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2019 AMA/FIM 450SX WORLD SUPERCROSS CHAMPION COOPER WEBB P106 Interview been able to train with him for a year. And kind of being in that routine for a year, and know kind of what to expect and can actually hopefully get stronger with more time. So that's exciting. Racing-wise, I think it was a huge experience year for me, from top to bottom. The way the year happened was insane in itself, but coming into this year knowing now that not only have I won a championship and believe it, but that was my first time ever doing 17 supercross races, too. So, to be able to really just check that box and know what it's like to go a full season, to go to all these different venues and different track conditions, what it's like to travel every weekend and fight sickness or little injuries or this and that through a season, ultimately how to man- age a championship in a sense, or even to win a championship... I felt like I got five years' of racing experience in one. I get to build off that. I just turned 24, so I feel like I have a lot of time to hopefully progress." He didn't mince words to start the year, tell- ing people it was a building year, so if that's true, watch out. "It's funny; looking back, I've told everybody that asked, but last year was strictly a learning year," Webb says. "It really was a learning year. It started when I first got here. How to train at that level, how to ride at the level of all the guys at the Baker's Factory every day, and how to manage the season. Everything was really a learning experience. It was cool to kind of start from, I wouldn't say scratch, but to be up front and absorb all the knowledge and everything that I have around me and just kind of do what I was told and just see how it worked out. It was pretty amazing." THE TEAMMATE CHALLENGE Coming into 2019, Webb was definitely con- sidered the "number two guy" on the Red Bull KTM team behind 10-year team veteran Marvin Musquin. But before he signed with KTM, Webb had quite a few run-ins specifically with Musquin on the racetrack. He also had just experienced a pretty contentious teammate situation in his final year at Yamaha, where his team picked up Justin Barcia and the two racers butted heads a lot. It was obvious Webb wasn't happy, and Barcia was beating him much of the time. "The training was a whole new ballgame for me," Webb says. "It was something that, quite frankly, coming in, I wasn't sure about. I wasn't sure if I could handle it."