Ricky Carmichael Out For The MXoN

Friday morning was fairly quiet at the MXoN, with no on-track activities, but all the team bikes being primped, polished, and pushed through tech inspection. The big surprise of the morning, however, was seeing that number one plate that everyone expected (and hoped) would be on Ricky Carmichael's Suzuki RM-Z450 this weekend has instead been transferred to James Stewart's Kawasaki 450.

Ricky's flying to England today and will be here all weekend in support of the team. He also worked up until Thursday with his doctors, with hopes of still being able to complete, but the word that he got from them was that while he could ride, it would probably cause more damage to the rotator cuff tears and ligaments that he stretched at Glen Helen. They would then require surgery to repair.

So Ivan Tedesco is definitely on the team, wearing the number 3 that was originally slated for James, and he's competing as Team USA's MX3 representative. James will be riding as the MX1 pilot.

There are press conferences slated for Friday afternoon, including time with Team USA, and Team China, who is competing in the MXoN for the first time.

The weather is overcast and cool with some very light overnight showers, and the weather forecast we heard overnight called for "promising" weather for the weekend. How to translate that? We're not sure, either.

You can check out a couple additional photo here .