NETHERLANDS The Dutch are having a moment right now. They’ve dominated the Motocross of Nations the past couple of years, coming within a lapped rider of sweeping all six motos. Jeffrey Herlings and Glenn Coldenhoff are both back on form, and even the country’s king is a motocross fan. Now, after 73 years, they’ve finally won the big race they started.

DUNCAN Long considered the fastest woman in motocross, New Zealand’s oft-injured Courtney Duncan finally held it together for an entire season to claim the FIM Motocross World Championship at the final round in Turkey. Afterward, the Bike-It DRT Kawasaki rider admitted, “I needed to take my time and learn from these mistakes and failures, and when we felt like quitting, we kept going, and here we are, World Champion.”

MXoN DATE After three straight years of watching most of the world’s best riders flounder around on a muddy mess of a track, maybe it’s time to adjust some schedules and move the Motocross of Nations closer to the beginning of September like it used to be. Good weather is never a sure thing, but chances of having some are a lot better in late summer than they are in early fall.

TV COVERAGE We’ve all probably heard the old cliché about seeing things through rose-colored glasses but never actually thought what those lenses might look like if you were underwater. However, if you watched any part of the three-hour TV coverage of the MXoN this year, now you know. All that work and prep to transform the Assen TT circuit into a motocross track might have looked impressive on TV. Too bad no one thought to bring some paper towels.