with ... Shaun Simpson

Youthstream's Geoff Meyer catches up with Shaun at his Belgian home this week and asked him about his season and where he can make some improvements. It’s a long road to the top, but the Scottish rider is keen on making the most of the coming weeks and knows that he has good speed around the Uddevalla circuit in Sweden.

Q: Shaun, can you explain how you are feeling so far in the season?

Simpson: The results, I am struggling, my speed and how I am riding the bike feels pretty good, and it’s getting pretty frustrating really. I don’t know, I feel like I am fast in a lot of practice sessions and I feel like I am not pushing too hard, but when it gets to the race I can’t seem to get out of the gate at all. I don’t know, we really need to work on the bike more. Every time I come out of the start, I get smoked into the corner.

You seemed a little quicker out of the start in France.

In France I got a really lucky jump out of the gate, it was slightly downhill after the start and I got my elbows in front and once you can do that you are sorted, but normally if I get a good jump, by the time I get my elbows out, the other boys are already past me. That has been holding me back a lot.

Is it tough having to fight from the back all the time?

It reminds me a lot of the first two years in the Grand Prix’s, because then I struggled to get a good lap to get me a good spot on the start and also with the start I was struggling. But the guys from first to sixth, they are pretty chilled out and relaxed and they get away from everyone. But the guys from sixth to 15th, we call them the ax murderers, they come up the inside panic revving and doing block passes on the first few laps. I mean, in that group you are just fighting to stay upright. I mean, after three or four laps you are already 20 seconds behind the front guy.

Your team-mate Ken (De Dycker) is also struggling out of the, start isn’t he?

Yes, he is and again he is struggling out of the start and his results have come from behind me in the starts, he has always passed me when he gets good results and my starts haven’t been good at all. I think a good start for me was maybe third or fourth in the heat race. I think Ken’s best start this year has been something like 8th, so that shows where we are for starts. It’s frustrating.

Next up Sweden, you normally do well there.

I like Sweden, so let’s hope I can start to get some better results there.