Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

lnre IEW 5t 2l ,A'tE s-- fYIAKING THE EST OF THE WORS Factor KTM Tuner Antti Kallonen 5 II What exactly happened when you broke your anklel It was the first Supercross race in England that year, in Sheffield at the end of'02. I cased the triple jump but didn't crash. I kept riding, but the pain 8ot so bad that I had to stop. That was when I realized that something was seri- ously wrong. What exactly did you do to the ankle, I basicalty broke everything in my ankle. I shattered the joint and broke all the small bones. l'ly iniured leg was an inch shorter than my other one because I had smashed it so badly. lnitially I was told that they would have to Temove my foot because the ankle joint was so bad they couldn't do anything with it. I called my doctor in Finland - luckily he was still awake - and he told the sur- geons to stabilize the ihjury They did that, then transferred me back to Finland two week later, and I had another operation. They took bone from my hip and tried to rebuild the ankle. Was the pain the only reason you decided to get the new ankle? No..luha Salminen asked me to go with him and work in the U.S. for '05, and that was the point that I decided that I needed to get it fixed. I worked as a mechanic for the llrst time in '04, and I struggled at times with it then. So after rour iniury when did you realize that you wouldn't race seri- ously a8ain? Actually, everything was in place for me to race the year after I broke my ankle, because I had lust made a new contract with the Roy Emberson Yamaha team. But the recovery took lon8er and longer and eventually took one year. I kept hoping that I would be okay, and kept working at my fitness, but it was- n't to be. After not racing for a complete season, I made another one-year deal with the Yamaha team. But then my doctor told me that I wouldn't be able to race anymore. I put a motocross boot on and sat on my bike in the garage for the first time, and iust doing that was too painful; so I knew then that I would- n't race again- How hard was it to accept the fact that you wouldn't race aSain? That was realfy hard, and I was really upset. lt affected me quite badly, Racing and training was what I had been doing all my life, and to have it taken away from me was hard to adiust to. For three or four months I was really down. Did you haYe to learn new skills? It was a big step going from a racer to a factotT-team mechanic - that does- n't happen every day. I was a little bat nervous, so I iust tried to do everythinS as well as I could. Yeah, I had to learn new stuff, but the other mechanics around me really helped me. fu early as the beginning of '04, Juha said to me that he was workinS on a deal to go to the U.5. in '05, and that if I did a good job for I E!b) I hen promising Finnish motocross ra€er Antti Kallonen came up short on a triple iump at the Sheflield Supercross in late'02, his hopes of becoming Fin- land's next top GP motocross rider were shattered along with his left ankle. Despite having finished in sixth in the '02 l25cc British l'lotocross Cham- pionship one year after his iniury Antti was forced to accept that his career A coreer-ending iniury pul former motocrosser Antti Kollonen on q new poh os the tuner for GNCC chomp Juhq Solminen Sroly aND PHoros By Joury Eotrulros as a professional motocross racer wa5 over. Unsure what his future would hold, a chance 30 JANUARY 25, 2006 . cyclE NEl,Ys ( I , D [\ meeting with KTM enduro team-manaSer Kari Tiainen at the '03 Swedish motocross GP resulted in Anfti remaining very much involved with off-road motorcycling. Landing himself a job as mechanic to former three-time World Enduro Champion Petteri Silvan in'04, Antti was then asked by live-time World Enduro Champion Juha Salminen to travel to the states to mechanic for him during his '05 assault on the U.S. GNCC series. With Juha dominating the series, the rest - as they say - is history Was that second operation a success? It worked for a little while, but ih August of '04 I had another operation, and now I have a titanium ankle, I was trying to survive with it the way they'd l'ixed it, but the pain was iust too much and I was struSgling to walk sometimes- Oid you have any idea what you were goin8 to do alter you stopPed r.cing? lnitially, I said to myself that I wouldn't travel anymore, becat:se I had been doing that for so many years already. I was looking to go back to school to study. \y'y'hile I was trying to find something interesting to study, I realized that I might want to go back to motorcycle racing. lwent to the motocross GP in Sweden and met Juha Salminen. I asked if there were any iobs going as a truck driver or iunior mechanic. Kari Tiainen called me a couple of days later, and asked if I knew much about working on bikes, and would I like a job as a mechanic. Juha had known me for many years, and he convinced Kari that I would be good for the job. I ''!a., -] V V I l n% /^ -I I t- ,,} l: t x +\ a Elt;*. ..-ii Kollonen wqs one oI 3 ) h ?005 ^/ a Finlond's mo;t promising up-ond-coming MX riders, but thdt dll

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