Belgium are back on top of the motocross world after ending a 13-year wait for Motocross of Nations glory with a memorable victory at Ernée, France. The young Belgian trio of Lucas Coenen, Sacha Coenen and Liam Everts produced the consistency needed to claim their nation’s 16th MXoN victory and draw level with Great Britain for second on the all-time winners list.
Images courtesy of Infront Moto Racing
From a British perspective, Team GB battled to a solid seventh overall, with Ben Watson producing two strong rides, including ninth in the final moto, while Taylor Hammal and Ben Mustoe gained valuable experience on their MXoN debuts. Watson’s final-race result helped secure seventh for the Brits to round out a positive weekend at Ernée.
Read the Full Official Infront Moto Racing Race Report below:
The wall of noise, the hillside full of eager Motocross fans, beautiful sunshine, and some of the most passionate racing ever seen, came together to make another memorable weekend for the sport, as the 79th Edition of the Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations saw a historic win for Team Belgium as one of the youngest combined squads ever to lift the Peter Chamberlain Trophy!
It’s been 13 long years since the last victory for one of the sport’s most accomplished nations, and they equal Great Britain in joint second place all-time with their 16th victory in this event! Red Bull KTM Factory Racing duo Lucas and Sacha Coenen finally got their first FIM Gold Medals at the end of a difficult season, as did Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Liam Everts, who joins both his father and grandfather in winning Nations events for Belgium, fifty years after Harry Everts’ first win for his country!
It was with sheer consistency that the Belgians clawed their way to the top, as the race wins went the way of Team France’s Romain Febvre, winning race one in his last day of racing for Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP, and of course the irrepressible Jeffrey Herlings, who took two brilliant race wins on his Honda HRC Petronas machine to claim the Open class victory, and help Team Netherlands onto the podium.
Team Spain made their own slice of Nations history with their first ever podium, helped by class wins for both Guillem Farres, in his last MX2 ride for Triumph Racing Factory Team, and Jorge Prado, who finished top in the MXGP class for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing. Francisco Garcia battled well for BUD Racing Kawasaki in the Open class to help Spain on the unfamiliar 450cc machine.
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Glenn Coldenhoff raced in the MX2 class at the Nations for the first time since 2014 on his GCR Racing Yamaha, and did enough for fourth in class to help the Dutch back onto the podium, giving “The Hoff” a fifty percent record with his seventh podium in 14 consecutive appearances! Roan van de Moosdijk actually has a perfect podium record for his country, as he was part of the runner-up Dutch squad in 2021 as well as the third spot today, finishing eighth in the individual MXGP standings on his Kosak KTM.
The home crowd were left disappointed, at least in terms of the overall result for Team France, as all three riders suffered big crashes, with two of those accidents leaving the riders unable to finish, completely destroying their chances of victory by the end of race two!
Despite those results, there can be no doubt that the atmosphere was kept to its maximum throughout the weekend as Ernée once again proved itself as the ideal venue for this incredible event, with a record crowd attendance of over 105,000 spectators over the three days!
Team Sweden firebrand Isak Gifting surprised everybody by firing into the lead for the Fox Holeshot Award at the start of race one, with the crowd roaring as Romain Febvre was right in his wheel-tracks! However, Jorge Prado was able to make a run around the outside of the home hero through turn three, and then got around Gifting at the top of the first uphill section. Febvre, quickest in the morning Warm-Up Group 1, followed the Spaniard past, but clipped the JK Racing Yamaha’s handlebars and unknowingly sent the Swede to the ground! He was hit by Team Brazil’s Fabio Santos, who had started well, but also hit the floor!
This left Lucas Coenen in third ahead of Team Estonia’s Jorgen-Mathias Talviku on the Fantic Factory Racing MXGP machine, while Mads Fredsoe of the two-man Team Denmark – missing the injured Mikkel Haarup who had withdrawn on Saturday morning – was just ahead of top MX2 rider Mathis Valin. The winner of the MX2 Qualifying Race got unnerved by Fredsoe as they launched down the biggest hill, and landed off-track, crashing badly enough to damage his Kawasaki Racing Team MX2 machine and end his race! It was the first big blow for Team France after a near flawless Saturday.
Guillem Farres took up the mantle of MX2 leader, pushing past Talviku into fourth on the first full lap, while Team Slovenia’s Jan Pancar was again well up the order in sixth for TEM JP253 Racing KTM. Fredsoe had dropped to seventh ahead of the second Triumph Racing Factory Team rider, Camden Mc Lellan of Team South Africa, while Levi Kitchen was the leading pilot for Team USA, in ninth on his Pro Circuit Kawasaki. Fantic Factory Racing MXGP’s Alberto Forato was initially tenth for Team Italy.
Fredsoe, normally an EMX250 rider but on a 450 here, quickly dropped behind Mc Lellan and Kitchen, then Forato on lap three. Fellow 450 rookie Julien Beaumer put his Red Bull KTM Factory Racing machine into the top ten, helping the USA to stay in Nations contention!
Febvre began to close back in on Prado, and the Spaniard overbalanced in a right-hand corner to lose the lead to the Frenchman on lap six, and the roar of the crowd told everyone what had happened if they hadn’t already seen it! Prado was able to remount in second ahead of Lucas Coenen, whose brother Sacha was able to finish in twelfth, and the two factory KTMs finished in that order ahead of Farres and the dependable Pancar!
Forato was the main man for moving forward, with an aggressive pass on Kitchen putting the American on the floor, forcing him to limp home to 25th with a damaged machine. The Italian then carved up the inside of Mc Lellan before the big downhill, before blasting round the outside of fellow Fantic man Talviku to take sixth by the flag! Mc Lellan came home in seventh as second MX2 rider, with Talviku eighth in front of the spirited Roan van de Moosdijk. Beaumer salvaged some American pride with tenth in his first full-length 450cc race.
Febvre raised his fist in a triumphant gesture to the fans on the hill, taking his first full-length race win of the season, and as it would turn out his last one on the factory Kawasaki! However, Spain led handsomely thanks to 2-4 results for Prado and Farres, with Belgium second and The Netherlands in third after Coldenhoff came home in 14th. Team Australia, with its completely new line-up of Nations rookies, held fourth through Jed Beaton’s 11th position for CDR Yamaha and Alex Larwood taking 21st on his MX2 Quadlock Honda. Team Latvia’s fifth came through their Monster Energy Yamaha Factory riders Karlis Reisulis, 13th on the MXGP bike, and brother Janis Reisulis in 20th on the MX2 machine.
There was still plenty to play for, but the home team could not afford to make any further mistakes!
Result
The Open class would see Tom Vialle join his Honda HRC Petronas teammate Jeffrey Herlings, who had gone top with a killer time in the Warm-Up Group 2 session, nearly three seconds faster than Prado!
Vialle got the crowd roaring again with the Fox HoIeshot Award, as Italian Andrea Adamo powered his Red Bull KTM Factory Racing machine into second ahead of Herlings, then came Team Germany’s Noah Ludwig, although he dropped his Sarholz KTM exiting the third corner, allowing Pauls Jonass to put his factory Kawasaki into fourth, ahead of Farres!
Herlings fired past Adamo in front of the packed gallery of fans, and was right behind Vialle as they launched down the next hill. Suddenly the Frenchman caught his footpeg on the face of the next jump, sending himself over the handlebars and very nearly collecting Herlings in the process! His bike too damaged to continue, the massive crash effectively ended the home team’s chances of a win. Valin was not badly placed, but now the Nations contest was absolutely wide open!
Team Great Britain’s Ben Watson had brilliantly put his Dirt Store Triumph into the top five behind Farres, with Cooper Webb on his tail with his new Rocky Mountain Husqvarna. “Captain America” held off Liam Everts and Brazilian Enzo Lopes, with Valin and Sacha Coenen rounding out the top ten. Everts was able to get past Webb for sixth after the uphill triple jump at the start of lap two, while Valin got around Lopes for eighth a lap later.
Herlings marched away at the front, ultimately winning by over 35 seconds from Adamo, with Jonass just a couple of seconds further back in a solid third to lift the Latvians up the order! Everts marched forward, passing Watson for fifth on lap six, then hauled in Farres, using the 450 power to fire past the Spaniard, up the biggest hill, into fourth on lap 13! It was a move that helped the Belgians into the overall lead, along with Sacha Coenen’s persistence that put him into seventh by the flag.
Farres kept Spain in the hunt with fifth, despite a mechanical DNF for Francisco Garcia, as the new MX2 World Champion fittingly took the top spot in his class. Webb took sixth ahead of Sacha and Mc Lellan, who fought forward again to take eighth. Coldenhoff fought hard to take ninth from Watson with three laps to go, but the Brit fended off Valin for tenth.
Glenn’s efforts had put the Dutch into second with all results counted, with Spain third but with the best three-result scoreline. Jonass’ third place had put Latvia fourth ahead of the USA and Italy, while two top fifteen finishes for Jeremy Seewer and his MX2 Venrooy Racing KTM helped to put Team Switzerland into seventh ahead of the Brits. South Africa were ninth ahead of the dejected French team. The final race would be a desperate affair!
Result
Even though the home win was now impossible, “Le Capitaine” Febvre was still fired-up to win again individually, and the crowd were fully behind him as he grabbed the Fox Holeshot Award for the final race of the day! Prado was right with him again, however, and powered past through the first wave section, with Everts a fine third ahead of Pancar and Herlings!
The Dutchman was quickly past the Slovenian, and Febvre seemed to be struggling on the opening lap as both Everts and Herlings took advantage of mistakes from the Frenchman. On the first full lap, eager to stop Prado from streaking away out front, Herlings made a rash move to pass Everts and tipped over the edge of a deep rut, dropping himself to eighth place and with over an 11-second gap between himself and Prado. The win was surely gone from him, right?
Everts held firm in second ahead of Febvre, Pancar, and a workmanlike Webb, with Vialle ahead of Lucas Coenen and Herlings by the end of that first full lap. Jonass and Adamo rounded out the top ten, but Forato had to recover from stalling on the gate, sinking Italian hopes of a podium!
Herlings was instantly back on the attack, firing past both Coenen and Webb on the second lap, then Vialle was also dispatched quickly, before the Frenchman dropped out of the race entirely on lap six, pulling into Pit Lane, still in discomfort from his second race crash. By lap five, Herlings had passed Pancar for fourth, and set about a six-second gap to Everts.
Ultimately, Coenen and Webb both relegated the Slovenian to an eventual seventh, still good enough for fourth in class ahead of Forato, who eventually recovered to 12th in race three, good enough to put the Italians in sixth behind Team USA. Jonass fought forward to take eighth ahead of Watson, who passed Beaton with five laps to go. Tenth was the best individual result for the reigning Champions, who ended the day in ninth ahead of France.
Webb ended the day fourth in the Open class, ahead of Watson, but just a point behind Jonass, who helped Latvia to their best ever Nations result in fourth overall! Ben’s result put Team GB seventh on the day ahead of the Swiss. Febvre got past Everts for second on lap five, but then ran wide up the big hill next time around and slammed into a trackside post, crashing down to fifth!
Herlings marched up to the rear wheel of Everts, who was powerless to resist the Honda man along the waves in front of the fans, and “The Bullet” now had just four seconds to catch up to Prado! With Garcia unable to advance from 12th, Spain were just unable to catch Belgium in the standings, while Herlings’ advances were easily enough to put The Netherlands on the podium!
On lap eleven, the Dutchman caught Prado, and put in a whole lap of incisive moves to hassle the Spaniard, until he finally passed him down the finish line hill, forcing Prado to throw in the towel! He finished a mighty twelve seconds clear to make it an emphatic display of pace from the MXGP World Champion. Everts, with the pressure off due to Spain losing that further point, put up little resistance to Febvre as the Frenchman salvaged third in the race and second in his class, while Coenen’s fifth place put him third in MXGP for the day.
Everts was informed that Belgium had won after crossing the finish line, and launched into the arms of his team, joined swiftly by both Coenen brothers as they celebrated their country’s first podium for seven years, and their first victory since 2013! Sacha Coenen even took the Ricky Carmichael Award for best young rider with third in the MX2 category overall, and there were tears from both the Coenen and Everts family members across the board! It was the eighth time that an Everts had been part of a winning Belgian Nations squad, from their sixteen victories!
With such a young squad, you have to say that the future looks bright for Team Belgium, and the sand of Assen next year is sure to be favourable for them, but the Dutch will be strong on home ground, and who knows what surprises the next twelve months have in store!
Result
Team Standings
The season is now over, and we enter the long winter months before it all gets going again for 2027. All of this year’s races and many more are available to view on our platform at any time, if you wish to relive the many great memories of another fantastic season. In the meantime, we say “Merci” to the thousands of fans from across the world who came to Ernée this weekend, or joined us across the year!
Later on, during the post-race Press Conference, the top three teams alongside the Ricky Carmichael Award were presented with their FIM medals by FIM President Jorge Viegas while Infront Moto Racing CEO David Luongo, awarded the traditional MXoN Champions’ Rings to the historical and youngest ever squad to win, Team Belgium. Following the rewards, the press conference started.
Liam Everts, Team Belgium: “I knew I was fast when I jumped on the 450 straight away. It was a technical track which suits me and I just rode really well. The boys put their faith in me to go inside in Race 3, I paid it back to them, took a good start and just rode with the guys up front. At the end I was pretty done the last three laps. I had no idea we were in the position to win, actually. It was only when I saw the guys on the pit lane that I noticed we had won, so that’s unreal.”
Lucas Coenen, Team Belgium: “I can’t thank these three enough. It’s unbelievable. Last Sunday I could barely do 10 minutes, I was completely done, and Joël brought me to a Belgian physio called Danny and, I don’t know, he made it work. I rode on Tuesday and managed to do one race, but somehow we pulled this off with these two amazing riders, with Joël the coach and everyone behind the scenes. I got so nervous in the second start and, I don’t know, somehow I finished up there and we won. This team is amazing. Belgium’s back on top. Love it. Gonna celebrate this one.”
Sacha Coenen, Team Belgium: “It feels unreal to be here with my brother and Liam. We are really young and they rode incredibly today. I didn’t have the best first race, but the second race was really good and I was quite happy with it. I can’t thank these guys next to me enough. It’s an incredible day.”
Jorge Prado, Team Spain: “With the whole team, we put Spain in the history books. We had never achieved a podium, and to put Team Spain in second place is amazing. There are a lot of people behind us who have been waiting and waiting to see Spain on the podium. With these two guys, with Guillem, recently crowned MX2 World Champion, and with Fran, the European Champion, we could put Spain on the box, and they did an amazing performance today. I’m just very happy.”
Guillem Farrés, Team Spain: “It was a great weekend. First of all, I would like to thank everyone from Spain for making this happen. I’m really proud of my teammates, everyone made a huge effort and it’s really nice to finish second. My races were pretty solid. I had a great time out there in my last race on a 250. It’s been a beautiful year for me and it’s so nice to close it by finishing second with Spain and making history. Like I said, I’m just really proud of my teammates and everyone working behind the scenes to make this happen.”
Francisco García, Team Spain: “It wasn’t the best conditions for me, for the bike and for everything, but it’s good. In the last race I tried to push at the end because I saw the pit board: if you pass, we win. So I tried, I crashed, but I’m happy with that, because if I don’t try, maybe I go home a little bit angry. But it’s like this. Now it’s history for Spain as well. It’s time to enjoy and go to the party.”
Jeffrey Herlings, Team Netherlands: “It was good, man. In the second one I wanted it so badly that I even crashed. Normally I’ve got it under control, but this time I wanted to pass Liam too quickly, went down and dropped all the way back to around eighth or tenth. I was like, ‘Oof, this is going to be difficult’, but I kept my head down, kept charging and worked my way back to the lead with five to 10 minutes to go. I’m super happy with my weekend, I topped all my sessions, and also with the team. We weren’t in an easy position with Kay getting hurt. At the end of the day a lot of people talk about me, but we did it as a team, because of the other two riders we’re on the podium as well. I want to thank them, the KNMV and of course Honda HRC Petronas for their great job. I’m looking forward to next year already.”
Glenn Coldenhoff, Team Netherlands: “First of all, I would like to congratulate Team Belgium and Team Spain. It’s been an incredible event again. We struggled a little bit coming into this weekend, as you know, but in the end you’re doing it for your country, and I’m a very proud Dutchman. It has been a real team effort today. We decided together about the gate pick. Jeffrey was supposed to go to the gate twice, but I went to him after the sighting lap and said, ‘Hey, you need to do me a favour, because we are here as a team.’ We didn’t expect another medal, we really had to have a good day, especially with Jeffrey doing his thing as always. I’m proud of Roan as well. We did great as a team and I’m very proud we made it to the podium.”
Roan van de Moosdijk, Team Netherlands: “I’m just happy to help them a little bit. My first race was solid, I finished P9, so I was happy with that and already had a good result on board. Of course, there are really big names in my country, and Jeffrey and Glenn are really experienced. Jeffrey did his thing and I think Glenn did really well on his 250. So I’m proud and happy to be on the box again.”
