Red Bull KTM’s Marvin Musquin was quick to downplay his flowering chances of starting the 2018 AMA Supercross season at the Angel Stadium in Anaheim on January 6th as one of the favourites for the crown left by former teammate Ryan Dungey.
The 27 year old Frenchman has comfortably won the Monster Energy Cup, the Red Bull Straight Rhythm and the Paris Supercross (with an appearance at the Geneva Supercross to come) and has combined consistent speed, imperious technique and excellent starts to defeat a number of rivals, including Eli Tomac, Jason Anderson and Dean Wilson.
“If you win people can start to think you’ll be the champion…but a guy like Dungey never did any off-season races,” smiles Musquin who also picked up a million dollar cheque for his shut-out in Las Vegas for the Monster Cup.
#25 did admit that his victory in Paris and the U Arena – his second ‘King of Paris’ success in a row – was a useful exercise ahead of A1 and was worthwhile for the minor disruption of his bootcamp period of training with Aldon Baker (the South African was present in Paris). “The Monster Cup is unique and so is Straight Rhythm: it is not Anaheim. Today [Paris] was a really good track and a good comparison.”
“It is so easy to say things!” he said of the hype. “The goal is to be the best. This is now my third year in the big bike class. We’ll try to be better.”
Earlier this year Musquin walked the 450SX podium ten times, took two wins and finished third in the championship standings. Along with Tomac and Anderson he is expected to be a title contender through the seventeen rounds between January and May.
Photos by Taku Nagami/Monster Energy
