Cairoli and Simpson take opening season honours

The 2010 season has started in grand style in Mantova today.

Three brilliant races in both the MX1 and MX2 classes saw Tony Cairoli and Shaun Simpson take the season opener in fine style.

Was this the start of things to come from Shaun Simpson?

Cairoli won the first two races emphatically but had to fight hard in race three to catch Clement Desalle and eventual race three winner Tanel Leok. The little Italian passed Desalle on the finish line table top only to be re-passed in the next corner banging bars on the way, Desalle kept his cool and went on to finish second. As Desalle went over the line he pulled over and was waiting to shake Cairoli’s hand but the Italian shoved him in the back and both riders started gesturing to each other with waving hands.

It was definitely Cairoli’s weekend though his riding was near perfect on the brand new KTM 350 and if this weekend is a prequel to what is in store for the rest of the year then 2010 will go down as a classic in MX1.

Lookout for the new brighter version of Ramon in 2010

Steve Ramon who was running the old style pink garish AXO kit was consistent from the get go and eventually did enough to finish second ahead of countryman Desalle and Italian David Philippaerts.

In MX2 many were saying that this weekend the race was between two guys Frenchman Marvin Musquin and Germen Ken Roczen but that didn’t deter British Red Bull KTM star Shaun Simpson who stole the show. In the first two races Simpson seemed like he was in full control from the gate and breezed to victory in each but in race three he crashed on the start and had to come from dead last passing everyone in his class to eventually finish second to Musquin and take the win. If this isn’t one of the rides of the season then I’ll eat my hat.

Marvin Musquin just did enough to finish ahead of surprise of the weekend Arnaud Tonus who will undoubtedly worry a few riders come the first round of the GP’s in Bulgaria.

It wasn’t David Philippaerts today here in Italy

Biggest disappointment was Mike Alessi who didn’t race, was it team orders from the management or was it something else? One thing is for sure he didn’t look in the same class as the European riders and it was disappointing for the fans who turned up to watch a top American rider in Europe.

Roll on Bulgaria for more of the same please.

Overall Results
MX1
CAIROLI Tony 222 1 70 25 25 20
RAMON Steve 11 2 52 16 18 18
DESALLE Clement 25 3 51 7 22 22
PHILIPPAERTS David 19 4 51 22 14 15
DE REUVER Marc 14 5 50 20 16 14
LEOK Tanel 40 6 45 0 20 25
BARRAGAN Jonathan 7 7 38 18 7 13
NAGL Maximilian 2 8 35 15 10 10
BOOG Xavier 121 9 32 9 11 12
ALBERTSON Jimmy 702 10 31

Overall Results MX2
SIMPSON Shaun 110 1 72 25 25 22
MUSQUIN Marvin 1 2 65 18 22 25
TONUS Arnaud 23 3 56 16 20 20
SCHIFFER Marcus 27 4 56 20 18 18
BRAKKE Herjan 24 5 43 13 15 15
BUTRON Jose 71 6 41 15 16 10
COLDENHOF Glenn 5 7 39 12 14 13
ROCZEN Ken 94 8 35 22 5 8
MARTINI Gianluca 29 9 32 4 12 16
PEZZUTO Stefano 878 10 14 11 6

Tags: AMA, british, cairoli, competition, coppins, crash, De Reuver, desalle, european, fim, france, french, germany, gp, honda, injury, italy, kawasaki, maxxis, motocross, musquin, NAGL, park, philippaerts, ramon, schiffer, simpson, smith, suzuki, tonus, training, yamaha