The 58th edition of the Motocross of Nations has ended with Belgium beating the home Dutch team - and a surprisingly strong French squad - to claim their 14th victory in the prestigious end of season event.
The Netherlands were the only team to trouble the Belgian superstar line-up of Stefan Everts, Steve Ramon and Kevin Strijbos, the Dutch line-up of Erik Eggens, Marc De Reuver and Bas Verhoeven actually leading proceedings after the first heat (MX2 and MX1); but the Dutch team weren’t able to keep the pressure up as the day progressed and would finish 15-points adrift.
Belgium’s highest scoring rider was unsurprisingly eight-times world champion Everts, who won both his heats to claim a score of just two-points for his country (the team with the lowest score wins).
"It has been a really difficult week for me, after what happened last weekend (in South Africa) and my crash on Wednesday while practicing," confessed Stefan. "It’s my 5th individual win and I’m really happy, because on Thursday I had headache and wasn’t sure to be able to race.
"The track was today incredible tough; I never see so many whoops and my legs feel like they weigh 140 kilos! It’s been an awesome weekend and I’m really happy to have Kevin and Steve alongside me in the team," added the Yamaha rider.
Factory Suzuki star contributed a 2nd and 6th from his two rides, while KTM mounted Ramon was the top MX2 rider with 7th and 13th placed finishes, in races which once again followed the traditional format of combining two machine classes at a time.
De Reuver was the best Dutch representative and challenged Everts for victory in both his races, but was forced to settle for second each time – still an impressive result given his opponents statue.
