Belgium ends 13-year MXoN drought as Herlings stars at Ernée

MXoN 2026

Belgium ends 13-year wait at an extraordinary Ernée

Belgium has won the 2026 FIM Motocross of Nations after one of the most dramatic editions of the event in recent memory, Liam Everts and brothers Lucas and Sacha Coenen combining for a remarkably consistent performance at a packed Ernée.

A record weekend attendance of 105,000 filled the natural amphitheatre surrounding the Circuit Raymond Demy, the hillsides becoming a sea of national colours as the 79th running of the Motocross of Nations delivered three very different races and a title fight which remained alive deep into the final moto.

Belgium finished with 23 points, just three clear of Spain on 26, while the Netherlands completed the podium on 34. Latvia recorded its best-ever Motocross of Nations result in fourth on 52 points, one ahead of the United States.

Remarkably, Belgium won without taking a race victory. Their six results were 3-12-7-4-5-4, with Sacha Coenen’s 12th place discarded under the best-five-from-six scoring system. That consistency ultimately defeated a Spanish combination which included Jorge Prado’s 2-2 and Guillem Farres’ superb 4-5 aboard the 250.

The result was Belgium’s first MXoN victory since 2013 and its 16th overall, drawing the nation level with Great Britain for second on the all-time winners list.

Spain celebrated its first-ever Motocross of Nations podium, while Jeffrey Herlings put on arguably the individual performance of the weekend by winning both of his Sunday motos for the Netherlands.

For defending champion Australia, 2026 represented a very different challenge. Jed Beaton, Alex Larwood and Aaron Tanti were all making their first Motocross of Nations appearances for Australia and eventually brought the green and gold home ninth.

France starts Saturday as the team to beat

Few would have predicted France’s eventual Sunday collapse after Saturday qualifying.

Jorge Prado opened proceedings by winning the MXGP qualifier ahead of Romain Febvre, while Jed Beaton produced an excellent sixth for Australia.

Mathis Valin then made a remarkable return from three months away from racing to win the MX2 qualifier for France. Camden McLellan was second, Levi Kitchen third and newly crowned MX2 World Champion Guillem Farres fourth. Alex Larwood took a solid tenth for Australia.

Jeffrey Herlings comfortably won the Open qualifier from Liam Everts and Tom Vialle, with Aaron Tanti 12th.

With Febvre second and Valin victorious, France secured first gate pick for Sunday. Spain was second in the qualifying classification, Belgium third, while the French crowd had every reason to believe another home victory was coming.

Race One – Febvre brings Ernée to life

The first points-paying race combined MXGP and MX2 and initially looked to be going exactly to plan for Spain.

Isak Gifting fired out strongly at the start, but Prado soon swept to the front on his KTM, with Febvre slotting into second as the pair escaped from the field.

Prado led the opening five laps, but Febvre was applying increasing pressure. The Spaniard’s race changed on lap six when a small tip-over cost him heavily. His lap ballooned to 1m59.365s while Febvre circulated in 1m49.179s, turning their fight for the lead decisively in the Frenchman’s favour.

Febvre took over and never relinquished the position, eventually crossing the line 9.830 seconds ahead of Prado. Lucas Coenen was a measured third for Belgium, Guillem Farres produced a superb fourth on the 250 Triumph and Jan Pancar completed the top five.

For France, however, the celebrations at the front disguised a disaster further back.

Mathis Valin had started strongly amongst the 450s but clipped the side of the track on the opening lap and cartwheeled heavily down the hill. His Kawasaki was too badly damaged to continue.

That 40th-place result immediately became the score France desperately wanted to discard, leaving Febvre and his teammates with virtually no margin for another major problem.

There was also frustration for Levi Kitchen. The American had been running eighth and third amongst the MX2 machines before being knocked down in traffic. Kitchen eventually reached the finish in 25th.

Jed Beaton gave Australia an excellent 11th while Alex Larwood was 21st. That left Australia fourth in the Nations classification after the opening race on 32 points, behind Spain on six, Belgium on 15 and the Netherlands on 23.

Race Two – Vialle crash silences the hillside

If Valin’s Race One crash had put France under pressure, Tom Vialle’s accident at the beginning of Race Two effectively destroyed the host nation’s challenge.

Vialle launched his Honda to the holeshot in the MX2/Open race, with fellow Honda rider Jeffrey Herlings immediately in pursuit.

Before the opening lap had even been completed, Vialle suffered a frightening crash after the long jump and had to abandon the race. Herlings narrowly avoided his teammate and continued at the front.

The impact on the enormous French crowd was immediate. Ernée had been an almost continuous wall of noise, but the sight of Vialle going down heavily was felt around the entire amphitheatre.

Herlings was left with clear track ahead and put on a clinic. He eventually won by 35.882 seconds from Andrea Adamo.

The battle behind the Dutchman was much tighter. Adamo held second while Pauls Jonass crossed the line just 0.376 seconds ahead of Liam Everts. Farres was fifth overall and, for the second time that afternoon, the leading MX2 rider.

Cooper Webb was sixth and Sacha Coenen seventh, two results which placed Belgium in control of the Nations classification.

Mathis Valin battled through the after-effects of his Race One crash to finish 11th, but Vialle’s 38th place meant France now had two enormous scores. With only one of six results discarded, their challenge for the Chamberlain Trophy was effectively over.

Spain suffered its own setback when Francisco Garcia exited early and was classified 36th. Australia also took a heavy hit when Aaron Tanti failed to complete the opening lap and was classified 37th.

After two races Belgium led on 26 points from the Netherlands on 33, Spain on 47 and Latvia on 48. The USA sat fifth on 55.

Race Three – Herlings hunts down Prado

The final MXGP/Open race produced the individual battle of the weekend and, simultaneously, an extraordinarily tense fight for the Nations title.

Febvre grabbed the holeshot in what was his final outing for Kawasaki, but Prado was immediately aggressive and moved to the front.

Herlings had sacrificed the preferable gate choice to his Dutch teammates and was buried in the pack. He quickly began moving forward, only to make a mistake while challenging near the front and tumble back to eighth.

At that point Herlings was around 15 seconds behind Prado.

What followed was a remarkable demonstration of pace.

Herlings began taking chunks out of the deficit, running in the 1m49s while Prado was predominantly in the 1m50-51s. On lap seven the Dutchman produced a 1m47.954s, the fastest lap of the race.

By around ten laps he had caught Prado, and shortly afterwards Herlings completed the pass.

Once ahead there was no response. Herlings eventually won by 12.035 seconds, completing a perfect 1-1 Sunday in the Open category.

Prado finished second while Febvre took third after recovering from a crash of his own. The Frenchman clipped the banking while chasing the leaders, dropped back to fifth and then fought his way back onto the podium to close his Kawasaki career with a 1-3 scorecard.

Behind them, however, every position had implications for the Chamberlain Trophy.

Liam Everts finished fourth and Lucas Coenen fifth. Those two positions gave Belgium an extraordinarily strong final five-score calculation: 3-7-4-5-4 for 23 points after Sacha Coenen’s 12th was discarded.

Spain had Prado safely home in second but everything rested on Francisco Garcia.

Garcia was being urged forward from the pit board and was closing on the position Spain needed. He was fighting around 11th and edging towards tenth before stalling late in the race and dropping to 13th.

That one position was potentially the difference between victory and defeat.

Had Garcia finished tenth, Spain’s five counting scores would have been 2-4-5-2-10 – also 23 points. Under the FIM tie-break system, which first compares the number of highest individual placings amongst the five counting results, Prado’s two second places would have put Spain ahead of Belgium.

Instead Garcia finished 13th. Spain totalled 26 points and Belgium had won the Motocross of Nations by three.

Belgium wins on consistency

The final classification underlined the peculiar beauty of the Motocross of Nations format.

Herlings won two motos and the Netherlands still finished third. Febvre won a moto and France finished tenth. Belgium did not win any of the three races yet took the Chamberlain Trophy.

Lucas Coenen’s 3-5, Liam Everts’ 4-4 and Sacha Coenen’s seventh in Race Two were enough to produce the five consistently low scores Belgium needed.

Spain was arguably only one position away from a maiden victory, but second place remains a historic result for Prado, Farres and Garcia.

Latvia’s fourth was another landmark result. Pauls Jonass delivered 3-8 in Open, while the Reisulis brothers supplied the depth which allowed Latvia to edge the United States by a single point.

Cooper Webb was the American anchor with a highly consistent 6-6. Levi Kitchen’s 25th from Race One became the USA’s discarded score, leaving Kitchen’s 14th and Julien Beaumer’s 10-17 to count alongside Webb’s results.

Prado, Farres and Herlings take individual honours

Prado and Febvre both finished the MXGP classification on four points, with Prado’s 2-2 ultimately putting him at the top of the individual classification ahead of Febvre’s 1-3.

Lucas Coenen was third on eight points, while Australia’s Jed Beaton was sixth overall in MXGP after his consistent 11-10 Sunday.

Farres was the outstanding MX2 rider of the day. His fourth and fifth places against fields containing 450 machinery gave him a nine-point individual total and the MX2 victory ahead of Triumph teammate Camden McLellan.

Alex Larwood finished eighth in the MX2 classification with identical 21st-place finishes.

There was no such uncertainty in Open. Herlings’ 1-1 gave him a perfect score of two, ahead of Everts on eight and Jonass on 11.

Aaron Tanti’s 37-24 put the Australian 15th in the individual Open classification.

Australia’s title defence in perspective

Ninth position is Australia’s lowest result of its remarkable recent MXoN run, but the bare number requires context.

Australia arrived at Ernée without Jett Lawrence, Hunter Lawrence or Kyle Webster – the exact three-man combination which had taken the country’s first Motocross of Nations victory in 2024 and then successfully defended the Chamberlain Trophy in 2025.

Instead, Beaton, Larwood and Tanti were all making their first appearances for Australia at the Nations.

The new combination actually began strongly. Beaton qualified sixth in MXGP, Larwood tenth in MX2 and Tanti 12th in Open, and Australia sat fourth after Race One.

Tanti’s Race Two retirement then became Australia’s one discarded result. That meant Beaton’s 11-10, Larwood’s 21-21 and Tanti’s 24th in the final moto all had to count, producing the final total of 87.

Beaton was the standout, finishing sixth in the individual MXGP classification against a field containing Prado, Febvre and Lucas Coenen.

The result also completes an interesting five-year Australian progression: third in 2022, second at Ernée in 2023, champions in 2024 and 2025, then ninth with an entirely new team in 2026.

The USA’s fifth place also needs some perspective. The Americans were only one point behind Latvia, but this was not quite the sort of maximum-firepower American line-up seen at some recent Nations. Cooper Webb provided the experience and delivered an excellent 6-6, while Julien Beaumer and Levi Kitchen carried much less MXoN experience into the weekend.

That left two of the traditional heavyweight nations further down the order than the previous few seasons might have suggested and helped open the door for Belgium, Spain and Latvia.

Recent Motocross of Nations podiums

France dominated this same Ernée venue in 2023. Australia then became the benchmark with consecutive victories in 2024 and 2025. Three years after finishing outside the podium at Ernée, Belgium returned to France and lifted the Chamberlain Trophy.

And yet the defining image of the 2026 event may still be Herlings chasing Prado across the spectacular Ernée hillsides, with more than 100,000 spectators surrounding the circuit.

For all the calculations, discarded scores and national strategies that make the Motocross of Nations unique, the world’s best riders still ended the season doing what makes this event special – racing each other flat-out for pride as much as points.

The 80th FIM Motocross of Nations is scheduled for Assen in the Netherlands on October 9-10, 2027.

RelatedPosts

Triumph refines its MX2 title-winning TF 250-X for 2027

September 30, 2026

Moto Wrap Weekly | World titles, fine margins and the week ahead

September 29, 2026