Sometimes you have to talk to the riders after the races to really know what happened. Ken Roczen was pretty quick in Paris, and had the speed to win two of the three races on day two. (He won the second race, and crashed while leading the third moto). Yet, Kenny's crashes kept him off the overall podium, and it turns out he never really felt good or comfortable, despite showing some impressive pace.
Cooper Webb, meanwhile, didn't have the stuff to challenge Roczen or the Lawrence brothers for wins, but Roczen's crashes left the door open for him to podium, anyway. Cooper might have been a tick off, but he was happier with his weekend than Kenny. Webb knows he has six more weeks to build, which is exactly what he did after being off pace in Paris last year, as well.
As for Roczen, he'll chalk this up as one of those weekends, then head to Australia for the FIM World Supercross championship (WSX) finale in a few days.
So what did they really think? Steve Matthes interviewed them after the race.
Ken Roczen
Racer X: All right, Ken Roczen. You were not happy yesterday. You said you weren't riding very well, you had to fix things, but then it went south a little bit. You won one Main today but probably should have won another one. And then, yeah, unlike you to fall down twice.
Ken Roczen: Yeah. This was really a weekend to forget for me. I feel like I've been doing well and in a lot of races lately and just sometimes we have these fluke weekends where shit just doesn't work out. I just had a really hard time. I wasn't feeling that great. Jet lag is always a thing I got. I got here later to try it because I usually show up on Wednesday, but I changed my flight to come on Thursday and I don't know, I just, I sometimes struggle with it more than others, but it's not an excuse. It's just something that I've dealt with, which is fine. You know, we all have jet lag. But I just, I had to compensate a lot, I think. This, this is my ses Nations bike. So yesterday I was on crap fuel. My bike, I'm like, "Dude, this thing is so slow. I can barely make some of the jumps." I had different fuel for today, so that was better. But, like, it didn't quite feel like my bike, even suspension-wise, like there was something that didn't really feel quite right. I actually took the stuff from at home, but we rebuilt some stuff and whatnot. And right away I was like, "Man, I don't know." And I told my team, I'm like, "Hey, I'm just gonna take minimum people," and then now, like, I need, I kind of needed my guys here. When we have all my guys, I never change a freaking thing! So it was just a tough weekend. You know, I mean, I don't know if I've ever crashed twice in one moto to begin with!
[We were wondering,] "Has Kenny ever crashed three times in a weekend?"
No, I honestly, I sometimes don't crash through an entire supercross season. So that was crazy. But like, yeah, I just, I made a little change in the forks for the last one. And my bike felt so choppered out and I almost crashed the first lap before the whoops just losing the front end, which I lost the front end yesterday and I lost the front end again later on. I don't know, something just wasn't right.
You won the second one and then you made bike changes?
I made a little change just because I made a change going into the second one, but it just felt a little bit hard initially to me, and the track was getting more and more hardpacked. So, I made a bit of a change and then I felt like the opposite, and that's what I was battling with the whole weekend. I just felt like my stuff was super soft and wallowy. Wasn't really up to like what I, what I kind of like. So, and this is just like something that I dealt with all weekend and I tried to weasel around, but I just, I couldn't make it happen. It wasn't a good weekend for me, but I learned from this too and it was definitely good practice, and good fitness training and all that.
On the flip side though, you pulled away from Hunter and Jett both races, like you had a four-second lead, five-second lead and, like, that was hard to do all weekend. We saw that you probably win that third one without the crash. So that's the positive. It's like maybe you weren't that comfy, but then you pull away from the guy that swept yesterday.
Yeah, I mean, I'm not leaving here thinking that I suck, you know, because I've been riding good for a long time, and this is just a weekend where things didn't go right. I always feel the greatest when I'm at home just because, you know, you're not jet lagged and you just have your energy and, and I don't know, it's just, things are different in the US. You sleep properly and I can definitely handle that really well. And sometimes I've been traveling a lot too, you know, and I'm a little bit worried now going to Melbourne because the way my flight is and when I show up, is just kind of like it's in the middle of the night. Plus I have a 21-hour flight. So if I sleep a lot on the plane and I show up, I land at 11 p.m. and you're probably gonna be up until eight in the morning. I don't know. It's gonna be an interesting experience here, but I've been traveling a lot and sometimes it catches up with you too and that's fine because we got a bit of time to Anaheim. So I'm kind of just taking this all in and honestly, like right now, I'm all pissed off and whatever, and bummed. But I texted Larry [Brooks, team manager] even after Abu Dhabi and I said, "Man, you know what, like the struggle made it fun." You know what I mean? Like you right there, you're throwing fits or whatever. And then I went home and I marinated on it a little bit and I texted him. I know we struggled and we went down and that whole shit. But I feel like you can't expect every weekend to go smooth. So I was like, "Man, this is actually fun." So that's kind of like how I look at it this way.
Yeah, it's funny a guy like you like, you don't end up on a podium after two days. So you're just like, "Whatever, like no podium." So it's funny that you don't even take the little small victories a little bit. I don't know, I feel like, look, Jett, we just saw him go 22 and zero and you walked away from him a couple of times. But, yeah, for you, you're like, "That's not good."
I guess my highs were like, pretty high and then the lows were just actually probably right. So, yeah. Arguably, you know, I'm one of the best riders in the world but I'm not gonna just freaking blow his doors off every, every race, you know? I'm just trying and, and come Anaheim 1 I'll be ready for the whole thing and I just want to battle and be in the mix. And obviously today I, most of the time wasn't, but that's how I look at it. You know, overall, even though I'm almost turning 30, I feel like I've had one of my best years I've had in a really long time and I'm hungry to keep building on it. So I still think I have some really good days ahead of me.
You've had the best attitude you've had in a long time. You know what I mean? Like, carefree, happy. "Hey, I did shit tonight, but whatever, we're going to move onto the next week," which wasn't always the case with you. Like you're in a good spot in your life. I feel like this past year and even this new schedule you’ve been like that.
Yeah, exactly. And you could tell like for me, the SMX rounds, for example, was like one of those things because I prepared myself well, and I have a different season, like, than most of the other guys just because I do off-season races and whatnot. So I use that as like, "Hey, let's take these three races and keep building because" going to Charlotte the first one, I didn’t race for so long, but yet my mentality was just that, I was ready for it. I'm building from that even more and more, and I actually in general feel stronger and fitter than I even did then. And I felt like I was in a really good spot then. So I'm not freaking out, I'm in a good spot. I've kept myself fit and now, like if I want to take a couple of days off, I will because I don't have to just chase, you know, or be pressured to like have all these big days that my body, back in the day, couldn't handle anyway. But now I'm at a level where I can kind of play with it a little bit and I think that's what I like personally.
Cooper Webb
Racer X: All right, Cooper Web. Hey, man, at the beginning of the weekend, if you were like, "Hey, you're gonna get third, you're gonna stand on the podium," you probably would have taken it, right? And, and that's exactly what happened.
Cooper Webb: [Laughs] Yeah, no, for sure. It started off slow, but we got better each race every night. It was good. I always use this race kind of as a gauge. We're not 100 percent ready yet, so it's good for me. Last year I really struggled and then we were able to turn it around in short six weeks and know what we need to work on. So I feel like same here, I feel it's good to get some more racing in on the Yamaha and know what direction we need to go, and work on, and same with me. So, yeah, I was pretty happy. Obviously fast guys [here]. It was good to be in the mix. I definitely felt better today and was a bit closer to everybody. The last two mains were actually my best riding so far. So, yeah. All good. I'll take the podium even if there were some mistakes. But that's me, man, Mr. Consistent! [Laughs]
Was there any reason you got better? Like, or was it any changes? The track got slicker, I don't know if that suited you. It shouldn't, but maybe any reason you can think of why you got better as it went on.
I think just more comfortable. Yeah, we were kind of making small changes throughout the weekend. Nothing too crazy, but we made a big change from yesterday to today with the fork and that seemed to be a good direction. I think just the more laps, you know, getting a little bit of confidence. These guys like Jett [Lawrence] and Kenny [Roczen] and even Hunter [Lawrence], their intensity right off the bat was really fast. I think, coming from just practicing, that definitely caught me a little bit off guard. So I think today I was just a little bit more ready to run that pace and kind of have the mindset of, "Hey, let's run this pace as long as we can and see what happens." So, yeah, overall I'll take it.
Is it a lot of racing all weekend long? Like, it seems like it's intense.
It definitely felt like more riding this year. I don't know why. But I think that they, compared to last year, they lengthened the last main event and that one was really, for me, like, you know, I don't think any of us are quite in 20-lap, main-event shape yet. And it was like, kind of a dig. It's about 12-13 laps [per race] both days, and I think what kind of wrecks you is, you don't get much sleep Saturday night. But, hey, that's, that's why we do it, to come here and get some laps.
Where are you at on your bike?
I think, like I said, just learning it. These are definitely some different conditions and that's something that we learn all the time. Like I've, I've been riding at The Farm, which is great and we'll ride other places, which is great. But I think until you go racing, [you don’t know.] I think this year the track was a little bit different than even normal. It seemed like it was a bit harder, and the turns were honestly a little different than I remember them being—pretty flat. So, yeah, just kind of knowing what to do and I felt like, the whoops, we were really strong. Cornering was something that is tough because you want it to turn tight, but then you need it to track. So we kind of fought that a little bit. But I think for me, honestly, right now it's just kind of getting some fitness, you know, some race pace. Like I said, I've been doing a lot of laps in boot camp, but the pace was high. And so that's something I'll definitely work on and I'm sure we'll find something, you know, a little bit here and there and I'm sure Gilly's [Ricky Gilmore, suspension tech for KYB] got stuff waiting for me. But yeah, I think it was a good test. We kind of, we were a small crew this weekend. We didn't bring anything. We were very limited in making any changes or anything. So now we kind of have a few ideas once we get home next week that we can try. And I think that will be something for me to improve. And a big thing was, starts. Starts sucked yesterday and today they were a lot better. So I got to keep working on those.
That was my next question. Your starts. They weren't good yesterday. Did you change anything or do anything to help the starts?
Yeah, we did. We actually changed the tire and that actually, for me, helped. And then also this was not like the US. There's like this, it's like a, a pyramid over the gate. So I was hitting my wheel on that and then it was popping me up. I was watching the guys today, and those guys were really getting over it. So started kind of actually trying to wheelie off the grate to get over and that definitely helped.
Hey, I thought the sand section for you was hit and miss. I thought, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, you put it in there a few times stood up. You were taking the outside for a bit and I don't know if that was any better. It seemed like it was sometimes you nailed it perfectly. But I did think here and there you were like, ‘Oh no, I messed the sand up again.’ Am I right?
It was my kryptonite all weekend. It's tough because that's where I could definitely use some legs. I'm not gonna lie. It’s tough when you throw in sand in supercross settings and suspension and, you know, I'm trying to treat it like supercross. It seems the Lawrence brothers and even Kenny, they just hit it like a straight outdoor section. We'll work on that, we got sand a The Farm. I’ll be good.
