2018 Motocross of Nations
The 2018 Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations (MXoN) saw France take out the “Olympics of Motocross” for the fifth straight year, narrowly winning against strong teams from Italy and the Netherlands.
This year’s 72nd MXoN saw 30 teams from around the world descend on Redbud in Michigan, USA. Team France, the defending champion, was led by Gautier Paulin in MXGP (who’s been part of the winning squad for the past four years), with Dylan Ferrandis in MX2 and Jordi Tixier in the Open class.
The strong Dutch squad comprised Glenn Coldenhoff (Open), Calvin Vlaanderen (MX2) and this year’s MXGP World Champion Jeffrey Herlings.
Team USA was made up of Justin Barcia (Open), Eli Tomac (MXGP) and Aaron Plessinger (MX2), while fellow Americans, Kevin Windham, Ryan Sipes and Travis Pastrana, were, bizarrely, riding under the flag of Puerto Rico, but the US crowd nevertheless welcomed the appearance of these legends of the sport.
Australia fielded Hunter Lawrence (MX2), Kirk Gibbs (MXGP) and Mitch Evans (Open).
Nineteen teams automatically qualified for the main event, led by the Netherlands, with the ‘B final’ seeing Puerto Rico join them after beating out Japan and Portugal.
Moto 1
Combining MXGP and MX2 classes, the opening race on the wet and difficult Redbud track saw Lawrence and Gibbs up against the likes of Paulin, Herlings, Tomac, Belgium’s Clement Desalle and this year’s MX2 World Champion, Jorge Prado from Spain.
In front of more than 80,000 fans, Italy’s Antonio Cairoli got the best jump out of the gate, but crashed at the opening turn, bringing down several others and giving Herlings the holeshot. Prado took the lead when Herlings dropped his bike later on the opening lap. Rejoining the field behind fourth-placed Lawrence, Herlings was up to third a lap later, while Team USA’s Tomac and Plessinger were at the tail of the top ten, but while Tomac moved up to sixth, Plessinger fell back through the field.
Herlings took second from Paulin, then the lead from Prado on lap 8. From there, Herlings extended his lead, but his Dutch team mate Vlaanderen crashed out. Paulin regained second ahead of Prado, while Tomac moved up to fourth late in the moto.
Herlings ended up winning by 25 seconds from Paulin, with Prado third and Tomac fourth, then a big gap to Desalle in fifth. Cairoli recovered from his fall to be up to sixth place at the finish. Lawrence dropped back to eighth in the closing stages, while Gibbs finished fourteenth.
Despite winning the moto, Team Netherlands did not lead the Nations standings due to Vlaanderen’s 36th place. Second and seventh placings from Team France saw them take the early lead, ahead of Italy (6-10), Belgium (5-13) and Spain (3-17). Team USA was fifth (4-18), with Australia on the same points total, but sixth on finishing position.
Moto 2
The combined MX2 and Open classes saw Lawrence joined by Evans for the day’s second moto. France had Ferrandis and Tixier, and Team USA Barcia and Plessinger, but Team Netherlands could field only one entry, Glenn Coldenhoff, after the injured Vlaanderen was unable to start, putting them at a disadvantage in the Nations standings.
Nevertheless, Coldenhoff secured the holeshot, but Prado soon had the race lead, with Team GB’s Ben Watson and Switzerland’s Jeremy Seewer also in the lead group.
Team USA’s fortunes faded as both Barcia and Plessinger were stuck at the rear of the top twenty, while Coldenhoff regained the lead from Prado just after the halfway mark of the moto.
Lawrence, who had been trailing the leading group for the opening laps, made his move on lap 7, passing Seewer, then Watson six laps later before snatching the runner-up spot from Prado on the penultimate lap, finishing 16 seconds behind Coldenhoff.
Barcia recovered to finish ninth ahead of Evans, while Plessinger held on to 16th. After Race 2, Team Australia’s 2-10 result meant that they actually led the Nations tally from Belgium, Italy and Spain, while Team France dropped to sixth when Tixier had a mechanical DNF four laps from the finish.
Moto 3
The final moto saw at least half a dozen teams in with a chance of securing the Motocross of Nations’ Chamberlain Trophy, but the Netherlands would need DNFs from others to stand any chance of an overall victory.
With Evans and Gibbs aiming to achieve Team Australia’s best result since 2011 (third, with Chad Reed, Brett Metcalfe and Matt Moss), the last moto saw Evans get away well, but Gibbs struggled and was at the back of the field of 38 riders by the end of the opening lap. Unable to make any real progress, Gibbs would eventually finish 33rd, while Evans was in a battle with Barcia, Tomac and Great Britain’s Tommy Searle at the tail end of the top ten for most of the race.
At the front of the field, Italy’s Alessandro Lupino had taken the holeshot from Germany’s Ken Roczen, but Coldenhoff had the race lead before the end of the first lap; a lead he wouldn’t relinquish for the rest of the moto.
Herlings made up from a poor start to be in second behind his countryman by the end of lap 4, leading Cairoli and Paulin. The Dutch pair then sailed away to win by more than a minute from third-placed Paulin, but the 1-2 finish wasn’t enough for the Netherlands to overcome losing a rider in the previous moto.
French Five
Continuing a winning run that started in 2014, Team France was victorious again this year, thanks to four top ten finishes from their riders for a total of 35 points (in a system where the lowest amount of points wins). Second overall was Italy with 37 points, while the Netherlands was third with 41. Dutch riders won all three motos and, had they not lost a rider, it’s more than likely they would have hoisted the Chamberlain Trophy this year. While disappointed at an opportunity lost, Team Netherlands can look forward to next year’s Motocross of Nations being on ‘home soil’ at Assen, where the Dutch squad will no doubt be confident of claiming their first ever MXoN overall win.
Team Australia finished fourth overall on 48 points, equalling their 2013 placing and within a stroke of claiming a podium. As at last year’s MXoN, Lawrence was the star for the Aussies, with 8-2 race results challenging the world’s best and showing he’s earnt his place in the MX2 world championship.
“This is an excellent result by the Australian MXoN Team to register a fourth place overall,” said Motorcycling Australia’s CEO Peter Doyle. “Considering how young and inexperienced the team is, we couldn’t be more proud of their performances (and) more excited about the future potential of this team.”
Great Britain finished equal with Australia on 48 points, but fifth overall on race placings, while Team USA was a disappointing sixth on home turf. Belgium, Spain, Estonia and Germany completed the top ten.
In terms of individual honours, Prado was the winner in MX2, with Herlings best in MXGP and Coldenhoff the winner in Open. Of the Aussies, Lawrence was second in MX2, Gibbs thirteenth in MXGP and Evans eighth in Open.
