ROMAIN FEBVRE: A DECADE BETWEEN DRINKS!

Much has been made of Marc Marquez’s 2025 MotoGP season, when the 32-year-old Spaniard clinched his first MotoGP world title since 2019 (and his seventh premier-class title win since 2013) with four rounds of the series still to go. And rightly so, given that MotoGP is arguably the most competitive form of motorcycle racing on the planet, and the fact Marquez overcame what would have been a career-ending injury for most. But spare a thought for what 33-year-old Romain Febvre has just achieved in the cutthroat 2025 MXGP World Championship…

In any international sporting arena, world championship wins are hard to come by. Repeating the feat is even more difficult. But notching up a pair of world championship titles 10 years apart is another thing altogether. And quite the achievement for the sport of World Motocross, where a greater majority of riders retire well before they hit 30. Apparently, Romain Febvre didn’t get the memo and refuses the believe in stats.

Yes, in the ruthless world of MXGP, winning premier-class titles a decade apart is especially rare. Admittedly, 10-time world champ, Stefan Everts has managed it (between 1995 and 2006). And recently retired Antonio Cairoli claimed nine world title wins over a 12-year window between 2005 and 2017 (albeit with the first two titles in the MX2 class). But last week at the MXGP’s Australian GP in Darwin – the 2025 series finale that decided the titles in MX1, MX2 and MXW classes – France’s Romain Febvre joined that rarified air; the handful of riders who’ve managed to stay fit, healthy, fast and focused enough to claim a premier-class No.1 plate 10 years apart.

Take a bow, Romain Febvre!

Oh, and by the way, Frenchie, all the best for this weekend’s 2025 MXoN in the USA. If you can repeat your 2015 efforts by winning the Motocross of Nations a couple of weeks after wrapping up your MXGP title, that would something very, very special!

THE 2015 ROMAIN FEBVRE…

Back in late 2015, just after the 23-year-old Frenchman towelled up the best in the world to claim his maiden World MX Championship title, Transmoto contributor David Bulmer wrote a memorable feature article in Transmoto Dirt Bike Magazine (called “Leap Frog”), which tracked the MXGP rookie’s astonishing journey from relative obscurity to world champ (and in doing, handing Yamaha its first premier-class Motocross World Championship title in eight long years!).

Here’s a throwback to that feature article, which first appeared in Issue #53 (Nov-Dec, 2015) of Transmoto Dirt Bike Magazine…

FEBVRE ON THE 2015 MAGAZINE COVER

In that Issue #53 of Transmoto Dirt Bike Magazine, this is the “Cover Uncovered” insight we offered into the young Febvre, and the story behind the classic scrub image that graced the cover of that issue in 2015:

“By all accounts, Romain Febvre is a down-to-earth, hard-working, almost self-effacing character. Which, let’s be honest, is not exactly how the rest of the world tends to regard the French. Emotional, passionate, brooding and even neurotic, yes. But salt-of-the-earth and laconic? By and large, no! Hailing from a small rural town in the east of France, Febvre grew up and raced in relative isolation, and his quietly spoken demeanor reflects that. He’s popular with the media and race fans, but never been ‘one of the boys’ with the other riders in the pit paddock, which is why most rivals tend to regard him as aloof and even indifferent. The fact he’s consistently kicking their arse every weekend, seemingly without trying, might have something to do with that.

“Wasn’t it great to see the young Frenchman go head-to-head and beat America’s new kids on the block – Justin Barcia, Cooper Webb and Jeremy Martin – at the USA stop of the 2015 MX World Championship, and then repeat the process a week later at the 2015 MXoN in France. If winning the MXGP world title with a few rounds to spare wasn’t enough to convince everyone that Febvre was the real deal, then his performance over those two back-to-back weekends sure did. Not only did Febvre out-ride and out-think the Americans – and everyone else, for that matter – he also demonstrated that he’s packing an endless repertoire of new-gen riding skills to match the best of them. And, captured by Ray Archer’s ubiquitous lens, this late-season scrub aboard his 60^th Anniversary YZ450F sure demonstrates that. Right now, this guy – who few of us even knew a year ago – is undoubtedly the best motocross rider in the world.”