Belgian Motocross of Nations team selected

The Belgian Motocross of Nations team was presented
at the Namur Grand Prix with Ken De Dycker (#9),
Steve Ramon (#11) and Kevin Strijbos (#2) the three
riders. With Joel Smets as team manager (replacing
Joel Robert) and De Dycker riding for his country
for the first time the team has a new look about it.
Joel Smets had a few words about the team and the
future of the Belgian team.

"Joel Robert told me that he will give up the job as
team manager when the last of this generation
retires (meaning Everts, Smets, Bervoets). Joel
Robert thought I would be the right man to replace
him. We found a good team in the financial side of
the story with the company 2CMX, Carlo and Chris.
We sometimes thought we might not have a budget
for the team in the past, but now it is more
professional."

"We have three real top riders, two have won a GP
this year. The only problem we had is we didn't have
a world class MX2 riders, but the choice was between
Kevin Strijbos and Steve Ramon. Kevin is pumped to
ride the MX2 bike and he is already practising on that.
Ken and Steve are motivated to race against Ricky,
James and all the other guys."

"We also take a reserve rider, that rider will be Stefan
Everts (laughing) I asked Stefan (laughing), but he
said no, but I wouldn't have been doing my job had I
not asked. I believe we have a chance for podium, it
is a one day event if Kevin rides the MX2 bike like he
rides the MX1 bike in Loket and Ken rides like he did
in Sweden (where he won the GP), and Steve rides
like he can at the MXoN, then we have a great
chance ot victory."

"We all know that Ricky (Carmichael) rides with a
spectactular style and we know that James (Stewart)
has made mistakes in the past and crashed, so
anything can happen on the day."