HERLINGS AND COENEN – ARNHEM

When it comes to pure drama and excitement, no doubt last weekends MXGP of The Netherlands at the beautifully prepared circuit just north of the city of Arnhem was everything we hope for in a Grand Prix.

Two hometown riders winning, with sand legend, Jeffrey Herlings taking the MXGP victory in a really exciting battle with the next man in line for stardom, Lucas Coenen, and in MX2, an exciting come from behind victory for defending MX2 world champion in Kay De Wolf.

For Herlings, he knew that his fellow Red Bull KTM rider (Coenen) would be hard to beat, and he also knew with good starts and a big lead, he might be able to hold out the 18-year-old.

“Not to sound arrogant,” Herlings said at the press conference. “I knew Lucas was the only rider capable of matching my speed this weekend. In the first moto, I managed more. He came from last to second, and from there I knew I had to keep an eye on him. In the second moto, I was watching him on my right from the start. The gap stayed stable at first, then gradually he came back. At one point, there were only a few riders between him and me, and I thought, ‘ouch, he’s coming strong.’ A few laps later, I couldn’t even see him anymore, and I knew he was catching up. Lucas got to five seconds, I attacked until the end, head down. I hung on until the finish, and I didn’t crash.”

As for Coenen, his dream has always been to battle Herlings in the sand and while he didn’t win the Grand Prix, he sure showed the world, that he is more than capable of winning, even against the “King of the sand”, Herlings.

“For the fans, it was nice but from my seat, it wasn’t because I was already so far away out of the gate. In the first moto, I hit the gate and in the second moto we hit handlebars. The starts weren’t ideal. In first moto, I was last in the first corner, and I came back. I pushed as far as I could with everything, I had but when you come from so far back, the front runners are already gone by the time you get there. I struggled big times still, I made so many mistakes, it wasn’t easy to make passes. I pushed as far as I could, made some passes and saw Jeffrey in front of me at the end but the gap was still big.”

We now head to three hard pack circuits in Turkiye, China and Australia, but don’t be surprised to see another Herlings vs Coenen battle before the MXGP championship ends down under. Whatever happens from now on in, thank you to both these KTM riders, for making Arnhem such a memory.

Photo credit: KTM