Stefan Everts and Antonio Cairoli "Float" in the Sea of Mud in Gaildorf

Bad weather continues to rage over the FIM Motocross World Championship Series. After the wet GPs of Nimes and Loket, last weekend's GP of Germany was plagued by even more mud and rain. After torrential over night rain, the grassy hillside track of Gaildor was transformed in a marsh. Riders were left to compete in horrible conditions, following the one clean trajectory who escaped the first-turn crash.

Many riders fell victim to the slippery, muddy terrain. During Saturday's MX1 free-practice, veteran and Suzuki factory rider Joel Smets crashed and dislocated his left knee. Joel had expressed a desire to race in 2006 before deciding to retire, but it's likely that after this umpteenth accident he'll be leaning more towards retirement. Yamaha factory rider Cedric Melotte also crashed during the first MX2 qualifier; the Belgian rider broke his right radius.

During the Saturday press conference, KTM Team Manager Toby Gustafson confirmed that Factory KTM signed a two-year deal with Frenchman Sebastien Tortelli to race the MX1 class in 2006 with the option to return to the states in 2007.

Gustafson said: "We had been tracking Sebastien for some time and the fact that we have bought a former World Champion back to the Grand Prix from the US is wonderful news for our fans and supporters; it also shows how badly we want to win in MX1. It is true that he has had some bad luck with injuries over the last few seasons, but these have been mostly induced by Supercross and his ability and speed are beyond doubt. We lost Ben Townley to America this year but this news goes some way to softening his departure for both KTM and all fans of GP racing."

MX1 Class

Eight-time world champion and series leader Stefan Everts showed his great talent for traversing slippery and muddy terrain; he won both motos and took his 85th GP win of his career at the GP of Germany. The Yamaha/Rinaldi rider led moto 1 from start to finish. In moto 2 Stefan took the lead during the first lap and rode flawlessly for nearly the entire race. Only at the end did he make a small mistake, but it did not jeapordize his final victory. Factory KTM rider Steve Ramon landed second overall with a 2-5 finish followed by New Zealander Joshua Coppins (5-3). The Honda/Cas rider was penalized by a wrong tire choice and two minor crashes in the first moto.

Moto 1

Joshua Coppins got the holeshot, but a corner later the Honda rider got stuck in a deep rut and lost his lead. The French Luigi Seguy took the lead followed by Everts, Ramon, Townley, Strijbos and Coppins.

Mickael Pichon got an unfortunate start. When the gate dropped, the Frenchman's Honda stalled. Mickael re-started his bike in time to finish last, pushing to the utmost in a sea of mud. He rode to a wild recovery, however, and was up to eleventh by the end of the first lap. He continued picking off riders throughout the moto to finish fourth.

Meanwhile Everts and Ramon overtook Seguy, and third place rider Ben Townley crashed. But the KTM rider didn't give up. In fact, he pushed even harder (he was one of the few riders tackling a double on the slippery track). Everts won, second went to Ramon, Townley recovered for third and fourth went to Pichon after an unbelievable recovery.

Moto 2

Coppins got another great start in moto 2, but was forced aside by Stefan Everts who took command of the lead, followed by Tanel Leok, Townley, Ramon and Pichon. Ben Townley crashed again, Pichon began to push to overtake Coppins and Leok to position him in second and closing on Everts.

With three laps to go, in a muddy, off-camber turn, Everts made a small mistake, sliding out and blocking Pichon's line with his YZ450FM. Pichon fells in the same turn, and while Everts re-started his Yamaha (still in the lead), Leok and Coppins overtook Pichon who was left with his Honda stuck in the mud.

Everts won the moto and stamped his authority on the GP, second went to Kawasaki's Tanel Leok and third was Coppins. Pichon wound up fourth overall, very frustrated by his error.

Stefan Everts: "It has happened before that I had a long dry spell of not winning GPs so that's okay, but I'm very happy with this victory. I was very close in South Africa. It cost a lot of effort but I kept on fighting to win every GP and that's why I'm very happy with this victory. I was a little bit worried in moto 2 when I got stuck in the ruts and crashed but everything worked out in the end. It was also good to gain some points over Coppins and I hope to continue in the same way for the rest of the season."

Steve Ramon: "The whole weekend was good for me. I had the holeshot but went a little too far to the outside and Seguy and Everts passed me. My riding was going well and I could try some different lines behind Stefan. We came up to a lapped rider and at that moment I was faster than [Everts] so I knew it was the time to attack. I came in on a different line and could not get the bike out of the rut. From then the gap was too big. In moto 2 my start was [good] again, but I didn't feel so comfortable on the bike and my riding wasn't smooth. I really had to fight to stay with the leaders but overall I'm really happy with second today."

Josh Coppins: "I was happy with my speed and the bike in practice. I made two good starts today but that first moto was very tough. I got stuck in the mud twice and also had two small crashes but still took fifth. We made a bad choice with the rear tire and thankfully my riding was much better in the second moto. I was more relaxed and I needed to be less stiff because the track was so tough. I used a lot of energy in the first moto fighting the bike in the mud."

MX2 Class

Yamaha/De Carli rider, Antonio Cairoli claimed a successive MX2 victory and a nineteen-point advantage in the standings thanks to a double moto victory. The young Italian looked at ease throughout the GP; his speed and control on any terrain—hard pack, sand or mud—is truly impressive. Leading both motos from the first to the last lap, Antonio was the strongest rider in the MX2 class. Minor crashes in both motos penalized the factory KTM rider Carl Nunn, but thanks to a 3-4 result, the Brit took second overall.

The surprise of the Germany GP was Italian rider Manuel Monni. He took his first overal podium with a 4-7 finish, and more impressively, it was on a KTM 125. This marks the first podium for the two-stroke since the 2004 South African GP.

Andrew McFarlane lost his grip on the the series leadership. The Yamaha/Ricci rider had a good first moto and secured second place, but lost valuable points in the second moto when he crashed and ended the race thirteenth. Cairoli now leads the series at 501 points with McFarlane 19 points adrift. Alessio Chiodi is still third in the standings with 427 points.

MX2 Moto 1

Cairoli holeshot followed by Yamaha's Davide Guarnieri and Kawasaki's Christophe Pourcel, but in one corner (the same one where Everts and Pichon crashed) McFarlane collided with Pourcel. The Kawasaki rider was pitched into the mud with his bike and re-started in last place.

After some laps Cairoli continued to maintain the lead while Guarnieri slid back to fifth place. McFarlane moved into second followed by Carl Nunn, and Monni continued to defend his fourth place position from the attacks of the powerful four-strokes. Cairoli crossed the finishing line first followed by McFarlane, Nunn and Monni.

MX2 Moto 2

This time it was the KTM of Carl Nunn with the holeshot followed by Cairoli, Chiodi, Bonini and Maschio. In the third corner after the start, Nunn entered a channel full of mud, Cairoli capitalized on this and overtook Nunn for the lead. Andrew McFarlane got a bad start and the Australian finished the first lap in eleventh. Nunn sought to remedy his mistake, quickly getting around Chiodi. But immediately after that, Nunn crashed and fell back to sixth place. Things continued to go badly for McFalane and a crash left him even further back in fifteenth place.

In the end, Cairoli took another victory and a good second place went to the veteran and three-time World Champion Alessio Chiodi. Third went to the Frenchman Mickael Maschio.

Antonio Cairoli: "In the winter I rode a lot in tough, muddy conditions in Belgium and that helped me a great deal. Even during practice you're competing against some of the fastest riders in the world and the tracks are rough just like they are in the World Championship. Of course, riding was hard on a track like this, but it's actually okay when you can go out in front and your vision isn't ruined by riders in font of you. I'm really in good shape now and I'm looking forward to the last couple of races of the season."

Carl Nunn: "Every time I woke up during the night all I could hear was rain and it continued through the morning. Marc De Reuver didn't go out for warm-up but I wanted to try the track because during the heat race yesterday it was not wet. I got to grips quickly with the mud and I was quickest and this gave me some good confidence going into the race. I crashed in both motos through stupid mistakes but it was so easy to make those mistakes out there. The conditions were really difficult because in some parts of the track there was lots of grip and in other parts there was none. The first few laps were about staying on, then you had to build you speed and improve your lap-times."