A legitimate question now for the MX2 class is, who wins their first ever World championship. It seemed for some time that Monster Energy Yamaha rider Jago Geerts might be heading to his first, and after a few years of battling the Frenchman Tom Vialle and Maxime Renaux it seemed like it was going to be this year. Time after time Geerts would come up short after putting together a bunch of GP wins and then finding a way to lose the title.

Last year was probably the most brutal, as he tried to pass a fallen Vialle in the final round with minimum points between them, only to run into the Frenchman, and crash himself, handing the title to the Red Bull KTM factory rider. Bad luck was in full swing on that day and now, as he lay in a Belgian hospital, with a busted wrist, the riders waiting behind him a hungry to give their own careers a series boost.

Due to the age rule, we are never going to get legends riding in the MX2 class. Future legends maybe, but with the age rule and the rule of not being able to win more than title titles, we, those stats just don’t put you in with the all-time greats.

What the MX2 class does have is an immense talent pool, of very young riders who have honed their skills better than ever better in a system that creates World class riders before they come close to being a GP racer.

With Jago Geerts out for two rounds, the MX2 class has just three guys who have won a Grand Prix, those being Thibault Benistant, Simon Langenfelder (also out) and Andrea Adamo.

Thibault Benistant: Benistant is currently fourth in the championship points on 303 points, so a little off the pace of Andrea Adamo. Benistant though has three GP wins in his career, those coming in France last week, Switzerland this year and Germany last year. The Frenchman has finished 24^th, 8^th, 5^th and is currently 4^th in the series points. He would in my eyes seemingly be the favourite to take over from his team-mate at the top of the MX2 points in the coming month. Just form his experience and statistics. Benistant has raced 41 GPs and had by far the most race wins without Geerts here with eight race wins and 11 podiums.

Andrea Adamo: The next man in line in my opinion is Red Bull KTM factory rider Andrea Adamo, who has a single GP victory to his name and has finished with 46^th, 14^th, 8^th and currently 2^nd in the points standings. He has raced 44 GPs with six podiums. Adamo has experienced Joel Smets and Antonio Cairoli in his corner, so that must help the young man to deal with a lot of pressure. He has 10 top three finishes in motos and his 3-3-5-6-3-2-2-2-2-5-5-3-3-3 looks pretty impressive. If I had to pick a rider who has impressed the most this year behind Geerts, it is the Italian.

Kay De Wolf: For some reason I see Kay De Wolf as an outsider, just because he is younger, less experienced and also makes a lot of mistakes, but if you go by speed and technique, wow, I will nearly make him the biggest chance to become the World MX2 champion of 2023. He hasn’t picked up a GP win yet, but you get the feeling that isn’t far off and once he cracks a win, then he might gain the confidence to do it more often. He does have a moto win in 2023 and five top three moto finishes and 12 top five finishes, so very consistent. Also, a Saturday qualification win to his name. Apart from a rough opening round in Argentina, he has been very strong. De Wolf is 11 points behind Adamo for the soon to be available red plate. In his MX2 career he has 11 podiums, three moto wins and has finished 7^th and 6^th and is currently 3^rd in the points.

Roan Van De Moosdijk: Another Husky factory rider is Roan Van De Moosdijk and after an injury riddled off-season he has shown stages of brilliance. Down more than 70 points on Adamo, it is hard to see him make up the ground and obviously due to his poor pre-season, his stats don’t look that great, with an impressive moto win in Switzerland and 4-3 in Portugal. He has the talent, but time is running out in the MX2 class as he has to move up to MXGP in 2024. The Dutchman is the most experienced in the class having joined MX2 in 2017 and has two race wins, eight podiums and has finished 26^th, 7^th, 17^th, 13^th and holds down 6^th place in this year’s points race.

Liam Everts: The final rider with a huge outside chance is Liam Everts. While Everts has shown in Trentino and France that he has all it takes to be a future serious contender, being his first year on a factory team obviously ads a lot of pressure and while he seems fine under pressure, his best results of 3-3 and 2-4 are hammered by some pretty average results. 83 points down on Adamo makes the job a tough one, but if he keeps his factory ride, which I assume he will, then 2024 might see something very spectacular from the young Belgian. Everts finished 10^th in last year’s World championship points, which was his first full season in the class. 

In saying these guys all have some type of shot, Jago Geerts will come back, possibly 80 points down or more on the series leader, but with a bunch of GPs still to be run in Indonesia, Czech Republic, Belgium, The Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Turkey, UK and Italy, there is nothing to say the job is over for the Belgian, but its going to be tough.