Simon Längenfelder decided to stay in MX2 and the smooth, technical German will now get the chance to defend his title against a lot of hungry youngsters but Längenfelder has to start as the favourite. With great technique, speed in every surface and now battle hardened after an extraordinary end to the 2025 MX2 title battle, Längenfelder ticks every box and he knows he can win now.
Sacha Coenen has all the speed in the world and a tremendous will to win that is reminiscent of Ricky Carmichael. Sacha has proven he can win races but it is when he doesn’t win that costs him points. Big crashes and small injuries kept him from title contention last year but it was another year of experience under his belt.
No fear and no lack of confidence, Sacha should be a title contender this year and he will bring more intensity than any other rider in the class!
Liam Everts had a great comeback season last year. A few technical problems hurt his overall points haul and took some momentum away but Liam’s consistency is usually on point and we saw just how much ability he has with his performance at the MXoN on the 450 with not much prep time.
This year Everts has had a full winter training, something he missed last year with the serious neck injury. Expect Everts to be improved in all aspects with a strong winter under his belt, including the confidence that coming in ready will give him. He might just need some early wins to lay down a marker to the rest that he is not to be taken lightly and can go on a win streak, because there is no doubt Everts has the ability and race smarts to make a run at this title.
Mathis Valin has stated his goal is to be world champion in 2026 and he certainly has the talent to make that a realistic aspiration. It may be a year early but Valin showed serious speed in the 2025 pre-season until injury halted his momentum before he got rolling again late in the season and showed his potential again at a very strong performance in the MXoN Stateside.
With another winter under his belt and another year of development on the factory Kawasaki, don’t rule Valin out of getting in amongst the three riders mentioned above!
