2020 was the last full season of Tanel Leok

DeStouwer
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BE
11/2/2020 8:05am Edited Date/Time 11/3/2020 9:41pm
From his Facebook:

"This is it. This is my last season in MXGP and hopefully my last MXGP I can race in Latvia next year. When this last MXGP rounds are done here in Italy I make a longer story."

"Olen jõudnud lõpusirgele ja 2020 jääb minu viimaseks MMi hooajaks. Loodan, et oma viimase MMi saan sõita järgmine aasta Lätis. Kui viimased 2 etappi siin Itaalias läbi, siis võtan pikemalt asja kokku."
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scott_nz
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11/2/2020 8:47am
amazing career,

i think back to the 2001 Vagani KTM 125 team, Leok, Rattray and Townley, hell of a eye for talent,
6
agn5009
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State College, PA US
11/2/2020 8:57am
Hes had an amazing career. Congrats Tanel.
5
ricky racer
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Niles, MI US
11/2/2020 9:29am
Huge fan of Tanel Leok! He's a machine! Great career and great ambassador for Latvia.
1
11/2/2020 9:36am Edited Date/Time 11/2/2020 11:55am
A great rider & an understanding career, Team Estonia will definitely miss him. He had a amazing ride at the 2012 MXON’s at Lommel.

I believe he won the World 85cc Championship over James Stewart & Kevin Strijbos.
4

The Shop

11/2/2020 9:49am
scott_nz wrote:
amazing career,

i think back to the 2001 Vagani KTM 125 team, Leok, Rattray and Townley, hell of a eye for talent,
I think it was the year before when those guys rode the last 125 European championship race in Finland at my local track. It stuck with me because I wondered how they could race in the european championship since they weren’t from Europe lol. Anyway, I was just a kid back then and me and some other local kids handed the riders the trophies after the motos. Tanel got on the podium in one of the motos and I got to hand him the trophy and flowers or whatever they got, and I got to take a picture with him right after it. Still have the picture somewhere at my parents, should probably dig it up.
3
LungButter
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Yellow Pine, ID US
11/2/2020 10:29am
Amazing career. Much respect.
DeStouwer
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11/2/2020 10:34am
To get things straight: he's Estonian, not a Latvian.
Kulpa
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EE
11/2/2020 10:37am
A great rider & an understanding career, Team Estonia will definitely miss him. He had a amazing ride at the 2012 MXON’s at Lommel. I believe...
A great rider & an understanding career, Team Estonia will definitely miss him. He had a amazing ride at the 2012 MXON’s at Lommel.

I believe he won the World 85cc Championship over James Stewart & Kevin Strijbos.
All around great guy, really sux for Team Latvia Smile
1
USA
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11/2/2020 10:40am
DeStouwer wrote:
To get things straight: he's Estonian, not a Latvian.
Yeah, I was getting a little confused there. Not gonna lie, this silly American here went and looked up if Latvia and Estonia were interchangeable names for the same country! WoohooSilly

3
kage173
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TX US
11/2/2020 11:03am
I don't think Americans realize how tiny Estonia is. It blows my mind that Estonia not only has a pro racer that lasted that long, but actually are one of the top teams every year in MX Des Nations. It is so unlikely.

There must be something in that country that leads them to have a higher number of riders per capita or just a savage culture of rippers that dgaf and ride all the time.

4
keinz
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Tallinn, Estonia EE
11/2/2020 11:55am
Tanel became the first rider with two junior world titles to his credit, winning the 85 cc FIM world cup in 2000 and the 125cc FIM Junior World Cup in 2001

All his accomplishments till 2017 by Wikipedia

Tanel Leok
2
keinz
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Tallinn, Estonia EE
11/2/2020 12:09pm
kage173 wrote:
I don't think Americans realize how tiny Estonia is. It blows my mind that Estonia not only has a pro racer that lasted that long, but...
I don't think Americans realize how tiny Estonia is. It blows my mind that Estonia not only has a pro racer that lasted that long, but actually are one of the top teams every year in MX Des Nations. It is so unlikely.

There must be something in that country that leads them to have a higher number of riders per capita or just a savage culture of rippers that dgaf and ride all the time.

Estonia 45,227 km2, and population 1,3 mil
CA for comparsion 423,970 km2 and population 39,512,223 mil Smile

1
keinz
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Tallinn, Estonia EE
11/2/2020 12:12pm
A great rider & an understanding career, Team Estonia will definitely miss him. He had a amazing ride at the 2012 MXON’s at Lommel. I believe...
A great rider & an understanding career, Team Estonia will definitely miss him. He had a amazing ride at the 2012 MXON’s at Lommel.

I believe he won the World 85cc Championship over James Stewart & Kevin Strijbos.
Kulpa wrote:
All around great guy, really sux for Team Latvia Smile
Laughing
moto804
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Schaumburg, IL US
11/2/2020 12:45pm Edited Date/Time 11/2/2020 12:53pm
Congratulations on a great career Mr. Leok!

Obviously there were/are a lot larger issues with 2020, but one of the things I was bummed about is that he wasn't able to go for his 20th MXoN in a row for ESTONIA! I wonder if he will try to make it out for that next year...


I posted this after last year's MXoN, but for those who haven't followed what he has been a large part of for the last 19yrs, here are the finishing position stats for MXoN for the last 15yrs: For those that don't want to go thru it, only the US, France, Belgium, Great Britain and Italy have a better average finish than Estonia in the last 15 yrs! If you go by last 5 yrs, Great Britain and Italy come off that list and Netherlands gets added.




I managed to get over to Maggiora for the MXoN in 2016 and one of the things I really wanted to check out was the Team Estonia pits. I searched all day Sat in the packed main paddock, but didn't realize there was a 2nd paddock area until Sunday morning. Of course, tucked out of the way in a corner - Team Estonia!








9
FARANG
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AL US
11/2/2020 7:39pm
I'm a huge fan of Leok, awesome career. Best of luck to him in whatever he chooses next.
2
Sully
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JP
11/2/2020 8:50pm
Helluva career, and I'm glad he got to call it quits on his own terms. Didn't he represent Estonia in something like 18 or 19 straight des Nations? I doubt we'll see that record broken anytime soon.
JMX82
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Hyllykallio FI
11/2/2020 11:39pm
kage173 wrote:
I don't think Americans realize how tiny Estonia is. It blows my mind that Estonia not only has a pro racer that lasted that long, but...
I don't think Americans realize how tiny Estonia is. It blows my mind that Estonia not only has a pro racer that lasted that long, but actually are one of the top teams every year in MX Des Nations. It is so unlikely.

There must be something in that country that leads them to have a higher number of riders per capita or just a savage culture of rippers that dgaf and ride all the time.

I Don't know what they are doing in Estonia but obviously they are doing something right. There are some fast kids like Talviku and Vettik coming from Estonia so Leok's retirement is not the end of Estonian success story in motocross GP's
4
kage173
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11/3/2020 9:38pm Edited Date/Time 11/3/2020 9:41pm
kage173 wrote:
I don't think Americans realize how tiny Estonia is. It blows my mind that Estonia not only has a pro racer that lasted that long, but...
I don't think Americans realize how tiny Estonia is. It blows my mind that Estonia not only has a pro racer that lasted that long, but actually are one of the top teams every year in MX Des Nations. It is so unlikely.

There must be something in that country that leads them to have a higher number of riders per capita or just a savage culture of rippers that dgaf and ride all the time.

keinz wrote:
Estonia 45,227 km2, and population 1,3 mil
CA for comparsion 423,970 km2 and population 39,512,223 mil Smile

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