Tanel, you seemed to have problems early
in the year. Being new to the TM team you had to learn how the bike works and
how your style fitted with the bike. Can you explain how that
went?
For sure we were always working on the
bike to improve it. I had problems with injuries and then I crashed and injured
my finger and I still wasn’t riding well, but now it’s not a problem with
injuries and the bike is going better.
Is there a lot of possibilities to change
the bike being that it’s a factory bike?
The bike is good; I don’t feel like
it’s worse than the other bikes. It’s possible to change so much and find the
right thing. We are always finding things out about the bike and sometimes I
don’t know what I need to do to change it, sometimes it’s a problem with the
language and sometimes it’s me not knowing, you know, guessing what I need to
change to make it better. Sometimes I feel the bike isn’t correct but I guess
and we go the wrong way. It’s nobody’s fault, just the process of learning the
bike.
Tell me about your last couple of races,
Germany and Latvia.
In Germany I crashed in the first heat
and then the second race I was following Philippaerts but then I didn’t finish
the race. In Latvia I got my leg caught in Philippaerts back wheel and then I
had a bad qualification race. In the first moto the other riders pushed me so
far outside the track in the first corner, and I came back okay, then in the
second moto I was 10th and I was feeling good and I was looking at
the lap times and I felt okay.
Did it get you down mentally having so
many little injuries and also your problems with working out the best for you
and the bike?
I didn’t let the problems get me down
mentally, I had more problems with all the small injuries, I am worried thinking
if I will ever be 100% again. I also had ankle problems, stupid little things.
Also now everyone knows I am not a good starter, and in the MX1 class now a
start is really important. I did get a good a start in Spain and everyone saw
what I could do, I was running up front and it’s no problem.
I know you did the Stefan Everts Charity
race and in October you also have Charity race. What do you like about these
types of events?
It’s fun, and it’s for Charity, you get
to do so many things and I also have the same type of race and you can give
everything to the children.
It’s also a good thing to show people that Motocross can help in Charity work. I
also have a Charity race in October in Estonia and it is a lot of
fun.
