The KTM factory riders had mixed fortunes at Thunder Creek in Colorado, with Germany's Max Nagl emerging the top rider of the group, helping to push Team Germany onto the podium in third overall.
"It was amazing to be on the podium and its the first time for us since 1985 and that's a long time," Nagl said. "The last years have been really tough but now we had three top riders. I was quite happy with my riding. The speed was there and I had the same lap times as the big guys. I had a crash in the second moto and I hurt my hip but I'm happy that I wasn't injured although for sure it will be sore for the next couple of days."
Tony Cairoli, riding the 350 SX-F also put on a good show for Italy and helped to propel the team to fifth overall behind the winners USA, Belgium in second place, Germany and Britain.
Tony, like many of the Europeans had some difficultly adjusting to the altitude (1800 meters), which for an asthma sufferer was not easy. He looked in top form in the first moto and made a hard challenge on the USA's number one rider Ryan Dungey, coming in in second place to make a valuable effort for Team Azzuri. It was clear after the first moto that Team USA was in the running to take the overall victory even though there would be challenges by Germany, Belgium and Australia.
"it was an okay weekend for me. I had a good start but I wasn't feeling so good with the altitude and it wasn't good for my asthma," Cairoli commented. "But I finished second behind Ryan and it would have been possible to win the moto but I made a small mistake going over a jump and I hurt my wrist and back then I didn't have such a good start in the second moto and I was back at 15th and had to fight back again into fourth place. Overall for Italy it was better than last year to be fifth. Also the federation (Italian) called me back just last week to race here. I had not been training as much as I am used to so my condition was not as good as it could be," the new World Champion concluded.
Marvin Musquin, who had to swallow the disappointment of two DNFs and was very disappointed for the French team who were expected to be among the top teams, was stoic about the weekend, saying it was a learning experience and that he is still very much looking forward to racing in the USA in the 2011 season, especially with the newly appointed, KTM team boss for North America, the legendary Roger DeCoster.
