Often former racers have a special eye for what is happening on the track. Be it our interview with Ricky Johnson yesterday, or today with Marc De Reuver. The flaws in Team USA are clear for everyone, but the former riders, they can see much better than us mere mortals what is really going on.

We talked to Dutch motocross legend Marc Reuver about the MXoN, and also the Dutch GP. Always a fun guy to interview, the former GP winner and MXoN runner-up had a lot to say.

MXlarge: Marc, did you watch the MXoN?

De Reuver: Yes mate, I did commentary for Eurosport.

MXlarge: What did you think?

De Reuver: I have to be honest, on paper I had America. I am Dutch, but I had America winning it, but I was completely wrong. The individual winners I almost had right. I had Prado, Herlings and Barcia, but could have expected Coldenhoff to ride like he did. I am sorry I didn’t make it, but what can I do.

MXlarge: You are friends with Glenn or not?

De Reuver: Yes, he is my buddy.

MXlarge: That performance by team Holland. I think you guys have finished third or second a bunch of times in the MXoN, one time with you in the team in 2003, this time, that was a Team USA performance from the 1980s.

De Reuver: I felt so sorry for Calvin. The thing is, I could have ridden and we would have won, it didn’t matter who was riding.

MXlarge: They could have put Gerrit Wolsink on the bike and they would have won.

De Reuver: They could have won with you on the bike Geoff.

MXlarge: Well, that’s going a bit too far and I am not Dutch….How were you emotionally, because as I said, I am not Dutch, but I have lived here for 25 years, I have Dutch kids and I was pretty emotional for them, that they lost, but also the performance by the two riders.

De Reuver: I saw that bike from Calvin in the first moto, and I was like, oh no, and then people told me he has his eye problem, and I felt more for him, than the other two. He got a stone in his eye after throwing his goggles off.

MXlarge: The whole USA vs Europe. I remember thinking during the year, I kept thinking, as many of us did, what a crazy level the MXGP class is, and not just the two front guys, because the others were pushing hard to try and keep up. I really went into Redbud thinking a bunch of MXGP guys could handle Tomac, even in America. I mean Febvre and Gajser were not even there. In the end he could have finished behind them also.

De Reuver: I know you wrote that and when I saw you saying that, I thought to myself, what is Geoff talking about, but then watching that first Saturday race, they way Barcia and Tomac rode, how they took the corners, I knew Sunday would be difficult for them. I couldn’t believe the lines riders of that level were riding. They were smashing the berms and of course they cooked their bikes. They didn’t save their bikes at all.

MXlarge: De Coster said they were riding the track like it was a supercross track. Do you agree?

De Reuver: Yes, they were cutting from the inside into the berm and just go again, but that is the wrong way to ride a track like that.

MXlarge: Do you feel like its just the last 30 years, when America dominated and now it’s our turn?

De Reuver: I don’t understand it, when riders like Ricky Carmichael, the best ever. He came to Ernee, and it isn’t an American track and he just killed everybody. Remember Tomac before he got his shoulder problems, he was a good outdoor rider, but this year he looked like a hobby rider.

MXlarge: I just went off what I saw from the highlights from the Nationals, he looked good, but he didn’t look like Herlings level. You can see that just by watching the highlights on television. You watched highlights of Cairoli or Herlings this year, and it was like WOW, what these guys are doing is just ridiculous.

De Reuver: Yes, but Cairoli and Herlings, they are a different story.

MXlarge: Even Roczen struggled and I thought he would be up there.

De Reuver: Yes, but his bike didn’t look so good. Also Roczen didn’t complain after, he said nothing.

MXlarge: A lot of complains from Team USA about the gap between the last national and the MXoN, then you look at Team France, and Tixier had hardly ridden, and Ferrandis had the same break as the USA riders. Not to mention everyone in America said Paulin shouldn’t have been picked because he was too slow.

De Reuver: Yes, that was unbelievable, I don’t know how they won. Also for Italy, they had such a bad communication. I was watching and I thought Cairoli would come in, because it was a good pit lane to come in. I was then watching and they should have signaled to Lupino to let Antonio pass, but they didn’t and Italy lost the Nations on mis-communication, end of story.

MXlarge: Question; fastest rider on the planet, who is it?

De Reuver: At this moment, its Jeffrey.

MXlarge: By a lot, or a little bit?

De Reuver: By a little bit, because I always come back to Cairoli, he is something special.

MXlarge: What concerns me now, because Holland have gone 2-2-3 in the last three Nations, and they are the heavy favourites for 2019, I bet they don’t win. This race is like that.

De Reuver: You know Assen is a strange track, it is nothing like riding a real sand track. If you look at the results, some real good sand riders do nothing there. This sand is very unpredictable and its slippery and you see from the body language, it’s a strange track.

MXlarge: I actually wrote after Redbud, that I think Assen will be even tougher for Team USA than Lommel was. What do you think?

De Reuver: I agree, much more difficult.

MXlarge: Because they will have never ridden anything like that, and they can do a million laps of Lommel, and it won’t prepare them for Assen.

De Reuver: Listen, des Nations, you can’t predict nothing. Who thought France would win in America?

MXlarge: I want to also ask you as a Dutchman. Assen when Herlings won the championship, in my opinion, that event to me had MXoN atmosphere, with the big grandstands. What did you think.

De Reuver: For me also. The first year I thought what are they going to do that place, but it is super, I love it and the track is not so bad, just some dangerous areas where you can crash onto the concrete, but otherwise it’s a great facility.