After last weekends classic MXGP of Portugal, we all sit and wait to see what Lucas Coenen and Jeffrey Herlings bring us in South Africa. We have seen legendary battles from the history of Grand Prix motocross and it looked like, this youngster vs veteran battle might be one of the best yet.

Be it one of the first real rivalries with Torsten Hallman and Joel Robert in the 1960s, or Roger De Coster vs Heikki Mikkola in the 70s, or maybe Dave Thorpe vs Eric Geboers vs Andrea Malherbe vs Hakan Carlqvist in the 80s.

In the last 30 years, we have had Stefan Everts vs Greg Albertyn, or Everts vs Tortelli, then of course, it was often Herlings vs somebody, be it Ken Roczen, Antonio Cairoli, Tommy Searle, Romain Febvre, Tim Gajser, or now, Lucas Coenen.

We all know those battles with Herlings were at times dramatic, his bar banging with Searle or Cairoli probably the most intense, but now at 31 years of age (nearly 32), we get this fight with the 19-year-old, Coenen and it feels like a fire has been lit, and who comes out on top, is anyones guess.

I had a feeling when Coenen returned from America and his celebrations of finishing second to the fastest man on the planet, Jett Lawrence, that Herlings would be waiting.

If there is something we have all learnt about Jeffrey Herlings in his long career, he is up for a challenge and to see Coenen get all the adulation from the motocross world, that was motivation enough for Herlings to put his name back in the bracket, of "fastest man on the planet".

Not surprisingly, he did that in Italy and Portugal this last month and you just know, an angry Herlings, is a tough rider to beat. It was reported last weekend, that Herlings isn't happy at the moment, lost points due to DNFs can do that.

Last weekend around the Agueda circuit, they didn’t really bang bars, but what they did do was cross paths on a handful of occasions. The eventual winner was Herlings and to be honest, if the Dutchman hadn’t had his two very critical DNFs in the last month, this title fight would be much more exciting and I would be tipping Herlings to actually win the championship, if both remained fit.

However, there are two DNF’s in the equation and nothing is going to delete those from the championship points. At best, my feeling is, he could easily have lost a maximum 50 points, which would still give Coenen the championship lead, but just by a point or two. I would imagine that he probably lost more like 40 points and that would give Coenen a 17-point lead at the moment. But as I mentioned, it means nothing now, its 57 points and we all have to live with that.

What those lost points do mean, is that Coenen has way less pressure and while the Belgian seems amazing under pressure, we did see in 2025, how he blew the championship in the final rounds in Sweden and China and more or less handed the MXGP trophy to Romain Febvre. I am sure Herlings remembered that and wanted so dearly to keep the youngster under as much pressure as possible.

Now, we go to South Africa and I believe, Herlings, with the momentum of two GP wins will want to really shove the nose of Coenen in the mud, and their Portuguese battle, makes me believe, Herlings will win again, a third time in a row and add GP wins number six in 2026.

We should not forget, when Herlings gets on a roll, he is hard to beat, and he did that in Arnhem, Turkey and China last year. Coenen, with a 57-point lead over Herlings, can easily walk away from South Africa with 2-2-2 results and feel comfortable, as the lead would still be 51 points.

It seems, the two are starting to get some distaste for each other, and both are very proud, and both hate losing more than most riders I have ever seen. Coenen, the young man with the red plate, with a career ahead of him, and Herlings, the veteran, who has been the fastest man on the planet on numerous seasons, but knows, his days of being a GP rider are limited.

Pride will decide who wins in South Africa and for me, the HRC man has more pride than anyone in the sports history and he is also, a rider, who once starts building momentum, is nearly impossible to beat. Bring on South Africa.