SEPTEMBER 29, 2013
TEUTSCHENTHAL CIRCUIT/TEUTSCHENTHAL, GERMANY
MOTOCROSS
P42
2013 67TH MONSTER ENERGY MOTOCROSS OF NATIONS
MX1 World champ
Antonio Cairoli could
not have done any
better for his Italian
team.
the USA is a country of 317 million
people with the largest market
for off-road motorcycle sales and
motocross racing in the world.
The other contending teams at
the Motocross of Nations are nations of anywhere from about 11
million people (Belgium) to about
80 million people (Germany), all
of which with a much smaller offroad motorcycling market to boot.
Also, the USA has its own racing series, combining AMA Supercross and AMA Motocross,
and this creates an added "us vs.
them" mentality on both sides of
the Atlantic, and this racing series combines to also be the biggest off-road motorcycle racing
series on the planet.
The cumulative effect of these
truths is that when Team USA
wins the Motocross of Nations,
the prevailing sense from the
world racing community (outside
the USA) is, "Well, they should
win, so big deal." Often, in years
past, MXGP supporters talk
about how a win by Team USA
wasn't "legitimate" because maybe Team USA didn't win a single
moto, or because another contending team had an unfortunate
