BikeSportNZ.com has left the building.

Once again, determined not to just give you other people’s words and pictures, BikeSportNZ.com is heading off to distant shores to be there personally to record all the action, this time to this year’s Motocross of Nations at Winchester in the south-west of the United Kingdom.

We’ll be at the 2017 Motocross of Nations at Matterley Basin, near Winchester, to give you the lowdown as Kiwi riders Cody Cooper, Hamish Harwood and Josiah Natzke go head-to-head with the best motocross riders that the rest of the world can come up with.

New Zealand’s elite racers have been there and done that many times in the past and, despite the vast distance they have to travel (typically a greater journey than any other team ever has to make) and the small population from which they must select a team, the men wearing the silver fern emblem have almost always featured at the pointy end of the results.

Team Great Britain, for example is actually three countries (England, Scotland and Wales, population 60 million) and the United States has a huge population of 323 million. But the Kiwis are used to being underdogs and, remember, even underdogs can bite.

Team New Zealand have been on the podium on three separate occasions in the past, although the last time that happened was 11 years ago, actually at the same England venue, in 2006 (with current team member Cooper on that occasion joined by Ben Townley and Josh Coppins).

These have been New Zealand’s results at the MXoN since 2000: 19th (in France in 2000); 3rd (in Belgium, 2001); No shows in 2002; 4th (Belgium, 2003); 7th (Netherlands, 2004); 4th (France, 2005); 3rd (UK, 2006); Failed to qualify in 2007 (Daryl Hurley and Ben Townley injured on day one); 8th (UK, 2008); 11th (Italy, 2009); 8th (USA, 2010); 30th (France, 2011); 15th (Belgium, 2012); 20th (Germany, 2013); 23rd (Latvia, 2014); 8th (France, 2015).

Team New Zealand finished 17th overall in Italy last year.

© Photos by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com

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