Ten years and a week ago (at the time of writing), the Motocross of Nations headed to the tight grassy valley of Teutschenthal in Germany, with the home team wearing the #1, #2, and #3 of the reigning champions after their victory at Lommel in 2012.
Words: Ben Rumbold, Images: KTM/Ray Archer unless noted otherwise
I was there at Lommel with my cousin, James Hudson, as the growing legend of Ken Roczen inspired his team to the win with sheer consistency from himself, Max Nagl and Max Schiffer. One old German fan was in tears under the podium next to me – “In the ’60s we had Paul Friedrichs, then nothing until Kenny, and now zis!” Sadly, Schiffer was unable to make Teutschenthal so was replaced by top ADAC racer Dennis Ulrich. Unfortunately, the replacement rider had a nightmare so the home team were never really in it.
I tempted my lady friend of the time to an event with reportedly “the biggest beer tent in MXGP” – it was a mighty old drive to the eastern part of Germany, and those autobahns were particularly scary in a 1.4 Astra that was no match for the blazing Mercs, Beemers, and Audi Estate cars enjoying the lack of speed limit. With a nervous passenger, it was a challenging journey!
The atmosphere was first class, however, as the qualifying races showed a possible contender in Australia, who qualified first with some impressive riding from Brett Metcalfe and the fast-starting Dean Ferris, who ten years later will be keen to repeat those sort of getaways! Ferris was second only to Roczen in the MX2 Qualifier, as Tomac struggled off the start and fell to 4th behind Jeremy van Horebeek. And there was hope for the Brits with a 3rd for Tommy Searle and a 5th for Shaun Simpson.
My scared companion was not put at ease by the bladeless chainsaws of the local fans, but the sheer amount of people who piled into the venue on Sunday made her dumb-founded. It was absolutely packed! Ferris shot to the front of the first moto, on a 250F Yamaha against all the 450s! Roczen was right up there as well and soon joined by his season-long rival Tomac, who had beaten Ken to the 250 AMA title that summer. As then 7-time MXGP Champ Antonio Cairoli worked his way to the front, all eyes were on the Kenny Vs Eli battle behind him – talk about noise! The din of the valley is something I’ll never forget as the American dogged the tail of the German’s KTM. Suddenly the crowd erupted as Tomac got it badly wrong on the mountainous uphill and launched himself into the air, completely away from his bike! It looked catastrophic but Eli picked it back up and ended the race in 16th. Tommy got us cheering with a fine 3rd ahead of Ferris, Gautier Paulin, Ryan Dungey, and the two Belgians Jeremy van Horebeek and Ken de Dycker. Germany, with Nagl 11th, led by a point from Italy & Australia tied in 2nd.
The rematch was on though in race two as again Ferris holeshot ahead of Roczen with Tomac firing past the Aussie straight after the crowd favourite did on lap three. Justin Barcia moved forward as well but got passed by Clement Desalle in a vital move for Team Belgium. Tomac fervently attacked Roczen throughout the moto but K-Roc got the biggest cheer of the weekend as he won by less than a second, a fine piece of revenge for many defeats by his Geico Honda-mounted rival that year. Ferris finished 5th behind Desalle and Barcia to keep the Aussies in it, and Tanel Leok took 6th, about halfway through his Nations career for Estonia which continues this weekend, 22 years after his debut!
The crowd roared again as Nagl hit the front in the final moto, and Belgium looked out of it with Desalle on the ground and out with a broken collarbone! Cairoli gave chase after the flying Nagl with Evgeny Bobryshev in tow. What struck me most of all was that after years of American domination at this event, their second & third-placed riders in the 450 Nationals that year, Dungey and Barcia, had nothing for the MXGP regulars. Bobryshev, Paulin, Searle, De Dycker, and Nagl all stayed ahead of Dungey with ease, and Barcia couldn’t get past David Philippaerts or Marc de Reuver to break into the top ten. I remember thinking, “they’re no better than us any more”, as we had all heard “We have the best riders in the world” from AMA commentators and fans for years on end. That reign was over, even more so than after Lommel, when they had the reasonable excuse of the deep sand as a factor.
The two KTM factory teammates, Cairoli and De Dycker, shone in this race as the Italian maestro eased up to the tail of Nagl and passed the factory Honda decisively. He went past me on the pegs round a corner and I had to marvel again at the poise of the man. However, as a rider of a similar height to Big Ken, I had a lot to cheer about in this race as the Belgian single-handedly pulled his team out of the fire and onto the top step with a stunning charge, passing Searle, who finished 5th, Bobryshev who finished 3rd, and finally Nagl to hammer home the opportunity left by the American’s lowly scores and claim 2nd behind Cairoli! He threw the bike down as team manager Joel Smets and the crew hugged him in delight!
I’ll never forget Van Horebeek waving the Belgian flag from the pit box in a moment of sheer exultation as the crowd assembled under the podium to celebrate with them. It was bedlam as many Belgian fans made the journey after being disappointed by 2nd the previous year. USA had to be content with 2nd this time as Barcia claimed the Open class Individual win from Loek and Philippaerts. Team Italy managed 3rd with Cairoli’s double win topping the MXGP class ahead of Searle and De Dycker. Van Horebeek had been 3rd in MX2 behind Ferris – wouldn’t he love that result this year – and home hero Roczen, who had kept his country in a respectable 7th despite Ullrich’s bad luck reducing him to 39-40 motos.
In a mad little Post-Script to the event, my then-missus and I returned to our tent. It had occurred to me that I had forgotten to empty the little porta-loo – no number twos, have no fear – but didn’t think it would hurt. When we got back, we saw an Opel Astra with its bonnet completely obliterated right next to where out tent had been! Some helpful people had wrenched our tent away from the scene, which was started by a campfire being blown into the straw-like surface, then into the car bonnet, and BOOM! There was a trail of scorched earth where the fire had been, and it passed right through where our tent was pitched overnight! So… fortunately the toilet hadn’t spilled all its contents when it was all moved, but it wasn’t too pleasant in there….
Here’s the video from that incredible weekend. Next stop – Ernee! There is nothing like an Motocross of Nations weekend…
