Interviewee
Tom Pagès
25/03/1985 // France
Injured
Interviewer
Martin Zöllner
06/07/17
Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas; Calle de
Alcalá, 237, 28028 Madrid, Spain
How gutted are you to not be out
there in the bullring?
Well yeah, I’ve been riding Madrid
since 2008 and I was really looking
forward to a shot at a fifth win.
However, my shoulder is injured and
I really need time to recover, so it’s
impossible to ride now this year - I’m
just watching.
What’s actually up with your
shoulder? How far are you from
being back to 100%?
Last year when I injured my shoulder,
it dislocated. It made last year hard,
especially in Madrid, but I made it
happen with hard work. In February
though, I hurt it again and this time
I definitely needed surgery. It’s been
three and a half months now, I’ll start
riding again soon and should be
100% within a couple of months.
Well it’s great to see you here and
getting better. What do you like
about Las Ventas?
This venue is special to me because
even before I was riding freestyle I
was watching Madrid’s FMX finals.
Then it was special when I first rode
here, and my brother as well. After
my brother stopped, I kept riding and
eventually won. I don’t want to leave
this place anymore. It’s a good place
to be, the hometown of freestyle
motocross.
Is the Double Backflip becoming
the most important tool in a rider’s
arsenal?
Josh [Sheehan] has been doing
the Double for a long time now –
sometimes he wins with it, sometimes
he doesn’t. For a freestyle run you
need to be consistent, you need to
be good at every part of freestyle.
We don’t know who’s gonna win.
Anyone can make mistakes; I make
mistakes all the time. The consistent
rider, the most consistent, is gonna
win anyway.
You’ve helped introduce new ramps
to X-Fighters in the past, but this
year we’ve got Front-Flip “cheater”
ramps – what do you think of them?