Images by Christophe Desmet
Alex Ray, who hurt his wrist before the start of the 2022 Monster Energy AMA Supercross season, and then eventually had surgery on that wrist this past summer, is finally back to racing. His goal has been to just do the laps without crashing (something he finally accomplished during night two of racing in Paris, France) while racing his way back to speed. Steve Matthes caught up with Alex after night two of racing at Paris Supercross to see how he is doing with this injury and his goal of staying off of the ground.
Racer X: Alex Ray, just stay on the bike. It didn’t happen. It did today.
Alex Ray: It did today.
Yesterday though it didn’t happen, and you know what though honestly, your chain breaking on lap two in the whoops and sending you over the bars, that is, what have you done to do this kind of stuff in your life?
I don’t know man, someone is pissed off, or I have some bad karma for something I don’t know.
It's unbelievable it happens to you.
[Laughs] It’s just me I guess man, black cloud or the universe just doesn’t like me right now. But yeah, today no crashes I was stoked. Actually, believe it or not my fiancé Sam had a pep talk with me before we left the hotel. She was like, “Hey, leave your phone off, don’t do any of that shit, just be you today. Just be happy.” She gave me a little gift before main events, so it was good, yeah!
I can imagine. Your knee, how was your knee from yesterday?
It’s sore man, I was feeling it all day today, walking up and down the stairs, like I am just gimping around here. It sucks. But just a few days of rest and it should be fine. It's nothing serious I think I just hit like a bone or something and it just dinged it.
You were saying you weren’t stoked, you had no testing, no set up time. Your suspension was pretty soft?
Yeah suspension was pretty soft we went with a hybrid setting because we didn’t really know how the track was going to be built. I’ve never done this event before, so I just let Enzo [Suspension] take the wheel on that. And two I haven’t rode Enzo for the last four or five years, so it was all new to me when I got here. It was a little soft but all in all it was okay. Like you said I just wanted to do the laps. I wasn’t the fastest, but I just wanted to get out there and ride. I mean yeah, I was slower than shit all weekend, but it was good for me to get out there and ride because, I mean, why not, right?
You’ve got to get your wrist better, you’ve got to get back on racing, all that stuff that helps.
And honestly too, I am very, very happy with my wrist. It feels really good you know. With my knee hurting I didn’t even think about my wrist the whole weekend.
That’s good, so how’s the Honda compared to BluCru?
[Sighs] BluCru, bro. I’m bleeding blue.
[Note: Ray is expected to race a YZ450F for 2023 Monster Energy AMA Supercross].
