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I don’t follow MXGP, but there were several people here that expected 2x world champion Tom Vialle to be a shoe-in (or at least challenging) for the title this year, and that certainly made sense. The highlight of his season to this point was the win gifted to him by a blown up CRF. Even with great consistency, he is only sitting 7th in the points. Do you think he is struggling to learn the tracks, is the production based KTM that much worse than his works GP bikes, or is the competition just that much faster in the AMA series vs MXGP?
Poll
I think anyone who expected him to land in a foreign country/continent, racing unfamiliar tracks on a different bike, and start winning immediately is a fool.
If, for the sake of bench racing, you give him 30 or so points that he could have expected from Thunder Valley then he’s right up there in 2nd or 3rd place in the series.
Like every other GP champion who has come to the US, he will be a race winner and genuine title contender as he spends more time in the US.
It's a looong time ago, but didn't his fellow countryman, Jean-Michel Bayle start winning the first year he came to the US?
I agree a bit at least, weird that a MXGP champion have trouble staying in the top3. I would under supercross, but outdoors.
It’s a mix of all three. He’s said how much better his Gp bike was. Lack of track time compared to Gp. And a pretty thick field at the top.
Go read some comments during the sx season, all the. Mxgp fanboys posted wait til sx is over. So he can can win the usa outdoor series, cause its so much easier. Lol. Ok Tom is a great rider, and should be on the podium at least. Every weekend , Hunter,and jcooper were the only title favorites in that class.
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Idk, it’s hard to say. Look at RV in 2015, 5x national outdoor champ, goes to MXGP and struggles. I know he won one race, but all in all, it was a total failure. It’s just different on both sides of the pond. Some guys flourish and some don’t.
He won the second mxgp, outa shape, last year of his contract that he finished. Way different situations between rv and tom. Maybe rv should have raced the 250 class over there. Lol. Rv proved he, could beat the worlds best sx, mx mxgp, mxon .
I am one of the fools who expected Vialle to be in contention for the championship in his first year here, as well as one of the fools who predicted Jett to win the 450's in his first try at it.
Just proves that it's not that easy to switch series no matter how good you are. There's a reason why it has been like 50 years since a GP world champion came over and won a title his first try.
His bike doesn't help. Just look at him go up the Millville hills
Maybe a combination, but all the tracks are new for him. So I guess it's harder to learn with less track time, 1 day only instead of the 2-days format (same said Cairoli).
I don't know how many of the riders that are older than him, but I've seen a few. MX2 in Europe is basically a U23 class, so I would expect harder competition in the US.
He was fighting with Geerts the whole season in Europe, and Geerts beat Tomac in the qualification race at Red Bud. So I know he got the speed.
I don't think 7th place is bad with 0-0 points at Thunder Valley. But I think he'll be more consistent next year with more experience and knowing the tracks better.
He just won the 2014 SX season! You think he just went home, sat on the couch and drank beer and potato chips? Like you just said, he won the 2nd GP, the hottest most shittiest track there was. You don’t do that out of shape. He’s said some of his problems were the language barrier with Kawi and getting his bike dialed, and his riding style(steer with the back wheel) didn’t gel with some of the tracks. I know RV is your hero, but that was not a good look for the Nationals vs MXGP argument of who’s better. If he wasn’t prepared, he shouldn’t have went imo.
Rv isnt my hero. ,but one of my favorites of all.time and. Second best dude ever behind rc. . He had nothing to prove. He proved he could beat the worlds best, he crashed got hurt. Shit happens in sports. Retired a legend.
You forgot, “in your opinion” lol
I do agree, he’s a legend though 👍🏼
Track time is huge. In MXGP the race takes place over two days with plenty of time to dine rune the bike and learn how the track develops. In AMA, he has two 15 minute practice sessions to learn the track and get his setup correct. In MXGP, they have two practice sessions plus a qualifying race on Saturday, then a warm up session and two motos on Sunday.
Yes i also expected a bit more from vialle he is not doing it really bad...I think it's because the supercros didn't go really well and he lost hij conference a bit
Tracks are different, less time to learn them plus bikes are different, the weather different and the culture is different. Kid needs time, but it’s also unfair to try and equate him to someone like Bayle. Give him time and rate him after a couple years.
It didn't take a body language expert to see that RV was done mentally. He was miserable. His post race interviews at the end were hard to watch, he was so checked out.
Correct, he went for contract obligations if he wanted paid.
Worth remembering MX2 is a feeder class for MXGP, it’s not supposed to be the premier class.
In AMA the 250 Is the premier class right now, the depth is high & the teams have competitive equipment.
The bizarre routine of one sighting lap into flat out on unfamiliar tracks can’t be helping much either. On the whole though he’s doing fine, if US had some slower more technically challenging tracks then it would be easier for Tom, there’s less to spread the talent in US & starts are very critical.
Pit Row
the MX2 bike is a better bike, the rules allow them to do so much more with them. However only a couple teams can really afford to build a bike that can be a contender, so there is less competition.
Whatever the reasons, it still wasn’t a good look. What contract obligations? Did his contract not end after 2014, or did he swap the 2014 nationals for 2015 MXGP? Why didn’t he just ride the nationals and retire?
The bike is a moot point. There is a little bit of track factor as it being the first time he has been at many of these tracks, but I think the overwhelming factor is the level of competition.
I do not think Jett goes 14-0 in the 250 class this year like he has in the 450's.
I expected more from him clearly underperforming, however there are probably a few riders in the series that were and are better than him before entering the series, he was good in the GP's but not an "generational" talent, USA series' competition is at the moment is the highest level in quite some time and looks to be increasing so his time here won't be easy any time soon.
Part of it do the mxgp series.
He wanted to retire after the season in the US but had another year on his contract Kawi and Monster wanted him to race or have him buy out his contract so they cut the deal for him to race GP’s. His heart wasn’t in he came in unprepared didn’t like the bike and wanted his US motor. Did most his testing in the US so he didn’t have a great GP set-up to start. The first race on his US engine was the one he looped out in….
Heat
Ohh ok, well that sucked. Pretty shitty of Kawi
One thing I find really strange is this: he was basically a shoe-in for the holeshot every single gatedrop in MX2. But his starts are nowhere close to that now.
Also... not sure if the difference is still that big... but back when Herlings was racking up all those MX2 wins, that KTM was a TON better than any other bike on the grid.
You think hunter would win on ktm? I do.
He won at Southwick, the toughest and hottest national this year (?)
When the word got out that he was gonna go to US i firmly belived that he would be a mx2 title contender outdoors.
His Gp starts were always on point and he rides mature. But i think that SX took a toll on him and he fell in a downwards spiral.
The whole ”move to another country and new tracks” thing won’t translate as much to a european that have ridden GP’s as it does for a American moving to Europe.
99% of the GP guys have left their home country to live in Belgium, they travel all over the world and races on new tracks so i thought that he would adapt good to just live in the US and race nationals.
I think that it is in his head now, not the bike or the format. Herlings is a different animal than Vialle, but he did pretty good at Ironman with zero US nationals experience and on a borrowed bike. Vialle should do better than this period.
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