Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126259
A World Championship Is won In a season-long series of races whIch are e"tltled to be called HGrand PrIx" because they are the only co.... tests countIng toward the World Championship. World ChampionshIp motocross racIngover all-natural terraIn courses Is the toughest, most brutal, most physically demandIng motoSllOrt In the world. Roger DeCoster has been 500cc Motocross WOtfdChampionln 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, and 1976. He tlnlshed second, by six point., In 1974. That Is the best performance ever achieved by a racer In 500cc motocross, and a record number of World Championships. ThIs Is ROIl- 's storr- AT THE IN STITUTE SAINTE ELISAB ETH , BELGIUM SUNDAY, 16 October, 1966 he first moto of 500 cc class com petition waits impatiently on the start line . It is, in fact . the second ti me that Roger DeCoste r has gone out on the course to race motocross this afternoon at Eksaa rde . He has already T 12 contested the first of two 30·minute heats for th e 250cc class . O ver 40 m achines rush from t he start as th e steel gate flops into the tacky Belgi a n m ud . An unthinking chi ld ' ru ns across the course .a t th e ex act moment th a t Roge r DeC oster arrives at that firs t comer, lea ding the pack at maxim um speed . A he a d-on crash into the child appears inevitable bu t , riding out of the seemi ngly hopeless situation . Ro ger na rrowly m isses the youngster, only to crash into t h e fence lin in g the race co u rse . In a spectacu lar , head-over- hee ls fall DeCoste r is t h rown from his m achine as the y both hit th e ground. Bu t Roger gelS back up , feeling only a slight pain in hi s low er back . Nothing serious . . . so it seems. An hour later Roger is racing th e seco nd 250cc moto . As he bounces and flies over th e co bby terrain, he feels the stab of in cr easin g pa in . It is really out of th e question for h im to pull off a nd By John Huetter quit. DeCoster only grits his teeth In pa in a nd concentration . And so he wins . ahead of Joel Rob ert . wh o is the250cc W orld Champion . That winn ing performance ended th e Eksaarde meeting for Roger. He had no desire to martyr . him sel f in the fina l 500c c mot o .' He reassured his parents that he was a ll right . and th ey returned home without a ny great co nce rn over Rog er's co nd itio n afte r his spe ctac u la r cras h . In fact . Roger wa s hiding extreme pain - a pain that kept getting more int ens e . He took off on th e route toward Brussels . driving alone . Several times during th e journey home. th e pain grew intolerable; so bad that Roger had to pull off the road and stop until it subsided enough for h im to continue driving . At 10:00 o'clock that night , the pain was st ill intense. He dragged himself ac hingly into bed , bu t the agony contin ued wit hout abatement . . It was impossib le to sleep. Roger co u ld n't lie in anyone positio n wit hou t sufferi ng . He stifled his cries from t he pai ns t ha t cut through him like a sharp knife. By 2 :30 in the morn ing . he cou ldn't ta ke it a ny mo re .. He woke his parents and asked t hemto call the family doctor . Their doctor was a way tha t weekend: It was four hours la ter before Roger was examin ed by an y ph ysician . N o parti cular diagnosis was formulat ed . and tranqu ilizers were prescribed . Later Monday morn ing , t he DeCoster' fam ily's regula r d oc tor wa s a t Roger's b edsid e . After exam m m g the yo u ng morocrosser , he was pessim istic about Roger's condition. T here was blood in Roger's urine. During the rest of that Monday , a ft er a co nsu lta tion with a specialist in interna l medicine, th e fam ily's doctor arranged for Ro ger to be a d m itted to the clinic of the In st it u te Ste . Elisabeth in Uccle , near his home in Belgium . Fo r Roger , this began a seemingly intermi n a ble period of hospitalizatio n but , more th an th at, it was the beginning of the b lackest , most d ismal , period of his whole life . The same day he was a d m itt ed to St e . Elisabeth's , Roger was submitted to another series of la b tes ts a nd examinations by Et ienne De Backer, chief of urology . Fin a lly. a concl usive diagnosis was rea c hed : con tu sio ns of the left kid n ey, serious enough th at the organ was barely functioning . in effect, useless. No pa rt of a m otocross co m petitor 's body takes a more severe po undin g tha n his kidneys. Spe cial supportive kidney bel ts offe r som e protection, but after raci ng over th e rou gh , na tural terrai n of a European motocross circuit at m aximum possib le speed , your kidneys still ache the d a y after a race, even in th e healthiest condition. Sound kidneys unglamorous but vital organs - are critical to a motocr osser 's ability to compete, even as t hey a re . critica l to th e maintenance of life in all huma n bein gs .