I'm running way behind on TV events. Just watched the first round yesterday, nearly a full week after I recorded it. Missed round 2 today, but plan to catch the re-air on Tuesday evening on Mav TV.
Sexton looked super strong, smooth and fast and making it look easy. Nice to see Roczen up front and hope he can keep it there. Tomac badly off the pace. They said knee injury, so that probably explains it.
I didn't expect Dungy to be that fast, very impressive. Is he planning to race all summer? The article I saw announcing his return said he planned to do two rounds, but maybe it really meant something like... two rounds if I'm slow but will stay longer if I'm fast?
Also, I read an interview with Tony Cairoli. His mindset is this is strictly a lark for a couple of rounds, not the full schedule. He hasn't been training or riding since he retired last fall. He's 36 years old and out of shape (by pro MX standards), so I thought his results looked pretty good. Also, I gather that he has never ridden this bike before. As I understand it, the AMA series requires OEM production frames to be used, but the MXGP circuit has no such limitation. In the GPs, the factory bikes tend to be hand built specials, as I understand it.
I wonder if they call him "Mr. Nine Time" or something like that. Last year, Cairoli was very racy on the world circuit. At age 35, he won some motos and he won a couple overall events, IIRC. He was in the thick of the points battle until he missed a couple races with injury. One would have to say that he had lost a step or two at age 35, but still very competitive and winning a few races at the top level. He's not very photogenic I guess in a TV interview, but a bona fide legend in world MX.