The French Motocross of Nations team have played a Houdini act on four occasions, and the first, with David Vuillemin, Luigi Seguy and Yves Demaria in 2001, was probably their greatest act in the four victories by the French.
On that day in Namur, up against the home team Belgium, Stefan Everts, Joel Smets and Steve Ramon, the French B team put on a performance, winning the event for the first time for their country. Racing without World 250cc champion Mickael Pichon, or their second-best GP rider Frederic Bolley, nobody considered them a chance if victory.
In 2014, they raced without their World MX2 champion Jordi Tixier, who rightfully so finally gets a chance to represent his country this year. Tixier with a lot of pressure and probably well underdone, having been injured for much of the season, and only just this week having a team to supply him a bike for the event (lets hope Roger De Coster can organize a Factory KTM for him).
It is amazing how quickly people forget just how smart the French Federation are, or lucky. It might be added, Marvin Musquin has been on just one winning team for France, yet everyone jumped on the bandwagon and said what a crazy move by the French Federation to not select him this year. Prefer sure Marvin declined on a few occasions in the past, but that seems to be forgotten for most people.
At the time the team was selected, the most converted French rider in the events history, Gautier Paulin was probably lucky to get picked, with Romain Febvre in much better form in the MXGP championship and Ferrandis and Musquin riding well in America.
Now as Febvre pulls out, and Marvin Musquin is finally asked to race for his country, and in many ways rightly so declines, everyone again says that Team France has no chance of winning. Do we all forget they won last year with a World Enduro rider in the team. Displacing him, is a former World MX2 champion in Jordi Tixier, with Dylan Ferrandis coming in on the 250 this time. It still isn’t a bad team, and for sure a podium chance, and if any team has a podium chance, they also have a chance of victory.
Luck plays a major part of this event, and it doesn’t always go with favourites, Team USA, who have had terrible luck in recent years.
When the original French team was picked, I would have gone for Paulin, Febvre and Musquin on the 250, the same team that won in 2015 in France. I would have been more than happy to see them also pick Paulin, Febvre and Ferrandis, or Musquin, Febvre and Ferrandis. In fact the best rider ever for France, Paulin, could easily have been left out, but don’t be surprised after all the talk of how terrible the team is, if they won’t go into the final race on Sunday at this years MXoN, with a chance of victory.
Time will tell, it will either be the French with egg on their faces, or the people who continue to slam the French for trying something different.
French Victories in MXoN
2017 France Gautier Paulin / Christophe Charlier / Romain Febvre
2016 France Gautier Paulin / Benoît Paturel / Romain Febvre
2015 France Gautier Paulin / Marvin Musquin / Romain Febvre
2014 France Gautier Paulin / Dylan Ferrandis / Steven Frossard
2001 France Yves Demaria / Luigi Seguy / David Vuillemin
