Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ INTERVIEW Motocrosser Georges Jobe e By AI« HodglWuon hen the World Champion ship 500cc MX Seri es began in April , Georges J obe had been written off by most people as a ha s-been. H e hadn't won a Grand Prix since he won hi s th ird titl e in 1987. But th e 30-year-old motocrosser fro m southern Belgium never lost faith in his own ability and, despi te being hampered by injuries to the sho ulder and ankle during the first half of th e seaso n, he ma inta..led hi s challen ge. for the. titl e and took over the points lead following the elimination of Kurt Nicoll with a brok en th igh at the fifth round of the 500cc MX GP Series. J obe co mes to the Shoei H elm etssponsor ed U.S. 500cc MX GP at Glen H elen with World Ch ampionship title nu mber four in hi s hands, and we spoke to him a few weeks before he embarked for America. W ***** 18 T his year you have been riding works Hondas, T o what extent is you r retu rn to the top due to the machinery an d how m uch is due to yo u? I ,th ink motocross is a sport wh ere everything has to blend together. Even if you hav e a good bike, you will never reach th e top if you ar e no t fit , and co nversely it is no use to have good condi tion and organization if you do not h ave good machinery. T o be successful in thi s sport you must ha ve a good bike, good physical conditio ning, be well -organized and have people ar ound you wh o can motivate and support you through th e good ti mes and the bad. One must not think of the World Championship as starting with the fall of th e starting gate at the first moto of the series; the preparation for a successfu l attempt at th e World Championsh ip must start the previo us year. I th ink th e basis of my curre nt posi tio n in the champio ns hip is du e to my preparation over the last year. Did 'it add to your confidence when you were able to get your hands on the works Hondas? Of course. But i t isn 't just th e bikes. It is the organizatio n which allow s you to test the bike thoroughly and the wh ole set up; you need to hav e good mechanics, and I hav e two good men . in Ari Skog and John Luotonen . The fin al step is the mental belief in yourself and everyone and everythi ng arou nd you . Your program for physical training is changed this year. H as th is im proved your level of fitness? The physical program is very different from before. I train with Eric Geboers' triathalon team every week. That is a great boost. We are all sports men, but we co me from different' disciplines. Each of us is highly motivated to reach the top. It is Particularly enjoyable to . train with these people because I can get my mind off motocross; we talk abo u t many different th ings and that is diff icult to do wh en you are with a group who are all involved in o ne particul ar sport. · I think it is very important to be relaxed during the week and go to the race on th e nex t weekend with a fresh approach . What does your p hysical training p lan in volve? We co ncentrate o n the three triathalon disciplines of bicycling, running and swim ming every day . How often do you ri de a motocycle during the week? This year, not very much . Obvio usly I had testing to do before the first G P - and I became a li ttle tired because I was doin g too much , but after that I ha rdly rode a motorcycle in practice until J uly because of my injuries. The shoulder injury I sustained on the day when we should hav e been racing th e GP in Austria (in April ) prevented me from riding a bike, except in GPs, for five weeks. I only rode an absolute minimum of two or three laps in Saturday qualification sessio ns , and I' even used to sit out free practice on Sunday mornings. I was almos t to the stage wh ere I would have been able to ride more often whe n I broke a bone in my ankle at the GP in Holl and (in June), so I was unabl e to rid e for ano ther four weeks. I wasn 't a ble to practice with the mot ocr oss bike until aft er the Italian GP at th e end of June. top, but my lo ng-term p lan was to be completely ready for 1992.That is still very much part of m y p lan and I expect to be faster next year than I have been this season. I think everything will be better; I will be physically stronger, the bike will be even better if I can practice more and our organization will have had a year to settl e down. In retrospec t, was it a mistake to go I25cc GP raci ng in 1988 at the age of 27? Everything I did that year was done with 100% conviction, and I don 't regr et doing it; it was a good experi ence for me. The fin al result was not so good as I finished 10th in the P fecthlend,...-----, er But every da y I was o ut o n the tr iathal on tra inin g . Wh en m y shou lder was damaged I had to leave out th e swim ming, wh ile I co uldn't go running with my ankle in jury, but each time I still had two di sci plines available to me to main tain my physical fitn ess. This ability to ma intain two-thirds of my train in g pro gr am while I was injured helped a lot in keeping me in condi tion for the racing. Du ri ng the last few years you have been down in th e World Championship rankings. Did you always believe that you coul d come back to the very top? Alwa ys. What gave you that conviction? It was a gut 'reaction . Back in 1989 whe n I had the: team with my frie nds Alain Lejeune and Ludo I used to say tha t m y tim e wou ld come again. With the new set up this year I wanted to work har d and be near th e cha m pionsh ip, but I had been battling for th ird during 'the first half of th e seaso n, then I had bik e problem s and finall y I broke my hand before the last two GPs. We were not well o rga n ized th at year. T hat was the firs t time since 1979 that you had fi ni shed a GP ca m paign outside th e top four. Did it affect your confidence? Certainly not. When I came ba ck to th e 500s in 1989 I had some good results, but I had som e bad Iuck and, lik e I said befor e, everything ha s to click together if yo u are go ing to be successfu l. Take 1989. In th e Millfix J ohnson team we had a good budget a nd we were well or ganized, but th e p robl em was mechanical. We co uld not get o ur hands on any parts to improve the bikes. You managed to get the works Hondas this year through Eric Geboers, but he has not been present himself at the CPs. What involvement does Eric have? I am racing for Geboers' EG Events and we lease the materiatfor the whole year through our spo nsors. I have full use of the training scheme, the medical support and the practice tracks and all aspects of Eric's organization. Eric put the entire organization which he had as champion at my disposal. Honda had given Eric an open ticket to do what he wanted with the factory bikes and he wanted to give another rid er, which turned out to be me, the ch ance to take advantage of this. When we made the arrangemen ts for this season, everyo ne was given a specif ic task and my job is to ride the bike. I have not had to concern myself with finding sponsors. looking for race co n tracts or any thing like that, while Ari and J ohn a re a lso emp loyed directly by EG Events an d not by me. When I wake up in the morning I only hav e to be co ncern ed with riding the bike and getting my body prepared for that. Compare th at wi th last year when I had to arrange my tires , oil s, chains and so on. Even on Sunday morning my first task would be to check that the mech anic had done everything I wanted him to. Wh en you take on so much , it is impossible to be 100% mentally prepared for racing. Will you be riding th e works Hondas again in I992? It is too early to say that I have them for sure, but we are headed in that direction and there is a very good chance th at we will have th e same team as this year. Maybe Eri c himself will be back and we can race in a two-man team. Eri c has not been on a bike this year, but wh en I talked with ' him recentl y h e admitted th at h e was m issing racing. Whether he decid es to race or not, I certainly want to continue with the present organization next year. Is there still sufficient ma teri al to carry o n with the H ond as? . The model is now several years old in its basi c co nce p t, bu t we are in a continual state of modification and d evelopment; we are co n ti n u a ll y receiving supplies of modified parts and Honda can co ntinue to produce parts for us for years to co me. When you were inj ured earl ier th is . year, did you ever feel that your dream of a fourth World Cha mp ionship title wo uld hav e to wai t un til at least 1992? When you fly off to a race, you always hav e to hav e th e co nviction that th is particular weekend is going to be yo ur da y, but in Finland a week after damaging my shoulder in April, I didn 't feel that way. Wh en I woke up Sunday morn ing in Finland I didn't think I would even be a ble to start the race. I was so stiff from the few laps of qualification o n Saturday that I co u ld no t even lift my arm to put it in my pock et , but my Finnish , mechanic Ari found a doctor who taped me up and a ll of m y team and fam ily was behind me, enco uragi n g me to go on and race. That sort of support giv es you the motivation. When I broke m y ankle in Holland I never believed that the cham p io nship was finished for me. There were four weeks to th e next GP and I always beli eved that I would be back for it, but in Fin land I had been really pessimistic and thought my chances were gone. Is the enco uragement from your wife Fabienne and the rest of yo ur family important to you? Yes, very. They have been beh ind me for many years. Take my parents for example. They have come to every race

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