Jeffrey was walking with the help of crutches in Assen.
Walking through the paddock at the Grand Prix of The Netherlands it wasn’t difficult to spot where Jeffrey Herlings was. Everywhere the Flying Dutchman went the crowd followed, and his team signing session the row of people waiting for his signature was as long as one of those cues for James Stewart or Ricky Carmichael at an AMA event.
Herlings made an appearance at the GP of Assen to check out the days racing and give something back for his loyal fans. It’s been a tough 18 months for the Red Bull KTM factory rider and one that he seems to be recovering well from.
Geoff Meyer caught up with him and asked him about the Assen event, his recovery and those comments by Ryan Dungey last week.
Jeffrey, good to see you back. How are you feeling?
I feel pretty well, obviously wish I was racing, the track looks primed and a lot of spectators. I wish I could be racing at this event, it really looks cool, but it is what is it, just got to look forward to Assen in 2016.
Second year in a row you miss out on a title, does it get easier the second time around?
Actually it is way easier, because I was over it. I have had so many injures and crashes and I think it was because I haven’t been in good shape and I have struggled all year. I hope to get back on the bike in December and have a really good winter.
Some people say maybe your concentration isn’t what it could be because you are so much better than your competition. Is there anything in that?
Really I don’t know, I thought I was really focused. This year I was unsure about myself and my riding and we had a new bike and I didn’t get enough time on the new bike. That was because I couldn’t train all winter long and then all the injuries it was really difficult. From the first GP until I stopped I rode maybe 30 days in total.
Last weekend Ryan Dungey gave his opinion of the MXGP series, and it wasn’t very complimentary. Obviously he came back and said he didn’t mean what he said, but what was your opinion of what he did say?
If he really said that, I would say we have the same speed as the American guys or we are faster. We have a lot of strong guys and when you see Villopoto when he came here, he couldn’t win. Sure it’s a completely different world, different tracks and stuff, and the American guys are really fast. In Europe when everyone is on the gate we are really fast also. The only problem in Europe is a lot of riders got injured this season.
Seems like the tracks are at times to blame, but in saying that the speed of the riders has without question risen in 2015 from 2014. Similar to America in their prime, they also had a lot of rider injuries and there was always pressure to perform.
I think so, everyone tries to win and the sport is getting bigger, and bigger and more pressure and more television coverage and we all try and make a living out of it and we all try and win. The MX2 guys came closer to me this year and sure I wasn’t 100%, but they have improved.
Obviously we have some really cool tracks in the series, but there have been some that were not so good and Giuseppe Luongo even mentioned that and wants to improve the poorer facilities.
I think some of the tracks are good, like in Assen it was perfect, also Valkenswaard, Argentina, but we also had some bad tracks, and I thought they were dangerous, I mean Spain and Germany. It’s a hard series and sure it’s motocross and we need to race this hard-core sport, and we need to be good on all types of tracks, and weather conditions, so it’s part of the job.
What about Max Anstie, he seems to be riding with the form he had when he raced Ken (Roczen) and yourself in the juniors. He is good for the sport and a good guy, what do you make of his results?
Max is a really good guy and he’s been my friend for a long time. It’s weird, but when I am not there he often wins, and when I am there he doesn’t do that well. I think I am in his head (laughing). I think if he didn’t have that crash in Loket he was the man for the championship. And as you see with me this year and last year, anything can happen in this series.
Last question, what do you think of the Assen event?
I think it’s really big to run at Assen. It’s our biggest road racing track from Holland and it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to get a GP here, but you see the crowd, so many crowd and what is funny is this part of Holland isn’t really big in motocross and I wasn’t sure they would get a crowd, but it’s huge. I think for the organization, the crowd the media, the whole thing is really impressive.
