Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Wo rld Cha mpionships, I won all thr ee of th em befo re I turned 22, so mayb e I did n't appreciate them quite as much. My first one was probably th e most ecstatic I've eve r been , becau se everything I've ever worked for w as that firs t World title, and I achieved it. So it w as suc h a eu pho ric feeling, wherea s this is more of a deep satisfacti on. I d efini tely d on't take it for granted . I know w hat it' s like to be called a cras he r, and I know what it's like for 'peop le to write you off and say th at yo u' re ne ver go ing to d o it, and tha t yo u r career 's basicall y d one. . o n that note, how have the American fans been with yo u? There've been so me g rea t people out ther e since I came over that reall y su ppo rted me, and I'm really a pp recia tive of that. I th ink it's mainl y the cri tics tha t hav e jum ped on the.bandw agon and were very quick to say that he's done and he's a has-been , bu t the re's a lot of pe ople that reall y have su p po rt ed m e for the lon gest tim e. Q A I Q Are there ev er times when yo u fe~1 u nwelcom e? ,A No, I've never been made to feel unwelcome, Q M aYbe the fact th at you sp eak English help s. I think so. And I think if I did come over to the U'S, a nd won right away, a nd di dn't have to pa y m y dues, I think it might be a different story. But people have see n that I never g ive up, that I strive hard, and that I ha ve a never-sa y-die altitude. I thi nk that's earned me a lot of respect. Even though Ryn o (Ryan Hughes ) ha sn 't w on an y titles, you look at how har d he tries, and you 've got to respect that. It's go ing that extra m ile to get your goal. A H OW m uc h longer will you race, and what will Q you do afterward? . A l' m not sure. I probab ly see myself racing ano ther tw o years. That's probably a reali st ic goal. I have quite a few busin ess inter ests tha t I'd like to spend a lit- Afreshman no Ion er W hereas Greg Albertyn we nt from the GPs to the U.S. Nationa ls, Cali forn ian Ryan Hughes went the opposite ro u te. Ryno just com ple ted his first yea r in th e FIM se ries, and w hile it we n t well, things look even be tte r for next year. Like Albee, H ughes is a rider known and resp ected fo r hi s hard work. Will 2000 be the yea r th at he finally gets a top title? Q Are yo u satisfied with your first yea r in the GPs? A Yeah, pretty satisfied. My goal was to be in th e top five , a nd then hal fw ay through the yea r, I thought, "Oh shoot, I might be able to win th e cha mpionship." So then I cha nged my goal to win th e championship . I'm st ill close to to p three. For my first year, it's not so bad. Ge tting used to everything - the different tracks, jus t di fferent cultures. Q Do yo u have yo ur p lans for next year finalized yet? A Next ye ar I'll be rid ing for the sa me team. I' ll be rid ing fac tory Ho ndas, so it 'll be good. We'll be ridi ng 2001 bikes. Q Is it true tha t you really get to ri d e newer s tuff than the U.S. guys get? A O nly the Hond a guys d o. My bike was a '98 all year, so I was two years behind th em . For the firs t vea r, I kind of had to work for it, I guess. Now, w he n -I have this (newer parts), it'll make me appreciate it more. Q So you were on a '98 with factory parts? A '98 with used factory parts. As th e year went on , I kind of go t more and mo re. The one that supported me mo st, probably, was Honda of America . The Ho nd a bikes are awesome. It was the bes t switch I've m ad e, so I'm happy ... Now I' ll be riding the newest stuff available - the stuff no one has, that no one's seen .before. I go to Japan in a cou ple weeks to do so me tes ting . Q Do you miss racing in the United Sta tes? _ A The thing I miss abo ut the USA is the friends and the tracks . Th e tracks a re good in the USA, and in Europe, the tracks are shit. Bu t I do n't miss all the distractions in the USA. It seems like in Europe, I can con cen tr ate m ore o n th e raci ng tha n w ha t everyone's tle mo re time ge tting involved in doing once [ stop. Q Could you be more specific? A-I' m in partner sh ip w it h a p err tsonal tra in in g com pany called L.A. Lifestyle. That' s w ith in the L.A. Fitness gy ms . That 's so mething that reall y inte rests m e, b ec au s e ['m always working o u t an d tr aini ng, and we have a grea t company wit h seven or eig ht loca tions, and growing all the time. Th iS is a stupid question, but is Suzuki pleased? . (Laughs) Yeah, th at is a stupid questio n . O bvio us ly, they ' re ecs ta tic, ju st th e compa ny as a w hole. It ' s lik e , o nce yo u ' ve achieved yo ur goal, ther e's reas on to celebra te. Q A H OW are y o u an d S u z uk i Q doi ng th at ? A- Well, I'm no t sure if Suzuki has r ta party or anything planned , but after Steel City we had a big old team dinner. My wife had a p arty for m e this past w eek - a surprise part y. She sa id we we re goi ng to go ou t to a romantic dinner to celebrate my championship. She hired a limo and every thing , and the next minute, I wa lk into a restau rant and th ere' s like a hundred of my friends . It was pretty cool. There we ren' t too many rid ers there - mainly just friends. When something isn 't panning out the way he wants, Albertyn's solution is to work harder - an eth os more prevalent in the era of Jeff Stanton than it is now. The South African has been faulted for this, but it worked out for him this year . Q IS there an y w ay of top ping this? A Going one in th e supercross and one in the ou tdoor - that would top it, definitely. d oing what ev ervone's s'ay;ng. Q What d istra cti ons are t h er e i n th e United States? A The lifestyl e is a lot more com plicated over here than it is in Europe . There, I'm 10 0 - p e r c e n t motocro ss. Ove r he re, I'll have business , mo to cross, fri end s ... It seem s ILke there 's a little more always on your mind. In Europe, I'm there for o ne reason to race , and that's it. Q Do yo u li ve in Eu ro pe, o r d o y o u go back and forth? A I live in Ita ly, and I Ryan Hughes a lso have a m o torh o m e tha t I shippe d over. We travel to the races in the motorhome, we s tay in th e motorhome on the weekend , a nd if there's a race back to back, then we jus t stay all week in the mo torho me. N ext vear I'll move down to the south of Fra nce, [ think, and live there. Q Is you r fam ily over th ere with you? A Yeah , my wife and my 'son. And my friend Tyand hi s girlfriend ca m e o ver, so we kind o f had so m e friends. If I didn't have my family and friends, I don't know if - It wou ld have been really tou gh. Really tough. Q How often do you ge t to com e back to the St at es? A I came back one time this year, and tha t was it. This (the Bud ds Creek USGP) is m y sec ond time coming bac k. Q What d o yo u li ke m o st a b ou tth e Eu ro pe a n lifestyle? A [ guess the thing that I like, maybe, is just that it's pretty tame, pretty kicked back. No one's really in too much of a hurry . But that's also kind of bad when you' re expecting packages, or to get something done. Other than that, the people are pretty nice, most of them. I guess that m eans yo u won' t be asking for an ou tdoor-onl y contract. (Laughs) It ha s crossed my mi nd , the re 's no question ab out it, but it's still a litt le early to say right now. It wou ld be so meth ing that w ould interest m e. But the interest at th e factories is so mu ch on .s u percross, so it wou ld be toug h to pull off. Q A Wh at can you do to improve your indoor perforQ mance? Th ere's definitely things I'm going to analyze and work u'ay hard er on for next ye ar. I think confiden ce goes a lon g way, an d up until now I' ve been a g uy who ' s rea lly tr ied to show what h e ha s in th e Un ited Sta tes . It's been tou gh to ge t my confidence to th at level , so I' m rea lly go ing to pull this confidence from th e ou tdoors over to th e su percross. I'll relax a little, and realize that I' ve ac h ie ve d so me th ing - I' ve won a Nati on al titl e - and then w or k even harder at th e su perc ross, try ing to get top three. I think it' s a reali st ic goa l. . A Q Were there ever any doubts this year? A Th is yea r, th ere were no dou bts that I w as going to win th e ou tdoors - no doubts -, You know, every World Championship that I've won, I've kn own th at I was going to wi n it, and this year I knew that I was goi ng to wi n it. Q Were th ere doubts over the past few years? eck yeah. Wh yo at yo and you r nfidence wa A H"Whaco are yo u enisoinguy'red own,?ur ulowestwlow,youryo think to se lf, t d this for Is it all orth it?" Now youloo k .~ack, and yo u say, "Yeah." eN 0> 0> 0> ,.... 0> N ., E ., ~ ..c a. ., en 33

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