Injuries are part of motorsport, Jens Walvoort knows all about that. The 21-year-old motocross rider from Etten-Leur even trained last year with two broken cervical vertebrae. This season, his third year in MX2, he hopes to remain injury-free. “I am close to the top, I think we can achieve good results this season,” he says in the run-up to the second race weekend of this season.
Driving with two broken vertebrae in the neck sounds quite bizarre. Walvoort suffered some neck pain during training in Spain in 2025, after a fall earlier in the week. A day later he went to the doctor and the fractures were discovered. It cost him several matches.
“Setbacks are just part of it,” he says matter-of-factly. “I have had quite a few injuries in my career. From broken cervical vertebrae and broken legs to a broken knee, broken collarbone or a dislocated shoulder. Everything has recovered well and I am fit. In any case, I am someone who never gives up, that’s how it is.”
In the previous two years of MX2, the level below the MXGP, Walvoort finished fifteenth and nineteenth in the rankings. The top 10 is his goal this season. Given his current tenth place after the first GP in Argentina, that seems a realistic goal: “I will ride everything this season and am confident that something good will come of it. There is a good team behind me with people who will help me with everything.”
“I can’t just be a tourist there.”
After the GP in Argentina, he boarded a plane to Spain on Thursday, where he will compete in Almonte this weekend. It sounds like a dream life. “It is, but it’s not like I can act like a tourist there. I generally don’t see more than the airport and the runway.”
In two years’ time, Walvoort wants to move to the MXGP. That is why his entire life is dedicated to sport: “From training on the motorcycle, cycling, the gym to eating well and sleeping well, I do a lot for it. My goal is to reach the absolute top in the world.”
MXGP live on Omroep Brabant
The MXGP, including Jeffrey Herlings from Oploo and Kay de Wolf from Eersel, can be seen live next Sunday on www.omroepbrabant.nl. The first heat is at 1:15 PM, the second at 4:10 PM. The subsequent matches can also be viewed via the Omroep Brabant website.
His development also includes watching the ‘big men’, such as his peer Kay de Wolf from Eersel, who is making his debut in the MXGP this season. “Kay always does great things on the bike, I can peek a little at how he does that.”
But his greatest example is fellow provincial Jeffrey Herlings. “I can learn from his character and race strategy, among other things. The last five to ten minutes, for example, are always so strong from him. He gives everything and often walks away with the win. I try to apply those points in my own races.”
