It all happens this weekend at Red Bud, in Buchanan, in Michigan, the 72nd annual Motocross of Nations, and the Americans in particular will have their fingers firmly crossed that it all works out well for them.
With the elite from more than 30 countries lining up to race, it doesn’t get any better than this and the host nation’s team of riders this year have a huge weight on their shoulders.
Eli Tomac, Justin Barcia and Aaron Plessinger know the pressure to perform will be immense, especially in front of an expectedly raucous and loud home crowd.
They know the American tradition for winning at the Motocross of Nations is a tough cross to bear and the hopes and dreams of so many fans will rise or fall on what happens at Red Bud this weekend.
Plessinger is making his debut MXoN appearance this season and the pressure on him will be particularly high, although it’s fair to say he should be quite familiar with the nationals track.
The American trio have not won at the MXoN since France in 2011 and they are determined to bounce back from their recent humbling defeats.
They were beaten in the deep sand of Belgium in 2012, the off-cambers of Germany in 2013, in Latvia in 2014, in France in 2015, in Italy in 2016 and then again in England last year.
After a joyous run of seven consecutive wins from 2005 until 2011, consecutive losses over the past six seasons have been bitter pills to swallow for the Americans.
In 2012 it was the three men from Germany who instead won the main prize (the Chamberlain Trophy) and Belgium finished runners-up with the Americans forced to settle for an unaccustomed third place. In Germany in 2013 it was the trio from Belgium who took the main prize and Team USA had to accept the runner-up spot.
Then, in Latvia in 2014, the Americans were again humbled, this time by the trio from France taking the main prize, the Belgians finishing runners-up and the Americans left to settle for third.
It happened again in Ernee, in France, in 2015, with the American trio close but yet so far away from taking back the crown, forced to settle for runners-up spot behind the host French.
In Italy in 2016, the Americans committed two rookie mistakes and it cost them dearly – Jason Anderson didn’t jump on a blind jump when he should have (and had done every lap before that) and another rider then landed on him and Cooper Webb crashed trying to make a pass that he didn’t need to.
In his determination to move ahead, Webb attempted a pass on Britain’s Tommy Searle on a steep hillside switch-back corner, lost traction and tumbled from his bike. He recovered himself to finish the race in 10th but it wasn’t enough and Team USA had to settle for third overall, albeit just four points behind eventual outright winners Team France.
Team USA slumped to ninth overall finish in the UK last year – their worst result since at Foxhills, in England, in 1998 (when they finished fifth) – with their best individual result in 2017 a third placing by Zach Osborne in one of his two MX1 class races.
With a record 22 MXoN crowns to their credit over the past 30 years, there’s no reason to suggest the men in the stars and stripes colours won’t be among the favourites at home in the USA this weekend, but there will still be intense pressure on Tomac, Barcia and Plessinger as they seek to restore US honour.
Team USA won its first Motocross of Nations title in 1981 and, from that moment on, made it a bit of a winning tradition.
That first US team of Donnie Hansen, Danny LaPorte, Johnny O’Mara and Chuck Sun (the teams comprised four riders in those days) was regarded as one of the greatest in history, but who can forget the winning American trio in Italy in 1986?
The 1986 team of David Bailey, Ricky Johnson and Johnny O’Mara finished 1-2 in each of the three races at Maggiora, in Italy, and that instantly wrote their names in the history books with an unbeaten team performance that has never been repeated.
Many American riders have threatened to stamp their individual authority over the years and we all remember the two race wins by Ricky Carmichael in France in 2005; the outstanding double win by (MX2 class rider) Ryan Villopoto at Budd’s Creek, Maryland, in 2007 and the pair of wins by Ryan Dungey in Denver, Colorado, in 2010.
But then there has been total dominance shown too by other riders – such as by Belgium’s Stefan Everts in Lierop, in The Netherlands, in 2004 and again at Winchester, in England, in 2006.
Italian Antonio Cairoli bagged two wins for himself at the MXoN in Lommel, in Belgium, in 2012 and again at Teutschenthal, in Germany, in 2013.
Britain’s Max Anstie won two MXoN races at Matterley Basin in the UK last year.
French riders Gautier Paulin and Romain Febvre have spearheaded their country to overall trophy wins in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, Paulin winning his two races at the MXoN in Latvia four years ago and Febvre winning two races in France in 2015 and one race in Italy in 2016.
The European countries, and even Australia and New Zealand, have stepped up the pace in recent years and now regularly threaten the American stranglehold, so outright dominance by the Americans seems less likely these days.
But anything can happen in motocross and it is hard to bet against the American at home.
Even New Zealand has celebrated race wins at the MXoN, with Ben Townley taking the chequered flag in one race at Ernee, in France, in 2005 (with Team New Zealand that year eventually finishing just one point off the podium) and again he tasted victory in one race at Denver, in Colorado, in 2010.
Regardless of the individual race results in the US this time around, Team USA will still be hoping for outright victory No.23.
The MXoN finals race features teams from the 20 countries that qualify, with each rider competing in two heats for a combined score to determine the overall championship-winning nation. The event emerged in post-war Europe in 1947 and has run uninterrupted since.
With 22 wins, the United States is the all-time leader in the MXoN. Great Britain is second with 16 and Belgium third with 15, although France has won the MXoN for the past four years straight.
© Words by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ
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