Can anyone topple Tony?

One moto in each class plus a Superfinal for the top 20 from each class will be run on Saturday evening local time (Qatar is seven hours in advance of GMT) under floodlights, before they all head to Thailand, eight days later.

 

The European rounds start at Valkenswaard in Holland on Easter Monday and there is hardly time to catch breath before the finale in September follows on from a potential title-clincher at Matterley Basin, in the UK, on August 25.

 

Three Brits in MX1 (Tommy Searle, Shaun Simpson and Jason Dougan) and six in MX2 (Jake Nicholls, Max Anstie, Mel Pocock, Elliott Banks-Browne, James Dunn and James Cottrell) have signed up for the series.

 

So let's take a closer look at their chances and the opposition they face.

 

MX1

The man to beat in MX1 is inevitably Tony Cairoli. 

 

The Sicilian is going for a fifth straight title and his credentials are immaculate. 

 

Since July last year he has only lost four motos – second to Kevin Strijbos in Latvia after a fall, an insignificant defeat in qualification at Faenza and two mechanically-induced losses in the early season Italian internationals.

 

The 27-year-old from Sicily on his ‘350' KTM (or 380 or 420? – it's legal but Mattighofen is not saying) is the bench mark!

 

The only opponent to have passed ‘TC#222' during six motos last month was team-mate Ken De Dycker but the hefty Belgian knows his job as willing slave and would only come into the equation as a title candidate if Cairoli gets hurt. With his no-holdsbarred style it is amazing that the champion has gone four years without a signficant injury during the season. 

 

So is his time up?

 

Six manufacturers go for gold in MX1 and each has at least one man who believes he can topple the champion.

 

Clement Desalle has gone 3-2-3-2 through the last four years and is the man Cairoli fears in more ways than one.

 

The fearless Belgian is the one guy at the gate who is not intimidated by theItalian and he is never more dangerous than when the opposition gets him riled, as witnessed by all and sundry in Portugal last year.

 

The ‘MX Panda' struggled by his own high standards last year, after Suzuki sat complacently on their laurels technically in the winter of 2011/12 – but the team has done its homework this winter.

 

Back to his roots after wandering aimlessly since 2007, Kevin Strijbos is the second rider at Suzuki and swept all before him at Mantova. 

 

But he didn't even sniff the podium at Valence and has blown hot and cold throughout his career.

 

Honda could have two top guns this year.