MXGP - 21 Titles and 334 GP wins

Posted on November 08, 2019

I know we have talked about it before, how many champions and how deep the field is, but man, when you look through the MXGP class, it is just unbelievable. I have mentioned it before, but 21 World championships between Cairoli, Herlings, Gajser, Prado, Jonass, Febvre and Tixier.

As for GP winners, we are talking big numbers. Of a field of say 40, more than half have won a GP, with 21 riders (if Max Anstie stays in GP. We spoke to him last week and also this week and he mentioned he hadn't made his mind up yet) having won a GP, with a total of 334 GP wins.

In the list are Antonio Cairoli 89, Jeffrey Herlings 86, Jorge Prado 31, Tim Gajser 24, Clement Desalle 23, Romain Febvre 12, Gautier Paulin 12, Pauls Jonass 11, Max Nagl 9, Kevin Strijbos 6, Max Anstie 6, Shaun Simpson 4, Glenn Coldenhoff 4, Thomas Covington 4, Tanel Leok 3, Valentin Guillod 3, Jordi Tixier 2, Jeremy Van Horebeek 2, Arnaud Tonus 1, Evgeny Bobryshev 1, Calvin Vlaanderen 1.

I can tell you with 100% confidence, NO era or championship Worldwide has seen anything like this, not the 1970s, the 1980s, the 90s or even the Everts, Smets, Pichon, Towney era of 2005.

With this year’s MX2 group of Jorge Prado, Calvin Vlaanderen, Adam Sterry and Mitchell Evans moving to MXGP in 2020, and of course Thomas Covington returning to Europe to race in the MXGP class, the toughest, deepest motocross series in the World just got a lot tougher.

I mean, there are others from the MX2 class, but these riders above should be amongst the points, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see all four running top 10 on a regular basis. Prado of course could be a GP winner if everything falls into place, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Vlaanderen and Evans close to the podium throughout 2020.

What to expect from Covington is a tough one? He has had a horrible 2019, with injuries, sickness and poor form. Thomas isn’t the biggest rider in the field, which might help starts and no doubt a lot depends on the new team. Can the Gebben Van Venrooy Yamaha team continue to impress, as they did with Alessandro Lupino in recent times. No doubt, with the support from Yamaha they should have the devises to make things happen. It is a great looking team and the Dutch don’t usually do things by halves. I sure hope all three riders can battle inside the top ten.