King of the Castle - Cairoli

You know, maybe we will never really work out just how good Antonio Cairoli is, because every time we think we have seen the best of the Italian, he shows us something else. After picking up his 91^st Grand Prix victory last weekend, and taking hold of that MXGP red plate, the Sicilian once again proved how close he is to being the greatest Grand Prix rider of all time.

It isn't surprising that he continued to remind us of his greatness as it was back at the Valkenswaard circuit in Holland in 2004 that he made us all take notice, sit up and wonder who this kid was, in his rookie season, when he burst out of the gate at the eurocircuit and battled the best in the World.

Statistically wise he still has some work to do, and I won’t be putting the KTM rider ahead of Stefan Everts until he passes the Belgian greats stats. We have forgotten far more about how good Everts was and the records he holds in the sport, to hand Antonio the number one of all-time tag for now would be wrong, but damn, there isn’t much in it between these two.

Cairoli, who in his first full season in the Grand Prix’s finished with a podium and battled the 2004 MX2 World champion Ben Townley. He won his first  of 91 Grand Prix’s and not surprisingly, the riders he raced on that day are now all retired, yes, every single rider from the 2004 Grand Prix of Wallonie, set at the famous Namur circuit put their boots away and many of them years ago.

It is a similar story from his first World championship year in 2005, of the top 30 riders from 2005, only Cairoli survives, with 31^st placed Shaun Simpson and 40^th places Tommy Searle still racing. Of course, many great champions ride through different era’s, and as their success continues, their rivals fall to the wayside. A good example of that is Clement Desalle and Gautier Paulin, two of Cairoli’s biggest rivals in his career and both now languishing in 9^th and 10^th place in the MXGP points standings and being trampled by the youth of today. Between Cairoli and his former rivals are a group of young men all looking to make their own piece of history as “old man” Cairoli calmly walks to the top step of the 2020 championship, acting like this is a sport that is kind to the elderly, it isn't, but in Cairoli's case, it sure has been kind to him.

Let us not forget after two rounds of this year’s championship it looked like just two men would rule the ever powerful MXGP class, four-time World champion Jeffrey Herlings and three-time World champion Tim Gajser. The level was higher than ever and carrying injuries it looked all but over for the Sicilian. 

While Cairoli picked up a GP victory in Latvia a month ago, he was pretty much handed it to by Herlings late race mistake, but still, NOT making mistakes is what wins championships and Cairoli as I have so often said is the smartest Grand Prix rider I have ever seen, and once again, he playing the smart game to possibly another championship.

Now, at the grand old age of 35, nearly twice as old as MX2 red plate owner Tom Vialle, the Sicilian rules the World, at a time when the MXGP class is levels above anything else, and the European based riders are dominating like they did in the 1970s, we are led by one of the all-time greats, and as I mentioned at the very beginning of this article, we might not have even seen his greatest moment.

For the real story, just take a look at the statistics for Antonio Cairoli. He has averaged around 40 points a GP in 250 Grand Prix appearances, that is just staggering. His GP win percentage is around 35% through both his MXGP and MX2 races.

His worst season performances are 10^th in 2019 when he went out injured and for each championship since he raced his first GP in 2004, he has gone 3-1-2-1-6-1-1-1-1-1-1-7-2-1-2-10-1. Of course, also in 2008 when he finished 6^th, he went out of the series injured, and same story with his seventh place in 2015. Outside of being injured, he hasn’t finished outside the top three, or since 2005, his championship winning season outside the top two.

King Cairoli - GP Statistics

MXGP

GP wins 67 (37.0%)

Race wins 178 (33.9%)

Podiums 127 (70.2%)

Points 7,255pts

Average points per GP 40pts

Total Grand Prix 181

GPs Years 2007 - 2020

MX2

GP wins 24 (34.8%)

Race wins 91 (44.6%)

Podiums 42 (60.9%)

Points 2,588pts

Average points per GP38pts

Total Grand Prix 69 GPs