MX des Nations

By TMX Archives on 15th Sep 03

Motocross

and Irish squads go into this year's Motocross des Nations fully fired-up and gunning for victory but, to be brutally honest, with only the slimmest of chances of claiming the ultimate prize in MX.Brit hopes for this THE BRITISH and Irish squads go into this year's Motocross des Nations fully fired-up and gunning for victory but, to be brutally honest, with only the slimmest of chances of claiming the ultimate prize in MX.Brit hopes for this year's event - on October 5 at Zolder in Belgium - received a body blow when Jamie Dobb, our top sand rider, was ruled out with a shoulder injury but RWJ's James Noble has been drafted in alongside Multitek Honda's Paul Cooper and British 125cc champ Stephen Sword who'll ride a 450 KTM in his final outdoor race for Albion.Newly-crowned British Open class champ Gordon Crockard will be joined in the Irish team by Adam Lyons and Brian Steele as they seek to equal or improve on last year's ninth place.So who are the favourites? Well, by the time the Nations kicks off, Belgium should have a full-house of world champs with Steve Ramon expected to join Stefan Everts and Joel Smets in the '03 FIM gold medal winners' club. Add to that their home advantage and they'll be a tough act to beat - although even Smets admits the Americans will offer stiff opposition on the purpose-built MXdN track."There are some supercross sections as well as some parts which are soft sand but we will have to cross the Tarmac several times and the dirt I saw them taking in for that will be pretty hard," explains Joel. "Some people think we will have home advantage because the track will be sandy but I must say I have seen Ricky Carmichael ride sand and he doesn't seem to have any difficulty with that. I also remember four Americans coming to the deep sand at Lommel in 1981 and at the end of the day only Andre Vromans was faster."RC will be joined by Tim Ferry and Ryan Hughes on Team USA after Kawasaki decided they'd rather see Bubba Stewart make his 250cc debut on home turf and Kevin Windham refused a place on the grounds that he won't take commercial flights after 9/11.The event will, for the final time, go ahead with the same format as last year with 24 nations qualifying from timed lap sessions for race day with all three riders from 12 countries competing in each of the two semi-finals which open the programme. All the way through the weekend the best two results from each team will be counted and the first six from each semi go to a single 30-minute plus two lap moto to decide the MX des Nations champions.'01 winners France send a B team as Stephane Roncada has withdrawn in the wake of Mickael Pichon's injury while David Vuillemin and Sebastien Tortelli were already unavailable. Also out of the frame are defending champions Italy with Claudio Federici unavailable because of the need for surgery on the knee and ankle he injured at the start of 2002.Good bets to push Belgium and the USA all the way are New Zealand with a strong trio of Josh Coppins, Ben Townley and Shayne King. Australia and South Africa could have been in the frame too but sadly Chad Reed and Greg Albertyn have decided not to cross the Atlantic.The strangest team has to be Estonia who will field Avo Leok and his two nephews Aigar and Tanel Leok. This is the first time any Nations team has all come from the same family.

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