French rider Jordi Tixier (KTM) overcame a whopping 23-point deficit to claim the MX2 World Championships at the final round of the Motocross World Championships in Mexico this morning.

Tixier won the first moto in Leon, Mexico, to pull up to within five points of injured defending champion Jeffrey Herlings, who finished 14th, heading into the final moto.

Tixier charged to third in the final moto, while Dutch rider Herlings, in obvious pain, slipped back to 10th.

That was enough to give Tixier the championship, the first of his career.

Herlings had led the championship throughout this season but was sidelined with a fractured femur, sustained just before the 14th round of 18 in the series, and he is still a long way short from being healed and fully fit.

This puts his performance in Mexico into perspective and illustrates just how unfair motocross can sometimes be … remember the 2007 season and Kiwi Josh Coppins’ dominance of the MX1 class before his crash in the Czech Republic, the 11th round of 15 that season?

The hard work of 10 GPs – from the first GP in April 2007 and, indeed, for all those years before that – rapidly dissolved in a gut-wrenching five-week period.

With Coppins unable to ride at the final round, the Dutch GP at Lierop in September that year, his Belgian rival Steve Ramon took the title unchallenged and Coppins had to settle for a world ranking of No.3.

Several weeks earlier, Coppins had been overwhelming favourite to snatch the world title. He had stretched his lead at the top of the MX1 world standings to 107 points over Ramon – giving him two full GP events up his sleeve with just the final third of the season, five of the 15 rounds remaining.

Comparisons could easily be made to Herlings’ MX2 campaign this year.

More to come …

Photo courtesy KTM.

MX2 overall in Mexico:

1. Jordi Tixier 25-20
2. Tim Gajser 16-25
3. Valentin Guillod 15-22
4. Romain Febvre 22-14
5. Aranud Tonus 18-15
… and 11th Jeffrey Herlings 7-11

Final MX2 World Championship standings:

1. Jordi Tixier 616
2. Jeffrey Herlings 612
3. Romain Febvre 570
4. Dylan Ferrandis 533
5. Tim Gajser 528