Just two weeks after celebrating his second FIM motocross world title Romain Febvre will line up this weekend at the Motocross of Nations as leader of Team France. A four-time member of the winning team this will be the first time that he will race the MXoN in the USA.

The season was long with twenty GPs but it’s not finished yet and the top GP riders have travelled to Ironman in Indiana this week for the 78th edition of the MXoN. All of the riders and teams members who were in Australia two weeks ago had just a few days at home so Romain has not yet found time to celebrate his title in Europe.

“It was a short time after Australia; it still needs to sink in that I am world champion again! Coming back from Australia last Tuesday I just had a few days at home as I flew to the US on Monday; we had some celebrations already but there will be more to come! This weekend we have the Nations so we are still in ‘racing mode’ but after the Nations there will be more time to celebrate. Of course we will have some testing sessions on our schedule this month, but we will also be able to enjoy more thoroughly the time being at home,” said Romain, who has joined the French team to prepare for the MXoN, an event in which he has already been a member of the winning team four times.

“For sure it’s a team race as they count the best five results, but once the gate drops it’s the same as if you are alone. You just race to be in front so that’s what I will try to do; get good starts and battle up front. It’s my first time racing the Nations in the US; I missed Red Bud as I was injured and I’m excited to enjoy the atmosphere; as usual when we come to US the tracks are amazing and I’m excited to race at Ironman this weekend.”

Two weeks after being crowned MXGP world champion for the second time in his career Romain has had time to realise his achievement.

“My second title, a crazy season, the first rider to win the 450 title for Kawasaki; I'm proud of that! I'm going to savour this second title even more than the first one; in 2015 I was young, just emerging in the MXGP class; everything happened so quickly and you don't necessarily appreciate it at that age. I will be busy this winter but, with the experience I know how to approach it, and I think I'll enjoy it all. I'm going to approach all of this differently from 2015; it wasn't a bad experience, but it was just too much. I didn't rest over the winter and at the beginning of 2016 I still hadn't recovered. I'm not going to make that mistake again and I'm going to enjoy every moment,” he continued.

Later this season Romain will have another long trip in his schedule as he will travel to Japan to visit the Kawasaki factory.

“I’m excited to travel later in the year to Japan; I’m proud to have won the first title in the main class for Kawasaki, it means a lot to all of us and I’m pleased to go there. I hope that our relationship will become even closer and I’m excited to go there and race the final round of the Japanese championship. I just asked the factory to organise this trip so I can race at Sugo; I had no pressure to do it but I think that it will be nice for Kawasaki and also for the Japanese fans to see the world champion racing there.”

This weekend Romain will race the MXGP class with an unusual number on his bike, the #13. “The #3 was my number this season, and the #1 will be my number next season so there is no problem at all,” joked Romain, who is not superstitious.

KRT teammate Mathis Valin will race the MX2 class for Team France with #14 while Maxime Renaux will be the Open class rider for the team, while two other regular Kawasaki riders will be racing at Ironman: Pauls Jonass with have #30 for Team Latvia and Francisco Garcia # 12 for Team Spain.

Pascal Haudiquert story and image