Jake Cannon will remember the MXGP of Trentino for a long time. The British teenager converted months of near-misses into his first overall win in EMX250, anchored by a last-corner ambush in the opening moto that the rider himself only half-expected to come off.
Cannon, who has built a reputation in the European feeder class as the fastest rider late in the race, chased down his rival over seven grim minutes before throwing a block pass around the outside of the final turn.
"I seen him seven seconds or whatever it was in front of me, seven minutes to go and I was like, all right, I'll just give everything I have and I didn't want any regrets going back into the van saying, oh, I could have won, I could have beat him," Cannon said.
"So, put it on the track and to be honest, I was coming into the last few corners not thinking I would beat him and then I was just maybe a bit too far back and coming into the last corner I just was right there and I was like, okay, I'd go around the outside and see if it works and it paid off."
The overall result never looked assured to the rider himself. Cannon admitted he had no idea he had won it until his mechanics spelled out the maths.
"I come in and I was kind of just racing, to be honest, and I wasn't thinking of the overall or anything," he said. "I finished and I'm like, oh, hang on a minute. I'm trying to do the math in my head and looking at the mechanics area seeing what I got and then they told me P1 and I was stoked. I had no words."
Despite the breakthrough, Cannon was quick to insist the work is not close to done. The 2026 EMX250 title is the stated target, and he said a flat qualifying performance in Italy showed him how much margin remains on the table.
"I don't want to get too carried away with the win cuz championship overall is what I'm looking for and it's still early season," he said. "I am a good starter. I don't know what happened this weekend, it's just that ability left me, but I know I can be up the front early and get some good starts. I just have to get my qualifying sorted out cuz they are terrible at the moment."
"I think it was all up in my head. I mean, just confidence in myself, knowing I can run up the front and my speed is good enough," he said. "My pre-season was really good as well. Not only on the bike, but off the bike I feel really fit and I think it's showing out there. My fastest laps are towards the end, so that is also a massive game changer and also I'm not losing 15 seconds in the first two laps."
With the MXGP paddock now entering a four-week break before France, Cannon heads away with the first piece of a senior European trophy collection — and a clear to-do list aimed squarely at turning one-off magic into consistent moto wins.
