Posts
186
Joined
1/29/2015
Location
New Fairfield, CT, USA
Edited Date/Time
10/24/2025 8:44am
I've always wondered in our sport who some of the best riders were that had notoriously finished second and never won a championship or just very few. Only the best usually are talked about and recognized. Mike Allessi comes to mind finishing second many times in the motocross series during his time. He was never quite able to clinch that elusive first place.
KW.....is the king of always the bridesmaid....
K-dub was going to be my pick also. 8 time runner up.
Kevin Sherman from Florida
One of the AMA's all-time greatest champions.... if it wasn't for that pesky Ricky Carmichael.
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Hunter Lawrence will take this title in a few short years
There'd be a lot of premier class Champions if Mcgrath and RC never existed. Windham, Dowd, DV, Lusk come to mind.
Marnicq Bervoets and Kurt Nicoll...
2008 SX broke my heart
KDub, Andrew Short, Jake Wiemer, Nick Wey, Marvin Musquin, Ken Roczen, Justin Barcia, Josh Grant all come to mind as great riders that always had the skills but someone just a little better than them.
Roczen has 2 outdoor titles, so he wouldn't count
For MXGP, Josh Coppins has to be an honorable mention, too.
Chad Reed, although you can't say never the bride. He was bridesmaid a LOT though...
I was gonna say...just look at the stats. Reed is fortunately & unfortunately #1 in runner ups. Hard to think how many wins were from RC,CR,KW, & JS had in the relative same period of time. Reed was 2nd place A LOT. But he sure won a lot of triumphant rides. I think he gave away a handful of races and maybe 2 more SX titles along the way. Still a Legend, zero doubt about Reedy's skills.
Davi Millsaps.. Finished 2nd in SX 2 years in a row
Not only was Reedy 2nd a lot, he was a mere 14 points away from having 6 premier titles instead of 3. That’s damn close to block passing the bride on the way up the isle.
However KW never got one, so he’s the greatest rider never to win a championship for me.
He lost the SX title by 7 points or less three times.
Marven Musquin was a beast, people forget how good that guy was.
Pit Row
The 2 that always come first to mind for me are Kevin Windham and Marniq Bervoets……
Bradshaw would be right there for me except that he packed it in too early.
Most gifted to never win a title might be Robbie Reynard, though.
What if you removed the champion from the last 25 years?
2025 - Sexton / 2024 - Webb / 2023 - Tomac / 2022 - Anderson / 2021 - Roczen / 2020 - Webb
2019 - Tomac / 2018 - Musquin / 2017 - Tomac / 2016 - Roczen / 2015 - Tomac
2014 - Dungey / 2013 - Millsaps / 2012 - Millsaps / 2011 - Reed / 2010 - Windham
2009 - Reed / 2008 - Windham / 2007 - Reed / 2006 - Stewart / 2005 - Reed
2004 - Windham / 2003 - Reed / 2002 - Vuillemin / 2001 - McGrath / 2000 - Vuillemin
How crazy would the nineties have looked if you removed the champion from each year.
1999 - Lusk / 1998 - Lusk / 1997 - McGrath / 1996 - Emig / 1995 - L. Ward
1994 - LaRocco / 1993 - Kiedrowski / 1992 - Bradshaw / 1991 - Stanton / 1990 - J. Ward
Josh Coppins
Sylvain Geboers
Ake Jonsson
Gerrit Wolsink
Jim Pomeroy
Saw some stats on Reed today and he’s apparently first in being second (races not championships).
2010 would have been Windham, Metcalfe wasn't in the 450s. 2009 would have been Reed
My bad I fixed it. Too much copy pasting.😆
Jeff Ward
2004 was Windham not Carmichael.
2012 would have been Millsaps
In terms of premier class main event results, Chad Reed had 59 second place finishes. 20 more than the next closest guy, Ryan Dungey. Coincidentally, Reed finished 2nd in 22% of his premier class starts. Windham has the most in 450 motocross with 26. Of the ten riders to have 15 or more second place finishes in 450 mx, Mike Alessi has 17 and is the only one of the ten to not have a championship.
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