Entering into the 2021 FIM Motocross World championship season, it is obvious that there are a handful of riders capable of winning the opening round, be it defending champion Tim Gajser, nine-time champion Antonio Cairoli, four-time champions Jeffrey Herlings and Tim Gajser or two-time World champion Jorge Prado, not to mention others.

We went back through the years, all the way back to 2010 to look at who usually started the season strong in the premier class. It is little surprise a few names stand out from this last decade, with Cairoli and his two biggest rivals Clement Desalle and Gautier Paulin often on the podium at round one.

Starting the season strong is obviously important and below is the top three from the first round since 2010. Amazingly, from the last four years Cairoli has gone 1-2-1-3 and when you consider the last four year he has been probably already past his best, then you have to hand it to the Italian legend. Cairoli has finished on the podium on eight times from the 11 years in the first round of the season.

MXGP World champion Tim Gajser has also a good record for the opening round, having won his first ever MXGP GP race in 2016 and back it up with three runner-up places in 2017, 2019 and 2020. He did miss out on the podium in 2018 as he struggled with injuries and missed the opener.

Herlings to nobody’s surprise has won two openers since moving to the MXGP class in 2017, those in 2018 and 2020, and as usual, injuries robbed him of better results in the openers in 2017 (15th overall) and 2019 when he didn't race.

As we mentioned, Desalle and Paulin were two of the most consistent riders from the last decade and with Desalle winning twice and finishing on the podium six times in those 11 years, while Paulin won once and finished on the podium three times.

Cairoli has won two of the last four openers, with Herlings winning the other two (from memory stealing the overall from Cairoli in the dying stages of Argentina 2018), and Gajser joining that group with his win in 2016. To nobodies surprise, these three have won the last five between them, so the pressure is on the others to stop these multiple World champion in their tracks.

11 Years of Round One Podiums

2010 GP of Bulgaria: 1. Max Nagl, 2. Antonio Cairoli, 3. Clement Desalle

2011 GP of Bulgaria: 1. Clement Desalle, 2 Steven Frossard, 3. Jonathan Barragan

2012 GP of Valkenswaard: 1. Antonio Cairoli, 2. Clement Desalle, 3. Steven Frossard

2013 GP of Qatar: 1. Clement Desalle, 2. Antonio Cairoli, 3. Gautier Paulin

2014 GP of Qatar: 1. Gautier Paulin, 2. Max Nagl, 3. Antonio Cairoli

2015 GP of Qatar: 1. Max Nagl, 2. Clement Desalle, 3. Gautier Paulin

2016 GP of Qatar: 1. Tim Gajser, 2. Romain Febvre, 3. Evgeny Bobryshev

2017 Grand Prix of Qatar: 1. Antonio Cairoli, 2. Tim Gajser, 3. Romain Febvre

2018 GP of Argentina: 1. Jeffrey Herlings, 2. Antonio Cairoli, 3, Clement Desalle

2019 GP of Argentina: 1. Antonio Cairoli, 2. Tim Gajser, 3. Jeremy Van Horebeek

2020 GP of Great Britain: 1. Jeffrey Herlings, 2. Tim Gajser, 3. Antonio Cairoli

Podium Finishes

Antonio Cairoli 8

Clement Desalle 6

Tim Gajser 4

Max Nagl 3

Gautier Paulin 3

Jeffrey Herlings 2

Romain Febvre 2

Steven Frossard 2

Jeremy Van Horebeek 1

Evgeny Bobryshev 1

Jonathan Barragan 1

Bavo Swijgers and Ray Archer images