Italy Wins Motocross of Nations
T
eam Italy's Antonio Cairoli,
Mattia Guadagnini and Ales-
sandro Lupino made history on
home soil, taking a hard-fought
victory and being crowned the
champions of the 74th edition of
the Monster Energy FIM Mo-
tocross of Nations in Mantova,
September 26.
Despite the heavy downpour
and the thunderstorm that rocked
the day from the first warmup
session until the final race of the
day, this didn't hinder Team Italy's
fighting spirit, nor the support
of the crowd that turned out to
support their nations. The trio of
Cairoli, Guadagnini and Lupino
put together some strong races
to secure Italy's third-ever vic-
tory at the Monster Energy FIM
MXoN, the first since 2002.
Joining the winners on the
podium were Team Netherlands
who finished just one point be-
hind the victors (38 points) and
Team Great Britain who obtained
their fourth-consecutive podium
to finish third overall at 39 points.
As the gate dropped for the
first race of the day, it was Team
Switzerland's Arnaud Tonus who
took the first Fox Holeshot of the
day, though Team Latvia's Karlis
Sabulis was quick to take over the
lead by the second corner ahead
of Jose Butron of Team Spain and
Tom Vialle of Team France.
Cairoli and Team Netherlands'
Glenn Coldenhoff went down in
the first corner, which meant that
they had a long race ahead of
them if they wanted to minimize
the scores for their nation.
While Sabulis continued to
lead, Vialle fought his way into
second as he started to close in
on the Latvian for the win. The
Frenchman then fell to fifth place,
as Team Denmark's Thomas Kjer
Olsen continued his charge to-
ward the top end of the field after
getting around Butron for second.
While Olsen was battling for
the win, his fellow countryman
Mikkel Haarup was unlucky as
he crashed out of 15th place. He
IN
THE
WIND
P32
Team Italy—Antonio Cairoli,
Alessandro Lupino and
Mattia Guadagnini—captured
the MX of Nations victory for
just the third time. Team USA
did not field a team this year.
