Interview with ... Eric Geboers

A five times World Motocross Champion, promoter of Grand Prix and Motocross of Nations events and also team manager of his brothers Rockstar Energy Suzuki team.We decided to ask Geboers about the current situation with Belgian Motocross and also some stuff about his own racing career.

After riders like Ken De Dycker, Kevin Strijbos, Clement Desalle, Jeremy Van Horebeek and Joel Roelants, Belgium doesn’t seem to have a lot of new young riders coming up through the ranks and as you know Belgium has a bit of a dry spell as far as World Champions goes (Belgium hasn’t had a World Motocross Champion since Steve Ramon in 2007, which is five years the longest period without a World Champion in the history of the sport).

We are also unlucky that we lose a guy in Motocross like Stefan Everts, after that it’s a big problem and foreign riders are taking over. The first rider I see after Clement Desalle is Liam Everts. That is what I would say now. If you want to get a shot of adrenaline, then you need to see that guy ride a bike, that little kid, he will scare the life out of you. I had goose bumps watching him ride.

You were around Ken Roczen when he was very young. Do you see any type of comparison?

I saw Ken Roczen when he was 10 years old, when we first went to Mini Olympics in Florida and Liam is now 6 or 7. If I am honest Liam is in front of Ken, I think around that age Liam has more. Stefan is really tough on him, but that little kid is also tough on Stefan, he has an attitude.

We saw at this year's Motocross of Nations that Belgian riders still know how to race in the sand. Unfortunately they just missed out on winning the event. I remember you telling me as rider you never won the Motocross of Nations and were in fact part of the 1981 losing team.

Yes, because of the American dominance in the 80s I never got the chance to win. I won some races in the MXoN, but never the team event. And yes, the Belgians still know how to race in the sand.

Obviously being an Australian I remember Jeff Leisk winning a moto and running out of fuel while leading the other race in the sand in Valkenswaard. It was one of the highlights for Australian Motocross back in the 1980s. You raced that race, what is your memory of that day? How important is it to be more careful or ride safer in sand?

I remember, in fact we had the same bike and the same tank. The setting was different, but we were doing fuel consumption before and I remember my fuel consumption was good, not a lot to spare, but I had enough to finish both races. I know Jeff’s fuel tank was the same, but I remember his fuel consumption was worse than mine. He had a different style; it’s the same as Tanel Leok and Clement Desalle this year in the Suzuki team. They had the same bike, but the consumption from Leok is much higher, he used a lot more fuel than Desalle. I mean riders who are aggressive on the throttle use more fuel, and somebody like Clement he rides with throttle control.

Eric Geboers photo by Ray Archer