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Monster Energy FIM MXoN, NED, 8 octobre 2018

Silver for Alessandro Lupino and Italy

Alessandro Lupino of the Gebben Van Venrooy Kawasaki Team put in a stunning performance at the Motocross of Nations, the FIM World Motocross Team Championship, to steer Italy to second place.

Both the twenty-seven year old and his senior colleague Antonio Cairoli had spent a painful week after heavy crashes in the final MXGP of the year at Imola, but both gritted their teeth and Lupino's superbly-prepared KX450F got him to the first turn in front in each of his races on a heavy track saturated by three days of rain at the Red Bud facility in the northern US state of Michigan. Unfortunately he got out of shape on acceleration out of the first turn in his opening moto and the loss of momentum saw him relegated to twenty-fifth before making a sensational comeback to twelfth. There was no such mishap in his second race as he took the holeshot award and maintained his top three placing for more than twenty minutes until two riders who had enjoyed a longer break since their opening rides finally wore him down. But his fifth place was vital in securing the event silver medal for Italy.
 
Alessandro Lupino: « I’m really happy with this podium for Italy, event if we have little pain in the stomach because Cairoli and I each made a mistake in our first motos and that cost us probably the win! On the other hand we were also lucky as many things happened with this weather, but missing the victory by two points is difficult to accept! We have to be happy, because seven days ago we were not even sure to come as both Antonio and I were injured and we have ended the weekend on the podium. Last week everyone in the team was crying, and today everyone is laughing! I want to thanks the federation and my team Gebben Van Venrooy Kawasaki, also my coach Christian Ravaglia who helped me a lot. We have had a good season together and we’re confident for next season, but now it’s time for some holidays with my family in Corsica and Sicilia after a long season as I had thirty-two races on my schedule this year. »
 
The other Kawasaki riders each suffered misfortune during the hectic early laps of racing but Eli Tomac of the American arm of the Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team as his country's top scorer in each of his races with fourth and seventh places, whilst European colleague Clement Desalle put in a stunning ride to fifth place in his opening ride after being dragged to the ground by a fallen rival at turn one. Britain's Tommy Searle of Bike It DRT Kawasaki raced through the pack to tenth in his second ride after unselfishly leaving the team's best gate to his partner.