MXGP Insider No.32: Cairoli & Villopoto

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

While riding action has been pretty limited over here in Europe right now, that’s not to say there haven’t been some interesting things happening. For instance, if you’re a fan of Antonio Cairoli, this week he has been travelling around Italy and Holland, attending premieres of his feature-length film, “Tony Cairoli: The Movie”. Produced by the same people that created “Living for the Weekend”, it’s a film that depicts his life story, from growing up as a child to becoming the multiple-time world champion that he is today. Unfortunately, there are no cinema showings in England so I can’t check it out, but it’s still cool to see motocross in cinemas around Europe and nobody deserves it more than Mr Cairoli.

Of course, you can’t mention Cairoli without mentioning his soon-to-be arch nemesis, Ryan Villopoto, and while Cairoli has been donning a suit and tie, RV has been wearing his work uniform around Europe, trying to get his Kawasaki ready for 2015. While I’m hesitant to use any Rocky references this early on, the riders really couldn’t be further apart on how they seem to conduct themselves. Cairoli almost has the Apollo Creed approach of having fun and doing his own thing in his own time, while RV is very much the ‘nose to the grindstone’ Rocky Balboa rider who is coming in as many people’s underdog but will certainly push the champ to the limit. It’s really going to be intriguing to watch the mentality of these two riders, not just on the track but off it as well. One cool thing that Villopoto has started doing is keeping a blog of his travels so far, something that is definitely a positive move for his public image. Check them out here, if you haven’t already.

Another rider who’s been in the news a lot these past few weeks is Frenchman, Dylan Ferrandis. He followed up his Motocross of Nations success by signing a long-term deal with Kawasaki that should eventually see him stateside in 2017. The theory is that Herlings will move up to the MXGP class after 2015 and that’ll give him his best shot at an MX2 world title in 2016. Ferrandis also then rode the Monster Energy Cup in Las Vegas, where he finished a respectable 18th. It wasn’t spectacular, but he proved he can ride SX and with a bit more work I don’t see any reason why he won’t be competitive when he does move across the pond. Now him, and a group of other fast Frenchmen will look to continue this good run of form as they take on the Americans at “Bercy” (now in Lille). It’ll be a tough ask for Ferrandis, Christophe Pourcel, Jordi Tixier, Romain Febvre (now on 450s) to beat Eli Tomac, Justin Barcia, Justin Brayton, etc, but they have to be feeling good about their chances after such a good end to the 2014 season and I certainly wouldn’t rule out an upset.

Oh and lastly, before I use up my quota of Rocky references, the only way this MXGP season could get any better, is if Dolph Lundgren (Jeffrey Herlings) joined the party…