Source: Supplied.

Team France has won the 2015 Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations (MXoN) at Ernee, led by MXGP World Champion Romain Febvre alongside Marvin Musquin and Gautier Paulin to claim the Chamberlain Trophy back-to-back.

It was a mixed, but overall positive, day for Team Australia, credited seventh overall after a determined effort from Todd Waters, Luke Clout and Dean Ferris.

In race one (MXGP/MX2), Team USA’s Justin Barcia and Team France’s Marvin Musquin had an epic duel in the first half of the race as they held nothing back in their battle for the lead.

While the intense French fans were backing the US based Frenchman, he threw it away in spectacular style on a jump at the bottom of the track. Nevertheless, he was quick to regroup and only lost two positions.

In the time it took Musquin to regroup, Team Russia’s Evgeny Bobryshev and Team Germany’s Max Nagl took over the second and third positions and rode it home unchallenged.

At one point Team USA’s MX2 rider Jeremy Martin started closing in on Musquin for fourth, but as the Frenchman, who set a laptime two seconds faster than anyone else on track, returned to full force Martin couldn’t respond to the challenge.

Meanwhile Team New Zealand’s super-spoiler Ben Townley was riding on rails as one of the veterans of the event and came home in sixth ahead of the defending champion and top qualifier Gautier Paulin, who himself crashed heavily during the moto.

After an opening lap incident Todd Waters was able to claw his way up to a hard-fought 13th by race’s end, with MX2 rider Luke Clout credited 33rd after he battled through hand and rib injuries sustained in qualifying.

Race two featured the MX2/Open entries, and with Team USA taking the early lead after Justin Barcia cleaned up in race one, their Open rider Cooper Webb was proper fired up and ready to maintain the solid attack of the stars and stripes.

Webb banked the Fox Holeshot cheque after leading Great Britain’s Dean Wilson and Team France’s Romain Febvre around turn one. Febvre didn’t waste much time in getting around Wilson however and quickly went after Webb.

The hillside erupted with excitement as the home rider went up the inside of Webb for the lead. Webb didn’t let it go and kept hot on the heels of the world champion before tipping over in an attempt to avoid a slower rider.

Webb’s fall took the heat off of Febvre, but he didn’t lose a position and still came home for a solid second. Meanwhile the battle for third was raging as Team Belgium’s Jeremy Van Horebeek and the MX2’s Marvin Musquin and Jeremy Martin went by Wilson.

Van Horebeek was setting a fierce pace but couldn’t hold off the wrath of the Frenchman who was egged on by the patriotic crowd.

Musquin, with his creative line choice, put a solid inside to outside pass on Van Horebeek and pulled a five second gap for a comfortable third. Van Horebeek and Martin rounded out the top five.

Australia’s Clout improved this time with a solid performance on his way to 13th at the finish, while Ferris made his first appearance and had to climb from some early troubles to 19th.

The final race, Open/MXGP, saw Sweden’s Fillip Bengtsson and Team New Zealand’s Ben Townley going neck and neck around turn one.

Chasing them was France’s young phenomenon Romain Febvre followed by Team Russia’s Evgeny Bobryshev and Team Belgium’s Ken De Dycker.

Throwing a spanner in the works, both of the race one and race two holeshotters, Team USA’s Justin Barcia and Cooper Webb, were buried while a hungry Febvre was taking no prisoners on his mission to the lead.

He managed to out-drag Townley in a bar-to-bar sprint towards turn one and although he made the pass stick, he couldn’t shake the Kiwi who chased him home for a mind-blowing second.

As the race ticked over half way Webb caught Barcia, who was running sixth at the time. With team tactics coming into play, Barcia pulled over for his teammate Webb, but the youngster came undone three turns later when he stalled the bike.

Knowing what was at stake, Barcia impressively passed Paulin and Bobryshev to come home in third. Bobryshev put in another great ride for fourth ahead of Paulin while Webb managed to get his bike fired up third kick and came home in sixth.

Waters had another consistent ride without being able to show his full potential mixed in the mid-pack, claiming 12th, while Ferris was 20th after running fourth and comfortably inside the top 10 for almost the entire moto until two late incidents.

It was complete and utter pandemonium at the finish as Febvre brought it home for France with a perfect score in the Open class.

Paulin finished fourth overall in the MXGP class, which combined with Musquin’s overall victory in MX2, saw Team France defend the Chamberlain Trophy on home soil for the first time in history.

Team USA came so close, yet so far, with Barcia winning the MXGP class while his teammates Martin and Webb finished second in their classes for the team to lose by only two points.

Meanwhile Team Belgium made the best of a bad day to round off the podium in third. Team Latvia’s Pauls Jonass was awarded the Ricky Carmichael award for the most promising young rider.

The Australians, who were within podium contention throughout the final moto and close to fourth before the late mishap dropped Ferris down the order of moto three, finished seventh, one position ahead of the Kiwis thanks to the incredible Townley.

2015 Motocross of Nations
Ernee, France

Race one (MXGP/MX2) results:
1. Justin Barcia (USA)
2. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS)
3. Maximilian Nagl (GER)
4. Marvin Musquin (FRA)
5. Jeremy Martin (USA)
6. Ben Townley (NZL)
7. Gautier Paulin (FRA)
8. Shaun Simpson (GBR)
9. Valentin Guillod (SUI)
10. Jeremy Seewer (SUI)
13. Todd Waters (AUS)
33. Luke Clout (AUS)

Race two (MX2/Open) results:
1. Romain Febvre (FRA)
2. Cooper Webb (USA)
3. Marvin Musquin (FRA)
4. Jeremy Van Horebeek (BEL)
5. Jeremy Martin (USA)
6. Dean Wilson (GBR)
7. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED)
8. Tanel Leok (EST)
9. Pascal Rauchenecker (AUT)
10. Jeremy Seewer (SUI)
13. Luke Clout (AUS)
19. Dean Ferris (AUS)

Race three (Open/MXGP) results:
1. Romain Febvre (FRA)
2. Ben Townley (NZL)
3. Justin Barcia (USA)
4. Evgeny Bobryshev (RUS)
5. Gautier Paulin (FRA)
6. Cooper Webb (USA)
7. Jeremy Van Horebeek (BEL)
8. Dean Wilson (GBR)
9. Ken de Dycker (BEL)
10. Glenn Coldenhoff (NED)
12. Todd Waters (AUS)
20. Dean Ferris (AUS)

Nations overall results:
1. France
2. USA
3. Belgium
4. Estonia
5. Switzerland
6. The Netherlands
7. Australia
8. New Zealand
9. Germany
10. Austria

Click here for detailed results