Report: Motocross of Nations - Maggiora, Italy
By Alex Hodgkinson on 28th Sep 16
In the most sensational Nations finish of all time, Romain Febvre snatched victory for France for the third year in succession in the very last corner at Maggiora. It was the first time all day that the French third a lap-and-a-half from home had led!
Britain was never in the hunt after a series of setbacks restricted the boys to seventh while the lead fluctuated throughout the day between Belgium, the USA and Holland. The Irish went through the hard way of the B final yet again to finish 20th.
Most leading teams sent their 250 rider to the inside gate for the MX1/MX2 opener but the tactic was in vain. Tony Cairoli and Jason Anderson had shown on Saturday that the holeshot was possible from the outside and the horsepower advantage of the 450s killed the smaller bikes in the joint starts.
Jeremy Van Horebeek was the only 250 in the top 10 out of turn one which helped Belgium to the initial team lead. The Rinaldi YZ250F would prove to be too strong for the class opposition all weekend.
The flipside of the coin for Britain saw Tommy Searle, his starts off all season, get pushed to the boards before getting caught up in the sort of freak incident that happens in the pack.
"Some guy just stopped dead at the bottom of a hill and I hit him flat-out,” he said. "The bars were bent and I banged my right forearm – I couldn't attack.”
Quickly to 24th, he could only advance two more places all moto and with Max Anstie – who had taken a rock in the groin the day before – languishing in 18th Britain's hopes of the podium, let alone the win, were gone.
Glenn Coldenhoff, Cairoli and Canadian privateer Kaven Benoit put their Toomers in front but no-one had an answer to Febvre as he scythed his way through in five laps but Nations rookie Benoit Paturel was languishing just outside the top 10 together with the other 250s bar Van Horebeek.
Still, with 15 points to the eight of Belgium and 13 of the USA there was no cause for concern for the French and the Belgians had already played their two main cards and could only go backwards.
An hour later the MX2 boys were out again with the Open class and the start was the same story as Anderson and Jeffrey Herlings stormed clear while the 250s – bar Van Horebeek – ate rocks. By the finish Jeremy Seewer, Alex Martin and Paturel had passed the 450 second guard for 8-9-10 but that was their limit and the Belgian was also back to seventh after Shaun Simpson hauled him in on the run in to the final turn.
"I'd been eating away at him all moto and we came up to a lapper,” said Simpson. "All three of us touched and my horsepower helped me get out of it better.”
Anstie was again out of the hunt in 22nd.
"I'm just glad to go home in one piece,” he said, "it was no fun out there together with the 450s.”
Just how dangerous Maggiora can be was emphasised at the chequered flag in an incident that surely cost the USA its first win in five years.
Anderson had defied a broken bone in his foot to soak up everything Herlings could throw at him for 20 minutes before the Dutchman slipped off and the American coasted across the finish line jump. The landing was unsighted for approaching riders and Japanese MX2 lapper Chihiro Notsuka, hitting the jump in full race mode, landed on Anderson's head and back.
Luckily the American emerged pretty much unscathed but it was too late for the US to field two riders in the final moto.
On four scores the USA was leading by five after two motos and even on the more realistic reckoning of three scores America was level with France, one ahead of Belgium and eight ahead of Holland. The rest would all be looking at two significant scores from the final moto while Cooper Webb needed just one frontline result to add to the ninth held in reserve.
Belgium was never going to be a threat with Brent Van Doninck outclassed on the 450 and both Febvre and Paulin started badly for France but the Dutch were in the thick of the battle as Herlings holeshot and Coldenhoff held down fourth.
The orange men had leapfrogged into the lead on 28 – one ahead of the USA and six up on France – and the French were not advancing so once it became clear that Paulin was not going to get higher than 11th it was all down to Febvre.
By halfway the scores were NL 28, US 30 and France 32 but Febvre had nowhere to go as Webb tried in vain to dislodge Coldenhoff. Eventually the American went through to tie the scores at the front and Febvre followed him a lap later to give the US a slender advantage.
Febvre knew he needed Webb but he also needed to put one other rider between them as they closed in on Searle who had launched out of the gate for what he would later describe as his best start of the year.
Webb, feeling Febvre breathing down his neck as the race approached the final lap, was over-anxious to put Searle between them and toppled over in a banked turn. By the time he rejoined the fray US hopes were gone but such was his delay that he gifted Holland a point too and the Dutch troops were back in charge on the tie-break courtesy of Herlings' 2-1 finishes.
"My pitboard said second last time round and I thought we'd lost,” said Febvre, "but I saw a gap under Searle and went for it. I didn't know until they dragged me over for the podium interview that we'd won.”
Tommy could have got dirty with Febvre but chose to do the right thing.
"I could have T-boned him,” he said, "but we'd had a pretty sh*tty weekend and they were going for the Nations.”
The Brits' ‘sh*tty' weekend was typified by Simpson's tough luck in the final moto.
"I'd already slipped off on the first lap,” said the Scot, "and then the bike just locked up, derailed the chain and broke the clutch cylinder.”
So the French celebrated a hat-trick, Holland and the USA pondered what might have been, Britain will go to Glen Helen wearing 19-20-21 and the Irish team was just glad the longest day was over again with Martin Barr 26-27, Stuart Edmonds 27-34 and Graeme Irwin – who dislocated his shoulder on Saturday – absolved from duty after turning out bravely in the B final.
RACE ONE (MXGP/ MX2): 1 Romain Febvre (F - MXGP - Yamaha), 2 Antonio Cairoli (I - MXGP - KTM), 3 Kevin Strijbos (B - MXGP - Suzuki), 4 Cooper Webb (US - MXGP - Yamaha), 5 Jeremy Van-Horebeek (B - MX2 - Yamaha), 6 Glenn Coldenhoff (NL - MXGP - KTM), 7 Todd Waters (AUS - MXGP - Suzuki), 8 Kaven Benoit (CAN - MXGP - KTM), 9 Alex Martin (US - MX2 - Yamaha), 10 Cody Cooper (NZ - MXGP - Honda), 11 Jeremy Seewer (CH - MX2 - Suzuki), 12 Jose Antonio Butron (E - MXGP - KTM), 13 Valentin Guillod (CH - MXGP - Yamaha), 14 Benoit Paturel (F - MX2 - Yamaha), 15 Thomas Olsen (DK - MX2 - Husqvarna), 16 Samuele Bernardini (I - MX2 - TM), 17 Nikolaj Larsen (DK - MXGP - KTM), 18 Max ANSTIE (GB - MX2 - Husqvarna), 19 Tanel Leok (EST - MX2 - KTM), 20 Brian Bogers (NL - MX2 - KTM), 21 Vsevolod Brylyakov (RUS - MX2 - Kawasaki), 22 Tommy SEARLE (GB - MXGP - Kawasaki), 23 Lukas Neurauter (A - MXGP - KTM), 24 Anton Gole (S - MXGP - Husqvarna), 25 Priit Ratsep (EST - MXGP - Honda), 26 Alvin Ostlund (S - MX2 - Yamaha), 27 Martin BARR (IRE - MX2 - Honda), 28 Filip Neugebauer (CZ - MX2 - Kawasaki), 29 Akira Narita (JAP - MXGP - Honda), 30 Vytautas Bucas (LIT - MXGP - Yamaha), 31 Jorge Prado Garcia (E - MX2 - KTM), 32 Shawn Maffenbeier (CAN - MX2 - KTM), 33 Jaromir Romancik (CZ - MXGP - Suzuki), 34 Chihiro Notsuka (JAP - MX2 - Honda), 35 Mitchell Evans (AUS - MX2 - Yamaha), 36 Michael Sandner (A - MX2 - KTM), 37 Josiah Natzke (NZ - MX2 - KTM), 38 Dovydas Karka (LIT - MX2 - KTM), 39 Semen Rogozin (RUS - MXGP - Husqvarna). RACE TWO (MX2/ Open): 1 Jason Anderson (US - OPEN - Husqvarna), 2 Jeffrey Herlings (NL - OPEN - KTM), 3 Gautier Paulin (F - OPEN - Honda), 4 Arnaud Tonus (CH - OPEN - Kawasaki), 5 Dean Ferris (AUS - OPEN - Yamaha), 6 Shaun SIMPSON (GB - OPEN - KTM), 7 Jeremy Van-Horebeek (B - MX2 - Yamaha), 8 Jeremy Seewer (CH - MX2 - Suzuki), 9 Alex Martin (US - MX2 - Yamaha), 10 Benoit Paturel (F - MX2 - Yamaha), 11 Fredrik Noren (S - OPEN - Honda), 12 Michele Cervellin (I - OPEN - Honda), 13 Tanel Leok (EST - MX2 - KTM), 14 Brian Bogers (NL - MX2 - KTM), 15 Samuele Bernardini (I - MX2 - TM), 16 Harri Kullas (EST - OPEN - KTM), 17 Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS - OPEN - Honda), 18 Tyler Medaglia (CAN - OPEN - KTM), 19 Vsevolod Brylyakov (RUS - MX2 - Kawasaki), 20 Jorge Zaragoza (E - OPEN - Honda), 21 Thomas Olsen (DK - MX2 - Husqvarna), 22 Max ANSTIE (GB - MX2 - Husqvarna), 23 Pascal Rauchenecker (A - OPEN - Husqvarna), 24 Arminas Jasikonis (LIT - OPEN - Suzuki), 25 Shawn Maffenbeier (CAN - MX2 - KTM), 26 Martin BARR (IRE - MX2 - Honda), 27 Stuart EDMONDS (IRE - OPEN - TM), 28 Filip Neugebauer (CZ - MX2 - Kawasaki), 29 Kei Yamamoto (JAP - OPEN - Honda), 30 Petr Smitka (CZ - OPEN - KTM), 31 Jorge Prado Garcia (E - MX2 - KTM), 32 Chihiro Notsuka (JAP - MX2 - Honda), 33 Alvin Ostlund (S - MX2 - Yamaha), 34 Josiah Natzke (NZ - MX2 - KTM), 35 Glen Meier (DK - OPEN - KTM), 36 Michael Sandner (A - MX2 - KTM), 37 Mitchell Evans (AUS - MX2 - Yamaha), 38 Hamish Harwood (NZ - OPEN - KTM), 39 Brent Van Doninck (B - OPEN - Yamaha), 40 Dovydas Karka (LIT - MX2 - KTM). RACE 3 (MXGP/ Open): 1 Jeffrey Herlings (NL - OPEN - KTM), 2 Antonio Cairoli (I - MXGP - KTM), 3 Kevin Strijbos (B - MXGP - Suzuki), 4 Romain Febvre (F - MXGP - Yamaha), 5 Tommy SEARLE (GB - MXGP - Kawasaki), 6 Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS - OPEN - Honda), 7 Glenn Coldenhoff (NL - MXGP - KTM), 8 Arnaud Tonus (CH - OPEN - Kawasaki), 9 Jose Antonio Butron (E - MXGP - KTM), 10 Cooper Webb (US - MXGP - Yamaha), 11 Gautier Paulin (F - OPEN - Honda), 12 Kaven Benoit (CAN - MXGP - KTM), 13 Michele Cervellin (I - OPEN - Honda), 14 Todd Waters (AUS - MXGP - Suzuki), 15 Dean Ferris (AUS - OPEN - Yamaha), 16 Valentin Guillod (CH - MXGP - Yamaha), 17 Nikolaj Larsen (DK - MXGP - KTM), 18 Brent Van Doninck (B - OPEN - Yamaha), 19 Pascal Rauchenecker (A - OPEN - Husqvarna), 20 Fredrik Noren (S - OPEN - Honda), 21 Anton Gole (S - MXGP - Husqvarna), 22 Priit Ratsep (EST - MXGP - Honda), 23 Harri Kullas (EST - OPEN - KTM), 24 Jorge Zaragoza (E - OPEN - Honda), 25 Kei Yamamoto (JAP - OPEN - Honda), 26 Jaromir Romancik (CZ - MXGP - Suzuki), 27 Petr Smitka (CZ - OPEN - KTM), 28 Cody Cooper (NZ - MXGP - Honda), 29 Vytautas Bucas (LIT - MXGP - Yamaha), 30 Akira Narita (JAP - MXGP - Honda), 31 Hamish Harwood (NZ - OPEN - KTM), 32 Glen Meier (DK - OPEN - KTM), 33 Semen Rogozin (RUS - MXGP - Husqvarna), 34 Stuart EDMONDS (IRE - OPEN - TM), 35 Tyler Medaglia (CAN - OPEN - KTM), 36 Lukas Neurauter (A - MXGP - KTM), 37 Arminas Jasikonis (LIT - OPEN - Suzuki), 38 Shaun SIMPSON (GB - OPEN - KTM). INTERNATIONAL CLASS: 1 Dennis Ullrich (D - KTM), 2 Paulo Alberto (P - Honda), 3 Noah Mcconahy (PUR - Husqvarna), 4 Martin BARR (IRE - Honda), 5 Jernej Irt (SVA - Yamaha), 6 Miro Sihvonen (SF - KTM), 7 Jean Carlo Ramos (BRA - Yamaha), 8 Stuart EDMONDS (IRE - TM), 9 Michael Docherty (ZA - Kawasaki), 10 Fabio Aparecido Dos Santos (BRA - Yamaha), 11 Hugo Basaula (P - Kawasaki), 12 Tim Gajser (SLO - Honda), 13 Henry Jacobi (D - Honda), 14 Jan Pancar (SVA - Yamaha), 15 Tomas Kohut (SVA - KTM), 16 Erik Hugyecz (HUN - KTM), 17 Kerim Fitz-Gerald (ZA - KTM), 18 Szymon Staszkiewicz (PL - KTM), 19 Bence Szvoboda (HUN - KTM), 20 Ramyller Alves (BRA - Yamaha), 21 Mark Szoke (HUN - Suzuki), 22 Tomas Simko (SVA - Honda), 23 Hrvoje Karas (CRO - Yamaha), 24 Gabriel Chetnicki (PL - KTM), 25 Jason Astudillo (PUR - Kawasaki), 26 Rui Goncalves (P - Husqvarna), 27 Luka Crnkovic (CRO - Yamaha), 28 Roberts Justs (LAT - KTM), 29 Nicholas Adams (ZA - Honda), 30 Tomasz Wysocki (PL - KTM), 31 Davis Ivanov (LAT - Yamaha), 32 Matija Kelava (CRO - KTM), 33 Gino Aponte (PUR - Kawasaki), 34 Valtteri Malin (SF - KTM), 35 Richard Sikyna (SVA - KTM).
