The annual Olympics of Motocross took place this past weekend in Ernee, France and featured its usual pomp and circumstance, which means it was a good race. This event is always huge but Ernee reallu works, as the track truly createsa gladiator-type stadium feel, which is great for viewing. It looked like, to me on TV anyways, that it was a bit ruttier than usual and not as hard packed.

We’ll get to the race soon but first, allow me some time on my soapbox, please and thank you. I don’t know if there’s a USA based media member that has been to as many of these MXDN’s in the last twenty years as much as me and I was actually ON Team USA as a mechanic back when dinosaurs roamed the earth so I come from, I feel, a place of knowing what this race means and what it doesn’t.

I have many conflicted feelings about this race. First of all, I’ll never get on a racer who choses not to do it. It’s a long ass season in the USA and sometimes, you’re just tired or don’t want to go. I get it. Bob Hannah, Damon Bradshaw, Jeff Stanton, Jeremy McGrath, James Stewart and many others have told the team they didn’t want to go. There have been entire years where a team wouldn't go at all (like 2004, when Stewart, Ricky Carmichael and more were switching bikes and teams and didn't want to do it). Heck, Kawasaki seems to be stonewalling going for a long time now (although they were going to go this year with Marchbanks if it had all worked out). If any rider wants to step up and say “Hey, sorry, not this year” I don’t think any of us outside of the BS internet trolls can say anything about that.

Haiden Deegan wanting to be paid his usual 100K to go is a bit wack, if you ask me. The riders do end up paying out of pocket to take everyone they want to and that’s not quite right, but 100K is ridiculous to me. Surely there can be something there in between giving them a small travel pittance and 100K?

The question of WHY it’s such a ball up to go to this race for Team USA seemingly every year is a bit mind boggling. The AMA has stepped up and given each team 25K to help which is awesome. MX Sports and Feld give money and we have an auction which creates that funding. But why is this so hard? Star Yamaha decided this year, despite stepping up in the past, to charge Team USA its customary 25K a bike rental it charges the riders that go overseas. Like, why now? And why can’t this be figured out much earlier? Every year it’s like a fire drill for Team USA to get its best guys or any guys to go and that’s weird man. And a bit embarrassing for Team USA as well.

When you look at the AMA and its memberships, add in the TV money to Feld/Peacock, the promoters themselves making money, the teams marketing budgets to go racing- seems to me there’s enough money there if the powers that be decided they wanted to help, no? Again, yes Feld and MX Sports are actually writing checks to Team USA. I just feel like there should be plenty of money and this should not be an issue. 

Now though, InFront. Yeah, the promoters of the MXoN seem to be absolutely killing it with profits from this race. Maybe they can help the teams that aren’t on the continent the race is on? Or help out the top ten teams from the previous year? Maybe they can do ANYTHING at all to help with the increased costs this race presents? No? You will get nothing and you will enjoy it? Okay, thanks man.

As for costs, this ain’t the days of bringing over suspension, bars and pipe/cylinder to slap on a new two-stroke anymore. Teams are bigger and bikes are more sophisticated and the whole sport has evolved. That's just the way it is. We're also hearing about record crowds and eyeballs wacthing. Seems like there should be a way to get on with this.

Also, and here's a thing that drives me crazy: they also hold a ridiculous ping-pong ball draw for Saturdays qualifying gate pick!

Imagine being a on the bubble country that gets into the A main, scores a fifteenth then the next year, you fund raise, everyone works their balls off and some Monster Girl draws out ball #38 with a super unfair start (as per most MXGP tracks) and you don’t make the A main. Thanks for coming out! Take you ping pong ball, and here’s a kick in the balls to go with it. See you next year!

Not to mention with the invention of the SMX series, InFront seems stuck on the date of the NEXT weekend after SMX which makes it tough for Team USA. And also, there’s fuel and sound rules the USA guys have to test and figure out and there’s no flexibility from InFront on that either.

Now, having said that it looks like MXoN next year in Holland will be held two weeks after SMX which will help, we’ll see if that’s a permanent move or not. And the sound rules in MXGP are coming to the USA next year so that’s one thing that American teams won't have to adapt to.

Also, one last thing, I don’t care where Team USA finishes, they sell tickets to this race. People WANT to see them and without them, the event loses a lot of its luster. That’s not up for debate, that’s facts. Sorry not sorry people. Team USA is important to this event.

Okay, I’m done. Onto the race.

Team USA got fifth overall and honestly, I said before the race that I thought a third would be awesome but fourth or fifth would be good for them. And with a lap to go, they were fourth OA with a huge gap to third OA. That would’ve been good for them, then Julien Beaumer lost a spot out there and Latvia of all countries (more on them later) jumped into fourth.

So Beaumer, Levi Kitchen and Cooper Webb brought it home for a fifth and that’s good for those guys. Of course, they’re probably a bit bummed but Kitchen was battling with the top MX2 guys in the first moto when he tangled with Alberto “the big man” Forato and went down (Kitch was mad about it but seeing the clip on IG, it really was fine. Sorry Kitch!). Levi moved up in moto two for a decent finish but to me, he wasn’t ever going to beat Guillem Farres (a sentence that would’ve seemed crazy to type out just one year ago BTW) or Sacha Coenen. If he stays where he is in moto one, he gets third or fourth OA in MX2 which is respectable. Beaumer jumped onto a 450 and I’ll be honest, I thought he would be better. He got garbage starts (probably because he had never really done starts on a 450 before two days after last SMX?) after being saddled with the outside gate picks, and didn’t work up as much as I thought he would. Tough day for Julien no doubt about that.

The star of USA, the guy with the two best finishes, the guy that has never raced the MXDN when it’s been easy, was Cooper Webb. 6-6 scores for fourth overall in the open class and he was pretty steady in both motos. He was up there in the last moto for a bit before settling in. The dude had never really ridden the Husqvarna until a few days before the race (the bike has enough changes to the frame since the last time he rode a KTM to where it had to feel new to him) and then he goes and does that. Cooper Webb is a bad, bad dude.

This is why I, despite the last thing me needing is another T shirt, I bought a Team USA Webb shirt.

Webb’s last MXDN ends with him doing what he always does, giving it his all under less-than-ideal circumstances. The guy is 0-4 at this race (I think Barcia is as well which makes them tied for most losses without a win at MXDN) but I salute Cooper Webb man. He didn’t have to go but he did and he rode great.

Props to all the guys who went and obviously Chase Sexton is hurt right now, but how much better is the team with Sexton, Deegan and Kitchen? Also, I think Weege was on this stat but for a non-USA MXDN, the last time we sent the “best on paper” team was 12 years ago in Latvia? That team has Ryan Dungey, Eli Tomac and Jeremy Martin. Every since then, if the event isn't held in America, they're patching something together. That needs to change.

Watching Stefan Everts tears of joy after Team Belgium won the race was pretty amazing. There’s a dude whose kid rode great to help his country win, his dad won the race before and then Stefan himself won four times. He couldn’t stop the water works! A super young team of Liam Everts, Sacha and Lucas Coenen pulled off a narrow win over Spain. None of the Belgians won their classes (Liam was 2^nd, Coenen’s were 3^rd) but they did what they had to once the favorites, Team France, imploded. Great rides by all three and all these guys (especially considering Liam has jumped up in classes many times and whether it’s on a 350 or a 450, has ridden great) will be podium threats every year.

But yeah, since that tweet, I’ve seen an IG video or two of Coenen almost buying the farm a few times in the motos so maybe scratch that?

Not much to say about France other than, if they don’t implode, they win the event. Romain Febvre was great, won a moto, got third in the other. Tom Vialle went for a serious ride while leading and got lucky but went DNF-DNF and Mathis Valin was leading MX2 class when he weeded himself early in moto one. Ehhh, shit happens and plenty of stuff went right in their five-year winning streak not that long ago that it was bound to come around the other way. MXDN is a lot about luck as well. Also though, I was wondering how they did and figured they were terrible with their 1-3-11-37-38 scores, but they actually got tenth!

My country, Canada, would KILL to get a tenth at this race and France did it with TWO DNF’s counting! FML.

Spain got on the box for the first time in their history and that’s with one of their original riders, Ruben Fernandez, getting hurt. No problem, they just pulled that Garcia kid from EMX up and he rode very respectable. Farres won the MX2 class and man, that story is so cool. Jorge Prado, well, he rode great BUT…there’s a but here, he had a 12 second gap on Jeffrey Herlings halfway through the last moto and gave it up. That wasn’t the difference between Spain winning or not but looking at lap times, he appeared to get tired. I was surprised at that to be honest. Anyways, great work for Spain and next year, it’ll probably be Farres and Prado on 450 and Garcia on the 250 which will be better for them, probably enough to get another second because…

There’s no way Holland is losing MXDN next year when it’s in a purpose-built sand track in Holland right? Assuming Herlings and Kay de Wolf are healthy and they add in almost anyone with a pulse-they’re winning. Herlings absolutely smoked his first moto by thirty seconds and then crashed and STILL won that third moto after being 12 seconds down halfway through the moto. It was a tour de force ride by Jeffrey and unbelievably, in his 16^th year and on a new bike for the first time, he might be at his best ever?

My country Canada had a pretty drama free weekend in France and in my opinion, they did what they should always do. Get into the A main easily and get about 15^th or so out of 20 nations. Anywhere near the top ten is good and tenth or better would be awesome. They were two points from a twelfth this weekend but got 14^th OA. Dylan Wright was a disaster last time at this track with 74 crashes but this weekend, he was the star of the team with two good motos (6^th OA in Open). All in all, a good showing for the team but nothing spectacular. That is totally acceptable, by the way.

Latvia got fourth! The small nation of 1.8 million should be a factor in the next few years as well. Pauls Jonass is their captain and the veteran, but the two Reisulis brothers are emerging stars in MX2. I’m not calling them for a win anytime soon, but they’ll be top five or better for the next few years.

-Good job for Team UK I think considering they didn’t send their best riders, I hadn’t even heard of one guy, and they got a 7^th OA which isn’t something they’ve been able to do when they’ve had much bigger names on the team. Shout out to the King!

-Again, France really blew it. But also, I’m not sad. They’ve gotten enough breaks over the years.

-Defending champions Australia got into the top ten with all three riders that had never ridden MXDN before which I would think would be terrifying for the first time. So, all things considered, not too bad! Team manager Michael Byrne did a good job with these guys.

-Sweden’s Isak Gifting was up there in moto one before crashing out which hurt Sweden a lot, they needed him to do well in both of his motos. Also, shout out Jorgen Talviku for his strong moto 1 race for Estonia. I always liked interviewing Talviku when he was privateering it in the USA.

-Jan Pancar might be the most underrated rider in the world. Tim Gasjer was hurt but in normal years Slovenia has a better team that you'd think.

Thanks for reading OBS from the couch! MXDN is a cool race, but I wish “we” could figure it out and USA, AMA and In Front can get together and try to make this race even better. And thanks to Cooper Webb yet again. Email me at [email protected] if you want to chat about this race.