5 Minutes With... Marvin Musquin

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Following in the footsteps of JMB and DV, 2009 MX2 World Champion Marvin Musquin came out to Bercy to measure his skills against the American invaders. Musquin, who is certainly an emerging motocross star lined up on a 250F and put in a good showing. Spurred on by the French crowd going bananas everywhere he went, Marvin pushed his KTM up to the front, and if it wasn’t for one motor problem on Friday, he might have been able to secure third overall on the weekend. As it was, The Marv Attack finished fourth and showed good speed on the little bike. We caught up to him after the post-race buffet for these words.

Racer X: Marvin, good ride this weekend here in Bercy. Can you talk about your race here?
Marvin Musquin: Yeah, for sure it was good to be here in Bercy with the World Champion and many, many fans come here for me. It was really big for me and the fans, my speed was good and I was really happy with my KTM. The PDS worked really well for me out there. Serge from WP and my mechanic were good. My bike was getting better and better this weekend and I was better in the whoops each time I got out onto the track.

You were one of the only guys on the 250F out there, was that a huge disadvantage for you?
No, I don’t think so. They pulled me a little bit on the start but it was pretty good really. In the whoops, at the end, they would pull away from me but that was more my fault because in the beginning of the whoops my speed was not so good. I was a little bit slow compared to the other guys. By the last main event I was pretty good though.

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What do you think about watching James Stewart ride out there?
It was amazing, James Stewart was perfect all weekend. Sure he got second but that was because he did not line up for Sunday’s main event.  He was really fast but not too much, y’know? In the American race, Stewart was not so far from. I was really happy to fight him and I was crazy out of my element battling with him but I’m really happy with my ride.

Was there a lot of pressure on you to do well? It seemed that everyone here was by your paddock space at some point.
Yeah, it was crazy with many, many people. It’s really good for my confidence to have this and I was focused on having a good race. With the fans going crazy, I was full-gas and I was almost crashing out there sometimes. It felt good to have all the people cheer for me.

Your French teammates were really fast as well huh?
Yes, [Gregory] Aranda was really fast. He’s a good supercross rider and he’s on a new team, BUD Racing, and getting better.

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You captured the MX2 World Championship and that was not without some complications. It must have been a crazy year for you, right?
Yes, when I was changing teams from Honda to KTM it was crazy and I wasn’t able to even ride one GP this year in Sweden. There were many problems with Honda and KTM but the season was great. It was my second season and was great for me. I have a new trainer; you know Yannick Kervella?

Yes.
He is my new trainer now and it’s really good for me. My conditioning was better and my team was perfect. My KTM bike was also great and you can see my results and my holeshots were much better with the KTM. My confidence was on top and everything was perfect. It was crazy there with my old team.

When are you coming to America to race?
I think I will be coming 2011 to race supercross and motocross. I should know more by January 2010 and I hope to be like [Christophe] Pourcel.