VOL. 51 ISSUE 50 DECEMBER 16, 2014 P65
technically illegal for him to drink beer, it's pretty
difficult to fault him for it, when the legal drinking
age where he's from, in Germany, is 16. Roczen
has been living independent of his family since he
was 18, in a foreign country, which is a testament
to his maturity, and he was used to being allowed
to drink.
"I drink beer!" Roczen says. "But if I post some-
thing [on social media about it], they [fans on the
Internet] would be so mad just because I'm 20. I'm
like, 'Dude, if you're 20 in Germany, you're a f—ing
grown man!' By the age of 18, you're a man. And
here, they're so weird about this 21."
Roczen goes on to point out that he thinks a rea-
son so many young people drink like crazy in the
USA is because they're not supposed to. It causes
the tension going into the finale in Utah, but Roc-
zen was still noticeably nervous about it. As people
came up to him to wish him luck, or tell him they
think he's got it under control, all Roczen wanted
to do was not talk about it at all until it was over.
"It's difficult," Roczen said. "I haven't been in
this situation too much and so I wasn't too confi-
dent there because my body was empty. If I would
have been like I was in the first half of the season,
I would have been like, 'F— you guys. I'm going to
do this.' But I wasn't. So it was just kind of like, 'Ok,
it is what it is.'"
In the end, Roczen dug deep, and he brought
the title home. Even without all of the things he had
to overcome, it was an incredible achievement for
a 450cc rookie.
MINOR CONTROVERSY
After winning his 450cc National MX Champion-
ship, some stuff blew up on social media when it
became known that 20-year-old Roczen had beer
after his championship. While it may have been
"IT WAS REALLY JUST…I NEEDED A CHANGE."
