Red Bull KTM’s Jeffrey Herlings ended a disrupted 2019 season with a milestone victory as part of Team Netherlands at the 73rd Motocross of Nations.
The former MXGP World Champion climbed the top of the podium at a soaked TT Circuit Assen with Standing Construct KTM’s Glenn Coldenhoff also excelling in the winning Dutch team.
Poor weather conditions and continual rain dampened the Dutch edition of the Motocross of Nations: the first time the annual race had been held in the Netherlands since 2004. The TT Circuit Assen, home of the Dutch Grand Prix since 2015, was rough, soggy and difficult.
Team Netherlands triumphed thanks to a second consecutive 1-1 scorecard by Coldenhoff. The Standing Construct KTM man pushed his 450 SX-F through the sandy swamp to repeat his success from RedBud in 2018 and bring a very bright second phase of 2019 (where he scored two GP wins and five podiums in the last five rounds) to a close.
Herlings battled bad starts in both of his races in the MXGP class. He was less than a second behind Tim Gajser for 1st place at the culmination of the first moto and recovered from three mistakes while pushing through the field to take 4th in his second outing.
Red Bull KTM Enduro star Nathan Watson filled the MXGP slot for Team Great Britain. The 24 year old is a former Grand Prix rider and adapted quickly to the sand. He suffered a DNF in his first race due to pushing the limits of his clutch but rode to 10th in the second as his result helped the British to a third consecutive podium appearance at the Nations.
MX2 World Champion Jorge Prado led Team Spain to 9th in the Nations classification for what was his very first race on the KTM 450 SX-F. The eighteen year old registered results of 3-7 to place 4th overall in the MXGP division.
Jeffrey Herlings: “The weather was not in the plan! I messed up my starts twice today so from an individual point of view I’m not satisfied. I almost won the first moto and then when down three times in the second but still managed to finish fourth. We wanted a 1-1 and that didn’t happen but what we really came here for today was to win as a Nation and we did that. My teammates did a great job and for such a small country to win this is amazing.”
Glenn Coldenhoff: “It was an amazing weekend and we had the crowd behind us: that gave us something ‘extra’. Tim rode well in the second moto and kept some pressure on me but I could keep him behind me. 1-1 again, and it definitely feels nicer than last year because of where we are.”
Nathan Watson: “It was so tough out there today but I am almost speechless with the result. I managed to get two good starts from the outside – I’m not sure how! In the first race I had to apologise; I’ve never ‘done’ a clutch in my life but I must have got a bit excited. I was riding quite good but fell and my shoulder came out a little bit. I didn’t want to tell anyone and so just taped it up and got stuck-into the last race. I felt a lot of pressure and I didn’t want let the team down. I was happy to get a solid result and it’s so nice to be on the podium: it’s amazing.”
Jorge Prado: “I’m satisfied. It was an ‘OK’ weekend with some positive things and areas for improvement. Already now my speed looks quite good. In the first moto I made a small rookie mistake with the goggles and got back to sixth and fought to third. I was feeling very good so the mistake was pity. I had a really bad start in the second and was almost last in the first corner and track conditions were tough. I will take it like it is. We can improve a lot for next year so for that I’m very excited.”