The art of the Friday Afternoon News Dump isn't a new trend, but there's one hell of a Wednesday news dump in the Motocross realm. Honda HRC's Chance Hymas is now confirmed to be undergoing knee surgery after missing the SMX Texas round, and his MXoN replacement was latterally named: Cooper Webb. Quite the bombshell on several fronts, but the former 250 Motocross Champion, who's never taken a single gate drop in the event on anything other than a 450, is now set to join his former running mate Aaron Plessinger and the man who replaced him at Red Bull KTM, Chase Sexton, over in England in a matter of weeks.
Hymas' Recovery Timeline
While the Honda HRC press release does not explicitly indicate the nature of the current injury, it states that Hymas' knee surgery, on the same knee he tore his ACL in last summer, is set for next Tuesday, and the plan is that he'll be ready for the East Coast Supercross slate. Additionally, while the plan for the rest of this year was that he would still try to run at Matterly Basin even after pulling out of SMX, those plans got scuttled after talking with doctors.
“I have waited for the opportunity to represent my country at MXoN since I was a kid. I was proud and excited to wear the Red, White and Blue. I was doing everything in my power to be ready for MXoN, but I’ve been battling issues with my knee this entire season. The team and myself decided the stakes are too high to take chances at the MXoN, and I need to get my knee fixed for the future. My sole focus now is getting back to top form and being prepared to compete for championships in 2025. I want to say thank you to Cooper for stepping up and taking my place. I’ll be rooting for him and Team USA from back home. THANK YOU!” - Chance Hymas on Missing MXoN due to Knee Surgery
I wasn't super surprised by the Hymas news by itself because you could tell the second things settled in during Moto 1 at Charlotte that he wasn't anywhere close to 100%. While I don't doubt that he would've done his best on a bad knee, it's been a long 18 months for the kid health-wise, and he'll have his chances for Des Nations down the line, which I have no doubts about.
Expectations for Webb?
After a disappointing SMX round in Charlotte, you saw a much more agreeable and potent Webb, who scored a respectable 5-4 on the afternoon in Texas. While Ken Roczen's 9-12 at Ironman isn't a bad barometer to go off of as it relates to where Webb could end up among this 250 field, it's been a hot minute since he's run a true 250 Moto, and this group of 250 riders in Des Nations has some heavy hitters in it. Jumping out immediately are Tom Vialle for France, Simon Laengenfelder of Germany, Max Anstie of the UK, Andrea Adamo of Italy, Sacha Coenen of Belgium, and the heaviest hitter, soon to be MX2 World Champion Kay De Wolf of the Netherlands.
Quick side note: thoughts and well wishes to Liam Everts after undergoing sucsessful surgery on his C5 vertebrae after a horrifying endo crash at the MXGP round in Shanghai. He's currently slated to spend about another week in China before returning home to Belgium.
I wouldn't come in expecting him to be on the level with those MXGP names plus Vialle, but if Webb can end up being a top-five MX2 rider in terms of the final tally, that'd be gigantic. Last year, R.J. Hampshire gave Team USA their second and third-best race results as the MX2 rider (10-16 for sixth best among MX2 riders), but that wasn't good enough to keep up with contenders like France, Holland, and Australia. I'm obviously hoping for some big results, but Coop deserves a ton of props for doing this on such short notice, on a 250, and not super far removed from UCL surgery. Also, so much for Star Yamaha not being into sending guys over...(also, yeah...this is yet another brutal look for you know who).
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