#5: MXGP of Trentino - April 9-10

Ben is a good guy and good rider. The bias toward him from the Brits is definitely there, and there's nothing wrong with it.

Compared to Vlaanderen or Forato, Watson isn't quite to their level, yet. Funny that someone brought up his class win at MXDN as proof he should be on a factory bike. Wasn't his closest competition Brylyakov?

Again, I think it's completely healthy to root for your fellow countrymen. Don't act like it's a bad thing!

I suspected that Watson might've been dealing with physical issues and once they're resolved he should probably improve a fair bit, but I still thought he was very overhyped last season. Once he's healed up he's got to be well inside the top 10 to justify his spot as a factory rider imo.

I thought Lewis' point on the MXVice podcast about investing in the future wasn't a great point because there's already a decent amount of riders that are younger than Watson that are either on par with him or better than him and some of them don't have factory rides.

Yeah i think its a very weak point. When Herlings, Gajser, Coldenhoff, Seewer etc. are gone from GP's they are not being replaced by the Watson level guys, but by guys like Renaux & Vialle and whoever is winning titles in MX2 by then.

Imo it's more then fair that British MX fans are rooting for Watson to have a good spot in MXGP. Based on the results of the past 1,5 years (and MX2) it will be at this point more then likely be a support team at best though. Which isnt an issue, guys like Vlaanderen and Forato get good results in support teams.

Watson has been unfortunate with injuries, and only one of them was his.. the bad foot injury that kept him out for almost a season cost him, robbed him of a good MX2 year, which he needed.. he has raced MX2 in possibly one of the stronger times (except fpr Herlings) , and pretty much lost the Yamaha ride because RVDM took out Vialle and opened up Renaux to got to MXGP ( which he has deserved, not a doubt there).

And then Febvre busting his leg has put all the team onto his shoulders, made doubly worse by the fact that Ice One and Kawasaki are brand new this year.

Did i think he would be better ... god yes, do i think he would be riding now, with his health issues, if Febvre was there, probably not.. deffo would have sat out Argentina .

He won MX1 at the Nations, had a great weekend at Trentino in MX2 and led in MX1 .. he isnt slow, but he isnt a team leader, especially in a new team.. at least Febvre had time on the bike.

As he has said, Seewer had the same issues last year, and riding when you are ill isnt good for anyone..

Jonass was sub par this weekend too, for reasons unknown.


Forato, who i tipped to be a good 450 guy 3 years ago, has been great value, same as Bogers, you have to wonder what he could have done if he hadnt been injured when he first went to Honda.


Looking forward to the next round.

I figured there was a reason,he was on fire the other week ( at least in Qualifying).

The truth is, with Herlings and Febvre out, Gasjer is the top dog, but there are 10 guys who could be 2nd, which is great , what the flipside of that is , is that those 10 guys could also be 12th.

Its crazy close, time wise , and anyone carrying an injury , or an illness is never going to ride through it consistently.

I had a brief chat with Roger Harvey pre season, and when i asked him about Mitch Evans, , if he was good to go , he said ' lets hope so'.. he has ridden himself in nicely, just needs bike time now.

And like has been said, nobody is charging through the field, because nobody has that level of speed to do it.

It was cool seeing Seewer jump the triple. I never saw anyone else attempt it. I think he was just having fun doing it, whether it saved time or not. It was pretty impressive.

This was still the best thing I saw the whole weekend. Cows fixing a chainsaw