Dylan Ferrandis went on the PulpMX Show on Monday night to talk about his decision to step away from the sport at 32 years old. Even though Troy Lee Designs Red Bull Ducati would have extended his contract, he knew it was his time as he explained to Steve Matthes:
“To be honest I was thinking about it middle of summer. I was asking myself the question, do I want to race next year? And after every good race I was like, ‘Yeah sure, next year we are racing.’ And then after every bad one I was like, ‘Yeah, you know what, that’s my last one. I’m done.’ I think every rider knows this feeling, when you have a bad race, for a racer it's the end of the world. So, it's not always easy and as much as I had a lot of good racing in my life, I also had a lot of bad. And this has been difficult for me to digest, the bad race, the crashes, the injuries. I think I have said this before, but I think I won some races and championships because I hate losing more than I love winning. So, it helps to motivate me and make me train harder, but it was also mentally always difficult for me to accept the loss, to accept the fail."
With two 250 Supercross titles and a Pro National title in both 250 and 450, Dylan has certainly been successful in his time in the States. He always gave it everything he had, even at the risk of his own health, “I don't have much regret. It's more when I pushed the limit too far and end up on the ground and injure myself or lose races that that's my biggest regret because I feel like all my career, my mentality was just push the limit, push more than the other guy, brake after everyone, you know, jump further. So that was my mentality on my career. And it cost me many, many injuries. I injured myself just because I should have given up and I didn't give up and end up on the ground. So that's my biggest regrets because when you break an arm, it's three months off. When you break a knee, it's four months. And so, I break like two times my arm, three times my knee, three times my shoulder. So yeah, that's a lot of time that I miss racing and training. And I miss two times the Motocross of Nations in France. The two times I was picked, I got injured like a couple of weeks ago before. So that's my biggest regret, you know, to not learn earlier in my career to give up when it was better for me.”
Injuries definitely played a role in Dylan’s career, especially early. He eventually figured things out and a flurry of titles followed, peaking with the 2021 450 Pro Motocross Championship. Then he got hurt the next year before he had a chance to defend, then Yamaha introduced a new, different bike. But when pressed if he thought if things with his health or the bike were different if he thinks he would have won more he very humbly answered, “No because there is a guy named Jett!”
The interview hit a whole bunch of different topics through Dylan’s career including his 250 days and his battles with Adam Cianciarulo. “He was a big battle, for sure. And it's funny because he sent me a text and he said like, ‘Much respect, loved racing you.’ And I was like, ‘Thank you’ I really feel good but, in my head, I was like, ‘How can you say you love racing me? Because I hate racing him!’ Like he was such a pain in the ass. Like he beat me many times. And it was I mean, I hate this feeling like, like I said before, I was hating to lose so bad against him. It was like every night he beat me, dude, you should have seen me in the rental car going to the hotel and to the airport was bad. Very bad.”
Dylan did say that on Saturday he was able to keep his emotions at bay during his final the race because of the risks of racing while not being 100 percent focused. But when Phil Nicoletti who was in studio compared him to all of the other great French riders like Jean-Michel Bayle, Marvin Musquin, Christophe Pourcel etc. and mentioned that Dylan himself is actually the greatest French rider of all time to race in America, Dylan got emotional.
“JMB, I wasn't born when he won. So, I don't really know. But I just when I grew up, he was the God in France. And for the other guys I remember like it was yesterday, I was watching them on TV, you know, on my couch in France and with my parents like watching the race on TV and they were racing and just to race the same race was my goal. You know, it’s never been my goal to win championships or to win races. It was just to go to the U.S. and race in the stadium and do like them, you know, like they were my idol when I was young. And yeah, just to do that was like the biggest dream for me. And yeah, if you say that I beat them like, wow, it's insane because I never really asked myself where I am as a rank for French rider. But yeah, this gives me more emotion, you know, when you say stuff like that than really feeling at the race, they were my idols and I grew up being a big fan of them. And yeah, when you say that, it's like I mean, it feels weird.”
So, what is next for the Frenchman? “To be honest, the way I am today, like I'm empty. My tank, there is no more gas. Nothing. Like people keep asking me like what I'm going to do, and my answer is ‘I'm going to sleep.’ Like that's really what I'm going to do. I'm going to sleep and rest and do nothing, you know, and don't have any more stress, don't have any more sound loud around me. Like I just want to rest because when I say I push my limit to the max, it's really what I did. Like I reached the limit of everything in my body. Everything is [messed up]. My knee, my ankle, my heels, my eyes. I'm just tired.”
One thing is for sure though, Dylan might not know what he is going to do, but he knows where he wants to do it, “I really love this country. I love the lifestyle we have here. It's the best in the world, you know. I travel a lot in my life. It was a long time ago because obviously I've been in the US for ten years now. So, before that I traveled the world with MXGP and stuff. And yeah, the life we have here in the US is just the best. And I don't want to leave that for sure.”
Dylan certainly brought a lot of passion (and sometimes drama) to the track and also gave the American fans plenty of excitement. Best of luck to Dylan for whatever you do in the future, even if it is just nap. You deserve it.
To listen to the entire Ferrandis interview (it's worth it) listen here around the 33:20 minute mark:
