Speaking of WSX, that series got started last weekend in Argentina and the veteran Suzuki rider Ken Roczen went straight to the top of the charts with a dominant win. Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing riders Justin Cooper and Haiden Deegan rounded out the podium. Much of the pre-race talk centered around Deegan debuting both internationally and on a 450, but a misunderstanding of how the gate-pick system worked meant Deegan went to the gate 16th and last for both of the main motos. He looked good coming through the pack, but it was hard to tell how he really would have done against Roczen or Cooper.

Deegan is not racing in Vancouver, but Red Bull KTM’s Eli Tomac is, marking the first time he’s raced a KTM since he was on 65s at the AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship at Loretta Lynn’s Ranch in the early ‘00s. Roczen and Cooper will also be there, but that’s it for J-Coop, as he’s only committed to two rounds of the five-race series. And Tomac will do one other round in Australia, as will Deegan. It’s also sounding like Roczen may only be doing three rounds now, rather than the whole series. This is where it gets a little tricky for WSX: By their rules, wild cards do not count in the overall championship standings, so by the time this is over in December 13 in South Africa, the title could be a battle between Quad Lock Honda teammates, Christian Craig and Joey Savatgy, and Pipes Motorsports Suzuki’s Jason Anderson. But that’s only if Roczen skips a couple of rounds.

No matter, with Deegan and Tomac and Cooper Webb all racing at the Australian Gold Coast round on November 29, that could be the most interesting round of this series. And one week earlier, November 22, with the AUS-X Open bringing back the Lawrence brothers for the Melbourne race, all supercross eyes are about to be on Australia. But that’s next week. For now, we’re lucky to have three races to watch this weekend, two nights in France and one in Vancouver.

Meanwhile, the countdown to Anaheim 1 and the start of the 2026 Monster Energy AMA Supercross season, as well as the Monster Energy SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX), stands at 57 days.

And our social media friend Josh Gagnon (@AlwaysBelieve331) has his annual countdown up and running; here are this week's entries, as Anaheim is now 57 days away. Look for Josh's page on Instagram and give him a follow...

Here’s Matthes from Paris.

PARIS SUPERCROSS (Matthes)

I’m here in Paris, France, for the annual Paris Supercross at the Defense Arena. Great race; it has been going on every year (outside of the year for COVID-19) since 1984—and there were actually two events that first year—and it always adds intrigue to the off-season. For example, last year we saw an improved Cooper Webb get a main event win one night, and he managed to win the overall as well. He was much better last year than in 2023, and we saw what happened when he hit Anaheim 1, right? Now, obviously, this race isn’t something you can stamp as knowing what will happen, but he was closer to the Lawrence brothers in 2024 than he was in ‘23, and he had a great season indoors in 2025, winning his third Monster Energy AMA Supercross 450SX title. Paris doesn’t mean anything unless it means everything, you know?

Webb’s here, the Lawrence brothers are here, Malcolm Stewart, Mitchell Harrison, and Marshall Weltin as well. But the big news is Tom Vialle is making his Honda HRC debut, and the promoters are stoked about it. Vialle, as we all know, is headed back to MXGP on the new ride, but hey, why not grab some cash on the way out of fulltime SX, right? This race has always been about showcasing the French riders, be it Jacky Vimond, Jean-Michel Bayle, David Vuillemin, Marvin Musquin, Dylan Ferrandis, etc. So, it’s great for the organizers here to get Tom Vialle making his Ride Red debut at what is effectively a homecoming race for the two-time AMA 250SX East Divison Champion (and, before that, two-time MX2 FIM Motocross World Champion).

Some Paris SX shots, courtesy of the Paris SX...

Man, in another world, with Jorge Prado’s drama with Monster Energy Kawasaki and them seemingly struggling to find a rider to field in that second spot next to Chase Sexton, you wonder if Tom had just stuck it out a bit longer if he could’ve gotten paid a bit better to be Sexton’s teammate on green? Hard to tell Vialle to wait for sure, as I’m sure Honda MXGP Europe wasn’t going to just stick around without getting him signed, but yeah, another thing that Prado and his drama affected in the industry. Everyone is happy now; Jorge is on his bike of choice, Garrett Marchbanks gets a Kawi factory 450 ride, and who knows, maybe we see Vialle back here sometime soon? His career path thus far has been like no other, that’s for sure. I look forward to seeing him on the Honda this weekend.

Pro Perspective (Jason Thomas)

This weekend I will be joining fellow RXI contributor Steve Matthes and a host of the world’s fastest racers at the Paris SX. I raced this event multiple times myself (back then known as Bercy because of the Paris suburb it was in) and always enjoyed it. These off-season races were my normal. I would do 10+ every year in an attempt to pad my own bottom line. This Paris event is special, though, as it gets the very best to make the cross-Atlantic jaunt. Everyone from Johnny O’Mara, David Bailey, Rick Johnson, Jeff Ward, and Broc Glover to Damon Bradshaw, Jeremy McGrath, James Stewart, and Jett Lawrence has made their name known in the land of wine and cheese. It’s the biggest off-season event on the calendar, and for good reason.

Last year, Cooper Webb surprised with a win against the brothers Lawrence. He went on to win the 2025 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship, so maybe the surprise aspect was a bit overblown, but it was a surprise at the time. This year, he will again go in as an underdog to Jett and Hunter, but that’s not a new dynamic. Who wins? Who knows, but it’s always interesting to try to draw conclusions far too early in the off-season cycle. Fans and media will watch and then jump to a narrative. That’s how the off-season works.

The riders, though, view it a bit differently. Webb, for instance, can use this race as a barometer. He gets to size up Jett and Hunter (along with Malcolm) to see where he is in his own boot camp transformation. Able to stay close and the bike works well? Stay the course and lean into it. Nowhere near the others, and it’s a struggle fest? Time to draw up a new plan with time to make fundamental adjustments before A1. Having that gauge is valuable in and of itself, let alone the mega payday that comes with this event. Webb once told me he would take any and all chances to see Jett on the track and absorb the things he does well. This event and the following AUS-X Open event are exactly what they seem like: pressure-free paydays that also present opportunities to learn. Life is often determined by which lens you view it through. Webb’s viewpoint on the Paris SX seems awfully constructive to me.

How to Make TV Shows Better (Jason Weigandt)

I just returned from a few days of meetings at Feld Motor Sports’ HQ in Bradenton, Florida. The TV crew meets there every November for a TV Summit and idea exchange, which includes all the faces you see on TV: That means me, Leigh Diffey, Ricky Carmichael, James Stewart, Will Christien, Jason Thomas, and Katie Osborne from the U.S. broadcast, Justin Brayton, Haley Shanley, and Lurch from Race Day Live (Adam Cianciarulo is hanging out in Australia right now and couldn’t make it), and also French language hosts Maxime Martin and Sebastien Tortelli, and Spanish language hosts Edgar Lopez and Tommy Rios. Several NBC producers and employees attended, as well as various departments from Feld Motorsports and MX Sports. That means I saw DC for a bit in between our various meetings, but that was about it! On the second day, we shot a 2026 SMX season preview show which will air just after Christmas on NBC, hosted by myself and Diffey, which will include a lot of interviews with the top riders and analysis and predictions from Stew, RC, JB, JT, and more. Definitely no shortage of stories heading into the new season.

The goal of this Summit is for everyone in all departments to brainstorm and figure out how to make every show better. For example, we spent Wednesday morning talking to the competition side about new rules and regulations and how we can better and more clearly explain them on the show. That’s important, right? We reviewed red flag restart scenarios and how aggressive riding penalties will work going forward, as well as black flag situations—a big topic after the Vegas SMX drama. We also got to make suggestions. Personally, I feel one major thing we have to unlock as an industry is more talk about riders switching teams. Trades and free-agent rumors are a massive part of the media industry in other sports, and I think we’re missing the boat when the biggest stories of the sport are kept secret. This year, Chase Sexton was embroiled in a huge Monster Energy AMA Supercross title fight with Cooper Webb while also fielding free-agent offers from both Kawasaki and KTM. Wouldn’t fans love to have known more about that? I don’t think the potential of him leaving KTM was ever mentioned on TV during the supercross season. Yes, such news does get discussed by guys like Matthes on his PulpMX show, but not every fan watches all of that. Wouldn’t it be great if we could more openly discuss silly season on the TV show? I’m not sure we ever mentioned Eli Tomac’s move to KTM on a TV show in 2025, even though he probably had already signed his deal in the summer. We should do better. Fans love that sort of info, and anything we can do to keep people thinking and talking about the sport, the better.

To do this openly, it would take a bit of a mind shift for teams, manufacturers, and agents to see the benefits. You’ll probably see another run of new deals after the 2027 season, so we have time, and we’re organized, and I think we can make improvements. I know, personally, I’m always stuck not knowing what I can and can’t say. We should be better than that. In short, we’re trying to make the shows and the sport better each year. That’s why we hold the Summit every November.

The Most Different #1s? (Mitch Kendra)

After seeing some images from press day today for the Paris SX, DC and I were commenting how unusual it is to see Jett Lawrence with the #18 and fully normal setup of black numbers and white number plate backgrounds. For the last several years, he has been #1 with either a red or purple background for his different classes in the Monster Energy SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX). Jett has run the #1 in a lot of different races so far in the USA between his 250cc AMA Pro Motocross Championship, then his early success in the 450cc class as well, and he has also run a #1 plate at the Paris SX (2024) and the Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations (October 2025). This got me to thinking: is Jett Lawrence the rider to run a #1 plate in the most different series in history?

While SMX is three separate divisions technically, I’ve counted the SMX League as one series. Between all three classes in the 450SMX series (SX, MX, and the SMX Playoffs), plus his Paris and MXoN #1s, that has to be some kind of history, right?

DC brought up the fact that Ryan Dungey ran a #1 in both SX and MX, plus the MXoN (a couple of years). DC pointed out that Jean-Michel Bayle never ran the #1 in the FIM Motocross World Championship before coming to the U.S. He also mentioned that the trio of Ricky Carmichael, Chad Reed, and James Stewart often passed on the #1 to run their career numbers, #4, #22, and #7, respectively. Tom Vialle is a two-time MX2 Champion, running the #1 in the class once in 2021, and also wore the #1 as he defended his 250SX East Division Monster Energy AMA Supercross title this year. But he has not run #1 in MXoN. Tomac has been #1 in the U.S. several times and now will be #1 in WSX this weekend in his KTM debut. Cooper Webb has run the #1 in both 250 Pro Motocross and 450SX, as well as his debut as the #1 in Paris SX this weekend after last year’s win.

Jorge Prado has ran the #1 in both MX2 and MXGP but he has not won the MXoN with Team Spain, so no #1 plates there. Jeffrey Herlings has ran #1 plates in both MXGP classes as well but has never wore a #1 at MXoN. Aaron Plessinger wore the #1 in MXoN in 2023 but both of his 250cc titles in 2018 were followed by a move to the 450cc classes in 2019—and a new career number, #7. Zach Osborne ran a #1 in the summer of his title defense in both 250 and 450 Pro Motocross (2018 and 2021, respectively) but never got to be #1 at MXoN.

And speaking of Lawrence and Webb, we will see Jett wearing #18 again at the Anaheim 1 SX in January, but it will have purple backgrounds with yellow numbers as the defending SMX Champion. Webb will be #1, but he won't be wearing the red plate backgrounds that defending champions have customarily worn at round one. Instead, the new AMA rule is that no red plates will be worn until there is an actual points leader, which means we will be seeing red at round two.

Will Jett be #1 once again at MXoN in 2026 in France next fall? So, is Jett Lawrence the rider to run the #1 plates in the most different series? We might be missing some other multi-series #1s, so let us know in the comments section below!

Other Number Stuff… (Mitch Kendra)

Still #16: And speaking of Vialle, now that he is back in the MXGP series, how strange is it to see him as #16 still? I was wondering if he would go back to his #28 from his MX2 days…until I remembered that number is taken by another current Red Bull KTM rider: Marc-Antoine Rossi. Rossi missed basically all of 2025 with a shoulder injury, so his number totally slipped my mind. Apologies, Marc-Antoine!

McAdoo Picks ’26 number: Cameron McAdoo, who did not earn a two-digit AMA national number for 2026, has decided on a new number for 2026. He posted on Instagram this week that he will run #142 to honor his late friend Izzy, who passed away while racing in 2011. Crockett Myers ran #142 in 2025 but has not posted yet which number he will run in 2026.

2026 GNCC Schedule (Mitch Kendra)

The 2026 Progressive Grand National Cross Country (GNCC) Racing schedule was announced late last night. The 13-round schedule starts in mid-February with the Big Buck GNCC in South Carolina but ends November 8 with the Buckwheat 100 GNCC in West Virginia. Typically, the Ironman GNCC in Indiana hosts the final round in late October, but there appears to be a change for next year! There are currently three TBA rounds - one each in March, April, and June. View the full schedule below.

YAMAHA OAI (Matthes)

We started a 501C nonprofit to help injured racers called, PulpmxGivesBack.com, and have already helped out Jerry Robin a bit. Something that was super cool was after we did our draw for the 2025 Yamaha YZ450F, the Yamaha Outdoor Access Initiative people reached out and gave us another $10K to the pot to help! Pretty awesome of Yamaha to do that; you can go to our non-profit to read more about what the OAI program does, who it helps, and more. Thanks, BLU CRU!

Vet Masters (Keefer)

I am here in Georgia this week attending Matt Walker's Vet Masters event in Echeconnee. "The Stalker" has been quite the promoter since he left professional racing and has put together a fun event for us older dudes out there. Since he sold his property to Triumph (which was called the Moto X Compound), he acquired Echeconnee, which is a pure sand track that has held Loretta Lynn's Regionals in the past. The sand track gets rough and reminds me of riding some old-school tracks from back in the day. Matt has put together a pro purse, awesome trophies, and even a green jacket for each class winner (just like the real MASTERS in Augusta). Coming out to test some bikes as well as race a quality event like this is a great excuse to get away from California for a while. Thanks to Matt Walker for creating a quality vet-style event that has some weight to it. Look for a full podcast about the event when I get back to California… IF I GO BACK...

This Week's Win Ads (DC)

Without much racing still going on in 2025—at least not before this weekend's Paris/Vancouver SX races—there wasn't much in the way of win ads in this week's Cycle News. As a matter of fact, there were two: one from Suzuki for Ken Roczen's Argentina WSX win and one from FMF for Trystan Hart's win in the Redmond, Oregon, EnduroCross.

But I also loved seeing this old shot from the early 1980s and the CMC Golden State Series of Jeff Ward leading George Holland at Sandhill Ranch, shot by the Dean of Weekly Moto-Journalism himself, Kit Palmer! Once upon a time, the Golden State Series, just like the Florida Winter-AMA Series, was a winter-time hotbed of action, with big-name stars like Bob Hannah, Rick Johnson, David Bailey, and more. That was back when SX started in late January, and the only really big international off-season race was the Paris-Bercy Supercross—which is still up and running this weekend!

Hey, Watch It!

Honda HRC Progressive Confirms Jo Shimoda for 2026

Here's a Vancouver WSX track preview by Johnny Hopper:

Haiden Deegan's 450 debut wasn't the only news for the Deegans this week as Brian nearly lost his leg to a spider bite!

Time for a rematch between Carson Brown and Justin Barcia on 250cc two-strokes:

Head-Scratching Headline/s of the Week 

"Bagpipers claim world record with AC/DC’s ‘It’s a Long Way to the Top'”—AP News

"Grace College sets new women's college basketball record with 172 points in blowout victory"—Yahoo Sports

“AI Relationships Are on the Rise. A Divorce Boom Could Be Next”—Archive

"The last penny was pressed by the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia today. Could the nickel and dime be next?"—Yahoo News

“Lions to consult Eminem for Thanksgiving halftime show advice”—EPSN

Random Notes

We spotted this bit on the Australian actor Chris Hemsworth (Thor in what’s known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe) and his motocross-loving family. Might we see his daughter in WMX one day?