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/128323
I By STEFAN THE CHAMP'S CORNER EVERTS The Year So Far spent some time in It a ly recently testing our bikes to make t hem quicker out of t he start . I felt I have not taken the starts I wo uld like , and we seemed to correct the pro blem, so I am hoping on getting some holeshots in the near future . While in Italy, I also rode the race bike of Dutch Supersport rider jurgen van de r Goorbergh. I don't intend going road racing; it was for a Dutch Motorcycle magazine, and a lot of fun. I on ly got five laps, though . Iwou ld have preferred more time on the bike; up the straight I was riding pretty fast. jurgen also lives in Monte Carlo , so we know each other prettywell. After the Grand Prix of Portugal, I was not too worried. I got equal points to [Mickael) Pichon, and while he got the overall, I was also the winner because we had the same points, but I was riding terrible, and he was riding very good. The difference was big. I was ready to go to Valkenswaard and show some good speed, and I wanted to win there, put my mental st rength back on the competition . I am never worried about losing races now; I know sometimes I am going to have a bad W race. When we got to Valkenswaard, we were a little disappointed. The track had some changes , but it was still really fast, and only one racing line. The thing about Valkenswaard is that it gets rough Sunday afternoon, and it's at its best then. It was so fast, really scary fast, so fast on the straights, and we jump so high at a really fast speed, it's dangerous for sure. We need to improve on the tracks. We need more lines, we have so many guys racing together now, and it's just a freight train, wh ich is a pity. I can't tell the track builders how to do the tracks , that's their job, but we need something don e. Valkenswaard was tough. It had bee n a long while that I won at that track. My teammate Cedric Melotte was really quick, he surprised me so much, but I'm getting used to that. We also raced hard in a Belgium race the week befo re Valkenswaard. I had a little extra and cou ld pull away in the last two laps to win the second race and the overal l. A journalist mentioned that my strategy for the Grand Prix of Holland was similar to the win by Valentino Rossi in the South African Grand Prix. I wou ldn't like to say I am similar to Rossi; he is known around the world, and he's a great sportsman, just like Schumacher in Formula One. Those guys can do that litt le extra. I am also happy for Valentino, also because he is a Yamaha rider. It's about time these young kids started com ing up. We have guys like Melotte . Strijbos, Ken de Dijcker, it's exciting to see some new names inside the to p 10, and it makes racing hard, but fun. More and more it bec omes clear who are the guys to watch out for and apart from Pichon, and josh Coppi ns will be one of them. He is tech nically not on the same level as Pichon, but he certainly has a lot of determination. I'm quite con fident for the rest ofthe season, because I know the best has yet to come. We used the last couple of weeks to do some adjustments to the bike as well. Going into the season I went for a setting with a lot of power in the middle 142 MAY 12, 2004 • CYC LE N EW S range, but for now I need a little extra push for the start. Except for battling my injuries and finding the perfect setting for my Yamaha, another serious matter has kept me busy the last cou ple of weeks. The GP promoter Youthstream has decided briefly before the season to cut down 50 percent of our prize money. An unpleas ant surprise for most of us, because all riders have negotiate d their contracts during wintertime. keeping in mind the o ld payout scheme. The rider not to be involved or heard in this decision has upset me a lot. Of course top riders are not as large ly affected , since we get our wage paid by the teams. In my case, the Yamaha L&M Motocross Team makes sure there's some bread on the ta ble for the Everts family, but I'm not so sure about the bread for young and upcoming riders. Me , Pichon, Smets and Maschio handed over a petition to Youthstream boss Luongo in Spain, and we had a long discussion with him and Wolfgang Srb. I under- 40th Anniversary stand we all have to pay our dues if we want our sport to survive. but they even want to stop handing out prize money in the future! At home in Monaco, things are heating up for the yearly madhouse called the Formu la I GP. From now 'til the end of june, everything is turned upside down in preparation for the race and later on turned upside down again to put everything back into place. However, the cool thing is that for the first time I'll be able to attend the race myself. I have no race that weeken d, and Red Bull has invited me to come around and watch. By the way, we are not exactly helping ourselves with all the hectic st uffgoing on in Monaco. For the t hird time since co ming here, we are going to move to a new place, wh ich means a messy apartment, hard work and a lot of boxes . Mind you, I'm not complaining. The new apartment is better situated and has a bigger garage. Hey, when my sponsor Mitsubishi spo ils me with some cars , I have to take care of these babies , no? eN