The most successful rider in the last ten years of the FIM Motocross World Championship believes a clean bill of health heading into the 2017 MXGP series could make the difference in the quest for a ninth world title. Red Bull KTM’s Tony Cairoli utterly dominated the first round of the Italian Championship at Riola Sardo in Sardinia last weekend and is now looking beyond a painful and frustrating 2016 racing season that the 31 year old claimed as one of the worst of his career.

Cairoli may have ended 2016 as MXGP runner-up after eight podium finishes and three Grand Prix wins but he rarely matched the intensity and pace of champion Tim Gajser or 2015 incumbent Romain Febvre mainly due to a pre-season crash that left him with two broken ribs and nerve damage around his left arm, shoulder and neck. ‘I’m healthy now,’ he said exclusively. ‘I had a bad crash last year and it took much longer to get over it than I thought. I’m still not 100% but much more improved than 2016 when I wasn’t feeling well all season and you could see it in my riding style. I didn’t have a good physical balance.’

Cairoli’s work in tandem with teammate for the second year in a row, Glenn Coldenhoff, has been focussed on the handling of the works 450SX-F. ‘Mainly suspension and a bit on the chassis, not really the engine because we all know it is good and I really like it,’ the MXGP champ from 2009 to 2014 offered. ‘I’ve been working on feeling more comfortable on the bike and getting ride of some of the problems we had last year.’

With Cairoli carrying almost ten years of age over Gajser and third MXGP teammate Jeffrey Herlings there is a legitimate question over whether his experience and guile to forge a championship campaign will still be enough for the young guard. #222 is quietly confident about his possibilities. ‘If I feel strong then for sure I can be at the front…the problem was that last year I could not train, prepare and be physically strong as I wanted to be,’ the Sicilian explains. ‘I wasn’t comfortable on the bike but everything is working well now in that way.’

Certainly one new factor for Tony to deal with come Qatar will be the new metal floor mesh behind the start gate. A modification for 2017 that is being universally accepted as a ‘leveller’ for the MXGP and MX2 packs. ‘It has been quite easy [to adjust],’ Cairoli says ‘and it means everyone can make a good start. I don’t think it will be so good for those with technique for building a good gate or with a lot of experience; that won’t mean so much now.’

Cairoli is already advanced of his disastrous 2016 season and that unfortunate January accident in Sardinia. He can go on to claim yet another Italian title if he shines next weekend at Malagrotta and then wraps up proceedings a week later at Ottobiano, south of Milan.

Photo by Ray Archer