Who is on your Mt Rushmore of motocross legends? When you think of the top four motocross riders in the world, do you think of Antonio Cairoli? Ricky Carmichael quickly comes to mind. So does Stefan Everts. Jeremy McGrath will always be the most dominant supercross rider of all time. I’m here to argue that Antonio Cairoli’s name belongs alongside that illustrious trio and in front of names like James Stewart, Ryan Dungey, Ryan Villopoto and Roger DeCoster.
To research this story I Googled “The top 10 Motocross Racers of all Time” and out of a number of lists from both Europe and the US, Cairoli only appeared in a couple of them and his highest ranking was in sixth place. As you would imagine, that was a European-based article — the US have slotted him in somewhere between Ronnie Mac and Brandon from “Brandon’s first race”.
STATS DON’T LIE
In a time when you can produce any statistic to support any argument you care to debate, the facts around Cairoli’s career simply can’t be ignored. His world championship career started in 2004 and now, at 36 years of age, he remains just
