The Return Of Belgium – MXGP’S Most Successful Nation Hits 600 Gp Victories

It might be hard to believe, when looking at the last decade or so of domination from an Italian, a Dutchman, or even a Slovenian, but we are starting to get a feeling that was familiar to generations of fans across the lifespan of the FIM Motocross World Championships – the knowledge that a Belgian winner is extremely likely, every weekend.

The Coenen twins in particular have raised the black, yellow and red tricolour and got the Belgian anthem “La Brabançonne” played at a more frequent rotation, and the surprisingly measured, patient, brace of second places to give Sacha Coenen overall victory at Montevarchi, marked the 600^th Grand Prix win for a male Belgian Motocross racer.

This is, of course, far and away a record in the sport.  So much so, that second-placed France, with 291 victories, and The Netherlands with 241 in third, don’t even reach the Belgian total with their results combined!

Incredibly, it has also been done with only 40 riders adding to that total.  In that department, the USA is close with 39 winners for its 120 wins, and France itself has 36. 

Although the early years from the first World Championship in 1957 were dominated by Sweden, who claimed eight of the first nine world titles (the other was the 1958 crown of Belgian Rene Baeten), but have been stuck on 196 wins since the year 2000, it was the late-sixties and seventies run of legends like Joel Robert, Roger DeCoster, and Sylvain Geboers that put Belgium on top of the table, probably for all time, as they established the dominance of Japanese machinery within the sport at that time.

As the 125cc World Championship was established in 1975, it was immediately beset with new Belgian heroes. Gaston Rahier took three world titles on a bounce, and Harry Everts was soon to follow with three more as new innovations sparked the rapid evolution of Motocross machines into the 1980s.

Once more there was no shortage of Belgian heroes, as the previous generation aided the new one in maintaining the dominance. Andre Malherbe, Georges Jobe, and Sylvain Geboers’ youngest brother Eric burst into prominence, and would have dominated the 1980s 500cc class completely if it weren’t for the iron will of Swedish hero Hakan Carlqvist and British lion Dave Thorpe.  Marc Velkeneers never won a world title, but kept the Belgian presence in the smaller classes during that time.

Just as Jobe was collecting the last two of his five world titles, a new force from a new generation rose from the old.  Stefan Everts became a World Champion at the age of 18, and would go on to become the first ever to reach a century of Grand Prix victories. Three times second in the world to Stefan was Marnicq Bervoets, who took 19 GP wins of his own in the process.  The 1990s saw more Belgian strength in the big-bike class, as Jacky Martens and the force of nature that is Joel Smets took more titles and victories.  Joel would go on to match, and pass, the man he was named after, Joel Robert, by reaching the iconic 50-GP win total not long after Stefan.

After Everts had retired, Steve Ramon and Sven Breugelmans became the most recent World Champions from the small split-language territory.  Riders such as Ken de Dycker, Kevin Strijbos, and Jeremy van Horebeek would keep the wins coming, but no titles.  Clement Desalle, and later Jago Geerts, would pass Bervoets to become the riders who took the most GP wins without a world title to go with them.  It’s been a frustrating couple of decades for Belgian fans.

Building through the last few seasons, whilst also battling with the first third-generation GP winner, Liam Everts, the Coenen brothers have risen to become perhaps the most talked-about phenomenon in modern Motocross. Lucas has swiftly risen up the all-time table with 20 victories, while Sacha has eased back from his crash-happy early years to become quite possibly the fastest 250 rider on the planet.  Although the level of circuits available has declined, and the future of the sport in the country is still a work in progress, it’s amazing to see this tradition of Belgian success continue, and we could not let the milestone of 600 GP victories pass by without a small note here.

Stefan Everts - France 2006

 

Here’s the list of all 40 GP winners, up until the MXGP of Portugal, from that small but proud nation of Belgium, who have created an unrivalled legacy in Grand Prix Motocross.

Stefan Everts	101
Joel Smets	57
Joel Robert	50
Eric Geboers	39
Roger DeCoster	36
Georges Jobe	30
Gaston Rahier	30
Andre Malherbe	28
Harry Everts	26
Jago Geerts	24
Clement Desalle	23
Lucas Coenen	20
Marnicq Bervoets	19
Jacky Martens	17
Sven Breugelmans	15
Sylvain Geboers	14
Sacha Coenen	7
Liam Everts	6
Kevin Strijbos	6
Marc Velkeneers	6
Ken De Dycker	5
Steve Ramon	5
Andre Vromans	5
Jaak van Velthoven	5
Rene Baeten	4
Jeremy van Horebeek	2
Cedric Melotte	2
Patrick Caps	2
Johan Boonen	2
Gerald Delepine	2
Dirk Geukens	2
Raymond Boven	2
Kevin Wouts	1
Joel Roelants	1
Jo Martens	1
Jean-Paul Mingels	1
Andre Massant	1
Gilbert de Roover	1
Hubert Scaillet	1
Nic Jansen	1

 

Joel Smets - Spain 2003

 

All-Time GP Wins by Nation (After Round 9 of the 2026 Season)

Pos.	Nation	Wins	Winners
1st	Belgium	600	40
2nd	France	291	36
3rd	The Netherlands	241	19
4th	Italy	236	22
5th	Sweden	196	21
6th	Great Britain	153	29
7th	USA	120	39
8th	Germany	90	16
9th	Spain	67	7
10th	Slovenia	57	3
11th	Finland	53	6
12th	South Africa	36	5
13th	USSR / Russia	36	8
14th	New Zealand	36	4
15th	Czechia / Czechoslovakia	28	12
16th	Switzerland	27	5
17th	Latvia	12	1
18th	Australia	9	4
19th	Austria	12	3
20th	Japan	8	2
21st	Denmark	6	2
22nd	Estonia	7	3
23rd	Ireland	5	2
24th	Portugal	4	1
25th	Norway	4	1
26th	Bulgaria	1	1