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Winner Takes All
Winner Takes All

COVID-19’s continuing influence on travel and public events meant that MXGP had to be flexible again in 2021, but the sport responded with one of the greatest contests in the 65-year history of the FIM Motocross World Championship

WORDS: ADAM WHEELER
PHOTOS: RAY ARCHER

Outside the press room in Mantova, Italy, for the 18th and final round of the protracted 2021 MXGP season, there is all sorts of commotion. Fans are pushing, shouting, singing. Inside, at one end of the head tables reserved for the riders and podium finishers, Romain Febvre sits alone. The Monster Energy Kawasaki man holds his head in his hands for a solid five minutes: thoughtful, exhausted, inconsolable. The fuss outside for new world champion Jeffrey Herlings and the retiring Tony Cairoli somewhere in the distance grows louder. In walks Tim Gajser, world #1 in 2019 and 2020, making the long trudge past all the workstations. The Honda HRC rider takes up a space toward the other end of the table. Two of the three principal protagonists in the closest and most gripping championship in the modern era—maybe of all time—sit staring into space, waiting. This is the calm after a tornado.

Read Out
Read Out

We are deeply rooted in Moto—We’ve been here all our lives. Back in 1998 when we turned an underground newspaper into a shiny color magazine, it immediately changed the game with its unprecedented depth of coverage, sense of humor, and access to the sport’s biggest names. Today, our readers know they can go to Racer X Online for all the news, race results, and event coverage they need, and then enjoy even more detail and perspective in the pages of Racer X Illustrated. The mag offers a chance to learn something new on every page and stay connected with the people and personalities that shape our sport—the competitors out on the racetrack, as well as the ones behind the scenes—through our exclusive deep-dive stories and columns.

Our trademark has always been insider knowledge from the experts who are at the races and around the sport. We have long prided ourselves on our unparalleled race reporting and detailed storytelling. We go deep with the riders and teams to provide comprehensive coverage you won’t find anywhere else—all with first-class photography and design. It’s a full education in motocross past, present, and future.

Davey Coombs
Editor-in-chief & Founder
Racer X Illustrated

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