After months of anticipation and waiting, Team Manager Kourtney Lloyd has finally announced who will be riding for Team Canada later this year at the 2018 MxoN in England. As we all know, Team Canada travelled to Italy last year under the guidance of Ms. Lloyd and they enjoyed one of their best results to date at this prestigious event. For 2018, Team Canada will consist of Shawn Maffenbeier, Tyler Medaglia and Colton Facciotti. All three are Canadian legends and will certainly be fast on British soil. Also announced yesterday were the two Youth Ambassadors that will travel to England with Team Canada to take in the entire experience of what it is like to compete overseas and in a massive International event like the MxoN’s. These two young riders are Jacob Piccolo and Jake Tricco, both of whom have been on a tear lately winning races and making this country proud. As they were last year, we’re sure Team Canada will have everything they need to ensure that this race goes as well as possible. Of course, there is still a lot of fund raising to do to get this awesome team to England. If you want to help you can go to www.flipgive.com and search for Team Canada MXON. Let’s now take a look at Team Canada’s three talented riders.
So far in 2017, Shawn Maffenbeier is having the best season of his career and this makes him a great pick for Team Canada. Photo by James Lissimore
Shawn Maffenbeier: MX2 Class
A few years ago, this pick might have been considered a risky one. However, just like last year, Maffenbeier is a great pick to ride in the MX2 class. Whether it’s experience or his improved results, Maffenbeier is currently riding better than he ever has. Case in point is that so far in 2017, he’s won 4 out of the 6 rounds of the Rockstar Energy Drink MX Nationals. Heading into Italy last year, Maffenbeier was a rookie at International competition and he was admittedly a little nervous. With a year under his belt, as well as his seamless infatuation with his YZ250F, Maffenbeier will be much better this time around and I cannot wait to watch him battle the world’s best MX2 riders. This summer, he has also worked on the weakest part of his race craft – his starts. I actually haven’t seen him get a bad start so far in the Canadian MX2 series, so that is very good news. Passing looks very difficult on the Matterley Basin track so a good start will be crucial for success. As we head into Round 7 of the CMRC Nationals, Maffenbeier is just two points out of the lead in the MX2 class. If he can pull off this championship, it will be sure to give Shawn even more confidence heading into this big race on October 1st in England.
Riding for the new Huber Racing team this summer, Tyler Medaglia is having another solid season and currently sits 5th in the MX1 points standings. Come this big race in October, you know Tyler will be ready to go and give it everything he has for Canada. Photo by James Lissimore
Tyler Medaglia: Open Class
You could most certainly come up with a few different nicknames for Tyler as he’s done so much in this sport and has been in many different situations. For this event, or any International event, I think you could just refer to Tyler as “Old Faithful.” Over the years he has proven that you can put him in almost any pressure-filled situation and he won’t let you down. Tyler can always be counted on for getting good starts, being hard to pass, and being one of the fittest riders on the track. Even if all of our top riders were healthy, leaving Tyler off Team Canada would’ve been a difficult decision for Kourtney. But with Kaven Benoit now out with an injury for who knows how long, picking Tyler was an instant no-brainer.
However, with all of the important attributes that Tyler will take with him to England, I believe the most important one is his ability to help his teammates rise to the occasion. His “Captain” like persona definitely resonates through the team, and this will most definitely help Maffenbeier, and in particular Colton Facciotti. Over the years, Tyler has proven to be a rider who lives for the moment. When it matters the most, no one performs better than he. This is exactly what Team Canada needs in October and I have to believe that Tyler will have an unforgettable performance on British soil.
With two moto wins in the past few weeks, Colton Facciotti appears to be peaking at the right time in the MX1 class. If he can carry this momentum to England this fall, Colton will be a favourite in the MXGP class. Photo by James Lissimore
Colton Facciotti: MXGP Class
On the outside, being a pro motocross racer looks like a very glamorous occupation. After all, they get to ride the best bikes, they’re pitted at the races in a massive truck and trailer, and they’re able to make money doing something that all of us love to do for free. However, being a pro motocross rider, or any pro athlete for that matter, is a complicated life at best. There aren’t too many jobs on this planet that rely so heavily on one’s self confidence. When you’re up and feeling good, racing at the top level of this sport is a wonderful thing, but when you don’t quite believe in yourself as much as you should, every part of it is hard. For the better part of his long and successful career we’ve seen both sides of this from Colton Facciotti. When he feels good about his riding and his equipment, he’s as good as anyone has ever been in Canada. In fact, if you took all of our top riders from the past thirty years, Pederson, JSR, Vaillancourt Hoover, Morgan, and Facciotti, and had them all race against each other on their best day, I would have a hard time betting against Facciotti. He is simply that good. But, we’ve also seen the other side of Colton. When he has a hard time regrouping after a tough start to a season, he soon begins to look ahead to the following year. Thankfully for Colton and his fans, he’s won four MX1 titles in the past ten years so he definitely has had more good days than bad.
This year, however, we’ve seen a different Colton Facciotti. We saw him struggle at times with his starts and generally speed against points leaders Matt Goerke and Christophe Pourcel during the opening three rounds of the CMRC Nationals. We also saw him get sick just before Round 4, which hurt his effort. By all accounts, he’s just now getting over all of that sickness. In the past few weeks, though, Colton has found a way to regroup, and we have witnessed a very fast and very confident Facciotti as he’s won two of the past four motos, as well as the overall win last weekend in Quebec. The long and short of it is, this is the perfect time to have Colton Facciotti back on Team Canada. As mentioned, he’s one of the world’s top riders, capable of riding on any type of surface and in any situation. I can totally see him having the type of race in England that Benoit had last year in Italy, maybe even better. If Colton can remain healthy and continue with his solid results for the rest of this summer, all the stars could be aligned for him to have a career race in England.
With so many great riders to choose from, picking this team couldn’t have been an easy task for Kourtney Lloyd and her crew. Throw in the fact that a couple of our top riders are injured and who knows if they’ll be 100% by late September? And of course, there is always going to be the armchair quarterbacks who think this team should look differently. However, I believe that Kourtney picked the best team with the riders she had to choose from. Two of the riders could be our National Champions when the Rockstar Energy Drink MX Nationals wrap up in August, and the other is just a complete Canadian beast, strong enough and determined enough to put the entire team on his back if he has to. This team is primed and ready to go to England in October to show everyone, once again, that we have some of the best riders on the planet. Great job Kourtney and go Team Canada!
