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/127870
in your personal p reparation. Do you still tra in as hard as ever? A lot of people probably still think I'm training hard now, but I slackened off after winning the title - effectively, my season was finished, in terms of what I set out to achieve. I'm still d oing 2 1/2 hours every other day , but not as intense, and perhaps the endurance isn't there. . I go to the gym as well, but normally I do an hour or more o f aerobic and a naerob ic .training every day , then streng th training every other day, with weight s. As for the bike, you chose to race a differ en t engine from the other Honda r i d e r s - the lBO-degree Screamer instead of the Big Bang. You won on it all year; then, a couple of weeks ago, you were quoted as saying that the Big Bang was actually superior in almost ยท every way. I d idn' t say it was superior - bu t I think I mentioned the 180-degree motor is not the answer to everyone's problems. I did think from the start that I co uld proba bly utilize the diffe rent characteristics. The main reas on for using it from way back when was to try and recaptu re some of the feel that we had with those old moto rs. Straight away, I enjoyed a better feel with that motor. It wouldn't pull as cleanly off the low-speed turns, but if I could keep the bike in the power, it was really good, and if I could keep good throttle control, I could also preserve the tire. So, for me , it was actuall y better than th e Big Bang motor . But if you were lazy with throttle control, it'd actually spin up quite qu ick. Alex Criville tried it the same time I did, and he had qui te a big crash on it. And he didn't like it straight away. It' s understandable. I'd done three years on tha t engine before we went to the Big Bang, but he'd never ridden one, so he didn' t u nderstand it whatsoever . But I think this year Alex has come into his ow n a little bit, and he wa nts to develop as a rid er and start using his own information as to wh at's best for him . Which I believe is the best way for him to go, an yw ay. Oka da tried it (at Barcelona, without success) and again his throttle con tro l (laug hs) wasn't as good as he thought it wo uld be. Because w hen you get tired or w hen you' re not so pr ecise wit h the th ro ttle, it wasn't as good . Because it d oesn't pull clea nly off th e turn, and becau se it hasn' t got as much torque as (Far left) Four-time Wor ld Champion Mick Doohan and his girlfri end Seli na sit hi gh atop the princi pality of Monaco. The Aus tralian spe nds th e majority of his ti me in his Monte Carlo apartment. (Above) Doohan's level of fitness Is well - known . He is a regular in th e Loe ws Hotel gym in Monaco . A l8 ~ 5