Observations: MXoN 2022, RedBud, USA

2nd Overall | France | 23 points

Great work for France. Maxime Renaux was great in winning the MXGP class, Dylan Ferrandis showed, like, amazing speed in MX3, although he had some self-induced mistakes, and Musquin rode well. I guess Marvin was the team’s weaker link but on a 250F, I’m not sure what else you could expect from him. I heard he has only ever ridden a 250F at this event for France, which is wild, right? Anyway, the French were really good and even when running 1-2 in the third moto, that wasn’t going to be enough to beat the Americans. Next year, this race is in France and yeah, these guys will be tough.

3rd Overall| Australia | 26 points

I think Hunter Lawrence’s move on Justin Cooper early in moto two was probably a little harsh. It caused him to crash and that kicked off a tough moto for the Aussies. Mitch Evans did what he needed to do in moto one but in moto three, he went down in the first turn and that was the throwaway. The team needed Hunter to be around Cooper, or to do what he did in moto one and beat him. The Jett was phenomenal. I didn’t think he would win the class overall but that’s what he did and further cemented his “next” status. Hey, it was still a great MXoN for the Aussies, as this is just the second time they made the podium. But oh, what could have been. If Hunter just stays behind Coop in moto two and Evans doesn't crash on lap one of moto three, they’re second and putting heat on the USA. Hunter crashed three times in his second moto and still got tenth!

4th Overall | Italy | 49 points

In what was the great Tony Cairoli’s last motocross race, he went out with a fourth for his country. The Italians got a massive surprise ride from Mattia Guadagnini, who led most of race two before ending up with a third. There’s almost always some ride at this race that comes out of nowhere, my pick this year to do that was Jorge Prado, but it came from Guadagnini. If Mattia gets a tenth (where about he usually should be, maybe further back even) Italy’s just inside the top ten. But hey, he rode great, Tony had two top tens wearing the #1 and this was the surprise country at this year’s MXoN. Also, just for the record, Cairoli’s last ever pass on a motocross race was Canada’s Dylan Wright. Yay for Canada.

5th Overall| Belgium | 50 points

Oh, what could have been for the Belgiums, who always seem to be in the top five at this event no matter who they bring over. They were running third after moto one and Jago Geerts, who normally rides MX2, rode great in moto one on the 450. Liam Everts was also in the mix for great rides until late crashes in both of his motos. The team’s third rider, Jeremy Van Horbeek, who’s probably ridden for Belgium for 15 years, competed in his final race of a great career on the Beta. Everts has really come into his own the last year and gets a shot at the factory KTM in 2023.

6th Overall | Spain | 51 points

Spain was a trendy pick to get on the box and Jorge Prado did qualify the quickest on Saturday in MX1 so that was good. Once the races hit, Spain’s best laid plans didn’t work out though. Normally a great starter, Prado didn’t get great starts (he merely got good starts). Ruben Fernandez did a nice job, but the team’s MX2 rider, Guillem Farres had a terrible day. If he just gets a 15^th in one moto, the team is fourth overall. The bright side is all three of these riders should be repping Spain for a long time and I’m gonna stamp it here, they will make a podium at some point.

7th Overall | Netherlands | 62 points

Missing Herlings obviously hurt the Dutch but so did 2018 hero Glenn Coldenhoff’s day. For whatever reason, despite being one of the only 450’s with an inside gate in moto one, Glenn couldn’t get it going in similar conditions to the last RedBud MXoN when he went 1-1. The team’s best finish came from Calvin Vlaanderen, which was not on the bingo card coming in. But to not have a good race and still get seventh is something a lot of countries (COUGH CANADA) would love to have.

8th Overall | Germany | 71 points

How old is Max Nagl? Well, he was there for Germany yet again and got the team’s second-best score at that. He’s got to be sort of approaching Tanel-Leok-level MXoN participation, right? No Ken Roczen, but the Germans still did pretty well, and as expected, MX2 rider Simon Laengenfelder led the way, although maybe he wasn’t quite as good as expected. The team’s third rider was named Tom Koch and he had “Tom Koch” on all the timing and scoring, which was awesome.

9th Overall | Switzerland | 90 points

I interviewed Jeremy Seewer after Saturday’s qualifier for my hit podcast “Saturdays with Seewer,” and he explained that yes, Switzerland would be lucky to get a top five, but he himself, had set the goal of winning his class. He didn’t do that, as crashes in at least one moto thwarted that plan, but he was top five in both motos, which was strong. Do you know he’s gotten second in the world championship five times???? Sweet Jesus that’s got to be rough.

10th Overall | Great Britain | 98 points

A bad day for Team GB, as Tommy Searle ran out of gas in both motos on the last lap, Max Anstie’s bike broke, and Dean Wilson was left to soldier on and get the team’s top scores. Team Dad, Team Vet, Team Pop, whatever you wanted to call the guys, it wasn’t a great day. As Searle told me afterward, if you’re not close to a podium then who gives a shit where you actually end up. For as bad of a day as they had, a tenth is actually not bad.

11th Overall | Latvia | 101 points

The Latvians were maybe the most unknown squad to the American MX fans, but Karlis Sabulis is legit and the Latvians can credit their almost-top-ten performance to just steady consistency, as they never had a score worse than 23^rd. The score they dropped was a 23, as a matter of fact. Out of the six scores they got, five were between 20-23.

12th Overall | Sweden | 109 points

Fast Freddie Noren was ninth on Saturday in his qualifying race, which was solid, but he didn’t do that well in the slop and just logged the team’s third and fourth-best scores. That is less than ideal. Still, they beat Finland so there’s that. This team would be close to a top five with Noren (unless it’s in the sand), Michael Mosiman (who has a Swedish passport), and the injured Isak Gifting in MX2.