Fuente: © Yamaha Racing
http://www.yamaha-racing.com/

YAMAHA: COLUMN STEFAN EVERTS OCTOBER

/noticias.info/ Dear fans,

While nature has its way to tell us that winter is upon us, it also gets clearer that my MX season is ending. With the last GP race in Desert Martin, Ireland a long but exciting World championship came to conclusion. However I have to admit it does help to look back with a good feeling if you have just won the world title. I was not the only one who was genuinely happy in Ireland, I got the impression the restaurant owner of a nearby village was nearly as pleased with us! Three following days we had Chinese food, with all respect for the Irish or ‘English cuisine’ but I prefer Eastern food when I’m over there.

The race weekend itself went perfect, you might call it the icing on the cake. The beautiful track inspired me to pull off two great races and Ben Townley was the only one to put up a fight. We treated the crowd with a heated battle in the first race, while Ben launched himself into an early lead during the second race. I realized Townley would never be able to keep up this elevated pace for complete race distance and I never panicked. When his advantage had reached 10 seconds I thought it was time to react. Townley was getting tired and it was easy enough for me to overtake him. Luckily for me, because not only did I want to win twice, I also wanted a lead that would be big enough to allow me to wait for my mate Townley in a commemorative goodbye T-shirt. My advantage was just sufficient for me to take off my helmet and put on a shirt. Together with his friends we waited at the finish line to give him a fitting goodbye. Yamaha had a reason to celebrate as well because my GP win was enough to beat Honda in the manufacturers championship.

Because the Irish race took place on Sunday my schedule before and after the races was quite messed up. I only realized this on Sunday, it felt awkward and I was a little bit lost. With the MX of Nations ahead of me I wanted to be fully prepared and my double victory in Ireland only made me more motivated. On Tuesday morning I went for a run, but unfortunately the cold morning air would not do me any good. Already the very next morning I had problems getting out of bed, and my muscles felt painful. I immediately started taking antibiotics, although I knew this was not a magic trick and it would simply take time to get healthy again. Time that I did not have and on top of that I felt so weak that my motivation suffered a serious blow. Beating the Americans would be tough, but I thought we should have been able to fight with the French team for second place.

I had two difficult races, where I could not fight with the front runners because of bad starts. But I’m not here to make excuses because I could never run with Ricky Carmichael. Ricky was the best and that’s also what I told him afterwards. Steve Ramon was the best rider in the Belgian team this time and Kevin Strijbos, who did not have a great season, worked really hard as well.

This was my 13th participation in the MX of Nations and it was always my goal to finish on the podium, just as I did the previous 12 times. So I was relieved that we reached the podium in the end. Even more impressive as an experience was the huge crowd in France. Just walking around was difficult for me, and that was just one of the disadvantages. Luckily we are not pop stars who have to live with this kind of craziness day in and day out! We had a small party with the Belgian team and than we drove home (Belgium). We only arrived very early in the morning in Lummen, to enjoy a short night rest.

On Monday night we were due to be going to the farewell party of Ben Townley. The Farewell Party to Europe had people dressed as all kinds of character who had something to do with America: US motocross riders, cowboys and indians, superheroes and so on. It was a cool party that lasted till early in the morning. Ben already left on Wednesday to Florida to start a new chapter in his life. His parents, girlfriend, manager and Kelly’s brother, Ruben went with him. Ruben will be Ben’s training mechanic. It was also a difficult moment for Ruben’s parents to see their son go, but I guess that will get better over time.

I will also miss Ben personally because over the years he has become a good friend. BT’s choice to continue his career stateside is a good decision I think. I believe he has what it takes to succeed, especially for the Nationals. And depending on his learning process in Supercross he could become a real favourite there as well. Luckily, Sebastien Tortelli will come to Europe. He is good for my motivation! We have a lot of mutual respect for each other, and I suppose we both have changed by growing older.

Next up in my calendar was a visit to Paris where Yamaha launched its new models. Not just somewhere in Paris, but the world famous Lido was the venue for the event.Later that week I went to Italy where journalists had the opportunity to test my factory bike. For me the day was an opportunity for a serious training on the 2006 YZ450F. In the past I have always been very critical about aluminum frames and I preferred steel, but I really like the aluminum frame on the new bike.

To gain time in the development I had asked Yamaha for a serious race test during the last round of the Belgian championship in Pierreux. I felt we could learn valuable lessons from how the frame and suspension would behave in a race. Unfortunately we did not have the 2006 factory Kayaba suspension, but even with my current suspension the bike worked great.

To end the season I have just a few more races, among them two supermoto events. Especially the famous Superbiker race in Mettet is a challenge for me. I will also contest the last race of the All Japan championship in Sugo. With Leok and Sword competing there the race wil be even more exciting than last year. I’m also looking forward to the good care of Yamaha in their home country. Just to be spoiled once in a while, does not hurt, does it? No spectacular evolutions in my CD collection, I have only added the latest Simple Minds album. However I’m looking forward to the latest CD of Robbie Williams, that is about to come out any time soon.

See you next month,

S72 Stefan Everts notas_de_prensa_archivo