watched the vital "bucket list" video and noticed Tomac mentioned wanting to race Lommel. It would seem that with Prado coming over here, Tomac would fare better against the likes of Herlings, Febvre, Gajser who are more similar in age than he would riding around behind Jett and or Prado, who obviously have some youth and more contemporary riding technique.
I'm wondering if it could be a possibility considering Tomac's self-concern with how he "goes out" of the sport. He split wins with Jeffrey at the Florida GP a while back. I'm sure he would be a solid podium guy and have a much higher chance of taking the MXGP title in 2025 than he would getting an AMA title the way things are going.
I never would have floated the idea of Tomac going MXGP if it weren't for his Lommel / sand track comment.
Look at how RV did. No, he wasn't all in, but still, the competition is no joke. Add the fact that Tomac has 3 kids, I can't see him moving his family to Europe to pursue that championship, way too much hassle.
Good try
He also said he would probably get smoked
RV was leading the championship up until his injury. Very very likely he would have won without the crash. Watching clips of Eli riding the last few rounds and ignoring the Jett, he's actually riding extremely well.
Yeah its a fair point about his family and the effort to pursue it. But its really more of an extended summer type of thing with a few extra races spring/fall. In my opinion, not that much more of an effort to pursue than SX/MX/SMX combined. If anything, probably less of a stress to do MXGP without considering the relocation to belgium (if that would even be needed).
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He's humble/modest guy. He beat herlings and cairoli straight up in the sand at florida in one of the motos and to be honest, I don't think Gajser really intimidates him one bit. I do think Febvre would give him the business on very hard pack tracks.
I'm not so sure RV would of won. He smoked himself in practice in Thailand. When you consider all the travel, different food all over the world, it would take a toll on your body that their not used to. Could he have done it ? Sure, but I'd say it would take a couple of years, for him to adapt to that schedule.
Febvre won in 2015. He was about Cooper Webb's speed at Glen Helen later that year. Yeah, I would say RV easily would have had him covered if he stayed healthy. Shoulda coulda woulda. But to act like RV's performance was by any means bad, outside of the injury in Italy, definitely a gross misrepresentation of reality.
Villopoto wasn’t leading the points when he got hurt.
Also as cool as it would be Tomac is never going to race MXGP.
We talk like RV wanted to do it, but he didn't. The green claw should have let him walk after his 4th consecutive sx title.
Also, why are we so keen to send our soon retired guys over? They did the job over here.
Maybe he wants to race lommel as a one off, it's a bucket list thing for me as well, just to ride the place.
Whole season? I don't see it.
you're right i was mistaken. he only won thailand but desalle led at the time he got hurt
I actually think if RV was all in, RV would have won the championship. We can look to every MXDN, even on a 250f, he smoked most/everyone else who were on 450s. Personally, I actually think RV depended on being in shape the most to find that extra bit of speed needed to consistently win. That's why I think RV didn't do well in the GPs (to his standard). And I don't know if it's just a comfort thing where you have to put in so many laps to where he can unlock that extra 1% or what, but it just felt like he needed to be all in to be a champion (which Randy and Aldon both made happen)
He’s too American and couldn’t live in Europe for a season. A one off race would be cool though.
Belgium aint too different from new jersey these days 🫠. But i agree that i don't actually see him leaving the ranch
Anderson already said it's on his to do list..
Anderson, Barcia and Tomac. But they all have the age against them.
All of those riders will ride in the US until they don’t have anything left in the tank, just like RV did.
And with the small amount of teams to ride for in the GP’s a 30+ years rider that is out of his prime won’t get a seat there.
No, i don’t see it happen for anyone of them beside for a one off race, and if you put the current Tomac on Lommel, he will be a top 7 guy at best.
RV was not leading the championship when he got hurt. And he wasnt dominant at all. No way he would have won the MXGP title that year. Not the 2015 "version" of RV.
I already said i had it wrong. Desalle was leading at the time. But i still think RV would have had desalle covered that season. That's who he was passing when he crashed
Yamaha and triumph are both monster affiliated over there? Kawi might even take him back if he wanted to race. Cairoli stayed around until mid 30's and was competitive until the last season. On the contrary, i think MXGP would almost be more suitable for an older rider than AMA. More natural obstacles and arguably less race intensity
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Haha, funny how selective memories work. Desalle came from behind and passed RV just before he crashed. Was there that day and saw RVs last race, where he clearly hadn't the speed for a top 5 in Trentino.
Well Lommel doesnt clash with the outdoors this season so any US rider that wants to give it a try could theoretically enter
It would be great to see Tomac come over, but trying Lommel when he's arguably past his prime would be a tough ask. Even in his beast mode days he would've had his hands full round there.
I know money and travelling is a big hurdle, but it would be so good to see a young, fit, hungry top US rider come over and give it a proper long-term go.
I think USA need to up their ambitions a little.
Strike a deal to send Tomac & maybe another decent US rider, ask for the two final MXGP rounds to be statewide.
Tomac then has the opportunity to be crowned MXGP Champion in his own country with you lot chanting USA USA 🇺🇸
What’s not to like ?
If Jett goes 22-0 again maybe Chase will want to give it a go
Let it go.
I don't think the narrative that RV got smoked in Europe is true at all. He was disinterested for sure, didn't want to be there, but he still overalled a race in the three/four he competed in. By overalled I mean he beat the other riders in the event, hardly a definition of doing poorly.
I believe he was ahead of eventual champion Febvre in points when he went out also . Who knows how he would have done had he not been injured .
It's like people haven't noticed Eli's personality over the years, the guy had one foot out the door in his Kawi years, the Yamaha deal gave him a spark to continue, I'm amazed and respect the shit out of Eli that he came back this year given his past.
I'm 99% sure right now he's not even considering going over doing MxGP.
And on RV as good as he was which was one of the best of all time it would take him 1 year minimum to adjust to MxGP, not saying he didn't have the ability to beat those guys I 100% think could have won eventually, it's more than getting on a bike and winning, you have adjust to the lifestyle, schedule, how to setup the bike and ultimately how to ride the different tracks, it's no surprise he did his best on the man made tracks.
Eli going over there at this point in his career with kids and his age? yeah no.
He might get more time with his family as he could avoid the SX schedule.
Being smoked and do not win the championship are two different things.
RV was doing honest. And you cant win the MXGP world championship by just doing honest.
Once again, we are talking about a "2015" RV. Not the same competitor who was dominant the years before...
I don't think Tomac wants to race MXGP, but I wouldn't rule him out of racing an MXGP, kinda like Cairoli did in ProMotocross in '22 or Chad Reed In 2016, when he raced the British and Italian GPs. Full time racing MXGP would require him to move to Europe or fly to the other side of the pond every two weeks, that's a big hurdle.
The only top americans who have showed Real intentions to race MXGP is Anderson on the Gypsy Tales Podcast, and even himself said that he's a contract away from retirement, so maybe that last contract, if he's willing to, could be a MXGP deal.
Tomac is an all timer, a true legend of motocross worldwide, and I'm pretty sure that if he wanted, he could race MXGP with a Factory Team, only thing he needs is a phone call from his manager to a top MXGP team, and they would write a contract for him in a few minutes, and Yamaha, Monster and AStars (Plus other sponsors) would support him 100% when he retires or if he decides to race a few MXGP, Oh and don't forget, he race win ratio in MXGP is still 100%, 4 moto stars, 4 moto wins.
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