MXGP Vs AMA Motocross: How Top Riders Decide

People have always come to the states to race the best. MC, RC, Reed, Stew, RV, Dungey etc list goes on. MXGP has been good recently with 2 guys but historically it just hasnt been the “top” of the sport. And supercross is the premier series whether youre a fan or not.

Bonanza69 wrote:

Exactly what I was thinking.

Bonanza69 wrote:

It's beer and pretzels here in the U-S-A

Roczen and Marvin grew up wanting to race SX.. Everyone else wants to stay and beat Cairoli and dont care about SX... Ferrandis came because he aged out of MX2. Prado now says he wants to stay in europe , nobody else seems like they are looking to go now.

kb228 wrote:

People have always come to the states to race the best. MC, RC, Reed, Stew, RV, Dungey etc list goes on. MXGP has been good recently with 2 guys but historically it just hasnt been the “top” of the sport. And supercross is the premier series whether youre a fan or not.

MXGP has twice the depth of the AMA today. Like it or not, the AMA has tomac, musquin and Anderson as the guys who can compete with the best on any given day. MXGP has Herlings, Cairoli, Desalle, Febvre, Gajser, Paulin, etc. Thankfully the 250 AMA series looks great

This should go well.

To be clear my intention isn’t to start a debate regarding which is better or has more talent. I was just thinking how it’s too bad we don’t get to see the best riders each have to offer square off more often which made me curious as to why certain riders choose one over the other. Thought perhaps one was more lucrative while the other was considered more prestigious or something along those lines.

philG wrote:

Roczen and Marvin grew up wanting to race SX.. Everyone else wants to stay and beat Cairoli and dont care about SX... Ferrandis came because he aged out of MX2. Prado now says he wants to stay in europe , nobody else seems like they are looking to go now.

Lawrence brothers?

philG wrote:

Roczen and Marvin grew up wanting to race SX.. Everyone else wants to stay and beat Cairoli and dont care about SX... Ferrandis came because he aged out of MX2. Prado now says he wants to stay in europe , nobody else seems like they are looking to go now.

Lawrence brothers and hopefully Gajser. Covington will probably return as well after next year. The young guys would be crazy not to come over. Ain't anyone beating Herlings for a long time unless he goes out with an injury.

Salaries on both sides of the pond are shrouded in mystery. Base pay, finish bonuses, c-ship bonuses, sponsor pay....mostly unknowns. I'd hazard a guess that for the top guys it's fairly comparable or we'd see a migration from one side to the other. Supercross is a wildcard for sure. If you've got that skill set it can really bump up the pay. I reckon it would take 5 to 10 mil to persuade Cairoli or Herlings to ride our nationals. They are frikkin superstars to most of the world....they should be here in the USA as well.

Aussie, Kiwi's SAffa and to some extent the French look to the US first, and always have as we are brought up looking at the US supercross series on TV and we see it as the biggest and best series in the world, and since it pays the best as well mostly, probably helps,

the rest not so much, Roczen is probably the exception,

I think it is getting more so now with a bigger difference in riding styles, as the later you start supercross the harder it is to make it.

scott_nz wrote:

Aussie, Kiwi's SAffa and to some extent the French look to the US first, and always have as we are brought up looking at the US supercross series on TV and we see it as the biggest and best series in the world, and since it pays the best as well mostly, probably helps,

the rest not so much, Roczen is probably the exception,

I think it is getting more so now with a bigger difference in riding styles, as the later you start supercross the harder it is to make it.

Interesting take. Appreciate the insight.

It’s really SX vs. MXGP...

This is for sure going to devolve into a US versus Europe deal but the main reason any of the Euro riders come over is for Supercross. End of story. The French in particular have produced good SX riders: Bayle, DV, Tortelli, Roncada, Pichon, Marvin, now Ferrandis. This is because SX is a bit more popular in France versus the other countries. Bercy/Lille is a high-profile event and has attracted a lot of top Americans and this has provided incentive to young French racers. The Dutch and Belgians tend to just pound laps on the sand tracks and don't look to Supercross at all.

It's a daunting experience for a racer with little SX experience to come to the US and start out in SX. Look at a guy like Tonus, he had the speed and skill but had a ton of health problems and also hit the ground a lot in his time riding SX in the USA.

hamncheeze wrote:

This is for sure going to devolve into a US versus Europe deal but the main reason any of the Euro riders come over is for Supercross. End of story. The French in particular have produced good SX riders: Bayle, DV, Tortelli, Roncada, Pichon, Marvin, now Ferrandis. This is because SX is a bit more popular in France versus the other countries. Bercy/Lille is a high-profile event and has attracted a lot of top Americans and this has provided incentive to young French racers. The Dutch and Belgians tend to just pound laps on the sand tracks and don't look to Supercross at all.

It's a daunting experience for a racer with little SX experience to come to the US and start out in SX. Look at a guy like Tonus, he had the speed and skill but had a ton of health problems and also hit the ground a lot in his time riding SX in the USA.

Sounds like a rational and well reasoned theory to me. Although I’d argue 95% of amateur riders in US also havent spent any significant time on a full bore SX track until they reach the pros either.

hamncheeze wrote:

This is for sure going to devolve into a US versus Europe deal but the main reason any of the Euro riders come over is for Supercross. End of story. The French in particular have produced good SX riders: Bayle, DV, Tortelli, Roncada, Pichon, Marvin, now Ferrandis. This is because SX is a bit more popular in France versus the other countries. Bercy/Lille is a high-profile event and has attracted a lot of top Americans and this has provided incentive to young French racers. The Dutch and Belgians tend to just pound laps on the sand tracks and don't look to Supercross at all.

It's a daunting experience for a racer with little SX experience to come to the US and start out in SX. Look at a guy like Tonus, he had the speed and skill but had a ton of health problems and also hit the ground a lot in his time riding SX in the USA.

Everything right, except Tonus is not really the rider you wanna use to support your theory..
He would get injured a lot before moving over here and now that he's being back for almost two years he keeps getting injured.

line-up wrote:

Everything right, except Tonus is not really the rider you wanna use to support your theory..
He would get injured a lot before moving over here and now that he's being back for almost two years he keeps getting injured.

Unfortunately Tonus hasn't finished a season healthy in a long time. I can't remember the last season he entered riding injury free from the start to finish. I wonder how because he really is a smooth rider and i love his style

philG wrote:

Roczen and Marvin grew up wanting to race SX.. Everyone else wants to stay and beat Cairoli and dont care about SX... Ferrandis came because he aged out of MX2. Prado now says he wants to stay in europe , nobody else seems like they are looking to go now.

agn5009 wrote:

Lawrence brothers and hopefully Gajser. Covington will probably return as well after next year. The young guys would be crazy not to come over. Ain't anyone beating Herlings for a long time unless he goes out with an injury.

Doesn`t look like Gajser is going to USA anymore. We`ll see.

Dreaming of racing SX since a kid is probably the biggest reason for Europeans to go over to the USA.

If we take for example cairoli , He is one of the best motocross racer of the history , but what does He need to be a good supercross racer , just supercross skills ( the turn , seat bounce etc... ) and training ? I remember , few years ago , he do Bercy and he was lost on the track....

MxKing809 wrote:

It’s really SX vs. MXGP...

This is it, in a nutshell.

You want to do SX, you go to the USA.

Plenty of youngsters see that as what they want.

Plenty, don't.

A few that initially want to do it, go over and find it's not 'all that' for them.

A few that initially want to do it, find it suites them to a 'T'.

Each to his own.

Yet, this will turn into a shit fight, I'm pretty sure of it.

MxKing809 wrote:

It’s really SX vs. MXGP...

Exactly.

I don't remember when was the last time when we had so many US youngsters in Europe. In MX2 and EMX. Maybe it means something

Motofinne wrote:

Exactly.

And if you look at the latest years injury parade, I think racing the SX is not so delicious anymore

The other probleme is that no team have place for european rider.... look at the 250 teams in supercross they are all full with "good riders"

its all about SX .. you like SX , go USA as thats the best SX series in the world.
Nobody goes to USA to race outdoors as priority ..

Lemon100 wrote:

The other probleme is that no team have place for european rider.... look at the 250 teams in supercross they are all full with "good riders"

Who don't wanna move up

HusqFan3 wrote:

To be clear my intention isn’t to start a debate regarding which is better or has more talent. I was just thinking how it’s too bad we don’t get to see the best riders each have to offer square off more often which made me curious as to why certain riders choose one over the other. Thought perhaps one was more lucrative while the other was considered more prestigious or something along those lines.

Most likely we'd have exactly what you described by now (in MXGP) had Supercross ("mini-motocross") not been invented to pander to fringe fans and outright idiots. There are a LOT of idiots out there, and never underestimate their buying power.