MOTOCROSS DES NATIONS NEWS: EVERY COUNTRY THAT HAS SIGNED UP (CHINA YES, CANADA NO, THAILAND YES, MEXIXO NO)

Nothing is more fraught with peril than choosing a Motocross des Nations team. Public opinion about who should be on the team doesn’t always jibe with the favoritism, politics or logistics of choosing three riders to race for their country. Some nations have an abundance of wealth when it comes to talent…and they have to take a wait-and-see approach to choosing their riders, while others, like Italy and Belgium, only have two good riders and have to choose from the best of the left-overs for their third rider. Compounding Italy’s problem for 2011 is the wrist injuries to David Philippaerts?making Italy have to choose a third rider from a list of lesser talents, while Belgium has lost both Steve Ramon and Clement Desalle in the last few weeks.

Take note of New Zealand, who chose a development team instead of their high profile riders (some of whom?Ben Townley and Josh Coppins? are injured).

The Motocross des Nations is often billed as a race between the “greatest riders in the world,” but in truth it is a race between ten of the greatest riders in a world and a bunch of riders from smaller countries (most of whom who couldn’t win a local race in SoCal). That doesn’t lessen the impact of a race among nations…only that many good riders are left at home for political or abundance of talent reasons. Which is where Puerto Rico comes into play….

Here is MXA‘s 2011 MXDN list (which can only change because of an injury before the racing starts):

TEAM NEW ZEALAND

   Joel Doeksen
   Kieran Scheele
   John Phillips

TEAM DENMARK
 
    Nicolai Hansen
    Stefan Olsen
    Kasper Lynggaard

TEAM FRANCE

    Gautier Paulin
    Marvin Musquin
    Christophe Pourcel

TEAM USA

    Blake Baggett
    Ryan Villopoto
    Ryan Dungey

TEAM ITALY

    Antonio Cairoli
    Alessandro Lupino
    Davide Guarneri

TEAM BELGIUM

    Joel Roelants
    Kevin Strijbos
    Marvin van Daele

TEAM SWEDEN

    Fredrik Noren
    Filip Bengtsson
    Tom Soderstrom

TEAM IRELAND

    Martin Barr
    Stuart Edmonds
    Richard Bird

TEAM SPAIN

    Jonathan Barragan
    Carlos Campano
    Jose Butron

TEAM LATVIA

    Matiss Karro (injured)
    Davis Ivanovs
    Ivo Steinbergs

PUERTO RICO

    Luis Grana
    Tommy Weeck
    Jimmy Albertson

TEAM GREAT BRITAIN

    Dean Wilson
    Brad Anderson
    Tommy Searle

TEAM GERMANY

    Ken Roczen
    Daniel Siegl
    Marcus Schiffer

TEAM HOLLAND

    Jeffrey Herlings
    Marc DeReuver
    Donny Bastemeijer

TEAM AUSTRALIA

    Chad Reed
    Brett Metcalfe
    Matt Moss

TEAM SOUTH AFRICA

    Tyla Rattray
    Gareth Swanepoel
    Shannon Terreblance

TEAM JAPAN

    Hiroaki Arai
    Yoshitaka Atsuda
    Takuya Mihara

TEAM BRAZIL

     Antonio Jorge Balbi
     Marcello Lima
     Eduardo Lima

TEAM ESTONIA

    Tanel Leok
    Pritt Ratsep
    Gert Krestonov

TEAM ICELAND

    Vikto Gudbergsson
    Eythor Reynisson
    Kari Jonsson

TEAM UKRAINE

    Mykola Paschynsky
    Oleg Paschynsky
    Andriy Burenko

TEAM LITHUANIA

    Arunas Gelazninkas
    Nerijus Rukstela
    Yvtautas Bucas

TEAM VENEZUELA

    Humberto Martin
    Carlos Badiali
    Raimundo Trasolini

TEAM FINLAND

    Antti Pyrhonen
    Harri Kullas (injured)
    Ludvig Soderberg

 TEAM AUSTRIA

    Gunter Schmidinger
    Pascal Rauchenecker
    Matthias Walkner

TEAM SWITZERLAND

    Yves Furlato
    Jeremy Seewer
    Arnaud Tonus

TEAM PORTUGAL

    Rui Goncalves
    Paulo Alberto
    Luis Correia

TEAM NORWAY

    Remi Nyegaard
    Even Heibe
    Andreas Gulvedt

TEAM THAILAND

    Atison Ruadreo
    Jugrit Suksripaisan
    Trakam Thanthong

TEAM CHINA

    Jianhao Xu
    Jie Yang
    Chi Gung Lai

TEAM RUSSIA

    Evgeny Bobryshev
    Alexander Tonkov
    Sergey Astaykin

TEAM DENMARK

    Nicolai Hansen
    Stefan Olsen
    Nikolaj Larsen

TEAM CROATIA

    Nenad Sipek
    Hrvege Karas
    Danijel Bozic

TEAM CZECH REPUBLIC

    Filip Neugebauer
    Petr Smitka
    Martin Michek

TEAM SLOVENIA

    Theo Urbas
    Tim Gajser
    Deni Usaj

TEAM GREECE

    Vasilis Siafarikas
    Panagiotis Papilas
    Manolis Skivalos

BEST KNOWN TEAM MANAGERS

Roger DeCoster is the winningest team manager in MXDN history…plus he won the event six times as a rider. Photo: Ray Archer

Roger DeCoster…USA
Joel Smets…Belgium
Steve Dixon…Great Britain
Marc Ristori…Switzerland
Laurence Spence…Ireland
Fernando Macia…Venezuela
Kenneth Gundersen…Norway
Jam Postema…Thailand
Leon Giesbers…Holland
Thomas Traversini…Italy
Tony Cooksey…New Zealnd
Gary Benn…Australia

RACE TRACK
Circuit du Puy de Poursay / Motoclub Angerien
BP 85; 17416 St. Jean d?Angely; France
GPS coordinates 45ø55’32.70″N, 0ø34’9.85″W
Phone +33 6 07 25 45 40
Website: www.motoclub-angerien.com
Email: [email protected]   

RACE ORGANIZER
Motoclub Angerien
Phone +33 6 07 25 45 40
Website: www.motoclub-angerien.com
Email: [email protected]

FRENCH NATIONAL FEDERATION
FFM-Federation Fran‡aise de Motocyclisme
Phone +33 1 49 23 77 00
Website: www.ffmoto.org
Email: [email protected]