Comments from the Champion!

There are times when you hate Motocross’ – Jeffrey Herlings

by Gonçalo Viegas

Motocross is a very injury-prone sport, and Jeffrey Herlings – one of the best riders in the sport today – knows this well from personal experience. Just in the last two years, he has been injured more than once – in 2020 he even missed much of the season because of it.

As this year’s champion told mx1onboard.com, his femur injury is now in the past, although he has some pain that doesn’t bother him too much: ‘The femur is completely healed. The only things that hurt in the morning are the hip and the foot. When I’m riding, the hip doesn’t bother me at all, but the foot does.’

Herlings confided that there were moments when he questioned his continuity in MXGP, but all is overcome when the pain is gone: ‘There have been quite a few injuries, I can’t deny it, there are times when you hate Motocross. At Faenza last year, when I was on the ground and I couldn’t move my legs, I thought «what the hell am I doing here», but after two weeks you are pain free and you do everything you want and you think ‘let’s ride again’.

‘I don’t race for the money or the fame; I race because I still love doing it’ – Jeffrey Herlings

by Gonçalo Viegas

Jeffrey Herlings has returned to the MXGP motocross world titles this year. The KTM rider has been one of the sport’s leading figures for many years and, in the service of Red Bull KTM, is naturally one of the highest paid – something that doesn’t matter so much to him at this point in his career.

In an interview with mx1onboard.com, the Dutchman said that money no longer moves him, but the sport itself: ‘Nowadays I don’t race for the money or the fame. I race because I still love doing it. Yes, the bank checks are good, but it’s not a motivation any more. I’m here because I like it and I still want to win; it’s nice. I also like to do unexpected things.’

And Herlings exemplified these unexpected things: ‘I came back to Lommel after an injury, I shouldn’t have done it because I wasn’t really prepared. I had cracked my shoulder blade only eleven days before, but I did it and got a good result. I know that doing something like this is also good for the people around me like KTM and Red Bull. I hate injuries, but the only reason I do it is because I love the sport.’