250 Words: The Other Title Fight

But Geerts walked into Tom Vialle’s backyard at St. Jean D’Angely two weekends ago and struggled again. The first moto was fine as Geerts tailed Vialle much of the way and both riders eventually finished behind Thibault Benistant who took home the first moto victory. But in the second moto, Geerts again ran into issues with crashing and slid down the order to again finish seventh in the second moto for the second straight round. Coupling the performance with Vialle winning the second moto and the Grand Prix overall again and here we stand with just a two-point advantage remaining for Geerts in this title race.

It happened so fast, and it can easily be perceived that Geerts is in a tailspin trying to cling to this MX2 crown. But this 2022 season between Geerts and Vialle has been such a yo-yo to begin with that it also seems like this is just another one of those weird strings we’ve already seen. Vialle, for example, has gone 1-2-2-1-2-1 in the last six motos, but the previous four motos to that in Czechia and Belgium saw Vialle go 10-2-7-4. That lull for Vialle was the last time he possessed the championship lead as well since Geerts strung two Grand Prix victories on top of Vialle’s struggles to not only get the red plates back, but nearly put the title fight out of reach.

However they ultimately got here, they are here. Two motos left, two points between them. Each of them have motivation to win this championship, but that motivation is very different. For Geerts, this season has been by far his best. After finishing runner-up in back-to-back years of this MX2 World Championship, the Belgian finally looks like he’s found the pieces of the puzzle that it takes to be a World Champion. He also carries a heavy load of history on his shoulders as the once dominant motocross nation of Belgium is currently in their longest World Championship drought in the history of the FIM Motocross World Championship. You have to go back to 2008 when Sven Breugelmanns won the MX3 crown, but you’d have to go even a year further to 2007 to find the last main series (MXGP and MX2) World Champion when Steve Ramon put the Belgian flag on top. It’s been since 2003 that a Belgian rider won the 125/MX2 crown when again it was Ramon who got it done.

Geerts has history on his shoulders, but Vialle has the future on his. There’s at least a chance this is the last Grand Prix of Tom Vialle’s career and is almost certainly going to be the last MX2 GP of his career. The 21-year-old Frenchman has already committed to leaping the pond in 2023 to join Red Bull KTM in the USA for Monster Energy AMA Supercross and the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship. Vialle already has a World Title in his back pocket having claimed the MX2 crown in 2020, but the thought of coming to the USA as a two-time World Champion certainly has a nice ring to it.

Jago Geerts has already re-signed with Monster Energy Yamaha MX2 for his final age-eligible season in 2023 so he can of course still win again next year if things don’t fall his way. But you never want to leave that to chance, and we’ve seen time and time again of riders having a championship slip through their fingers only to never ascend that mountain again.

They will both square off this weekend in Afyonkarahisar which is certainly a racetrack more synonymous with Vialle. The Frenchman won both Grand Prix here last year with 1-2-2-1 moto results whereas Geerts never even landed on the podium in a single moto with 9-6-4-11 scores to his tally. With momentum on his side and a history of success at this track, things are certainly looking up for Vialle. But as mentioned, that momentum hasn’t seemed to matter much this season as both riders have been tossing the red plates back and forth to each other.