Ryan Hughes - USA vs Europe

Posted on April 17, 2021

Former Team USA rider Ryan Hughes has a great opinion on the difference between GP and AMA racers. We have said it here time and time again, an American having success in Europe probably won't happen for a long time, if ever. 

I agree if Team USA raced the MXoN in sunshine and on a hard pack track, they would be much more on the pace than the last few years of MXoN, but with it being run in Mantova this year, expect another beat down for Team USA if they come. Ernee, St Jean d'Angly, or maybe Maggiora, it might be a lot closer, but I still don't see Team USA winning.

I still struggle that supercross has anything to do with it, because when guys like Ryan Dungey, Ryan Villopoto or Ricky Carmichael rode both supercross and motocross, they didn't suffer and the sport (supercross) hasn't changed that much in the last 10 years to 15 years. Maybe the fact the 450s have improved so much hasn't helped the transition from SX to MX, but I don't know as I don't race at that level.

The single day format in USA and as Hughes mentioned the difficulties of Euro tracks have put Europe back on top of the sport outdoors. 

The current class of American riders doesn't have a guy like the three I mentioned above, and that has made their chances of winning at the MXoN difficult. Plain and simple. 

While Europe has its strongest field of MXGP riders ever with Antonio Cairoli, Jeffrey Herlings, Tim Gajser, and Jorge Prado. Competition builds speed and the competition in Europe is just way tougher than in America in this current era.

Great video from the leading podcast in the sport Gypsy Tales.