The Motocross of Nations is the biggest and brightest motocross event of the year and the international teams are now starting to form up.
This year’s 76th edition of the “Olympic Games of Motocross” will be held at Ernee, in north-western France, on the weekend of October 7-8.
Team France has declared its squad for the 2023 event will be Romain Febvre (MXGP), Tom Vialle (MX2) and Maxime Renaux (Open), the threesome hoping to again claim the Chamberlain Trophy on home soil.
If they do win at Ernee, it will make it seven MXoN wins overall after their victories at the event in 2001, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Febvre has been in stunning form in recent months, winning six Motocross World Championship Grand Prix events, while Renaux is now back to full fitness after injury.
The 2023 edition of the annual event will be the second MXoN appearance for two-time MX2 world champion Vialle, who also competed for the team in 2021 (when Team France finished fifth overall).
The French team in Michigan last year – Maxime Renaux, Dylan Ferrandis and Marvin Musquin – finished second overall behind Team USA’s winning trio of Eli Tomac, Justin Cooper and Chase Sexton, who took the win on home soil at the RedBud circuit near Chicago.
The Motocross of Nations is the biggest, baddest motocross event on the planet and this year its back at Ernee, in France. Photo by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com
Ferrandis, who is still to announce his plans for the 2024 AMA Supercross and Motocross season, clearly wanted to be part of Team France but he has missed out on this occasion.
Although no selection has yet been announced, Team Australia is widely tipped to be among the favourites this year.
It would be a smart bet they will choose the same three riders who finished third overall for them at the RedBud in Michigan last year – brothers Jett and Hunter Lawrence and Mitch Evans.
Belgian team manager and former GP racer Johan Boonen has revealed the names of the riders who will fly their national colours in France in October.
The Team Belgium squad will be Jago Geerts (MX1), Liam Everts (Open class) and Lucas Coenen (MX2).
All three riders regularly compete in MX2 in the FIM Motocross World Championships, but Geerts and Everts will jump step up to 450cc bikes for the event.
Meanwhile, the trio of Kiwi riders for the 2023 MXoN was named back in July.
It comprises two MXoN stalwarts in the form of Papamoa’s Cody Cooper and West Auckland’s Hamish Harwood, with Oparau’s James Scott a first-time selection.
The reserve rider this year will be Tauranga’s Madoc Dixon.
Team co-managers Bevan Weal and Shayne King will once again lead the Kiwi squad.
Other teams who have now named their squads include Team Ireland, which will be Martin Barr (Husqvarna), Glenn McCormick (GasGas) and Jason Meara (GasGas); Team Canada will comprise Dylan Wright (Honda), Ryder McNabb (KTM) and Jess Pettis (KTM), while Iceland will be represented by Máni Freyr Pétursson (Fantic), Eiður Orri Pálmarsson (Yamaha) and Alexander Adam Kuc (GasGas).
There is no word yet on the squads to represent powerhouse motocross nations such as the United States, Australia, Italy, Germany, Spain, The Netherlands, Switzerland or Great Britain.
© Words and photos by Andy McGechan, BikesportNZ.com
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