The big four of World motocross are clearly Antonio Cairoli, Jeffrey Herlings, Tim Gajser and Jorge Prado. All four in the all-time winners list, among names like Roger De Coster, Eric Geboers, Georges Jobe, Joel Smets, Joel Robert, Torsten Hallman and Harry Everts.
While we run their statistics often here, and love looking through different things these guys have achieved in their careers, today we thought we would try something different about these four brilliant athletes.
Since 2015 when current MXGP champion Tim Gajser won his first ever Grand Prix, we look at these four and what they have done in that six-year period. Obviously Jorge Prado didn’t win his first GP until 2016, but like Jeffrey Herlings before him, he is shooting up the GP winners list by dominating the MX2 class over a two year period and then coming to MXGP and quickly winning three GPs in that class.
While Antonio Cairoli leads the current Grand Prix riders with an astonishing 92 Grand Prix victories, in the last six years, its been much slimmer picking for the Italian legend than his young competition. Just 20 GP wins in six years for the nine-time World champion as names like Jeffrey Herlings and Tim Gajser score many of the MXGP victories.
Of course, Cairoli has struggled with injuries in recent years, missing a lot of 2015 and 2019, but still surprising he has just 20 GP wins from six years. His best year in that period was of course 2017 when he won six GPs.
Despite only winning six GPs from the last two years, Jeffrey Herlings is still miles ahead of anyone else for GP wins over the last six years, and of course that MXGP championship winning year in 2018 he scored 17 GP wins, nearly the total of Cairoli GP wins over six year period. In his final MX2 championship winning year in 2016 Herlings scored 14 GP wins. The fact Herlings has 47 GP wins from the last six years is even more stunning when you consider how he missed most of 2019 and more than half of 2020.
Tim Gajser who scored his first ever GP win in the season of 2015 at the Trentino circuit has 29 GP wins from the last six years, and his best season for GP wins was last year with nine GP wins out of 20.
Jorge Prado with his 34 GP wins is the guy who will probably move quickly, even in this tough MXGP class. Unless Jeffrey Herlings can come back from his foot operation and dominate again, then you have to imagine the Spaniard will win a lot of GPs over the next five years. An interesting point is that Prado won his 34th GP in his 73rd GP appearance, while Herlings in his 73rd GP had 45 GP wins.
An interesting point, and something to look forward to in 2021. Gajser, Herlings and Prado all won their last GP of the season. Gajser obviously the last round this year with 2-1 results, Prado his final GP (in Lommel) before he picked up the coronavirus with 2-1 and Herlings the GP prior to getting injured in Faenza with a 1-1 score.
One point that is important for all four of these guys, they have ridden for the same team for the most of their career. Prado of course moved from the Dutch side of KTM to the De Carli side, Cairoli did go from Yamaha to KTM with the De Carli team, but hasn’t changed teams since his very first Grand Prix and Gajser started in a KTM team but moved to HRC in 2014 and has been there ever since.
When you look at many of their competition, riders like Gautier Paulin, Clement Desalle, Pauls Jonass, Jeremy Seewer or many others, they have all changed teams throughout their careers and it seems like they need to spend a season getting to know the different bike and team, similar to having to rebuild after an injury. Let’s hope Seewer has found his home at Yamaha, because he seems the most likely to give the big four a hard time in the coming years.
Wins Per GPs raced
Cairoli 92 GP wins from 260 GPs raced
Herlings 90 GP wins from 146 GPs raced
Prado 34 GP wins from 73 GPs raced
Gajser 29 GP wins from 137 GPs raced