Red Bull Teka KTM’s Antonio Cairoli endured a difficult weekend at the 65th edition of the Motocross of Nations in France, a series of crashes in moto one derailing his prospects.

Cairoli finished second behind Team USA’s Ryan Dungey in Saturday’s MX1 qualifying race, however broken handlebars after a crash in moto one on Sunday ruled him out of contention.

After injuring his hand, the MX1 Motocross World Champion was also unable to finish the second race.

“Yesterday we were very happy with second in qualifying then today I had a good start in the first race but there was some soft mud in the first corner and I went down,” the Italian explained.

“I got back in the race and I was in 16th place and riding well and really pushing, maybe a bit too much and I crashed again and damaged the bike and hurt my hand.”

The Italian team eventually had to settle for an unexpected 16th overall in the MXoN event for 2011.