Fast Talk: Ryan Villopoto

Red Bull: A great day and a great season for you. Take us through your day here at Lake Elsinore.

Ryan Villopoto: It was good. Me and Josh [Grant] were going at it in practice, and he was able to get me for the fastest time there. Then I went into the first moto and had a really good start, but just went a little bit wide. My main goal was to try to get two holeshots today. I felt like I was really close, especially the second moto, but just got edged out both times.

What’d you think of today’s track?

It was so-so. Maybe this is the way the sport’s going, with these kind of these stadium-style outdoor tracks, a little supercrossy with all the jumps. It’s good for the fans. This track had a good layout, and the whole thing would be really good if we had some quality dirt here. It’s sometimes hard to get some really good dirt, and that’s the problem with the way this place is right here.

When you’re leading a race and you are edging away from people, how do you keep that momentum and focus going, knowing you’ve got such a great lead?

All the preparation and everything gets done during the week. If you put the time in during the week, the weekend should be fairly easy. But if you don’t put the time in during the week, then the weekends are going to be a struggle.

Talking about testing for motocross during the supercross season. As a rider, you’re in supercross mode, so is it even really valuable to do much outdoor testing? Or are you actually able to be up to speed once the motocross season starts?

I wouldn’t say we’re up to speed right away. We showed up at Monster Cup with our new suspension, and even at Anaheim 1, we were way, way off. We were just so soft. That’s probably why I struggled the first six races in supercross. Same with outdoors. I kind of didn’t know where we were going to come in at, what the suspension was going to do. We had to learn very quickly and we had to make changes very quickly. If you want to win you have to do those things. We all have one goal, and that goal is to win.

Do you get to go do something crazy during the off-season now?

No. It’s very short. We’ll be back on the bike before you know it and be focused on preparation for supercross. We’ll go to Monster Cup with hopefully some new settings, and kind of see where we’re at, and what we need to work on. After that Anaheim 1 will be right around the corner.

Not even just a week off the bike or a week off training?

Yeah, I’m pretty sure I’ll be off the bike for a little bit. That will be good for me, good for everybody. We’ll kind of get to recharge.