2005 Motocross Des Nations – Yamaha News

The 2005 Motocross of Nations in Ernée, France did a lot more than just live up to the expectations. Excellent weather conditions for most of the weekend, a crowd of 45,000 fans and a three-way battle between home country France, title defendants Belgium and the American team made Ernée an instant classic and a true promotion for the sport.

Stefan Everts and the Belgian team reached the podium, but the MX1 world champion had a disappointing day with bad starts in both races. David Vuillemin, who rode his last race with Yamaha in Ernée, helped team France coming second. An impressive Ricky Carmichael (Suzuki), won the two races he participated in and led the Americans to victory. MX2 world champion Antonio Cairoli, from team Italy, showed excellent speed on Saturday in what was his first outing in the MX1 class. Unfortunately Cairoli DNF'd twice and the Italian team only finished a lowly 13th.

American legend Ricky Carmichael made his intentions very clear from the first race of the day. Carmichael led from start to finish and was never challenged. However the enthusiastic crowd never got bored because the nature of the MX of Nations format meant there was always more than one race to follow, with the mixed class line-up again made for a great show. The French crowd cheered Mickael Pichon (MX1) and Sebastien Tortelli (MX2) to respectively third and seventh. Both Belgian riders had a difficult task recovering from bad positions at the start of the race. Everts suffered arm pump and could not make his mark on the scenic track that had been kind to him before (recording three GP wins there in 2003). Stefan finished fifth in the end, while Billy Mackenzie was the second best Yamaha rider in 10th position.

Race two saw a turn of fortune for Everts and the Belgian team as both USA and France got into trouble, following crashes of respectively Ivan Tedesco and Tortelli. Vuillemin rode a consistent and carefree race and placed his YZ450F second behind Ben Townley (New Zealand). In the tradition of the event the third race would determine the outcome of the Motocross of Nations, the Americans finished the job with Carmichael claiming another win and Kevin Windham coming second. Everts had to make his way through the pack from dead last after a first turn crash and went on to finish ninth. The French team rode to a well-earned second overall with Pichon coming fifth in the combined MX1 and the open class, while 'Le cobra' Vuillemin came home seventh.

After what has been one of the most successful editions of the Motocross of Nations in recent history, 2006 host country Great Britain will try to the top the event on the 23rd and 24th of September at Farleigh Castle. Next year's Motocross of Nations will mark the 60th birthday of the legendary 'Olympic games' of motocross.

David Vuillemin (Team Yamaha PSM Casola- MX1 - Team France) - 2nd in race 1 and 7th race 3 "I got a good start in my first race and everything went pretty good. I was running in third and I tried to conserve some energy for my next race, but I got a little bit lucky when Windham crashed and I was handed second on a plate. The second race was a bit harder for me because I had to go through traffic after a bad start, but I was happy with seventh. I think the end result for the French team was still very good and overall the weekend has been an amazing experience. I think that I did the best I could today considering that I crashed on Saturday and I hurt my knee, and that I ran almost on a stock bike here."

Stefan Everts (Yamaha L&M Motocross Team - MX1) - fifth in race 1 and ninth race 3 "I always knew that it would be difficult to win today, for me the American team was absolutely hands on favorite for the event. And of course circumstances did not help us. I had two crashes in the start today but the most disappointing was that I could not run with the top guys. However I'm happy for the Belgian team that we made the podium. It is my 13th podium out of 13 MX of Nations. And that's already quite special by itself."

Andrew McFarlane (Team Ricci Racing - MX2 - Australia) - 17th in race 1 and 14th in race 2 "The first race was quite difficult, I was suffering arm pump and it was hard to compete with the 450s on this power track. Especially the acceleration out of the corner makes a huge difference. My arm pump was not so bad in the second race and I got off with a good start. The riding was getting more hairy in the last race of the day because the track was awfully rutted in many places. Generally, it's been a bit sad that Australia was not here with its A team. But hopefully we can give it a shot next year with Chad (Reed) and Michael (Byrne)."

Brian Jorgensen (Yamaha L&M Motocross Team - MX1- Team Denmark "Already yesterday I was having serious headache caused by bad toothache, but my qualifying race went not too bad. I climbed up from 10th to finish fifth and Denmark qualified for the A-final so that was good. I went to see a doctor for painkillers and he gave me something to get sleep on Saturday, but it did not help. Again I got the strongest painkillers on Sunday to try and at least be ready to race, unfortunately I did not make it. The pain was unbearable, and it just turned out impossible to race. I'm very disappointed, because my Danish team mates did a good job and my riding was quite ok. This is not the way I wanted to end my season."

Billy Mackenzie (Yamaha UK Race Team - MX1 ) - tenth in race 1 and twelfth in race 3 "Seeing that big crowd out there today made me more nervous than in any race I've ever done before and I am not happy with the performance I put in today. I've been ill with the 'flu all week and although I was feeling better today it still affected me. It's the first time I've ridden the 450 in a year and we had problems setting up the suspension, which in turn gave me arm pump and caused me to slip back from fifth to 10th in the first one. In the second race I was having a good battle with Vuillemin and Vico but all through the race I had an intermittent problem with the front brake sticking on. That caused me to crash and lose a few places which was a disappointment."

Antonio Cairoli (Team Yamaha De Carli - MX2) - DNF in race 1 and DNF in race 3 "It was not a good day today! I did not make one complete lap because in both races I arrive in a dangerous situation and have a very big crash each time. My wrist was sore after the first race although it feels more calm now. It is a shame because yesterday I was happy with my speed in the qualifying race. My style suits riding the 450 and when I make a good rhythm I thought I can ride well. It has been a good season and a nice experience riding here, so I look forward to next year."

RACE 1: MX1 AND MX2 1. Ricky Carmichael (USA - Suzuki), 2. Joshua Coppins (NZL - Honda), 3. Mickael Pichon (FRA - Honda), 4. Tanel Leok (EST - Kawasaki), 5. Stefan Everts (BEL - Yamaha) , 6. Ivan Tedesco (USA - Kawasaki), 7. Sébastien Tortelli (FRA - KTM), 8. Marc De Reuver (NED - KTM), 9. Steve Ramon (BEL - KTM), 10. Billy Mackenzie (GBR - Yamaha), 11. Carl Nunn (GBR- KTM), 12. Joaquim Rodrigues (POR - Honda), 13. Aigar Leok (EST - KTM), 14. Julien Bill (SWI - KTM), 15. Garreth Swanepoel (RSA - Kawasaki), 16. Kazumasa Masuda (JAP - Honda), 17. Andrew McFarlane (AUS - Yamaha), 18. Tyla Rattray (RSA - KTM), 19. Davide Guarneri (ITA - Yamaha) , 20. Maximilian Nagl (GER - KTM)

RACE 2: MX2 + OPEN 1. Ben Townley (NZL - KTM), 2. David Vuillemin (FRA - Yamaha), 3. Steve Ramon (BEL - KTM), 4. David Philippaerts (ITA - KTM), 5. Kevin Windham (USA - Honda), 6. Kevin Strijbos (BEL -Suzuki), 7. Javier Garcia Vico (SPA - Honda), 8. Marc Ristori (SWI - Honda), 9. Yoshitaka Atsuta (JAP - Suzuki), 10. Matti Seistola (FIN - Honda), 11. Carl Nunn (GBR- KTM), 12. James Noble (GBR - Honda), 13. Juss Laansoo (EST - Honda), 14. Andrew McFarlane (AUS - Yamaha), 15. Joaquim Rodrigues (POR - Honda), 16. Tyla Rattray (RSA - KTM), 17. Ivan Tedesco (USA - Kawasaki), 18. Carlos Campano (SPA - KTM), 19. Rui Goncalves (POR - Yamaha), 20. Bas Verhoeven (NED - Honda)

RACE 3: MX1 AND OPEN 1. Ricky Carmichael (USA - Suzuki), 2. Ben Townley (NZL - KTM), 3. Kevin Windham (USA - Honda), 4. Joshua Coppins (NZL - Honda), 5. Mickael Pichon (FRA - Honda), 6. Marc De Reuver (NED - KTM), 7. David Vuillemin (FRA - Yamaha), 8. Kevin Strijbos (BEL - Suzuki), 9. Stefan Everts (BEL - Yamaha), 10. Tanel Leok (EST - Kawasaki), 11. Javier Garcia Vico (SPA - Honda), 12. Billy Mackenzie (GBR - Yamaha), 13. James Noble (GBR - Honda), 14. David Philippaerts (ITA - KTM), 15. Rui Goncalves (POR - Yamaha), 16. Neville Bradshaw (RSA - Suzuki), 17. Kazumasa Masuda (JAP - Honda), 18. Maximilian Nagl (GER - KTM), 19. Juss Lanssoo (EST - Honda), 20. Bas Verhoeven (NED - Honda)

Final Team results

First: United States (Carmichael, Windham, Tedesco) - 16
Second: France (Pichon, Tortelli, Vuillemin) - 24
Third: Belgium (Everts, Ramon, Strijbos) - 31 points
Fourth: New-Zealand (Coppins, Townley, Cooper) - 32
Fifth: Great Britain (Mackenzie, Nunn, Noble) - 56
Sixth: Estonia (Tanel Leok, Aigar Leok, Laansoo) - 59
Seventh: Netherlands (De Reuver, Verhoeven, Van Hastenberg) - 82
Eighth: Portugal (Rui GonÇalves, Paolo GonÇalves, Rodriguez) - 83
Ninth: South Africa: (Rattray, Swanepoel, Bradshaw) - 86
Tenth: Spain (Garcia Vico, Barragan, Gonzalez) - 99