MXGP Insider No.9: European Excitement

Welcome to our weekly web-exclusive column, Transmoto‘s MXGP Insider. Penned each week by Vurbmoto’s David Bulmer, the MXGP Insider will present the story-behind-the-stories of the European motocross scene.

The first European GP of 2014 is in the books and all-in-all it was a bit of a cracker, with four different winners in the two MXGP and MX2 motos. While I still think stopping Cairoli and Herlings will be like trying to stop an avalanche, it is good to see the other guys fighting back and making it exceedingly difficult for the two champions. In the MX2 races, the chasing pack has definitely smelt the blood of an injured Herlings and although he got the Overall with 1-2 moto finishes, it was definitely not a convincing victory of old. Tim Gajser put him under pressure in the first race for a few laps before Arnaud Tonus (who had come back from dead last) almost got close at the end. Then in race two, he left it too late to catch Glenn Coldenhoff after sitting behind Tonus for a number of laps. It was most un-Herlings-like and certainly a long way from his performances of 2013.

One of the standout things from that class, though, was the performance of the previous European (EMX) riders. Those classes have been running for a few years now and the GP scene is starting to really reap the rewards as Tim Gajser, Valentin Guillod, Romain Febvre, Jeremy Seewer and more are putting in some really good rides. Guillod especially rode well on Sunday, finishing fourth Overall after winning the qualifying race on Saturday and together with Seewer and Tonus, made Switzerland the best represented nation in the MX2 class. For the last couple of years I’ve said that the Swiss will be a MXoN threat in the coming years and it really looks to be the case as the red-plated Tonus is finally fulfilling the potential everyone knew he had. Like I said, Herlings is still the guy to beat, but the rest of the class is awesome to watch.

In the MXGP class, Antonio Cairoli had a surprisingly poor day at the office, with his 6-4 results not even good enough to land him on the podium for the first time in a very long time. Instead it was the Belgian trio of Clement Desalle, Jeremy van Horebeek and Kevin Strijbos who swept the podium, much to the disappointment of the partisan crowd. Thankfully, Cairoli was on the podium to collect his red plate, otherwise there may well have been a riot on the track.

Other than the MXGP and MX2 classes, there was also the first round of the EMX125 series, which is always an exciting class to watch (and smell). This year it seems that Davy Pootjes is the kid to beat as he put in two very impressive performances on board his factory KTM. 85cc World Champion, Brian Hsu, appears to be his closest rival but the Suzuki doesn’t look like it has the power of the orange bike. They have Round 2 in Bulgaria along with the EMX250 class and the newly formed EMX300 class, which is still a bit of a mystery right now, but hopefully should be cool to watch (and smell). In the WMX, Australia’s Meghan Rutledge lost the red plate after crashing whilst leading the second moto (having won the first). Natalie Kane now takes over the points lead with Fontanesi second, Rutledge in third (five points behind) and Lancelot 1 point behind her.