It is all-change at the top of the Moto class standings of the 2026 FIM Sand Races World Championship following a dramatic third round – the Ronde de Sables Loon Plage in northern France – that saw Honda team-mates Cyril Genot and Todd Kellett dominate the field, Damien Knuiman – Yamaha finished third and series leader Håkon Fredriksen – Yamaha Monster Drag’on Tek forced to dig deep in tenth after a technical problem cost him four laps.
- Cyril Genot and Todd Kellett lead home Honda one-two in France
- Technical issue costs Håkon Fredriksen series lead as Damien Knuiman takes over
- Mathilde Martinez maintains her unbeaten record in Moto Women
As a result, Dutchman Knuiman now leads with two rounds remaining, but his advantage is just a single pointahead of Belgian Genot and Norway’s Fredriksen who are tied for second with defending champion Kellett from Great Britain climbing from sixth to fourth, a further eleven points adrift.
In the Moto Women category, series leader Mathilde Martinez – Honda from France extended her advantage over her compatriot and defending champion Mathilde Denis – Yamaha with her third victory in a row, while in the Moto Veteran class Belgium’s Daniel Drooghaag – KTM tasted defeat for the first time this year as home rider Maxime Jeanne – Yamaha came out on top.
Competing in separate, shorter races in the morning, experienced Frenchman Pablo Henouillle – Honda maintained his one-hundred per cent record in Moto Vintage and young Israeli racer Ben Almagor – KTM stretched his lead in Moto Junior.
With a seven-kilometre course and a single two-and-a-half-hour racedetermining the result rather than the two shorter motos that featured at the opening rounds in Morocco and Italy, the series’ contenders lined up on the front row and it was Genot who led the field out of the opening right-hand hairpin with Kellett second from Fredriksen and Frenchman Adrien Petit – Honda.
Racing alongside a large field of competitors contesting round two of the Championnat des France des Sables, France’s Jeremy Hauquier – Yamaha Monster Drag’on Tek was the next registered rider in seventh, just ahead of Knuiman.
Riding wide, sweeping lines in the flowing turns, Kellett quickly muscled his way to the front and after the opening lap was almost eleven seconds ahead of Fredriksen with Genot over twelve seconds off his team-mate’s furious pace as Knuiman pushed up to sixth place and fifth out of the registered riders.
Extending his lead to just over fifteen seconds after two laps, Kellett looked every bit the reigning champion, but on lap three it was Genot picking up the pace in second after finding a way past Fredriksen with Petit fourth from Knuiman.
Approaching the thirty-minute mark, Kellett led Genot by twenty-one seconds with Fredriksen another thirteen seconds off the pace, but two laps later the British rider’s advantage was down to five secondsand the pair pitted for fuel together with Kellett maintaining a slight lead as they resumed their battle at the front.
After thirteen laps and with just under an hour left on the clock, Kellett’s lead was around seven seconds with Fredriksen over three minutes further back as the leaders carved their way through back-markers, but the following lap Fredriksen pitted for fuel and did not come back out again as his team worked on a technical issue.
With barely more than a few bike lengths between them, on lap fifteen Kellett was momentarily slowed by a lapped rider and Genot seized the opportunity to get ahead and following their second pitstop the Belgian extended his advantage from one-and-a-half seconds to twenty-one-and-a-half seconds as he began to check out.
With under thirty minutes left, on lap eighteen Knuiman passed Petit for third in a move that took him to the top of the championship standings, but the leading pair were long gone and at the flag it was Genot who won by one minute and fourteen seconds from Kellett with Knuiman and Petit a lap down and fifth-placed Tias Callens – Yamaha from France two laps down.
Rejoining the race with twenty-three minutes left, Fredriksen’s never-say-die attitude was rewarded with six valuable points as he came home four laps down on the leading pair as tenth registered rider.
As she demonstrated at the opening two rounds, series newcomer Martinez has the pace and physical conditioning needed to hold her own against male opposition and the twenty-seven-year-old completed her opening lap in thirty-ninth out of the three-hundred-and-thirteen starters as she pulled clear of Denis.
Fighting for every position, Martinez brought it home in sixteenth place out of the registered riders, one lap ahead of Denis, as Jeanne finished a lap up on Drooghaag with the French trio of Raphael Loridan – Yamaha, Gregory Deleu – Fantic and Mathieu Reine – Yamaha completing the Moto Veteran top five.
Competing over an hour’s duration and a shortened course, Henouillle stretched his Moto Vintage series lead with his total of fifteen laps putting him one clear of Anthony Golleau – Honda and two laps ahead of defending champion Freddy Seguin – Honda in third.
The ninety-minute Moto Junior race was much closer and after twenty laps Almagor crossed the line just under thirteen seconds ahead of defending champion Matheo Gerat – Husqvarna with third-placed Felix Cardineau – Triumph less than fifteen seconds further back.
Competitors in the 2026 Sand Races World Championship now face a three-week waituntil round four – the Monte Gordo Sand Race – takes place on Portugal’s Algarve on the weekend of 27-29 November when the action will be available to stream LIVE on FIM-MOTO.TV.
WATCH THE LIVE ACTION ON FIM-MOTO.TV
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