2 World Champion Marvin Musquin was forced to retire; Musquins Factory Red Bull KTM250SXF suffering from a serious electrical problem and further imploding his dreams of showing up the Americans on home soil as a precursor to his AMA 2011 plans. Musquin’s KTM250SXF was then a double jeopardy when it expired again in his second race rendering team riders Xavier Boog (Open) and Gautier Paulin (MX1) strong individual results useless in the overall with Team France finishing up in 7th on 71 points.
Brad Groombridge (NZL) with the holeshot in MX2 Qualifying on SaturdayTeam New Zealand riders Ben Townley (Open), Josh Coppins (MX1) and Brad Groombridge (MX2) were left picking up the pieces in a lowly 8th overall position on 90 points despite Ben Townley’s absolutely breath taking Race 2 (MX2 + Open) win. Race 3 (MX1 + Open) spelt disaster for Townley who, whilst hunting down Team USA star Ryan Dungey in 2nd position, suffered what looked to be a minor front wheel wash-out eventually forcing Townley to retire in the late stages of the race. Josh Coppins’ 11th and 14th in Race 1 and Race 3 respectively, coupled with rookie MXoN team member Brad Groombridge’s respectful results, were simply not enough to push Team New Zealand further up the leader board.
Portugal and “American B-Team” Puerto Rico Teams closed out the top 10; whilst Switzerland, Austria, Spain, Finland and Estonia made up the top 15 positions.
At the end of the day a final one two from Ryan Dungey and Andrew Short in Race 3 sealed the MXoN 2010 Crown for Team USA. Ken Roczen’s prolific display of speed on the RMZ250 against the 450cc machines will be remembered just like the great 250cc battles at MXoN of yesteryear will be. And Ben Townley’s magnificent Race 2 win will be the highlight of his 2010 professional come back campaign, albeit slightly tarnished by the unfortunate mishap in Race 3. Townley, Coppins and Groombridge can rightfully be proud of an emphatic display of brilliance from an almost entirely self-supported team budget.
Update 1: not mentioned earlier but Ken Roczen won the MX2 class on Sunday for his performances. Roczen is the most successful youngest rider of GP Motocross. As you would have expected Ryan Dungey won the MX1 class outright, whilst Clement Desalle snatched the Open class outright from the hands of Andrew Short. Kiwi Ben Townley was on par to take the Open class crown of MXoN 2010 until his unfortunate Race 3 crash.
Update 2: Reports through the grapevine have it that BT busted some ligaments in his ankle during his unfortunate Race 3 crash.
All Photos courtesy of MotocrossMX1.com
Official Results http://www.motocrossmx1.com/reslists.aspx?ct=7&c=6
