Fresh off the back of his huge smash at the German MXGP, world champion Tim Gajser heads straight to Ernee this weekend for the MXGP of France but has not been able to train. He crashed hard at Teutschenthal, and rode in huge pain to take 11th overall. He’s spent the week resting.

He said: “I am resting up at home this week in order to get ready for France so I hope I am not so sore as I want to come back stronger and fight for the championship again. We had the Nations over there in 2015 and from what I remember it is a very traditional french track with stones and really tight corners. We get a lot of spectators there and it is always nice to go to France.”

He’ll be without his team-mate Evgeny Bobryshev who broke his collarbone in Germany and had surgery to plate it.

Team boss Roger Harvey said: “We will obviously be attending this race without Bobryshev whilst he recovers from having his collarbone plated last weekend but Tim will be racing in order to salvage some more points even though with less than a week between these two races, he will still be sore. We haven’t had Ernee on the calendar since the MX of Nations in 2015 so it will be good to go back there. It is usually a very good track for spectators and it should suit Tim’s style of riding so we will see what the weekend brings.”

Ernee is a purpose built hard pack motocross track in Northern France. It is famous for its steep drop offs and hill climbs. It is also extremely popular with spectators as they can view the whole track from the opposing hill. It was used in the 2005 and 2015 Motocross of Nations. The weather is expected to be extremely warm over the weekend, with highs reaching nearly 30 degrees. There is a small chance of rain on the Sunday which could potentially make the race a little more challenging.