Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

T he tra ck was in near perfect co ndition fro m rece ntly melted sno w. Every rider there had a chance to show what he could do with some traction on this long, _ difficult Grand Prix tr ack . The result: victory for DeCoster in the first Grand Prix of the seaso n. Bu t it was close. The decision went to Roger based on best time as he and Heikki were tied on points earned toward the World Championship. Heikki took pains to remind people of that even as Roger gloated in his opening round win . " I would ha ve had a more clear cut win , taking both motos, if I hadn't gotten knocked down at the back of the course in that second one," said Roger later. "The carburetor flooded on the side of the hill and I had to wait for it to clear .. . just like an old CZ with a Jikov: ' It was clear who was goi~g to be doing the serious racing for the #1 plate that year. A particularly inattentive waitress at the visually perfect Swiss restaurant provoked an o~tburst of opinion from the day's tired , hungry WInner. World Champion: The Roger DeCoster Story Part VIII: The comeback By J ohn Huetter ate every afternoon from Tuesday to Friday in 1975 the green Volvo would pull off to the side of the road by the lake out in the "Country Club district" of Keerbergen. Roger DeCoster would get out , pull on his bright L 28 orange-and- blue training suit with "W illem II Cigars"incongruously'emblazoned on itand begin running around the lake. It was a little over three miles . Roger would start off on Tuesday of every week at about a 24-25 minute pace, pushing it -ha rd er every day down to nearly 20 minutes on Friday. He didn't especially like running any more than most !II-year-old successful businessmenprofessionals, but three days of each week, the run would be followed by another six-I2 miles of hig h speed bicycling. Monday, the day after riding two 45-minute motos of International motocross, he rested. "T here was some talk that maybe 1 was not in so good condition last year; that Heikki was stronger than me," explained Roger. " If anything it was my mental condition and I certainly wasn't getting as much racing time with my bike breaking. I just want to be very ready when the season starts this year. It's already started but for Grands Prix, I - mean , and to have the bikes ready. " The physical conditioning started the first of February. The mental conditioning had started long before that. And the bikes were ready. The RN Suzukis were little changed from the 1974 season but they were, by now , very well sorted out. The things that had broken before were not breaking. Mechanical problems were not a feature to worry about with every moto . All the elements for confident, strong riding seemed to be there. Still, Roger was not winning the International races: those prestige events at which Grand Prix riders begin to take each other's measure before the World Championship begins. Most of these events are in Belgium and Holland. Some, like Leummen and St . Anthonis, are quite wellkn own, important races in their own right. One of the sta rs of t he pre-season racing was a young American who was riding for Husqvarna - the Swed ish racing marque. His name was Brad Lackey. He also was Roger's down-the-block neighbor that year in Europe . . . by intent. They often trained together, pushing each other to excel in the classic battle of youthvs. experience. Brad was the easier runner; Roger more at home on the IO-speed bike. Sometimes, they would take their practice bikes out together to one of the dwindling number of training tracks in Flemish Belgium but only when one or the other wasn 't working on something new - like trying improved shocks or engine parts. When Brad started finishing ahead of Roger in the Internatinals, the former World Champion reflected , only half-joking: " Maybe I have shown him too much already." When it comes right down to the steel gate and the checkered flag , World C h a m p io nsh ip Motocross is a very solitary, personal business. DeCoster, as much as any other contender, really didn't need to have any more hungry competition than there naturally was. Especially, competition that profited from his painfully acquired knowledge. In fact , as the Grand Prix season moved closer on the calendar and especially after it started, demands on their personal time and psyche dictated that Roger and Brad wou ld train separately more and more. That was the only season that I trained with DeCoster. For three lung-bursting days with every muscle from the neck down screaming in revolt at the abuse it was taking, the though t of going out again every afternoon was indescribably bad. After the third day, the notion was kind of appealing in ' some strange, superior-feeling way. Not fun , exactly, but you knew it made you , well . . . d ifferent. :'1 don't know how much this running really helps you r riding when it comes to the Grand Prix. But when I'm sitting on the line I know I've done it and maybe some other guy hasn't so I'm going to be a little better prepared than he is. If you know you're better prepared than anybody, there is some confidence." He grins and shrugs his shoulders. DeCoster knows. The reason for the most intense preparation the former World Champion had ever subjected himself to was easy to sum up: Heikki Mikkola. The burly Finn had taken the maximum 500cc motocross title from Roger . Now, Roger had to playa new game. One he'd never played before, called regaining the World Championship. The first innings were played out near Sittendorf, Switzerland at the first 500 Grand Prix of that season. The lines of battle were clearly drawn between the two m a in World Cha m pionship threats: Mikko la and DeCoster. The man on the other side of this struggle had his problems. Heikki had broken h is back about six weeks before in a Scandinavian motocross. The cracked vertebrae were painful as Heikki strapped himself into a cumbersome back brace getting ready for the first moto of that event. " It's like this always in Switzerland. The food is bad, the service is terrible and it costs too muchl Don't you think so?" he asked, needing no confirmation. The tableful ofJapanese mecha nics just looked inscrutab le while poking at their fish - very badly coo ked by J a pa nese standards. "Grand Prix is all so serious now . It's just business really. We used to have some great times after the races . O ne time here in Switzerland, J oel, Dave Bickers and myself were having a kind of party in some little inn , a chalet, you know . Then Joel started throwing the beer mugs into the fireplace when he finished drinking one, then everybody started doing it. Soon we were drinking more so we could throw the glasses . .. but we ended up paying for it, too. Sometimes, it would take all we won that day. Maybe Joel more than some, but all of us. Now , it's a little colder; very serious between riders." Mikkola won the next race: the Italian Grand Prix. But only at the expense of two DNFs by Roger while he was leading. The conditions were terrible. It had rained all night and was pouring down even harder as practice ended. The weather only compounded the usual screwed -up Italian way of running a Grand Prix. There is a lot of pageantry and self-congratulation with little accuracy. The mud got deeper and deeper as riders turned their practice laps. A minimum of five laps on th e hill y course were required to qualify for the Grand Prix. The Italian lap-keepers were very random in their lap counting. Four regular Grand Prix competitors, incl uding American B r a d Lackey , were eliminated from the start while all the Italian unknowns made the starting field . It was typical b ut no less frustrating because of it. DeCoster has a reputation for riding well in the mud, established ever since his trials days and victories on the slippery courses of Belgium . Never had that complete mastery been better demonstrated than in that losing effort in Italy. By the halfway point of the first moto , Roger had a three minute lead, only to have.the electronic ignition's black box go sour. He repeated the performance on ly to water out near the end of the second round. Only about seven riders finished both motos in the standing water and hub-deep mud , slithering up and down the multiple hills . Goggles were useless after the first turn of that GP and all the riders' eyes suffered. The day after the debacle in the mud; early in that season of trying to overcome Mikkola , Roger's eyes were still red and wollen shut from the mud they 'd absorbed. Curiously, he was smiling and in very good humor as his wife . Laurie. led him to the breakfast table. There was some mut al commiseration with his already near-sighted Suzuki teammate Gerrit Wolsink about the miserable condition of their eyes. Dr. Gerrit offered a few medical opinions about the ha zards of Grand Prix racing. In response to a comment about Heikki's win giving him a big lead in the championship points standings, Roger turned and grinned from below his swollen, draining eyes, " I will beat him in Finland." T he next week, on Mikkola's home track in the piney, san dy hills near Hyvinkaa, Finland, Roger ca me fro m beh ind in both motos to do exac tly that. The psych ological victory was even more shattering than the one on the track. Roger was never headed in the World Championship standings from that point to the end of the season. He made a mockery of the racing shibboleth that no Grand Prix rider can have both a good

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