Kit Palmer | August 26, 2016
All three of the riders who will represent Team USA at the Motocross of Nations in Maggiora, Italy, next month—Alex Martin, Cooper Webb and Jason Anderson—are in Crawfordsville, Indiana, for the final round of the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship. And all three got together today to talk a little bit about the ‘Nations.
Team USA Talks Motocross Of Nations
For Martin it will be his third trip to the MXoN. He competed on the Puerto Rican team in 2013 and ’14, but this will be his first trip as a member of Team USA. He says his previous experience will help him this year.
“I’ve been over there [MXoN] twice with Puerto Rico and it’s a whole different ballgame,” Martin said. “I really didn’t take it too seriously, but going back with Team USA, the training is going to be there, I’m going in prepared, and after my best season in the outdoors, I’m excited and ready to get the trophy back for us.”
He admitted that there is a lot of pressure when racing the MXoN, but says he should be in good shape to handle it all.
“Obviously, the pressure is there,” Martin said. “I can’t speak first hand, but I can say I think being over there twice and the second time seeing my brother [Jeremy Martin] there for Team USA, I was able to see kind of first hand through him how much pressure was on him. I think that will help me.”
Cooper Webb has MXoN experience, with the U.S. team (Justin Barcia, Jeremy Martin and Webb) finishing second to the winning French team (Romain Febvre, Marvin Musquin and Gautier Paulin) on their home soil last year. Just two points separated to two teams. Webb is going over to Italy this year as the U.S. team captain and will again compete on a 450, in the MXGP class (last year he competed in the Open class), even though he just claimed the MX250 here in the U.S. just last week. Webb has a fair amount of 450 experience, and he is going to move up to the big-bore class full-time next year anyway.
“Last year I didn’t have much experience on the 450,” Webb said, “but this year I’ve been riding the 450 a lot more and the bike has come a long, long way, even from just last year. Having a good base setting is nice.”
Webb clearly remembers the high energy that the home crowd used to help boost its team to victory in 2015 and says he’ll be glad that the defending champs won’t have that advantage this year.
“The French team was strong and they will be strong again this year,” Webb says. “It’ll be nice not being in France even though we are in Europe; they definitely had some home advantage last year, this year it will be a little better being in Italy.”
This will be Anderson’s maiden trip to the ‘Nations and he’s obviously excited about that. He’s returning to racing from injury at tomorrow’s race and is ready to go, he says.
“I’ve been missing [from the races] but at the same time I’ve been training, getting ready and just riding,” Anderson says. “I broke my collarbone and separated by AC joint right after High Point; since then, I had surgery, been out for about four weeks, and me, Dunge’ [Ryan Dungey] and Marv’ [Marvin Musquin] have been riding together.
“I got the call for Roger [DeCoster, Team USA Manager] and he asked if I was interested [in joining Team USA]. I was very hesitant at first because I don’t want to go and not be able to perform at my best.”
Luckily, Anderson says he feels good.
“To be honest, I feel like I’m in a good position…for me I’ve had the summer off and I really want to get back to racing. It’s given me something to look forward to and something to train for. I’ve been training with Marv’ and Dunge’ and between them, they’ve been to the des Nations like 10 times, and they’ve been telling me like it is. I’m just pumped to go, I feel like I’m riding good right now, I’m fresh and I want to race. It’s a great opportunity. I’m going to go out there and do my best, get good starts and go for it. We have to be smart.”
When asked what he though Team USA’s chances are of winning, Webb answered: “I’d say 100 percent, no hesitation at all. I think we’re going to work well as a team. We have three guys that want to go and want to win. That’s the difference. We don’t have the egos and all that, we just want to go and do our thing and prove everybody wrong.
“They [other teams] are all going to be strong, and they have their strengths and weaknesses. I think we can match anybody’s speed [and stamina]. You don’t have to win every race—it’s eliminate mistakes, be smart and be consistent.”
“I feel we have a team that can win and I’m up for the challenge,” said Anderson. “I think it’s going to be a great team and we can do some damage.”
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