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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1193082
2019 AMA/FIM 450SX WORLD SUPERCROSS CHAMPION COOPER WEBB P108 Interview Every racer, if they're honest, will tell you that the number-one thing you have to do at the fac- tory level is beat your teammate. The top guy on a team will usually be retained when contract time comes around, but the next guy is much more uncertain. But at least at KTM, Webb wasn't expected to be the top guy. Expectations change things. "I actually like Justin [Barcia]," Webb says of his 2018 Yamaha teammate. "We get along great. As a competitor, you always want to try to beat your teammate. I think it was a position where he came in with a lot to prove and was riding really well. He really beat me quite often. I came in that second year pretty under-prepared with some off-season injuries. Then as the season kind of got going, I came around a bit better. Then I got to a point where we were kind of dicing it up a lot. So it is tough. You want to do the best you can as your- self, but you also want to do well for your team, in a sense. So it's tough. He is a very aggressive rider. There were definitely some run-ins. We raced hard. I think a lot of it for me was just matur- ing. I think I was a little immature and kind of held onto things and didn't just race forward." And it's obvious just by talking to him that Webb has matured a lot over the past year or two. "You're going to have run-ins," Webb said. "You just kind of move forward and don't let that affect you or ruin your night, and I think you're better off. That's something that I learned from being on KTM and being down here. It's hard sometimes, but you've got to swallow your ego and accept it. I had to do that when I first came here [to the Baker's Factory]: I had to talk to Marv [Musquin] and just apologize for the past, and I told him I'm going to try to be the best teammate I can be. My biggest thing is letting him know that I have a lot of respect for him. Obviously, I do, especially after I won that first race and we became title contenders. I knew it was going to be a difficult transition into that." Webb is well aware of how he was perceived on the team when he showed up, and the potential for animus between teammates who are compet- ing for a title is incredibly high. "I think at the beginning of the year it was pretty well-known that I was the secondary guy, and I'm here to try to get some top fives and maybe some "It's never going to get easier. I think this year is totally different than last year, and it's a new approach; it's a new everything."