2019 Motocross Of Nations Results

Cycle News Staff | September 28, 2019

The Netherlands had never won the Motocross of Nations despite the fact that the very first Motocross of Nations event was held in Holland in 1947. Coming into the 2019 Motocross of Nations in their home country, at Assen, Team Netherlands had finished second overall in the previous three Motocross of Nations events, including last year in the USA where they did it with only two racers (and won all three motos).

But this year, in front of their home crowd, Team Netherlands was dominant.

Team USA, on the other hand, had their chances snuffed out immediately, on the opening lap of moto one, when Team USA’s Justin Cooper crashed into teammate Jason Anderson in a fast roller section, causing them both to go down hard. USA never recovered, eventually finishing a lackluster sixth place and extending Team USA’s losing streak at the event to 8 straight.

The Netherlands’ Glenn Coldenhoff goes 1-1 again at the Motocross of Nations

2019 Motocross Of Nations Results — **Team Netherlands’ Glenn Coldenhoff has now won four MXoN motos in a row and led his team to their first-ever MXoN victory, doing it in front of their home crowd in Assen.** Photo: Matt Rice

Spain’s Jorge Prado got the holeshot to start moto one (the MXGP/MX2 moto) over Slovenia’s Tim Gajser, Belgium’s Jeremy van Horebeek and the rest of the field. Team Netherlands’ star racer Jeffrey Herlings started outside the top 10, while his MX2 teammate Calvin Vlaanderen started outside the top 20. Both of them gained two spots on the opening lap when Cooper crashed into Anderson, sending them both down hard and breaking off Cooper’s clutch lever.

Prado led until past halfway, but Gajser wouldn’t be denied and fought his way past the young Spaniard, with Herlings following him by a few laps later. Herlings put on a late-race charge but came up just short of Gajser at the finish.

Gajser took the win over Herlings, Prado, Switzerland’s Jeremy Seewer, France’s Gautier Paulin (whose motorcycle was steaming heavily by the end of the moto), van Horebeek, Italy’s Ivo Monticelli, Denmark’s Thomas Kjer Olsen, Norway’s Hakon Fredriksen, and then Vlaanderen in 10th.

Team USA’s fought his way from near dead last up to 17th at the finish, while Cooper was 25th after another fall later in the moto.

Slovenia’s Tim Gajser won moto one at the 2019 Motocross of Nations

In moto two (MX2/Open), Estonia’s Harri Kullas snatched the holeshot, but Team Netherlands’ Glenn Coldenhoff—who won both of his motos at RedBud a year ago—took over the lead right away, with Great Britain’s Shaun Simpson hot on his heels in second. Latvia’s Pauls Jonass eventually caught and passed Simpson for second, but Coldenhoff was long gone, taking his third MXoN moto win in a row over Jonass, Simpson, Kullas and Team USA’s Zach Osborne, who fought his way into the top five in the closing laps.

Behind Osborne came France’s Jordi Tixier, Belgium’s Jago Geerts, , Olsen, Germany’s Dennis Ullrich, and Vlaanderen coming through for his second top-10 on his MX2 (250cc) machine.

Team USA’s Justin Cooper fell twice and ended up 29th.

Big, early mistakes cost Team USA at the Dutch Motocross of Nations

In the third and final moto of the day (MXGP/Open), Gajser grabbed the holeshot over van Horebeek, Jonass and Coldenhoff, while Herlings found himself off-track and coming from way behind.

Coldenhoff made short work of the leaders to take over the top spot in the rain on lap four, and although Gajser pressured him late in the race, Coldenhoff stayed calm, cool and collected to win his fourth-straight MXoN moto and ice the overall win for Team Netherlands. Gajser ended up second over Jonass and Herlings, who made a last-lap pass on Seewer for the spot. Seewer was fifth over van Horebeek, Prado, Anderson, and the UK duo of Nathan Watson and Shaun Simpson, who both benefited from a late-race mechanical DNF from France’s Paulin on the penultimate lap.

Team USA’s Osborne started around 15th, but a mid-race crash hurt his forward progress and he finished 13th.

The Netherlands wins their first ever Motocross of Nations

After each team threw away their worst score, Team Netherlands took the win with 18 points (1-1-2-4-10) over Belgium (47 points, 6-6-7-11-17), Great Britain (58 points, 3-9-10-12-24), Estonia (64 points, 4-12-13-14-21), and France (58 points, 5-6-16-18-23), whose Motocross of Nations win streak is snapped at five.

Team USA ended up sixth on the day, tied on points with France at 68, with a 5-8-13-17-25 set of moto scores, which means that Team USA will have numbers 16 (MXGP), 17 (MX2) and 18 (Open) at next year’s Motocross of Nations, scheduled to take place in Ernee, France, a year from now.

2019 Motocross Of Nations Results

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QUALIFYING

Today was qualifying day at the 2019 FIM Motocross of Nations in Assen, Holland, and it’s shaping up for quite a battle tomorrow. On Friday, the teams picked numbers for qualifying gate picks, and Team USA—made up of Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Jason Anderson (MXGP class) and Zach Osborne (Open class), and Monster Energy/Yamalube/Star Racing Yamaha’s Justin Cooper (MX2 class)—ended up with the 31st gate pick for today’s qualifiers on the sandy (and wet) Assen circuit. The only silver lining to having such an awful draw is that Team USA’s presumed closest competition didn’t draw all that well, either, with Belgium drawing the 8th pick, the Netherlands drawing pick number 27, and five-time-consecutive MXoN champs France drawing pick number 29.

Switzerland’s Seewer wins the 2019 MXoN MXGP Qualifier

In the opening MXGP moto, Spains Jorge Prado grabbed the holeshot, but fell early in the race and handed the lead to Switzerland’s Jeremy Seewer, who led the rest of the race and took the win.

Team USA’s Jason Anderson rounded lap one in 10th and worked his way up to 5th by the halfway point of the 20-minute qualifier, only to lose that spot in the closing laps to sand specialist and 2018 MXGP World Champion Jeffrey Herlings, who was spurred on by his hometown crowd. Herlings came from even farther back in the pack than Anderson on his way to fifth.

Second place went to 2019 MXGP World Champion Tim Gajser (Slovenia) over Belgium’s Jeremy van Horebeek and Spain’s Jorge Prado. Then came Herlings, Anderson, Sweden’s Filip Bengtsson, France’s Gautier Paulin, Italy’s Ivo Monticelli, Australia’s Dean Ferris (on a KTM), and the UK’s Nathan Watson.

Team USA’s Justin Cooper dominated the MX2 qualifier in the Netherlands

The MX2 (250cc) class was up next, and Team USA’s Justin Cooper put on a display. He led from the start and quickly pulled out to a large lead of well over 10 seconds before he backed it down to take the victory. He was the only MX2 racer to drop his laptimes into the 1:49-second range, and he did it twice.

The Netherlands’ Calvin Vlaanderen came through for second, spurred on by his hometown fans, while Australia’s Kyle Webster landed third. Behind them came Belgium’s Jago Geerts, Italy’s Alberto Forato, Demark’s Thomas Kjer Olsen, New Zealand’s Dylan Walsh, Norway’s Kevin Horgmo, Sweden’s Alvin Ostlund, and France’s Maxime Renaux.

After two races, Belgium led the overall qualifying with a 3-4 score with the Netherlands second on 2-5, the USA on 1-6 in third, and then Australia (3-10), Italy (5-9), Switzerland (1-14), Sweden (7-9) and France (8-10). But under this format, only the top two scores count toward the overall qualifying position, so it was all still very much up in the air.

Latvia’s Jonass takes the Open class qualifier at the 2019 Assen MXoN

In the final qualifier, for the Open class, Belgium’s Kevin Strijbos snatched the early lead, but relinquished it to former MX2 World Champion Pauls Jonass (Latvia) on the second lap. Jonass would go on to win by just over a second over Strijbos. The action was behind them.

The Netherlands’ hometown boy Glenn Coldenhoff fought his way through for third after starting just outside the top five, and the USA’s Zach Osborne had to fight his way forward after a bad start to finish a hard-fought eighth place in the short moto, losing seventh place on the last lap to France’s Jordi Tixier.

Jonass took the win over Strijbos, Coldenhoff, the UK’s Shaun Simpson, Estonia’s Harri Kullas, Australia’s Regan Duffy, Tixier, Osborne, Denmark’s Bastian Boegh Damm, Germany’s Dennis Ulrich, and Italy’s Alessandro Lupino.

After throwing out the worst score on the day, Team Belgium will get 1st and 21st gate picks tomorrow in all three motos, while the Netherlands will get picks 2 and 22, and Team USA will get picks 3 and 23.

France has won this event five times in a row, and the USA is experiencing the longest drought they’ve ever had at the event since first winning it in 1981. Team USA hasn’t won the Motocross of Nations in 7 years. We will see if that clock resets tomorrow.

2019 Motocross Of Nations Qualifying Results

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