There was a time, not too long ago, when imagining Spain fighting to win the Motocross of Nations seemed practically impossible. In Ernée, not only was it no longer a dream, but Jorge Prado, Guillem Farrés and Francisco García kept the Spanish team in the fight for the title until the final stages of the race.
Although it was close, in the end the Spanish team finished with 26 points compared to 23 for Belgium, which won its sixteenth title. In this account in which the person with the fewest points wins, only three points separated Spain from a result that would have represented an even greater jump. Although we must not forget that the runner-up position already has enormous value in itself: never before has our country managed to get on the Nations podium.
The level shown by the three Spanish riders allowed them to be ahead from the beginning, and fight face to face with the great powers of world motocross.
Jorge Prado, as expected, once again assumed the role of reference for the team and finished second in the two rounds he competed. In the first one he even led for the first six laps before a small crash, while in the decisive one he once again led the race until Jeffrey Herlings managed to overtake him in the final part.
But one of the keys to the result was also in the recently proclaimed World Champion Guillem Farrés. Competing on the Triumph TF 250-X MX2, he climbed to fourth place overall in his first race and finished fifth in the second, becoming the best rider in his category in both races. Two results that allowed Spain to constantly remain at the top of the classification.
Spain fought to win the Motocross of Nations with all the law
The real dimension of what was achieved is even better understood seeing that the weekend was far from perfect. Francisco García, current EMX250 European champion, had to abandon his first race due to a breakdown when he was coming back from twelfth position.
That result ended up becoming the Spanish discard, and left the team with no margin for error for the final round. Even so, Spain came into it with real chances of winning.
García again left outside the top 10 and was recovering positions while Belgium did the same with Lucas Coenen and Liam Everts. The classification changed during the heat and, a few laps from the end, the Spaniard caught up with the driver in front of him. In the overtaking attempt he suffered a crash that finally left him thirteenth.
Prado finished second and Belgium managed to retain the three points that ended up deciding the championship. “We have fought until the last round for a title like the Nations title, when a long time ago being on the podium was unthinkable”the words of Paco Rico, national coach, perfectly summarized what has really been achieved.
Although having victory so close may make this second place mean little, the reality is that what the Spanish team achieved in Ernée breaks the ceiling that national motocross had to date.
We had to wait until the 79th edition of the Motocross of Nations for the podium to arrive, but from now on Spain will be a power to be taken into account, even more so after having led the provisional classification and reaching the final round with real possibilities of becoming champion.
