From the rocky cliffs of Uddevalla in Sweden, the 2026 FIM Motocross World Championships head to the billiard-table flat sandpit of the Motorsportpark Gelderland Midden, near the Dutch city of Arnhem, for the MXGP of The Netherlands, the 16th round of the series and the final stop in mainland Europe this season!

Ben Rumbold/MXGP Story

For the fourth straight year, the local Dutch fans will arrive at Arnhem with the anticipation of seeing victories for several of their home heroes in the Grand Prix classes, and they will be particularly keen to see if the undisputed greatest Motocross rider from the Netherlands, Jeffrey Herlings, can continue his unbeaten run at this circuit as he carries the MXGP red plate for Honda HRC Petronas!

After a practice crash ruled him out of the inaugural GP here in 2023, “The Bullet” has lived up to his name by winning all three races across each weekend here since then. Over the 18 Grands Prix he has started in his home country, the five-time World Champion has won 16 of them, with 31 Sunday race wins from 35 started! It’s mathematically impossible for him to seal the world title here this weekend, but he could put himself into a very strong position to tie it up in Türkiye!

Herlings has a 116-point margin over the 2023 Arnhem GP winner, Romain Febvre, who would dearly love to take his first Sunday win of the year for Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP, while Tim Gajser has risen to third in the Championship for Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP. After taking last year’s MX2 victory here, Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Kay de Wolf will also be looking for a good day in front of his local fans.

The MX2 Championship momentum swung in a different direction last time out in Sweden, and while Guillem Farres still leads for Triumph Racing Factory Team, his advantage was cut virtually in half by a double victory on Sunday from the resurgent Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider Sacha Coenen! With just 24 points now in it, the Belgian is likely to bring many travelling fans with him from across the border, and his sand skills are without question!

The same could be said for third-placed Triumph Racing Factory Team sand-fly Camden McLellan, who enjoyed a perfect weekend in the deep sand of Lommel just three weeks ago, and the South African will still count himself as a title contender with just 21 points between himself and Coenen, and 45 up to his Spanish teammate with the red plate.

Local hopes in MX2 lie with their top rider in the series, Kay Karssemakers on the Dixon Racing Team Kawasaki, while Scott Smulders had a good day at Lommel and will get plenty of support on his SixtySeven Racing Husqvarna.

The FIM Women’s Motocross World Championship resumes this weekend, with the points battle at the top incredibly close between the FontaMX Racing GASGAS of Kiara Fontanesi and last year’s Arnhem winner Daniela Guillen on her RFME Team Spain GASGAS! Just two points separate the pair as the Italian holds the red plate for the first time since September 2018, when she won her most recent world title! Guillen will feel confident after her victory here in 2025, while Courtney Duncan could also be a factor for Dixon Racing Team Kawasaki after finishing second here in 2024.

Shana van der Vlist is the top Dutch girl in the series, lying fourth on her Peter v/d Laar Yamaha, although many fans will also get behind reigning double World Champion Lotte van Drunen, who has had a rough season for De Baets Yamaha, but after maximum victories here in 2023 & ’24, she will be going all-out to avenge last year’s loss to Guillen. Seventh in the series so unlikely to retain her title, it will be all about this weekend’s glory for “The Queen of Sand”.

The EMX250 European Championship holds its penultimate round this weekend, and series leader Francisco Garcia returned from injury to continue his winning ways last weekend, giving him a strong chance of clinching the title for BUD Racing Kawasaki in Arnhem, where he won a race last year! Unless he loses 13 points in race one to Team SixtySeven Husqvarna Racing’s Nikolaj Skovbjerg, then the Spaniard will be Champion on Saturday! His teammate Jake Cannon will be keen to clinch a medal position in third, which he will do if he outscores Gabriel SS24 KTM’s Dutchman Gyan Doensen, who should be strong in what could be his last Dutch round in this class!

With the crowd tightly packed around the circuit, the atmosphere at Arnhem promises to be electric as their home heroes fire up the crazy Dutch fans to make the maximum noise possible! This one could get wild!

Jeffrey Herlings’ domination in the past few rounds has seen him rack up his first four-GP winning streak since his unbelievable 2018 title season. “The Bullet” was unstoppable in the sand of Lommel three weeks ago, and while there have been worries about his machine in the sand, he was able to nurse it home in Belgium, and the Dutch circuit is known to be a little more flowing and, only slightly, less punishing on the machinery.

His aim of clinching the title at the MXGP of Türkiye will be helped if he can make significant ground on the rest this weekend. He has only failed to win GPs twice in the 18 events he has raced in his homeland, once after being landed on at Oss in 2021, winning race one with a broken shoulder blade before heading to the hospital and missing race two. The other was his first attempt in the MXGP class, when he took second overall behind Gautier Paulin while still less than 100% from a pre-season injury. He lost only one of twenty individual GP races in his MX2 career, to Thomas Covington at Assen in 2016!

Romain Febvre was able to take advantage of Herlings’ absence to win overall here in 2023, and also took the Qualifying Race win that weekend. His other victory in the Netherlands came as defending Champion back in 2016 at Valkenswaard. Tim Gajser is 44 points behind the Frenchman in third, just nine ahead of the injured Red Bull KTM Factory Racing pilot Lucas Coenen, who again is facing a battle to be fit for a GP which he terrorised last year! The Slovenian has won Dutch GPs in 2021 at Oss, and in MX2 in his first title season of 2015. The Belgian teenager took MX2 victory in 2024 here at Arnhem.

The battle for fifth in the Championship is dead level, with Ruben Fernandez officially placed there for Honda HRC Petronas due to a best result tie-breaker, while Andrea Adamo, who celebrates his 23rd birthday on Saturday, is on equal points for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing. Neither rider will be relishing the sand ahead of them, although the Italian has an MX2 Qualifying Race win and two podiums here in his record, while the Spaniard has yet to break into the top ten at this circuit.

Also close is the battle for seventh in the Championship between two Frenchmen who obviously would have wished to be higher. Tom Vialle’s podium in Sweden for Honda HRC Petronas put him ahead of the Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP of Maxime Renaux, but only by five points. Vialle has yet to race at this circuit, but won his most recent Dutch GP outing back in 2020, his first MX2 title season. Renaux was second to his countryman that day, which is his best in the Netherlands, and has a best of sixth in MXGP, at Arnhem in 2023.

Ninth in his rookie MXGP season is Kay de Wolf, after taking a dominant 1-1 victory in MX2 here last year. He might have the most hope out of anybody of defeating Herlings, but it will take a monumental effort, especially with a few niggling injuries which have welcomed him to life on a 450!

Rounding out the top ten is Kawasaki Racing Team MXGP’s Pauls Jonass, who made a fine return from injury with fourth overall in Sweden and is no stranger to success in the Netherlands. Perfect GP wins at Valkenswaard in 2017 & ’18 have not been replicated in the premier class, but the Latvian is in good form and starting well recently.

Red Bull Ducati Factory MX Team rider Calvin Vlaanderen, the South African with a dual nationality, flies the Dutch flag against his name for his “second” home GP of the year, and will be on the line despite suffering a big hit in Sweden, trying to advance from 12th in the Championship. 

MRT Racing Team Beta rider Jago Geerts is another trying to recover from a crash in Sweden, and is awaiting medical confirmation before lining up. The Belgian is one of eight men in the class to have tasted GP success in the Netherlands, his win coming in 2021 at Oss in MX2.

Dutch veteran Glenn Coldenhoff makes a wild card appearance at Arnhem, on a private Yamaha after finishing third overall here last year, saying that it could be his last ever home Grand Prix. Herlings and De Wolf, as well as Vlaanderen and Venrooy KTM Racing star Rick Elzinga, will be joined by four other local wildcards besides Coldenhoff as the crowd will have plenty to cheer for around the Gelderland Midden circuit!

MXGP - World Championship Top 10 Classification: 1. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, HON), 735 points; 2. Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 619 p.; 3. Tim Gajser (SLO, YAM), 575 p.; 4. Lucas Coenen (BEL, KTM), 566 p.; 5. Ruben Fernandez (ESP, HON), 483 p.; 6. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 483 p.; 7. Tom Vialle (FRA, HON), 454 p.; 8. Maxime Renaux (FRA, YAM), 449 p.; 9. Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 375 p.; 10. Pauls Jonass (LAT, KAW), 312 p.

The issues for Guillem Farres in Sweden, despite his heroic riding with severe-looking facial injuries, opened the door for Sacha Coenen to close the gap in the Championship, and the pair are now just 24 points apart, with the diminutive Belgian taking his first GP win since Montevarchi in June. Sacha rode well here to claim third on the podium last season, after finishing second to De Wolf in the Qualifying Race. Meanwhile, Farres was only eighth in his first ever Dutch GP.

Camden McLellan is likely to be the favourite after his performances at Lommel, but the South African would be happier with better starts this time to make his job a little easier! Fourth overall in both of the last two GPs at Arnhem do not tell the story of his speed in the soft stuff, and he will look to take big chunks out of his Championship rivals ahead as he fights from being 45 points behind the leader.

Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s defending World Champion Simon Längenfelder is another 16 points behind McLellan, putting him more than a GP distance off the lead. His Sunday in Sweden was bizarrely below par, and piles on the pressure for this weekend, at a track where he took third overall in 2023 with a first race victory. Sixth last year might be the more meaningful result to use as a guideline for his form at this venue.

Liam Everts, winner of that inaugural MX2 GP at this circuit, has over 40 points either side of his fifth-placed tally, and is the only rider in this year’s MX2 line-up with a GP victory here. The Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing ace has been third in all three Qualifying Races here, and fifth in the last two GPs here since his win. With the title out of reach, he will be keen to get travelling Belgian fans behind him amongst the trackside Dutchies!

The Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2 teammates and brothers Janis and Karlis Reisulis are next up in the Championship, as Janis tries to replicate the form that won him the EMX250 overall here last year! By comparison, Karlis didn’t even make the Sunday races after a crash in Warm-Up, but both Latvians know they have good pace in sand. They could even be outside bets for the podium this weekend!

Valerio Lata has had a tough Championship in eighth, and the Honda HRC Petronas rider is starting his second GP here after finishing 11th last year. He’ll be hoping for an up-turn in form. The injured Mathis Valin is still out of action for Kawasaki Racing Team MX2, and is likely to be overtaken in the points table by Julius Mikula, although the Czech rider will need a better day here for Osička Racing KTM than he managed last year, when he failed to score points entirely! The top non-factory rider needs just 12 points to overhaul Valin for ninth.

Kay Karssemakers is hoping for a good weekend at his home round after showing good pace in Sweden with a career-best of sixth in the Qualifying Race. It’s close between him and Maddii Racing Honda ABF Italia man Maxime Grau for 11th in the series, but you gotta fancy the Kawasaki man on home sand!

The MXGP of The Netherlands promises to be a packed-out event as the local fans hope to celebrate some home success, and they will make their presence felt as they get behind their riders! Don’t miss the last GP in mainland Europe of 2026, as the sand of Arnhem awaits the MXGP elite for a spectacular weekend of Motocross!

MX2 - World Championship Top 10 Classification: 1. Guillem Farres (ESP, TRI), 701 points; 2. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 677 p.; 3. Camden Mc Lellan (RSA, TRI), 656 p.; 4. Simon Längenfelder (GER, KTM), 640 p.; 5. Liam Everts (BEL, HUS), 595 p.; 6. Janis Martins Reisulis (LAT, YAM), 552 p.; 7. Karlis Alberts Reisulis (LAT, YAM), 441 p.; 8. Valerio Lata (ITA, HON), 381 p.; 9. Mathis Valin (FRA, KAW), 352 p.; 10. Julius Mikula (CZE, KTM), 341 p.

WMX - World Championship Top 10 Classification: 1. Kiara Fontanesi (ITA, GAS), 141 points; 2. Daniela Guillen (ESP, GAS), 139 p.; 3. Courtney Duncan (NZL, KAW), 100 p.; 4. Shana van der Vlist (NED, YAM), 89 p.; 5. Malou Jakobsen (DEN, KTM), 88 p.; 6. Lucy Barker (GBR, KTM), 87 p.; 7. Lotte van Drunen (NED, YAM), 85 p.; 8. Amandine Verstappen (BEL, YAM), 84 p.; 9. April Franzoni (FRA, HON), 73 p.; 10. Lynn Valk (NED, TM), 57 p.

EMX250 - European Championship Top 10 Classification: 1. Francisco Garcia (ESP, KAW), 402 points; 2. Nicolai Skovbjerg (DEN, HUS), 315 p.; 3. Jake Cannon (AUS, KAW), 288 p.; 4. Gyan Doensen (NED, KTM), 237 p.; 5. Mads Fredsoe (DEN, KTM), 224 p.; 6. Nicolò Alvisi (ITA, HON), 199 p.; 7. Tom Brunet (FRA, YAM), 177 p.; 8. Francesco Bellei (ITA, KTM), 160 p.; 9. Liam Owens (AUS, KTM), 152 p.; 10. Jekabs Kubulins (LAT, YAM), 149 p.

All the photos from the MXGP of The Netherlands will be available HERE.

You can find the complete results HERE.

TIMETABLE

SATURDAY:
08:10 WMX Free Practice, 08:40 EMX250 Group 1 Free Practice, 09:10 EMX250 Group 2 Free Practice, 09:50 WMX Qualifying Practice, 10:30 MX2 Free Practice, 11:00 MXGP Free Practice, 12:20 EMX250 Group 1 Qualifying Practice, 13:00 EMX250 Group 2 Qualifying Practice, 13:40 MX2 Time Practice, 14:15 MXGP Time Practice, 15:00 WMX Race 1, 15:45 EMX250 Race 1, 16:35 MX2 Qualifying Race, 17:25 MXGP Qualifying Race.

SUNDAY:
09:40 EMX250 Race 2, 10:25 MX2 Warm-up, 10:45 MXGP Warm-up, 11:30 WMX Race 2, 13:15 MX2 Race 1, 14:15 MXGP Race 1, 16:10 MX2 Race 2, 17:10 MXGP Race 2.