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/128633
5DDcc World MX Champion Joel Smets Joel Smets is old school in that he appreciates the tradition of motocross, but he 's careful to emphasize that he 's all for the promotion and advancement of the sport. through the mud to his record 23rd moto win of the season . But even more impressive was the factory KTM rider 's mote-two performance , in which he crashed early and very ser iously cut his elbow, then remounted and - covered in mud and running back in the pack - soldiered on to complete every lap and finish in 12th. Minutes before that pe rformance, we spoke with the champ as part of a three -part series (look for interviews with the other two World champs in the next two i ssu es) . This int ervi ew t ook place in the humbl e, cram ped workshop in the ba ck of his KTM motorhome - pretty humble surroundings for a king . Wh ile we spok e in the crowded -but-organized space, Sm ets rain -prepped his helmet and goggles for the approa ching moto. w as there anyt hing special about t h i s t itle, after losing it last ye ar? Yeah, th e on ly thing that was specia l was that I w a s winn ing so much. It 's alway s d ifficult to compar e cha m p ionshi p s, but I defin it ely st ill thi nk th at m y first cham pi onshi p tha t I won was the - it's diffi cult to say ni cest one, becaus e the y 're all nice but th e m ost emo tio na l. If you know wh ere I came fro m, I started from scratch , and I rea ll y had avery , very limited budget all the time. I made my way all the way up to the top . I believed in myself, but I've always been very realistic. I worked step by step , and I never put my goals too high . Even when I started racing GPs, I always thought that win ning a championship would never ha ppen. To me , it's even like qua lifying for a GP was special. I always grew up watching motocross, before I raced myself. They all looked like such he roes t o me that I thought, "I'll never become a hero. " So that first time that I won a championship was an emotional thing, and tha t made that first cha m pi onship , for sure , very different from the others . Th e others , then , were j ust to confirm for yourself that you can do it . Then you have th e satisfa ction of the confirmation. Bu t it' s different from winning it the first ti m e. It was the same with the th ird , and then the fourth w as really special , because I won it in Namur, in my home country , in front of m y home crowd , 25 ,000 enthusiastic - crazy , reall y , I should say - people. They went rea ll y nuts. I never expected it to be tha t.. . It gave me such a.. . such a feeling . It was not the emotion of winning a championship, it was the emotion of the atmosphere, and the whole event. YOU m entioned t hat you w on so m uch . Is it beco ming t oo eas y? 1 j winning , to the people, might have looked My easy this year. Bu t as with Jeremy [McGrath], for sure, winni ng is never easy . You always have to be there, yo u always have to keep on training, yo u always have to wo rk hard. It look ed easy to th e peo p le, and often they co ncl ude that there is not eno ugh competition, and th at' s wh at I want to fig ht again st . Because definitely there was competition enough Andrea [Bartolini ] is strong , and Marnicq [Bervoets] is strong , and Peter [Johansson] is strong . Stefan [ Eve rts ] won three championships in 250, but he Q A Q A By CHRIS JONNUM PH OTOS BY GEOFF M EYER f you want to k now what kind of a guy J oel Smets is, you need look no further than the final 500cc GP of 2000 in Roggenburg , Sw itzerland , in early September. The race was somewhat of a formality, as all of the World Championships had already been I 14 O CTO B ER 4 , 2000' Ie U Ie I e decided, and since it was the final non -triplehea der GP to be run , more than a few people ha d trouble working up enthusiasm for the event. In fact, whe n the skies opened up , some top riders tanked it (to use a tennis term ) and pulled out early. Not Smets. Though th e Belg ian had long -si nce wrapped up his fourt h World title, he gave the fi rst heat a full eff ort, grabbing th e holeshot and racing ne1lVs