So who does that leave for Team USA?

The MX1 (450cc) class leader in the United States Motocross Championships has indicated that he will most likely not race for Team USA at the upcoming Motocross of Nations in England, on the first week of October, and that puts the perennial frontrunners scrambling to find alternatives.

Colorado’s Eli Tomac (Kawasaki) has raced for the US team in the past but he indicated at the post-race press conference at Washougal at the weekend that he won’t be part of the three-rider unit this time around.

Is he putting the money-making races ahead of representing his country?  Does he feel that the pressure of expectation on him to lead the US back to the top of the MXoN podium is too great? Does he (like perhaps anyone who makes these sorts of trips) simply dread too much the arduous plane journey involved?

Tomac didn’t really answer these questions but this is what he did have to say:

“Right now, it’s looking like a ‘no’. We have to race the USGP, and then we have two weekends off and then go to England, and then a couple of weeks after that we have the Monster Energy Cup.

“We have been racing since January and putting ourselves through the meat grinder through the middle of October, so at the moment it’s a ‘no’.

“It’s a special event, but with the schedule it’s a pretty terrible time (of year to race the MXoN). I don’t know what to say, with the two series and all the other events and having the expectations of being a winner throughout that whole year that’s tough. Nobody is at home when you are doing the work and that is when you have to decide to say no.”

KTM rider Blake Baggett, who is currently running second in the US nationals, is expected to undergo surgery on his thumb at the end of the season, leaving Husqvarna’s Jason Anderson as the next best in the likely pecking order until the latest news that he too is sidelined with a foot injury requiring surgery.

Perhaps Cooper Webb and/or Justin Barcia could be asked to step up. They have both previously raced at the MXoN.

The MX2 spot for Team USA is probably going to go to 250cc class points leader Zach Osborne (Anderson’s Husqvarna team-mate).

US team manager Roger DeCoster is expected to announce the team at the Unadilla round of the nationals on August 12.

We’d all like the Americans to back up their claims that they have the best racers on the planet and that their national series is tougher than the world championships … although the statistics don’t back that up, with Team France winning the MXoN over the past three seasons.

Team USA – with Cooper Webb, Jason Anderson and Alex Martin – finished third overall in Italy last year.

When Tomac last raced for Team USA at the Motocross of Nations it was in Latvia in 2014 and they finished third overall that time too. Tomac made his MXoN debut at the MXoN in Germany in 2013 (and Team USA finished runners-up on that occasion).

© Words and photos by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com

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