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Belgium vs The Netherlands!

The first day of the 58th Fox Motocross of Nations attracted a huge crowd and a great atmosphere despite cold weather in Lierop today. Finally twenty-seven teams entered the event and the three qualifying races were exciting from the first minute to the last.

Belgium versus The Netherlands was the battle of the day! Scoring the same number of points with a 1st (Everts for Belgium in MX1 and Eggens for the Netherlands in MX2) and a 2nd (Ramon in MX2 and De Reuver in MX1), the Belgians finally claimed the qualification as their third rider took a better result than the Dutch representative (2nd position for Strijbos and 6th for Verhoeven in the Open class). It was not surprising to see the Flemish squad in first position, even if Stefan Everts had a big crash on Wednesday while practicing in Lommel. “I crashed and hit a wooden post. I took a large impact on my helmet and I was completely knocked out, hopefully I think I have just broken a small bone under my right eye. I’ve not too much pain and it didn’t affected my vision, but I will have surgery on Monday,” said the MX1 World Champion. Alongside Everts (winner in MX1) and Pichon (winner in Open class), nobody was expecting a MX2 win from Eric Eggens, who has missed the entire GP season. “I’ve worked really hard to come back to my best level, losing 20 kg in the last few months! I’ve no more pain in my back right now and I will decide after the next Dutch championships if I continue to race the GP’s next year,” said Eric who was racing with a 125 KTM and came back from the 11th to the 1st place! Marc De Reuver was also impressive today, challenging Everts for the MX1 heat win on a 250 KTM two stroke despite a bad start.

The three qualifying races offered some great action and some nice battles for victory; Everts and De Reuver in the MX1, Eggens and Ramon in the MX2, Pichon and Strijbos in the open all fought until the last lap. Once more the MX2 race was probably the more intense, with Rattray (who got also a bad start) and Cairoli also tussling for the win with Ramon, Eggens and Ben Townley. Ben was unlucky; leading the race from the second lap, the World Champion had a technical problem and was just able to pass the chequered flag in 7th with only the third gear available during the last five laps of his race! Spaniard Jonathan Barragan had a strong ride (4th), and Canadian Dustin Klatt only finished 14th but surprised everyone when he led the moto for two laps! Kevin Strijbos led the first circulations of the Open class but Mickael Pichon came back quickly in 2nd and hit the front after three laps; Strijbos never gave up and pressured him till the last possible moment. In third, Finn Antti Pyrhonen finished 1’10’’ behind the pair and was followed by Japanese Yo****aka Atsuta and Estonian Juss Lansoo.

Behind Belgium and Netherlands, South Africa placed 3rd (Rattray 3rd, Swanepoel 5th and Avis 11th) followed by New Zealand 4th (Coppins 3rd, Townley and Hurley 11th), France 5th (Pichon 1st, Meo and Pourcel 9th) and Finland 6th (Pyrhonen 3rd, Vehvilainen and Seistola 8th). They will be for sure the main contenders for the MXoN win, but this time five results will be taken in consideration!

Qualifying result (best two results for each team):
1.Belgium (Everts, Ramon, Strijbos), 3 pts;
2.Netherlands (Eggens, De Reuver, Verhoeven), 3;
3.South Africa (Rattray, Swanepoel, Avis), 8;
4.New Zealand (Coppins, Townley, Hurley), 10;
5.France (Pichon, Meo, Pourcel), 10;
6.Finland (Pyrhonen, Vehvilainen, Seistola), 11;
7.Estonia (Laansoo, Leok T, Leok A), 15;
8.Great Britain (Sword, Cooper, McKenzie), 15;
9.Italy (Cairoli, Bricca, Beggi), 16;
10.Japan (Atsuta, Narita, Tanaka), 17;
11.Germany, 19;
12.Portugal, 19;
13.Ireland, 21;
14.Spain, 21;
15.Canada, 22;
16.Sweden, 23;
17.Czech Republic, 26;
18.Australia, 27;
19.Norway, 33;
20.Russia, 33 (all qualified for the FOX MXoN); 21.Latvia, 34;
22.Denmark, 39;
23.Slovenia, 42;
24.Croatia, 46;
25.Guatemala, 46;
26.Austria, 48;
27.Luxemburg, 50