Grab yourself another cup and sip into this week’s Monday Morning Coffee where we talk about what happened in Motocross and usually more.

By Billy Rainford

This cup of Monday Morning Coffee is coming from Cold Lake, Alberta. I keep wanting to say we’re in the upper northeast corner of the province, but I just opened Google Maps only to find out we aren’t even halfway up the province! It has the slight feel that we’re up in the tundra. We are, however, basically on the eastern border of the province that touches Saskatchewan. The nearest town in SK that you’ve heard of that I’ll drive through is North Battleford, and that’s 3 hours away! We’re up here.

It was Round 2 of the 2025 Canadian Triple Crown Series MX Nationals at Cold Lake MX. The track sits just around 3 kilometres outside the town centre, so that part was really nice. Unfortunately, the nearest major airport is Edmonton, and that’s 3 hours and 15 minutes away.

I just panned out on Google Maps and see that we are actually north of Moosonee, Ontario, at the bottom of James Bay and almost at the same latitude as Hudson Bay. No wonder there’s still light in the sky at 11pm!.

So, what happened at Round 2? Let’s have a quick look.

FXR Premix West:

#50 Crayden Dillon continued his dominance in this class. He raced the 450 Pro class in 2024, so it must have been a lot of fun to drop down and rip around on a little 2-stroke. We don’t really seem too sure who this class is aimed at anymore, but it’s fun to watch and listen to.

#226 Jonathan Bergeron is a couple years younger than Crayden and is a rider on the rise. He was the next-fastest rider, but just couldn’t seem to close in on Crayden who was able to look over his shoulder and keep him in check.

#591 is 32-year-old Rylan Pozdnekoff. Is he who this class is aimed at? Retired former Pro racers looking to come out and have some fun on National Day? He had to get around a couple youngsters to land on the box.

Behind them, there were a bunch of young, fast, Supermini riders keeping them all honest. Is this who this class is aimed at? I’m not really knocking the class, I love watching it, but I’m just not sure what the goal is anymore.

WMX West:

#4 Katrine Ferguson has laid claim to the empty throne left at the top of Canadian WMX racing now that Eve Brodeur has finally stepped down. I love that Kitty sits underneath a jersey from Eve when she gets ready for a moto.

It didn’t seem to matter if she got the holeshot or not, she was moving to the front of the pack. Other riders are close, but she looks to have one gear more than the rest right now.

#3 Kaylie Kayer isn’t happy with 2nd place. She knew she was one of the few riders who could take over, but her dislocated hip just over 6 weeks ago has set her training back from where it would have been. Let’s see what this break will do for her speed and fitness.

#17 Destiny Slingerland also showed us that she has the speed to be in this conversation too. The Alberta rider didn’t get the starts she needed to try and run with Ferguson, but she got it done over the 3 rounds and took 3rd spot.

250 Pro AM:

This class is a two-man show. Preston Kilroy and Ryder McNabb are the ones to watch in this one. Both of them think they are the top dogs and that makes for some great racing. As a racer, you normally know deep down who is faster than you, but I think we’ve actually got a case where this is either rider’s title to win or lose. Whoever makes the fewest mistakes is going to take this one.

They has split overalls but it’s Preston who has the 6-point lead heading into this break.

Behind them, I think #54 Dylan Walsh has shown us he’s the guy. He’s still getting back to speed after hurting himself at the Salt Lake City Supercross, so this 3rd place is going to turn into some closer battles for wins as we move east after this break.

McNabb and Kilroy were 40 seconds ahead of Dylan Rempel in moto 1 and 25 ahead of Walsh in moto 2, so you can see everyone else has some work to do.

450:

Same story in the 450 class. This is definitely the Jess Pettis and Dylan Wright Show. Both riders had practice crashes heading into Cold Lake, but Dylan got the worst of it.

Jess is just so good off the line that he sets himself up to pull away while Dylan always seems to have his work cut out for him. In our interview, Dylan was pretty confident that he was going to challenge Jess for that 2nd moto win until he suffered a mechanical that would take him out.

Check this out, Jess had a 50 second lead over Dylan in moto 1 and then he was 1:16 ahead of #29 Phil Nicoletti at the end of moto 2. While it’s fun to watch Pettis and Wright duke it out at the front, it would be nice if we had someone else in this mix. Right now, Phil is the 3rd fastest rider, but #84 Tanner Ward showed he can be in this conversation.

And now #14 Quinn Amyotte seems to have established himself as the next one to keep an eye on. He looks very comfortable on the big 450, even if he wasn’t thrilled with having to clean the 150-foot jump every lap this week.

Next up, we head back to Ste Julie on June 29th for the first time since 2012. This break will do some of our injured riders a chance to heal and come back closer to 100%.

Speaking of which, I’ll be sure to keep an eye on how #28 Sam Gaynor is doing with that bad wrist of his. Unfortunately, he fell and landed on it and he’s worried he’s done damage. He’s got an appointment with his specialist, so he’ll get some answers when he returns to Ontario. Good luck, Sam.

#25 Evan Stice got picked up by the Compass Rose International Motorsports Triumph team to fill-in for the injured #17 Julien Benek. The rider from Idaho really showed his speed at Round 1 in Calgary, but the struggled to get him comfortable on his first ride in Cold Lake.

He’ll continue east with the team, so let’s see how comfortable they can get him in a couple weeks.

You can watch our Race tech Walk and Talk from Cold Lake where we talk with Dylan Wright, Jared Allison, Bryton Allison, Cole Pranger, Sam Gaynor, Bobby Gravel, Dylan Walsh, Destiny Slingerland, Jess Pettis, Lars Van Berkel. Quinn Amyotte, Teren Gerber, Tanner Ward, and Preston Kilroy:

And then, after all that was done, I strapped on the bike shoes and headed out to try and clean the Cold Lake track on my Scott Spark MTB. If you think I’m brimming with energy at the end of these race days, you’re wrong! Lol:

Thunder Valley AMA Pro Motocross Championship

250 Class

Overall Results

	Rider	Hometown	Motos
1	Chance Hymas	Pocatello, ID	1 – 1
2	Haiden Deegan	Temecula, CA	2 – 2
3	Levi Kitchen	Washougal, WA	8 – 3
4	Tom Vialle	Avignon, France	6 – 5
5	Jo Shimoda	Suzuka City, Japan	9 – 4
6	Casey Cochran	Portsmouth, VA	13 – 6
7	Dilan Schwartz	Alpine, CA	10 – 9
8	Mikkel Haarup	Silkeborg, Denmark	7 – 12
9	Ty Masterpool	Fallon, NV	4 – 15
10	Maximus Vohland	Sacramento, CA	12 – 8
11	Jordon Smith	Belmont, NC	14 – 10
12	Garrett Marchbanks	Coalville, UT	3 – 28
13	Drew Adams	Chattanooga, TN	5 – 34
14	Ryder DiFrancesco	Bakersfield, CA	15 – 13
15	Michael Mosiman	Sebastopol, CA	38 – 7
16	Kayden Minear	WA	18 – 11
17	Julien Beaumer	Lake Havasu City, AZ	16 – 14
18	Austin Forkner	Richards, MO	11 – 19
19	Nate Thrasher	Livingston, TN	19 – 17
20	Lance Kobusch	New Florence, MO	21 – 16
21	Lux Turner	Gardnerville, NV	17 – 39
22	Cole Timboe		27 – 18
23	Gavin Towers	Venetia, PA	23 – 20
24	Avery Long	New London, MN	20 – 38
25	CJ Benard	Peoria, AZ	28 – 21
26	Alexander Fedortsov	Hallandale, FL	24 – 22
27	Ryder Floyd	Paris, TX	29 – 24
28	Brock Bennett		22 – 33
29	Dalton Venter	Meyersdale	33 – 23
30	Jace Allred	Riverton, UT	32 – 25
31	Wyatt Mattson	El Dorado Hills, CA	30 – 27
32	Hayes Edwards	Montgomery texas	36 – 26
33	Stav Orland	Kampala, Israel	31 – 31
34	Crockett Myers		26 – 36
35	Jack Chambers		25 – 40
36	Hamden Hudson	Danville, VA	37 – 29
37	Bronson McClure	Arvada, CO	35 – 35
38	Kyle Wise	Modesto, CA	39 – 32
39	Parker Ross	Herald, CA	40 – 37
40	Kai Aiello	Temecula, CA	DNS – 30
41	Hunter Yoder	Menifee, CA	34 – DNS

250 Class Points Standings

	Rider	Hometown	Points
1	Haiden Deegan	Temecula, CA	144
2	Jo Shimoda	Suzuka City, Japan	119
3	Chance Hymas	Pocatello, ID	95
4	Levi Kitchen	Washougal, WA	86
5	Tom Vialle	Avignon, France	85
6	Garrett Marchbanks	Coalville, UT	85
7	Julien Beaumer	Lake Havasu City, AZ	81
8	Ty Masterpool	Fallon, NV	71
9	Maximus Vohland	Sacramento, CA	65
10	Casey Cochran	Portsmouth, VA	64
11	Mikkel Haarup	Silkeborg, Denmark	63
12	Michael Mosiman	Sebastopol, CA	62
13	Drew Adams	Chattanooga, TN	56
14	Jordon Smith	Belmont, NC	56
15	Dilan Schwartz	Alpine, CA	56
16	Seth Hammaker	Bainbridge, PA	45
17	Ryder DiFrancesco	Bakersfield, CA	43
18	Parker Ross	Herald, CA	34
19	Austin Forkner	Richards, MO	29
20	Kayden Minear	WA	15

450 Class

Overall Results

	Rider	Hometown	Motos
1	Jett Lawrence	Landsborough, Australia	1 – 1
2	Eli Tomac	Cortez, CO	3 – 2
3	Aaron Plessinger	Hamilton, OH	2 – 5
4	Justin Cooper	Cold Spring Harbor, NY	5 – 3
5	Hunter Lawrence	Landsborough, Australia	4 – 4
6	Cooper Webb	Newport, NC	7 – 6
7	R.J. Hampshire	Hudson, FL	6 – 7
8	Malcolm Stewart	Haines City, FL	10 – 10
9	Valentin Guillod	Switzerland	14 – 8
10	Joey Savatgy	Thomasville, GA	9 – 16
11	Benny Bloss	Oak Grove, MO	13 – 13	Beta
12	Harri Kullas	Estonia	15 – 12
13	Jorge Prado	Lugo, Galicia, Spain	8 – 39
14	Colt Nichols	Muskogee, OK	38 – 9
15	Coty Schock	Dover, DE	11 – 20
16	Mitchell Harrison	Lansing, MI	18 – 14
17	Derek Drake	San Luis Obispo, CA	36 – 11
18	Romain Pape	France	16 – 17
19	Jason Anderson	Edgewood, NM	12 – 40
20	Derek Kelley	Riverside, CA	21 – 15
21	John Short	Pilot Point, TX	20 – 19
22	Scotty Verhaeghe	Paris, France	17 – 22
23	Bryce Shelly	Telford, PA	40 – 18
24	Tyler Stepek	Mount Airy, MD	19 – 21
25	Bryson Gardner	Paso Robles, CA	25 – 23	Beta
26	Joshua Boaz	Eagan, MN	24 – 25
27	Cameron Durow	South Africa	27 – 26
28	Logan Leitzel	Dillsburg, PA	28 – 27
29	James Harrington	Plymouth, MA	26 – 30
30	Brandon Ray	Fremont, CA	23 – 35
31	Benoit Paturel	France	22 – 36
32	Hunter Schlosser	El Paso, TX	31 – 28
33	Brad Todd	Wigton, United Kingdom	29 – 31
34	Conner Lords	Pocatello, ID	32 – 29
35	Max Miller	Springfield, OR	39 – 24
36	Damon Strobel	Elizabeth, CO	35 – 33
37	Dean Gall	Brookfield, MO	34 – 34
38	Fredrik Noren	Lidköping, Sweden	30 – 38
39	Whispern Smith	Midwest City, OK	33 – 37
40	Eddie Norred	Rockford, IL	DNS – 32
41	Matti Jorgensen	Denmark	37 – DNS

450 Class Points Standings

	Rider	Hometown	Points
1	Jett Lawrence	Landsborough, Australia	145
2	Eli Tomac	Cortez, CO	120
3	Aaron Plessinger	Hamilton, OH	118
4	Justin Cooper	Cold Spring Harbor, NY	113
5	Hunter Lawrence	Landsborough, Australia	109
6	R.J. Hampshire	Hudson, FL	87
7	Cooper Webb	Newport, NC	76
8	Jorge Prado	Lugo, Galicia, Spain	72
9	Jason Anderson	Edgewood, NM	69
10	Joey Savatgy	Thomasville, GA	68
11	Malcolm Stewart	Haines City, FL	60
12	Valentin Guillod	Switzerland	52
13	Benoit Paturel	France	41
14	Coty Schock	Dover, DE	41
15	Colt Nichols	Muskogee, OK	34
16	Grant Harlan	Justin, TX	27
17	Harri Kullas	Estonia	27
18	Derek Kelley	Riverside, CA	26
19	Derek Drake	San Luis Obispo, CA	24
20	Benny Bloss	Oak Grove, MO	18

MXGP of Latvia

OK, I’ve really got to start putting some miles in and head towards Ontario. I’ll stop along the way and keep posting things from the weekend, including the Highlights/Recap video from Cold Lake.

Have a great week, everyone. I’ll be heading over to Gore Road MX to check out Preston Masciangelo‘s riding school on the Jeff McConkey YZ250, I hope, if I make it home in time.