20 Team USA Moments: The Best Effort

Needing another 450 pilot, 250 rider Cooper Webb volunteered to race a YZ450F for the race in the Open slot. Webb missed the early 250 Nationals with an ankle injury but was right at the front of the 250 pack when he returned. Could he adapt to the big bike quickly?

It started off right, with Barcia winning moto one outright, the first time an American had even won a moto in years. Martin was a solid fifth, but he was outdueled by France’s own Marvin Musquin, who finished fourth. Musquin and Martin had battled all year for the AMA 250 National Motocross Championship, with a final-round showdown ruined when Marvin’s engine let go at the season finale. Musquin, though, cheered by the insane noise of the French fans, simply was a smidge better than Martin on this day.

In moto two, France busted out Romain Febvre, who had taken the MXGP circuit by storm to win the 2015 title. Webb, still new to the 450 but full of his usual heart and swagger, dueled with the new MXGP Champion for awhile but took second. By the way, there was a brief time when Webb and Febvre had a “rivalry” brewing because they kept meeting at international races like this. Musquin finished the second moto in third and Martin was fifth. Team USA had 1-2-5-5 finishes after two motos, Team France had 4-7-1-3 scores. Gautier Paulin’s first-moto seventh would probably get thrown out, and the final moto was gonna’ be a battle for it all.

There, again Febrve came through, just a beast in that 2015 season, winning again. Webb and Barcia both got bad starts, and Webb stalled, losing valuable time. He finished sixth, while France’s Paulin took fifth. Barcia rallied from way back to take third, with New Zealand vet Ben Townley taking second. It was a good effort and his 1-3 made Barcia the overall winner of the MXGP class. But France had a 1-1 from Febvre in Open, and that was all the difference. By two points, cheered by an insanely loud crowd on home soil, France won.

“The crowd was pushing me, helping me I feel like,” said Musquin. “I felt like I was flying because of that crowd.”

“I'm probably a tough one to ask on this whole deal because, dude, I’ve never lost the Motocross des Nations,” said Johnny O’Mara, a Team USA hero as a racer and trainer to Jeremy Martin on that day. “I actually took it pretty bad. I took it worse than the riders. I hated to watch it, to be honest. I know that's probably pretty blunt.

“I didn't talk to the whole team, but my guy, Jeremy Martin, and I communicated quite a bit, and we could see the cards were dealt on Saturday,” O’Mara summed up. “We could see the French were unbelievable on their home soil. I told Jeremy, "Dude, our team has to be perfect to beat them—bottom line." And we weren't. They were pretty much perfect. Sure, there might have been a few little issues that they had to deal with, but we had to be perfect. I'll just be honest—I had a gut feeling that nobody had anything for [Romain] Febvre. In my opinion, he's on another level. He's every bit the world champion that he is, and I give him a lot of credit. I have a lot of respect for the guy. I could just tell with his swagger and his riding that he's the real deal.”

Of all the losses, 2015 stands out as one where the Americans avoided the bad luck and rode to the best of their ability. This time, a team cheered by the home fans were simply a little bit better.

2015 Motocross of Nations Results