[Update]

The Netherlands' Calvin Vlaanderen is out for the rest of the day after taking a rock to the eye on the first moto. His eye was bleeding and doctors won't allow him to race. This means the Dutch won't have a chance of winning the Nations overall.

Race 2 (Open and MX2)

Another moto and another Dutch runaway. This time it was Jeffrey Herlings’ teammate Glenn Coldenhoff who dominated in the mud.

Coldenhoff grabbed the holeshot over a trio of MX2 riders led by Jorge Prado. Team USA was off to a sluggish start, as Justin Barcia rounded the first turn in dead last. Aaron Plessinger wasn’t doing much better, as he was buried outside the top ten.

With Coldenhoff running away up front, the battle for second was heating up between Prado, Ben Watson, and Hunter Lawrence. Prado held second for most of the moto, but Lawrence made a late push after passing Watson and took over second with two laps remaining. He finished 16 seconds behind Coldenhoff. Prado held on for second with Watson and Jeremy Seewer rounding out the top five.

It was a disaster moto for France. Jordi Tixier suffered a mechanical and did not finish and Dylan Ferrandis was running sixth before he crashed late and took eighth.

After starting dead last, Barcia charged through the pack to secure ninth, while Plessinger struggled again and finished 16th.

Through two motos, Australia is in the lead with 34. They are followed by Belgium (42), Italy (42), Spain (45), and USA (47). France is currently sixth.

If you were to drop the worst score for every country, the standings would look like this: 

France - 17
Australia – 20
Spain - 23
Belgium – 24
Italy – 28
USA – 29
…
Netherlands - 38

Race 3 (MXGP and Open)

Entering the third and final moto, France needed big rides from Gautier Paulin and Jordi Tixier if they were going to win the Motocross of Nations for a fifth straight time. After a DNF for Tixier in race 2, the team had to swap engines for the third moto and hope that they didn’t make any mistakes.

Italy was also in contention for the overall, as Alessandro Lupino grabbed the holeshot and Antonio Cairoli was running inside the top ten. The stars of the moto though were once again the Dutch, as Glenn Coldenhoff took over the lead on the opening lap. After a seventh place start Jeffrey Herlings worked into second around the 20 minute mark and the Dutch duo ran off to an easy 1-2 finish. The Netherlands were easily the best country on the day, with Coldenhoff going 1-1 and Herlings 1-2, but they would only finish third overall due to a DNF-DNS day from MX2 rider Calvin Vlaanderen. 

The battle for the overall was tight all race as the Italians battled with Paulin. Cairoli passed Paulin early, but the veteran gained momentum in the later stages of the race. He tracked down Cairoli around the nine-minute mark and put France back into the lead (Tixier was running 14th at the time). With two minutes left, Paulin gave France a cushion after he passed Lupino.   

Paulin would finish third, while Tixier came home in 15th, which was good enough for the overall. It’s the fifth straight year France has won the overall. Cairoli and Lupino finished the moto fourth and fifth. Italy finished second overall. 

Team USA needed some luck to win the overall entering the final race. And, well, they didn’t get any. Both Eli Tomac and Justin Barcia got bad starts. Tomac eventually worked up to seventh, while Barcia fell back to 13th. It wasn’t good enough to land the team on the podium, as they scored 49 points and finished a disappointing sixth.