Team France - Winners

Team France continued their domination of the Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations Presented by Fiat Professional, and as always it was Romain Febvre and Gautier Paulin who held strong for the team, but also World Enduro rider Christophe Charlier surprised everyone.

“I had two solid races and two good starts, “Febvre said. “The new bike is just amazing. We had been working for a few weeks but it already felt better. In the first race I was battling with Jeffrey and when he crashed I had to take off my goggles because I couldn’t see so well. With the lapped riders it was really difficult so I took a safe second. In the second race I felt I couldn’t continue again like this so stopped quickly for goggles but anyway we are so happy to have won for the fourth time. People had doubts about Christophe on social media but he won both the ISDE and the Nations and that’s quite amazing.”

For Paulin it was his fourth victory, joining Jeff Smith from Team Great Britain in the 1960s and Jeff Ward from the Team USA dream teams of the 1980s and 90s as the only riders to have won it four years running.

 “Winning the Nations is a crazy feeling that never gets old, “Paulin said. “This is such a special event with fans and spectators travelling from all parts of the word to see us race. I really want to thank my teammates Christophe Charlier and Romain Febvre. They did a great job and the overall win belongs to all three of us. The atmosphere this year has been amazing. As for me, it feels great to be able to get a fourth consecutive win with the team. I did my best to secure two good results in the final races, and I made it happen. I loved every moment of this year’s Motocross of Nations.”

As for Charlier, his results really made sure that the French would walk away with the Chamberlain Trophy.

 “I’m over the moon with this victory, “Charlier said. “Especially for me focusing all my efforts this season into the EnduroGP World Championship, it’s been a crazy experience coming back to the pinnacle of motocross competition. The Nations is always a huge event and this season it seemed that it was even more spectacular. As for me, I spent the last couple of weeks training on the FC 250 machine and it all worked out pretty well here in the UK. I got 14th in the first race and then managed to improve to sixth in race two. It’s been a crazy journey and it feels amazing to have now won the ISDE and the Nations during the same season.”

Now it will be onto USA in 2018 and the Redbud Motocross of Nations. Can the French win it again?