After a difficult start to the 2025 MXGP season, Calvin Vlaanderen delivered a performance that reminded everyone of his true capabilities. At a challenging and ever-changing circuit, the Factory Yamaha rider was right back in the mix at the sharp end of the field—showing the speed, composure, and confidence that has been missing in the early rounds. We caught up with Calvin after the race to talk about what’s changed, how bike setup has transformed his results, and how it felt to be battling with the likes of Herlings and Coenen again. Honest as ever, Vlaanderen also opened up about the frustration of the season’s early struggles, an injury concern that could affect the run-up to Latvia and more.
GateDrop: Calvin, Where has that Calvin Vlaanderen been for the first part of the 2025 season? That was unbelievable. Maybe it surprised yourself a little bit?
Vlaanderen: Yeah, it was good.
GateDrop: You were back to your best, eh?
Vlaanderen: Yeah, yeah. I felt really good yesterday. I just had a bad start yesterday in the qualifying race. But yeah, the speed has been good the last week, I can’t complain. We did a little bit of a change on the bike after Arco/Switzerland and since then I’ve been riding good, back to my normal self. So I’m happy about that. It’s just a shame the second race didn’t go so well. But we take the positives.
GateDrop: I think you’re on the new frame on this Yamaha. It sounds like it was difficult at the start. Have you made many changes to the bike? And if so, what kind of changes to get more comfortable?
Vlaanderen: I can’t really say too much about what we’ve done. But just that I was struggling in the beginning of the season with something. We’ve gone back to something that I was using last year and it’s made me more comfortable.
GateDrop: What was your thoughts on the track? Completely different from the first to second moto, like every MXGP this year. Not normal if we don’t get a bit of rain… it was very dry and then it went from very dry to pretty wet…
Vlaanderen: In the first race, like I said, when you’re feeling good and you’re flowing, then everything’s coming easy to you and I enjoyed the track a lot. The second race was the complete opposite. It was full of mud and then the bike is so much heavier because you get roosted and at the back of the pack. So I didn’t enjoy riding the second race to be honest.
GateDrop: What was it like following Lucas and Jeffrey in the first moto? It’s been a while since you’ve been at the front, following the top guys. Did it feel good?
Vlaanderen: It definitely felt good. It didn’t feel out of place or something. It kind of reminded me back in 2018 when I was following Jonass and Prado around here. I felt faster than Jeffrey and Lucas in the first race to be honest. I could see Jeffrey was also faster than Lucas but he just couldn’t find the way through. I had Febvre on the back of me the whole moto so I couldn’t really try something different. I knew that if I did, he would have taken the chance to pass which he tried a couple of times but I was pretty relaxed. I knew that if I just blocked the line, it would be fine.
GateDrop: Like you say, you do belong there at the front so that’s probably why it felt pretty normal. But how frustrating was the start of the year? You were battling for top ten results, that’s not where you should be. It must have been tough to deal with…
Vlaanderen: It was and nothing was clicking. I was trying so hard. Physically and mentally I was in such a good place but it just wasn’t working out. I was like, what is going on? Something was just not right and I was doubting a lot about something. When we did the change (to the bike), riding felt so much easier and immediately top five times. I wasn’t even trying harder than before, I was riding just easier than before. So it’s a nice feeling to know that the pace was always there and that just something needed to change.
GateDrop: Confidence is such a big thing in this sport. And I think certainly the first moto should do you the world of good. So hopefully you can do that more regularly. You just need to get better starts…
Vlaanderen: We’re struggling with the starts at the moment. All three of us but we’re trying to improve. We’ve made a small change on the bike today actually. I think that is going to help us in the next weeks. I just had some wheel spin in both races off the gate so that was not the best. But for the rest, I’m happy and looking forward to the next races.
GateDrop: This track has pretty much been the same for, I don’t know, 15, 20 years. It was nice to see some changes, I thought. What did you think of the changes? I know a lot of the 450 guys said it was pretty tight for you guys…
Vlaanderen: Yeah, I didn’t enjoy the changes. I liked the old track better, there was more passing opportunities. Especially with that long left-hander before you used the big triple. Also when you jumped down, that right-hander was always a place you could make passes and now it’s kind of just follow the leader especially with the wave section on the left. There’s nothing really that you could do different but I like that they’re trying to do something different. They need some more experience from a rider to help with these changes. They lack some experience to make these kind of changes.
GateDrop: Also on the prep. Do you like the prep or not? Sometimes they rip it so deep that it means there’s just ruts everywhere and then nobody can move…
Vlaanderen: I think they’ve been pretty good with the prep the last weeks. Obviously with the weather that we’ve had, they can’t do too much. I think the weekend was good with the track prep. The last weekend was pretty good.
GateDrop: Just on MXGP World Championship in general. The level is so high. You might finish 10th and you’re not happy. But at the same time, there’s a lot of good riders in the class. If you get bad starts, it’s not easy for anybody. That’s what it seems like anyway. The level is high…
Vlaanderen: The level is really high especially the front guys. Lucas (Coenen) is pretty impressive this year so hats off to him. He’s riding great. Jeffrey’s coming back, you can see Jeffrey’s old form is coming back. And Romain is also riding the best he’s ever had, I think, in my opinion. It’s a shame that we miss Tim. I think it’s always nice to have these guys battling up front and for me to be matching their pace and feeling like I can run up there is nice for me. This is where I feel like I should be battling for podiums. It’s all about that start, man.
GateDrop: What’s the plan between now and Latvia? One or two days in the sand?
Vlaanderen: I actually tweaked my knee in the second moto. So I’m going to go get some checks done tomorrow. Hopefully it is nothing too serious.
GateDrop: Was it painful to ride with in the second moto?
Vlaanderen: Yeah, it was. It was not nice. So we’ll see. I’ve gone already for a bit of a check, the ligaments seem fine, like the big ligaments. I need to go check it out tomorrow and see how it’s going.
