Upgrade to enjoy this feature!
Vital MX fantasy is free to play, but Premium users receive great benefits. Premium benefits include:
- View and download rider stats
- Pick trends
- Create a private league
- And more!
Only $10 for all 2026 SX, MX, and SMX series.
Folks were talking about sand here! Of course the euros are better and yes their top 5 could win here in the sand. Riding sand is a specialty almost like riding supercross. Our top 5 supercross racer in the 250 class could smoke the euros but that doesn't mean they are better at motocross. I know Farres raced here when he was younger and his results weren't very good but he has improved considerably. Shimoda a 250 rider rode well in the MXON last year. Does that mean he is better than the euros? It all depends on the track and the day.
When a rider can go 9-1 for second overall, ya, he has a point.... our 250 class is filled with guys that spend 90 percent of their time training supercross...
Sensationalism?
From a TV announcer?
No Way!
🤣
Not to be bursting any bubbles but Prado being feast or famine was his MO even in MXGP. When he was on it he gapped everyone from 1st corner... when he was off... man, was he off...
The Shop
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
Emig says how many titles does Malin have in the small bore and big bore class? lol
MXGP? The series that sets up 40 gates just for looks then throws haybales in 20 of them?
I love the sport and have followed it for a long time. I remember the turning point when we suddenly had our first World Champions and the first of what is now called the MXoN wins.
Tomac is my favorite post RV champion, and arguably the last American to dominate the AMA series. Who was his biggest outdoor nemesis? Musquin? A French rider, or early on the German Roczen. RC and RV had Australian Reed but JS7 and Windham were also huge contenders. My point? As much as I'm a fan of his incredible beast mode rides, I don't think Tomac had the depth of competition RV or RC had, and much of it was from the euros. Ferrandis and former euro rider ZO also had titles too. So I can't discount the MXGP series, Cairoli Gajser and Herlings are absolute studs.
Back to the US, we have way more riders past 30 then ever before. Is that all due to better sports medicine, or do we have less top talent from 250 making their way up. ZO is the last American I can remember graduating from the 250 ranks and winning an AMA outdoor title. No it's Sexton my bad. Regardless, were seeing 250 riders hanging around for a long time and struggling to replace the older generation. That doesn't mean I agree with Mailin, otherwise Vialle and Prado would dominate the AMA and they don't, but I do think we've had a setback on the world stage. Whether it just be the SX focus, track grooming, compounds, or something else I don't see us doing world domination like in the past. We can do better, and we have in the past.
It wasn't always that way. It used to matter to Americans to prove you're the best by racing the best.
Lets just look at some history here. World champ Marvin comes over and gets smoked outdoors first year.. World champ Kenny comes over and gets smoked outdoors first year. World champ Vialle comes over and gets smoked outdoors. Do you see a pattern here. Not one current mx2 rider could come here and win the title in the first year.
Bring the 250 MXGP guys over to race SX and see how that goes.
Right and each of them went onto win 1 or more titles here… maybe learning new language, new format, new rules, and supercross, and new team, and and and costs them a year and then they all won titles and many races here….
He ain’t talking about SX though. It’s a moot point, the harshness of AMA is you get judged on two disciplines.
Probably a similar amount of national titles, but also GP wins in all classes (including youngest ever 500cc winner at the time) 😉
Probably still is the youngest 500 GP winner.
Once again you're changing the goalposts. Nobody is arguing that the 250 class in America has often (almost always) been deeper and stronger than the MX2 class. Even a year ago the best 250 rider on the planet was clearly Deegan. The only thing Mailin said was that the top 5 in the 2026 MX2 class could probably win at SOUTHWICK against the current 2026 AMA 250 class, just like Sacha did a week ago. How are you people so sensitive?
Worked out very well for Vialle. 2 titles in 3 years.
Musquin, Pourcel, Ferrandis, Pichon, JMB, Roncada, all championship winners.
Vuillemin didn't win a title but he was close and he's one of a handful of guys to beat RC.
The last one that did won back to back SX titles 😂
Pit Row
2 250 East SX titles and only 3 career SX wins is a wild stat that will never be topped.
Can't blame Vialle for that honestly. Specially last year 250 east had a lot of fast riders with 7 (yes 7) different winners, basically what we see in 250 MX right now. Hammaker was the only one with two wins, but these two were also his only podium finishes somehow. Everyone was so inconsistent that Vialle won it with a DNF. He definitely killed it with consistency. Rarely the straight up fastest, but always somehow ended up on the box.
Vialle did just that and won two championships.
Hasn't there been regional champs with no wins?
He was consistently up front. Only won 5 races out his 70 races here but he was always near the front. Kind of another example of our 250 class not being slow just being inconsistent. If he was still here racing last weekend Sacha would have done the same exact thing.
Tom went from not exactly dominating over here in the US 250 class to being a consistent top 10 guy in the premier class in MXGP. Assuming that Lucas gets back quick and wins this title he will have to race 450’s. If so Sacha will dominate over here next year. If Lucas ends up racing 250’s as well then it will be a carbon copy of the current 450 class with brothers trading wins.
I’m not saying the MXGP guys aren’t fast, quite the opposite. I’m suggesting that our 250 guys aren’t slow just because a freakazoid came over and handed their ass to them.
Ferry did it with no wins. I think there may be one more. But I’m saying a 2 time champ with 3 or less wins is never going to be repeated. A guy can get lucky once and have the cards fall in his favor. But you don’t get lucky twice. Vialle was very consistent (outside of that mud race when he got stuck in the scoring tower).
Malin may have exaggerated it a bit, but he isn’t far off. Their guy who has been getting beat the last couple races comes over here and kills our 250 guys on unfamiliar tracks after flying around the world and probably having jet lag.
He was stirring the pot, but also I do think top 3 in MX2 would wax the 250's in USA (Coenen, Längenfelder, Farres). Yes yes Farres failed in U.S before but he's on another level now outdoors.
He also would have killed our guys at Lakewood. His second moto he destroyed them just like southwick. He finished the second moto and was upset because he knew he should have went 1-1.
Stirring the pot yes but not far from the truth.
Theres no full package 250 riders from the US currently, they're all basically coinflips on what result they will get, Deegan you could count on but now he's gone it really shows how dire it's looking.
Ryder D seems to be the most solid and still has scope for improvement, I would like to see him on a better team.
The way things are going theres going to be a few more factory spots getting fielded by Euros because there are more sure things over there than there is in the US at the moment.
Both 250 classes are weak Coenen and KdW leaving to go 450 has meant we are watching the best of the rest, and Deegan leaving to go 450 in AMA has done the same.
But when you see the likes of Carson Mumford on the box, against maybe 10 riders who should be beating him , it looks like they are all underperforming, and they are. Just lots of mediocrity and lack of consistency everywhere.
But MX250 is better at the front right now, even if it is weaker down the order, but EMX250 guys rock up and run in the top 10 at Southwick.
The whole sport is becoming less competitive due to declining numbers, wherever you are from, but the MXGP format doesnt suffer from the 'making up the numbers' problem.
I haven't had the energy to start the Mumford discussion yet but since you brought it up, lets go.
So, Mumford has been really good this summer and it culminated in his 3rd place moto finish this weekend. But, are his results "inflated" by the lack of depth in the US 250 class? I'm starting to think so. I don't think Mumford has taken any major steps forward in his riding compared to when he filled in for PC in 2023. Look at this list of riders from Budds Creek in 2023. SO much more talent.
And i'm not bagging on Mumford, his riding has been really good this summer and i'm super happy for him. But i think he is a great example of the 250 class being relatively speaking weak and for the first time ever (in modern history) the top MX2 riders are probably better.
Post a reply to: Paul Mailin stirring the pot