The start position drawing ceremony attracts a lot of media attention.
As for the actual qualifying for Team USA, it didn’t go as planned. In the opening MX1 moto, Dungey ran as high as fourth, but in the closing stages of the race, threw away his goggles and dropped to sixth by the end. Then in the MX2 moto, Baggett turned in a solid third place ride. It was the MX3 race that cost them the most. After jumping out to the early lead, Barcia controlled the race until being passed by The Netherlands’ sand specialist Jeffrey Herlings. After hanging with the KTM rider for a few laps, Barcia went down and got stuck in the green fence that lines the track. After struggling for a few minutes to free himself, former MXoN winner Chuck Sun ran over and lifted the fence up so Barcia could ride underneath it. Unfortunately, any type of assistance is considered “help.” Barcia then cut through a small portion of the infield and jumped the fence to get back onto the track. And in spite of his spirited ride to finish sixth, Barcia was ultimately disqualified for receiving assistance and cutting the track, as FIM rules also state a rider must re-enter exactly where they left the track.
After getting back on the track, Barcia rode like a man possessed, as he did everything he could to catch up. We saw him on more then one occasion getting sideways and his feet flying off like the picture here.
Every year, Fox creates some of the coolest looking gear for their riders and their respective countries. This was Clemente Desalle’s Team Belgium gear. Dungey also had some red, white, and blue Fox gear and Ken Roczen was decked out in Team Germany gear.
The soft sandy surface behind the start gate makes gate prep and selection even more important. Many of the riders spent a lot of time carefully prepping their start gate. During Saturday qualifying, Germany’s Max Nagl probably had the most impressive gate prep. As it turned out, he pulled the holeshot ahead of Italy’s Antonio Cairoli.
