Max Anstie was undoubtedly the man of meeting at the Motocross of Nations with two sensational performances to win both motos and fend off a determined Jeffrey Herlings in race two despite a crash mid-moto!
Anstie was understandably excited and after his horrifying crash two years ago in France where he got landed on and suffered a broken neck and back, this was more than redemption as the effervescent and friendly Brit led his country to their first podium in 20 years and on this day at Matterley Basin, Max Anstie was the best rider in the world!
Max on…
Wining both motos
It was unbelievable. I felt like this last part of the season with my team every week we are pushing and pushing and getting stronger and I always had it in the back of my head with these last few GPs getting on the box, I thought, ‘right I’m going to be good for Matterley now.’
It was awesome, the first race was something special, the crowd were so loud, I had too much time to think, I was thinking, ‘I better stay up!’ In the second race I crashed but in the turn before I could hear the guys saying, ‘all eyes on Anstie can team GB could get a podium!’ I was like, ‘aw, ok!’ then I slid out and I was like, ‘ aw, no!’
So after that I forgot about all that and tried to race as fast as I could. The guys rode amazing, I have to give it up to Mark, this week’s been stressful, probably the most stressful week of all of our lives. But we made the best of it, we kept solid and it’s an amazing feeling to be on the podium.
On thinking about what happened at Ernee when he got landed on
No, last year in Maggiora, I was thinking more about what happened in 2015, obviously I got landed on and broke my back and my neck but luckily it wasn’t. Coming here this weekend I was just looking at it as another GP. I was coming here to race as hard as I could. I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet, the crowd were absolutely unreal, obviously my family and everyone is here, it was a big one. But I was in this zone were I was just riding and hitting my marks like I did down the road at my track.
The emotion and things like that, I don’t know yet! I guess it is maybe going to sink in tonight and maybe tomorrow, but seeing all those fans out there was unbelievable, it was a once in a lifetime thing you know? I probably won’t get to do the Nations again back in England if it’s not back for another ten or eleven years.