Belgian Lucas Coenen might have ended the 2024 season in the back of an ambulance, but his performances prior to his crash at the 2024 Motocross of Nations showed just how good this kid is.
Coenen has just switched from racing for the Husqvarna factory, where he finished runner-up in the 2024 MX2 world championships (behind Dutchman Kay de Wolf, Husqvarna), to signing up to race a 450cc MXGP bike for the De Carli KTM Factory Team, so he has an exciting and difficult time ahead for himself in 2025, including his also tackling supercross in the United States.
At just 17 years of age, Coenen has on a regular basis shown that he is special and while it is hard to know if he is as special as two young teenagers did in 2010 – Dutchman Jeffrey Herlings and German Ken Roczen – and there are enough signs already to believe that Coenen will have a long and successful career.
As far as his performance at the MXoN in early October, one thing is sure, he went to Matterley Basin in England full of confidence and he also knew, he would be up against the best 450cc riders in the world on his 250cc MX2 machine.
“Yes,” Coenen said. “I mean, I expected that I was really fast, and I knew it was possible to battle with the 450s. Like, in the past, Ryan (Villopoto) did it (at Budds Creek in 2007), he won two races. If I got the holeshot, I thought it would be possible, but for me, I came a little from the back, in 10th position.
“When I was battling with them, I passed Ken (Roczen), I passed Jeremy (Seewer), I passed a couple of other people, and I mean, that was already impressive and I was catching Jorge Prado and I was like, ‘this guy is the MXGP World champion and I am behind him and catching him’.
“Unfortunately, then I got a problem with the goggles and then I lost the good vision, and I was like, I will settle for fifth, but then a rut broke in front of me, and I didn’t see it and went over the bars and broke my collarbone. For the event, I have no big regrets and what I showed, I think people will remember. It was really cool to ride like that.”
Heading into the 2025 MXGP season, Coenen will have done his share of 450 riding, and challenging the likes of Eli Tomac, Jorge Prado, Jeffrey Herlings and many other 450 legends, means his confidence for the 2025 season will only grow in time.
“I showed to the people that I was fighting out there, with the best people in the World, so that isn’t bad already and also on the Saturday, I think I put on a show for everybody. I was hoping the track was not flat on Sunday, but it was a bit flatter than on Saturday.
“So, I thought, how is this going to be possible. I was a bit mad going into the first race and in beast mode. I saw Eli was in front and also Romain Febvre, and Prado, what do you want more (only Gajser, Tomac, Febvre and Prado were ahead when Coenen crashed).”
And now, with a winter of only riding his KTM 450, Coenen will arrive at the gate, in round one in Argentina with the knowledge, that even on his MX2 machine this year, he could clock laps times as quick as the best MXGP riders. He also knows that he can pick up a couple of seconds on his MX2 times, riding the MXGP bike.
“I never actually rode the 450 and the 250 in the same training, but I do know, on the 450 I am two seconds quicker than on the 250. From the outside, I look slow on the 450, because I am rolling the corners, but then we look at the times and it’s like, wow, this is fast.
“Sometimes people look fast from the outside and the lap times are slow, but I am completely the other way around. I don’t’ push the corners, just roll them and then it doesn’t look like WOW, but it’s fast, you know.”
Interestingly, this was the smoothly deceptive characteristic that made 10-time world champion Stefan Everts, also from Belgium, look slow but actually go very fast indeed.
So, for those who think the fans will miss Spanish MXGP world champion Jorge Prado in 2025, as he heads off to race in the United States, remember that Lucas Coenen is coming and will bring something new, and something special to the MXGP class and we don’t think anyone would be surprised to see him win a Grand Prix or two in his quest, to become every bit as good as those champions we have mentioned above and make his own story in on the Grand Prix scene.
It is believed Prado will race for Kawasaki in the USA in 2025, although that has yet to be officially announced.
Photo courtesy Husqvarna
Words by Geoff Meyer
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FINAL ROUND RESULTS AND STANDINGS FOR 2024:
MXGP – World Championship – Top 10 Classification:
1. Jorge Prado (ESP, GAS), 996 points; 2. Tim Gajser (SLO, HON), 986 p.; 3. Jeffrey Herlings (NED, KTM), 944 p.; 4. Jeremy Seewer (SUI, KAW), 686 p.; 5. Romain Febvre (FRA, KAW), 651 p.; 6. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED, FAN), 601 p.; 7. Calvin Vlaanderen (NED, YAM), 550 p.; 8. Kevin Horgmo (NOR, HON), 428 p.; 9. Valentin Guillod (SUI, HON), 388 p.; 10. Andrea Bonacorsi (ITA, YAM), 340 p.
MX2 – World Championship Classification:
1. Kay de Wolf (NED, HUS), 959 points; 2. Lucas Coenen (BEL, HUS), 939 p.; 3. Simon Laengenfelder (GER, GAS), 852 p.; 4. Liam Everts (BEL, KTM), 749 p.; 5. Mikkel Haarup (DEN, TRI), 694 p.; 6. Andrea Adamo (ITA, KTM), 674 p.; 7. Rick Elzinga (NED, YAM), 555 p.; 8. Sacha Coenen (BEL, KTM), 456 p.; 9. Camden McLellan (RSA, TRI), 424 p.; 10. Ferruccio Zanchi (ITA, HON), 393 p.