Roger DeCoster, Team Manager, Team USA
Racer X: Not the day you wanted to have again. It feels like we’re talking too much about this. Some good individual performances, but just some mistakes that couldn't be overcome.
Roger DeCoster: Three years in a row now that we struggled. There’s many things we can think about, but one thing is the French rode awesome today. We cannot come up with excuses and say we did not win because of this or because that. They were the best team today and they deserve the win.
They didn’t make any mistakes. Nobody had any issues.
No mistakes; good starts all day long. We got in all kind of trouble. Jeremy [Martin] crashed in the qualifying yesterday. Eli [Tomac] had a crash in both motos. Ryan [Dungey] crashed in the second moto. That was just too much. But there’s so much pressure on our guys also at this event. We have such a big entourage, and I think we need to look a little bit at the fact that we have too many people talking and too many opinions, too many experts talking to the riders trying to tell them what they should be doing. I think these guys are too good to keep being told all day, “You need to go win.” Today these guys, if they’re going to come here, they [already] want to win. We need to back off a little bit I feel and let them do their job and trust that they’re going to do as good as they can do. It’s hard to come here on tracks where the Europeans ride GPs every year. They know how the tracks evolve. They’re used to the weather, they’re used to a lot of things. It not easy to come here. And basically there’s a target on our bike also. The goal for every European country is to beat America. They will be willing to help each other to beat us.
I see other media members from other countries kind of get happy when somebody from another country just gets by an America.
Oh yeah, that’s a fact. And we also got spoiled in our best years, the years that we won very easily. Our riders were so dominant. But now the level is more even, and the equipment is very even. It’s tough.
We almost need to educate our fans—people on my Twitter, people who email me—that “Hey, these guys are good and it could go either way.” They still remember the heydays of America just kicking everybody’s ass.
There was a time that I think, a lot because of supercross, our technique evolved quicker than the rest of the other countries and we benefited from that. But now they have had time to catch up. Like you said, it’s very even. There’s a lot of information out there, a lot of exchange of between teams; we are connected worldwide. They know what we run; we know what they run. They only ride outdoors basically. Our riders’ techniques and bike setup is influenced by supercross. When we come to outdoors, of course we change, but we don’t go all the way because the way they have developed their riding and their riding technique and all that what they’re used to, they’re not comfortable with maybe the idea of a setting that would work on this kind of track. So there’s a little bit of that. On the other end, you have to look also on a bad day for us; we’re still on the podium. We still managed to come back on the podium from way behind. If you look at our consistency over the last thirty years, we’re always fighting for the podium and we seldom don’t end up on the podium. Even with all the problems we had today, we still managed to come back and make the podium.
Let’s talk about Jeremy Martin real quick: broken toes, broken foot probably, a bad crash. He really gutted it out. He didn’t get the great finishes, but he did well.
I think he did awesome considering his injury. It’s amazing that he was able to ride. We didn’t want to sacrifice a start position for the 450, so we put him on the outside. On this track it was a big handicap on the 250, especially on the 250. He did not whine, he did not complain about his pain, his injury, and all that. He showed a lot of toughness.
Thank you very much. We’ve got to calm everybody down and realize that this race can go either way these days.
Yeah, I want to win as much as anybody and everybody. Our team feels the same as me, and they work hard for this, the mechanics, the crew, the people that support us in Europe. To make an event like this happen, it takes a lot of work. I want to thank Alpinestars, Red Bull, for taking care of all our crew, and everybody else that’s helped this year. – Steve Matthes
Eli Tomac, GEICO Honda, 6-3 for third in Open Division, Team USA Third Overall
Racer X: Terrific second moto ride by you. But still at the end of the day, you’re one of those guys I think you put the team ahead of your individual rides, and for that you’re probably pissed.
Eli Tomac: I’m pissed. I don’t get on an airplane to come over here twenty hours and to fail like that.
And you’re 0-2.
Zero and two, what the heck is that? That’s not good. Maybe third time’s a charm for us and we’ll come back and smoke everyone next year. You never know.
Your starts, though, and then you fell. I don’t know what happened leading into that, but that was a kicker for you.
It was. I don’t know. They gave me the inside both times because they knew... Actually, my starts sucked this weekend, but going back to the nationals in America, my starts were fine. So going back to the Euro gates, there’s more room behind the gate there and it was sandy and guys were building these huge ramps. I haven’t had experience with that. Plus, they rolled the gate like crazy, where in America the pipe’s too close where you can’t get away with that. Ryan and Martin, they got better starts but I was getting worked. I was spinning.
Your second moto, somebody told me you were two seconds faster than Gautier, best lap time to lap time. You were on it. You had to have been feeling good. To me you looked like you were riding very angry, because your feet were coming out and you were kind of herky-jerky. You were angry.
I was pissed. I was angry. I stalled my bike. I was almost to Van Horebeek; I was right there on him and then stalled the bike. I actually went to an old fork that I had in the nationals. It was night and day. I changed my front end and it was night and day. First moto I was getting arm pump. I’m like, maybe it’s just the funky Euro dirt, but I’m like, “No, something’s not right.” I should have been on that fork all week.
Track-wise, what did you think? Not a lot to separate you guys, but obviously you came from the back pretty good.
If I would have had my awesome front end [all weekend], it wouldn’t have been an issue. I wish there was some more soil like this in America. We need some sand.
Our tracks are too close to the same thing.
Everything’s the same. It’s clay-base; it’s big jumps. Yeah, it’s cool for the fans, but we need to do some motocross tracks and just haul some sand in.
Your first moto, JT and I were talking about it. It looked like maybe you got up to Leok and you know how it works, you can’t get by somebody right away, so then you started getting into their speed. We thought maybe that happened to you, but was it more of a case of arm pump?
Yeah, a case of arm pump. I came off the track not even breathing, that’s how bad I was tightened up.
You looked like you were going to zoom by him.
Yeah, then I got stuck and got arm pump.
A lot of fans get really upset when USA loses this race. But at the end of the day these guys haul ass. America, you guys didn’t have a great day—you still got third—but France rode well.
Yeah. I think the world has changed. The Europeans, maybe five-to-ten years ago, there was so much talent in the US we would win all the time, and that was when the golden days of RC and Stewy, they were just kind of freaks of nature. These guys are getting faster and we’re coming to unique tracks that we don’t have in America, so it’s getting tougher and tougher for us.
Thanks for doing this. Congratulations on the 3rd. Great second moto ride.
Thanks. – Steve Matthes
Matthes caught up to DeCoster and Tomac above for one-on-one interviews. Ryan Dungey and Jeremy Martin said the following in the post-race press conference:
Ryan Dungey, Red Bull KTM, 2-11
Life goes on. We all gave it our best. Last year we did not win and I felt like I had a little pity party, but [I still feel] it is a great opportunity to come over here. For three years in a row, for me and the team it worked, and now for three years where it hasn’t worked. Rough times, but congratulations to the French and the Belgians who rode really good today. We have these days sometimes, and you just need to keep moving forwards. We race a lot in the States, and I’m happy with how I have done this year. We know what we are capable of, but it’s a team effort and like Roger [DeCoster] says we came up a bit short. We’ll come back next year. – Post Race Press Conference
Jeremy Martin, Yamalube Star Racing Yamaha, 11-13 for Fourth in MX2
The track was rough, maybe one of the roughest I have ridden in a while, and I had a blast. The foot injury is no excuse; I learned a lot and sometimes you do that more when you are down than when you win. —Post Race Press Conference
