2021 FIM Women Motocross World Championship finally gets underway at MXGP of Czech Republic at Loket this weekend. Pitching the best female riders on track, the Opening Round of 5 will provide all important action to nail results for ultimate victory of the coveted WMX Title by end of October.
With massive entry of 48 riders, from total of 16 Nations, WMX Championship ramps up expectation and anticipation on who will outperform full-gate line-up including defending WMX Champion Courtney Duncan, 2020 Vice Champion Nancy Van der ven and 6x WMX Champion Kiara Fontanesi.
Key factors will determine how each WMX rider enters the full Saturday schedule, from Practice and Qualifying in the morning to Race 1 and Race 2 in the afternoon. Taking into account period of massive 9 months since final WMX Race at Trentino on November 1st, 2020, WMX competitors will have planned all important training and track time to be ready for Opening Round come July 25th.
Having covered Courtney Duncan’s Women Motocross World Championship debut appearance at Opening Round at Qatar in 2016, with subsequent attendances of WMX in 2017 and 2018, predictions on what to expect are below:
#151 Courtney Duncan- if one dominant fact that stands CD from rest of WMX line-up is her ability to be race ready and ahead of the game with no pre-season racing in Europe. How Courtney sets her own benchmark on where her speed should be at, how she measures her performance living, training, and riding based oh-so-far-away from Euro MX scene is rare character trait indeed. And, I have no idea how she does that.
#85 Nancy Van de Ven- stand out attribute Nancy possesses has to be her starts- they are pretty much always bang on. When Nancy gets the jump, makes the hole-shot and puts gap out front of field, the Dutch WMX runner-up in 2020 will nail valuable points. Pre-season racing has Nancy tied in Overall points in Italian Women MX Championship, having taken wins on the hard-pack Rounds earlier this year.
#8 Kiara Fontanesi- 6x WMX Championships remains historical record and is massive haul of Title wins. In no uncertain terms, Kiara is formidable opponent on the track, with stand-out ability to with stand pressure pre-during racing, no matter how much is at stake. Kiara’s strength of character has to be marveled at the possibility of a rider pulling out Overall WMX win at Final Round, in final race, with slimmest of points margin separating 2nd place, as occurred at Imola in 2018.
#423 Larissa Papenmeier- if consistency of results wins a WMX Championship, Larissa would have claimed victory couple of times over. Such strategic planning has won Lare a number of races, including holding the Red Plate for brief moment early in 2020 WMX season. Never a rider to give-in to pressure, nor doubt she has the speed, Lare enters WMX Opening Round with positive open mind.
Knocking on door for any of WMX riders to make mistake will be 2020 4th Overall Lynn Valk, along with fellow racer Shana Van der Vlist, and Danish pair Line Dam and Sara Andersen. 2020 French Women Motocross Champion Amandine Verstappen will most certainly be mixing positions up within the field and so to will Australia’s Tahlia O’Hare who will have added experience from her Team Honda 114 Motorsport owner, Livia Lancelot.
Back-to-back Rounds at Loket followed by MXGP of Flanders-Belgium at Lommel on August 1st will test all WMX riders, including such vast numbers of women riders eager to pit their skills against the best. Predictions: Courtney will be hard to beat. Nancy will have fire in belly to win and Kiara will have all experience needed to bank points for what is 5 Round Series. Not won in the Opening Round, but possibly lost.
Header Photo: Kiara Fontanesi Photo Credit: Alex Piatanida.
Words: Sharon Cox.
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