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/127175
problem to ge t th e two second pl aces I needed to clin ch th e ti tle/ Bu t let's just look on the collisio n in France as a n accident. Bayle is champion and I am second. When we look at yo ur record of 21 GP wins but only one world title in . five years, it appears that yo u are a " racer" in the best tradition of the . sport while others like John Van den Berk and David Thorpe are "points chasers" who almost seem to be calculating the odds at a roulette wheel. How do you see it? John has to be congratula ted. H e won th e world title this year, but I th ink he had m ore luck th an anyon e ever had before. It is not normal for someone to be the champion of the world wh en he wins just two out of 12 races. I go out on the track trying to win th e race because if you win then yo u have got more points than anyone else th at da y. And the man with the mo st points at th e end of the season is champ ion . I: want to be champion. I guess the 125 and 250cc Championships were ver y different. In the 125s Bayle and I won every GP; if I won, then he was second and vice-versa. You had to push (or th e win in every mo to, Bu t in th e 250s there were half a dozen guys wh o co uld win any race. If Pekka (Vehkone n) or (Cert-jan ) Van Doo rn were not havi ng so many DNFs, then it cou ld have been a very different story. After you have won so many races and given everything fo r a full season, were you upset when the Cagi va race ch ief cr iticized yo u openly after the Swiss GP? It hurt. I know in myself that I did my best all year. Nobody ever won seven GPs before and di dn't win the title. Nobody had ever scored so many points. You coul d almost say that I had a perfect season . Bu t Bayle's season was even more perfect, You have won one title and three times finished runner-up in the last 'fou r years. Your new team boss Sylvain Geboers had two silver and three bronze medals during a fiveyear spell when he could so easily have been champion ~ven a little less bad luck. Had the lTony of your new partnership occurred to you? No . But now that you mention it, it 's true. Perhaps it is something we should ta lk a bo u t. I never saw Sylvain ride, but he had an outstanding career a nd he has been around the scene for so long that I'm sure he will be abl e to give me lots of advice and help all year . I have total confidence in him as team manager a nd I believe we will ma ke a winning team. I find th at we can speak to each o ther very openly and that is very im portant. I h a ve the bel ief in Sylvain that whe n I have prob lem s I know I can tu rn to hi m a nd he can help me to solve th ose proble ms. In my op inion I cou ld no t have hoped for a better team ma nager. Were you happy with yOUT riding style this year? In the second half of 1986 and 'even in '87 yo u were hampered by the shoulder injury. Is it getting less of a problem, so yo u can return to the style you had before the accident? I concentrated a lo t of effort last winte r on th e correct power trai ning to help me get the strength bac k. I cou ld noticea defini te improvement ' co mpared wi th the year before and I hope that nex t year will be better still, but I do n' t know if the shoulder will ever be 100% again. But it is good enough that I can have the confidence so it does not adversely affect my results. I have absolute faith in Suzuki and our entire setup for next year. I now have to go out there and win to show that Suzuki were not m isp laced in putting the ir faith in mel • NOW IS THE TIME TO REFURBISH YOUR KTM! . With HlloH'. 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