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/128245
Mat Mladin: Cycle News Rider of the Year did it for years before I started rac ing . T hat's why what I do now, and working so hard, is so easy fo r me. I remember what it was like, and I prefer to train for three or four hours a day than have to go back to worki ng for $25 or $30 a day, six days a 'week . So when people try to take away from the . hard work that I've put in , I take that personally . I've been through t h e minibike thing. I' ve been through the bit whe re your father is on top of you because yo u're not wi nning that minibike race and all that sort of stuff. When people try to make out like I've got it good, and I have, but whe n people try to take away what I've put into it , I take it highly personal , and I' ll lock up in five seconds with someone like that. And Eric 's [Bostrom] a perfect example . I have a lot of time for the way that guy can ride a motorbike. I th ink he's an awesome motorbike rider. If he just had the mindset and the mental capacity to rea lize that he 's not so hard do ne by, / then maybe he could go somewhe re." Mladin wi ll argue tha t he doesn 't have the natural ta lent that some of his rivals have. Sure , a lot of his success comes from hard work , but it 'd be foolish to think that he doesn't have natural ability. Just ask his crew chief, Peter Doyle. as Mladin quitting bec ause he couldn't wi n against the world 's best. Not so . What we didn 't know at the ti me was t hat M ladin was sick. He didn't know it , either. "I can say it now: I was diagnosed with EpsteinBarr virus, and the last three months were tough , real to ugh: Mladin admitted at the end of the sea son , after m a k in g certain t h a t t h i s interview wo uldn't be seen until the championship was wo n. "I' ve ha d to handle it in a way where I don 't get too m any la ps at th e rac etrack now . After Ohio, I ho nestly j ust co ul dn' t func tion . I had to get up on the pod ium, and I rem ember slurri ng o ut some wo rds, and I ju st co uldn't fu nction . It beat m e up . Fortu natel y, it' s on e o f thos e th ing s that w ith th e right rest and th at sort of stuff, it will g o awa y . Again , I'm not o ne t o us e ex cuses an d stuff, but at Laguna , halfway throu g h that first World Superb ik e ra ce, I co uld hard ly see anymo re. Everything wa s blurry, and I had to shut it do w n. It got bad , and th e last fiv e laps of th at rac e we re th e lon gest fi ve laps I' ve ever don e in m y li fe. It got dang erou s. I c ouldn 't see; I had do uble visio n . I didn 't tell any bo dy that until a few wee ks ago, when I told m y wife . I pu lled out o f the rac e on th e prete nse that I was tired . "After that Lag un a race, I was a bit concerned, obviously, so I went and had a bunch of tests do ne. It wa s o ne of those things where I had to lea rn to deal with it during th e sea son, because the seaso n had been so good , I d idn 't want to give it up. Doing t he right th in gs an d re st ing e nough at the race w eek en ds , I co uld ge t thro ugh the races. At Virgi nia, I had to sto p in Pit Lane bec ause I refused to go t o the pod ium in the state that I was in. I stopped th ere fo r 10 m in ut es and dran k some Coke and ate so me stuff and pu t a fe w bottles of w at er on m y head un til fi na lly I composed myself enough that I co uld go to th e podium . This yea r, mentally, I've been stronge r tha n ever before, and it took a toll on me, beca use in train ing I just pushed and pushed and p ushed. Obviously, I pushed myself too far. But that's the way it goes; you li ve and learn. But I had a g rea t season, and I'm pretty amazed at what I was able to do in th ose last m on ths. We' ll go hom e, rest up, and I've spoke n t o some people and they've to ld me the best way to get around this problem , and I'll be ready ." With his sickness under contro l, Mladin has b ig 1 6 JAN UARY 7 ,2004' cue I e n IA bove) Home away fro m home. The Mladins - M at , wife Janlne a nd n ew daughter , Em ily Jean ยท live In this ho m e In Rancho Cucam onga, California , w hen they 're not in Au stralia. (Left) Mladin shoots a bit of pool. plans fo r 2004 . He pla ns on winnin g title number fiv e. He kn ows no ot he r w ay . And he' ll keep going and kee p do ing wh atever it tak es to kee p himself at th e to p of hi s ga me . If his belief th at he wi ll outwo rk any one who threatens him is a sig n of dis resp ect for his rival s, then he apologizes for that. But not m uch else . "I absolutely have respect fo r what those g uys can do o n the racetrack, b ut I do n't want to be like them : M ladin said. "I don't want to hang out with the m, like a lot of the guys do , ha ng out together and have fun and all that sort of crap. I do n't wa nt to do that. Ag ain , the re are so many guys out there who are so quic k to try and take it away from you , what you've manag ed to achieve , that I find that disrespectful. That's dis respect to me. That' s w hat I class as disrespectful. When I'm on th e racetrack, I respect those guys for how good of motorcycle racers they are - th ey m ay never wi n anythi ng, they m ay never be Wo rld Ch am p io ns or whatever, bu t they can all ride motorcycles pretty good. But I take it personal when somebody can come out and say that my bike is so good and that's why I' m winning . I take that pe rsonally. I do, especially when the guy who is saying it has had his ass kicked for the three or four yea rs pr eviou s to that on the same bike that he's on. I also tak e it per son all y when it comes from a guy who has never worked a day in his life. " Som e people don 't know what it's like to wo rk 50 -hour weeks putting up house frames in 110degree heat for $ 150 a week. I know what it 's like. I eVIls "I think, nu mber one, he has the ab ilit y : Doy le said. "And I gua rante e he t ak es h is job mu ch more seriousl y th an the othe r gu ys. He works harder and , as fa r as in put [goes]. he 's th e one who puts th e m ost in. I saw it even earlier in his ca reer. He'd come home to Au strali a aft er th e '95 , '9 7, '98 seasons, and he was always trying different programs... fo od , exe rci se. Just tr y ing different thi ngs to get th e m o st p erform an c e. Peop le t alk abo ut abil ity and work ing hard , but Mat has both. I always hear about t he g uys with th e n atural ab il ity , but th at 's Mat. When he fi rst starte d ro ad racing in Austral ia , he won 15 of 20 rac es in his first year on o ur supe rbike . He has na tura l ta lent, and he also works hard." When anyo ne wh o k nows h im well discusses Ml adin, the wo rk thing c om es up - again an d again. Mladin 's work ethic isn 't something out of fic tion . It's real. " I ca n assure you tha t if I see or hea r tha t someone is trai ning three hours a day , then I will train five," Mladin says. "I will do whatever I have to do to m ak e sure that at the end of the race, I know m ent all y tha t I' m in better sha pe than the next guy. And I' m prepa red to do tha t for ano ther couple of years. I've ma de th e co m mitment to Suzuki th at I'm going to do that, an d th at' s m y j o b ." Next yea r, Mladin will be back . He 'll hav e his same band of merry A ustra lians to form h i s Yos hi mura c rew, and he ' ll again have the Suzuki GSX-R 1000, in whatever fo rm the AMA rule book requi res . He' ll return thi s tim e wi th no t only hi s wife, Ja ni ne, but also with the co up le's firs t c hild, Emily J ean , th eir baby girl who was born on O cto ber 19. A nd it wi ll tak e a foo lha rdy person 't o believe that he ' ll be back as anything less than the favo rite to earn his fifth AMA Superbike title. eN t