Cas Valk’s 2026 season continues to build momentum, and the opening round of the Dutch Masters at Heerde offered another valuable step forward for the young Dutch talent. Battling through a brutally rough circuit against a field of MX2 regulars, Valk showed both resilience and speed to secure a podium finish—while also highlighting the areas he and the TM factory team are still working hard to improve.
Despite not feeling at his absolute best, particularly with arm pump playing a role across both motos, Valk once again demonstrated his consistency at the front of the pack. With confidence growing on the TM machine and progress being made week by week, the focus is firmly on closing the gap to the top five in MX2.
We caught up with Valk as he reflects on a demanding day at Heerde, the challenges of adapting to different track conditions ahead of Sardinia, life as a factory TM rider, and his determination to keep progressing as the season unfolds.
GateDrop: Cas, That’s the first Dutch Masters done, I’m glad I was not racing around there today, that was rough. Did you enjoy it out there at all?
Valk: Yeah, I mean it’s a nice track. The track was actually pretty hard underneath this morning, but it got quite deep in the end. It was pretty sketchy actually, some hard edges on the track. But anyway, the track was actually quite good today, it was a nice track.
GateDrop: It was very very rough, but good preparation probably for Sardinia, I don’t even think that’ll get as rough as that…
Valk: Sardinia is different, you know, it’s Sardinia, the sand is more soft, and I think a bit longer berms. Today was actually a lot of short berms, but no, for sure, I think it will get more rough in Sardinia, but also today was rough.
GateDrop: Just talk me through your races really. I mean, you were quite comfortable up at the sharp end, but probably not the best start, so it would help you to start in the top three in both races?
Valk: Yeah, for sure. For the first moto, the gate actually dropped really quick, so I was a little bit unprepared for the gate dropping that quick. It was a bit unexpected, but I still managed to get a decent start, and then I slowly worked my way up. In the end I managed to pass for second, so I finished second in the first one. I actually got a lot of arm pump during the moto, a lot of arm pump, but I still managed to finish it in second.
For the second moto, they held the gate really long, so it was the opposite of the first race. I think someone hit the gate, so I was again a little bit out of, because it was next to me, I think two places next to me, someone hit the gate, so I lost my focus a bit, but still anyway I got a better start in the second moto, I was I think third, I was in third for quite long in the second race. Then Karlis passed me in the end, I struggled again a bit with arm pump, so overall I ended up third overall. It’s nice to start on the podium, but for sure I was hoping to finish a little bit better, but anyway it was already I think a better race than the last couple of races, so it’s always good to make more hours on race tracks and race conditions to do some more gate drops, it’s always better.
GateDrop: Obviously you’re Dutch Masters champion. Did you feel any pressure being the champion, coming into this weekend, racing in front of your home crowd, or for you was it just another race?
Valk: No, it’s just another race, of course last year I won the championship, but I mean I don’t think there was so much pressure on me. I don’t think people expect me to win, maybe some people expected me to win, but unfortunately today I was not able to fight for the win, I hope to make some more progress in the next couple of weeks and to be more up front at the next Dutch Masters, to be more fighting for eventually a race win and fighting for the overall.
GateDrop: Winning the championship last year, did you think about running the number one plate, or not?
Valk: It’s just a Dutch Masters championship, you know, at the moment I was thinking, no, I’m not going to run the number one plate, you know, it’s not a world championship or something. You know, it’s just a Dutch Masters championship, so for me it didn’t really matter, I was just going to race with 172.
GateDrop: I mean, that felt like really good GP prep today, you had the Reisulis, you had Kay, Jens as well and all running a high pace, it’s good prep, you know, it’s better than not doing anything this weekend?
Valk: Yeah, we had some good MX2 boys here this weekend, so it’s always good to race against your normal competitors, to push each other. I think it was a good race this weekend.
GateDrop: Where are you with the TM? I know when you first got on the bike you really liked it, still you are in around the top 10 of MX2, but I know what you’re like, you probably want to strive for that top five? Are there still improvements with the bike to be made, or do you think it’s on you now or a bit of both?
Valk: For sure we’re aiming, or at least I am aiming to be more up front, I’m aiming to be closer to the top five, and eventually maybe to get into the top five. At the moment we are still, I think, a little bit off, the first couple of GPs were not that easy. We had a bit of struggles with multiple things, but anyway I think we are working hard these last couple of weeks to try to solve some things, especially on the sand tracks, we can improve quite a bit there. On the hard pack tracks I think we are a bit more close, because on Saturday in Switzerland I actually had my best qualifying, and the qualifying race was the riding was much better, so overall the feeling was better there, so I mean week by week, race by race, we’re making little steps.
GateDrop: What’s it like being a factory TM rider, if you ask for something at one of the higher level factories you probably got it within a day, but TM are still building everything themselves as far as I know, so is there a bit of a delay there, that is probably understandable as well?
Valk: Yeah, for sure, it’s a much more smaller factory than some other brands, but for sure it’s not always easy, but also when the factory is more small, I mean you have shorter lines, you are directly sometimes at the boss of TM, we have contacts sometimes. For sure it has positives and negatives, but overall it’s been okay.
GateDrop: Just on the level of MX2 this year, I mean EMX is 40 riders at the gate every race, you know a lot of people say MX2 there might only be 20 riders blah blah blah, but when you’re watching from the sidelines everyone’s fast?
Valk: For sure, I think in MX2 we don’t have 40 riders on the gate every weekend, I don’t think even one weekend, but I think the level is high this year. There are a lot of fast guys, you can eventually finish thirteenth or fourteenth. When you have a good start you can maybe finish sixth, seventh, or even more up front. You always have some title contenders that have a bit more speed than the others. For sure I think the level is high, it’s maybe not that wide, you know it’s not 40 guys, but at least there are 18 or 20 fast riders always there.
GateDrop: You’ve got Sardinia next, followed by Arco, will you go to Italy now and spend some time with the team and put some hard practice in?
Valk: Yeah for sure, now I stay here for Sardinia of course, to do one more training in the sand, and then we go to Sardinia. Then from Sardinia we stay in Italy and then probably do some trainings with the team then we head to Arco.
GateDrop: Then there’s a big break after Arco I think, do you know yet what you’re going to do over that break? It’s quite strange because it’s very unknown, I mean are you going to do some more national races? I know Jeffrey, I think he’s doing the French Elite, but he loves racing that man (laughs)…
Valk: Yeah he loves racing. I think there is one Dutch Masters, or maybe even two, I’m not sure, but one Dutch Masters is sure. Other than that I didn’t make plans yet to do other races, but if we need more racing, if we feel like we need it, we probably can make do more races in Italy, or somewhere else, you know. It’s a long break, but I’m sure we will keep on working.
