Due to the knee injury you suffered at the Motocross of Nations last October—and the subsequent surgery that came along with it—you didn’t race a single moto during the off-season. Were you a little bit rusty at the championship-opening Argentinian Grand Prix?
Yeah, for sure. I was off the bike for four months. I felt good going into the race because I worked really hard during the off-season on my body and physical stuff. I trained really hard off the bike and I actually felt really fit and in shape. I expected to do a bit better there in Argentina, but things didn’t go the way I planned. That’s pretty normal for being off the bike for so long and then just jumping right back into it. I’ve never done that well at the track there, either. I’ve always kind of struggled with that track for some reason. Yeah, it wasn’t a good weekend. Last weekend at Valkenswaard, it was good to kind of turn it around for myself, mentally. It proved to me that I’m not that far off. I’ve still got it! [Laughs] I didn’t lose any speed or anything—it’s still there.

And winning the qualifying moto in that deep sand on Saturday afternoon had to be good for your confidence.
Yeah, for sure. The two weeks after Argentina, we did a lot of testing and we really got my bike dialed in the way I wanted it. Being injured the whole off-season, I wasn’t even attempting things that we needed to do. We’re on the new Husqvarna. Unlike the American guys, we switched to the new one, and I really think I needed a few more weeks to really dial the bike in. Argentina was a good test for me too. We got it working good and I was comfortable on the bike, and we came out swinging on Saturday at Valkenswaard. I wasn’t expecting that at all. I got a good start behind Jorge Prado and just tried to stay with him, because when he gets a start like that, he’s unbelievably fast in the sand. I just thought, If I can just [ride close to] him, that’ll be a good race for me. I was able to stay right on him, and towards the end of the race, I started closing the gap a little bit and put some pressure on him, and he ended up making a mistake going down a hill and I went into the lead on the last lap. Yeah, that was a fun race. And Pauls Jonass was behind me as well. I was expecting him to come up a little bit harder. For some reason on Sunday, my starts were a little bit off and the way that track was, if you weren’t in that top three on the first few laps, it was pretty much hopeless to catch those guys. Those first guys could just send it on the first lap wide-open and not have to deal with any riders or any roost.

Or snow….
Yeah, those were some real MXGP conditions, huh?!

Yes, not Glen Helen Raceway mid-week in, say, July…
No, definitely not. I rolled up to the track on Saturday and I was just sitting in my car and the snow was coming down. I sat in my car as along as possible before I had to go out in the cold. I think the only time I left the truck on the weekend was on my bike. It was hard just to stay warm. It was pretty crazy. We were really worried about the track being frozen on Sunday because it got so cold on Saturday night, but they did a really good job working on the track. I think they had the machines out there all night ripping it and keeping it moving so it didn’t freeze up. The track was surprisingly in good condition, it was just the hands and feet were frozen after the motos.

All in all, a couple of solid results for you a mere three Grands Prix into this 2018 world tour.
Yeah, it was a solid weekend overall. It’s kind of where I expected to be the first few rounds, you know, right there in top five. I wasn’t really looking for anything more than that coming into this new season. Obviously, it’s not where I want to be, and I’m just going to keep working every week at the practice track with my trainer Joel [Roelants]. We feel a little bit better and little bit stronger every week. Hopefully the results will show that, too.

Reigning MX2 World Champion Pauls Jonass has come out swinging early on. What do you think?
Yeah, Jonass has been really strong here coming into the season. That’s probably just the confidence of being World Champion last year. He’s defending his title, so I think I just need to get up there and get of pressure on him. Maybe he’ll make some mistakes. The first couple rounds, he’s been flawless. You can’t really say anything bad about him. All the other guys too… Hunter Lawrence, Prado, my teammate Thomas Kjer Olsen, they’re all strong this year. I think everyone feels like they have a chance at the title and they’re just going for it. Yeah, it won’t be easy.

I’ve know you for quite a while now and you sound great. You sound calm and confident. Are you looking at the big picture here, come the next six or seven months?
For sure. But I try not to think about the big picture too much, actually, as I just want to go out there, and every time I’m out on the track, I want to be the fastest guy out there and not worry too much about the end result. You know, this is my fifth season in the GPs and I’m just kind of learning to deal with the highs and lows. Motocross is so up and down. One week you have one bad race and you’re at the lowest of lows, borderline ready to quit, and then the next weekend, you win a moto and you’re on top of the world and everybody wants to talk to you and be your friend. I’m just trying to keep an even keel throughout the season. When it’s going well, you just try to stay calm, and when it’s going bad, it’s not that bad. That’s the biggest difference between my first couple seasons in the GP and being here and now.