£ Madrid was Rob ’ s 23rd X-Fighters appearance - after making his debut back in 2010 at London ’ s Battersea Power Station .
Interviewee
Rob Adelberg
07 / 11 / 1988 // Australia Yamaha YZ 250
Interviewer
Martin Zöllner 06 / 07 / 17
Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas ; Calle de Alcalá , 237 , 28028 Madrid , Spain
Rob ! Good to see you back in Madrid – how ’ s things ?
It ’ s really good to be back here in Las Ventas . I ’ ve been off the bike for almost eight months now , and this is my first competition back , so I ’ m excited and ready for a big event .
What do you think of the bullring ?
This venue is a hard one for me . I tend to do better with a bigger arena , like Glen Helen . But , here in Madrid , maybe one of my favourite things is the size of the landing . I really enjoy the big ramp coming straight out of the tunnel .
What about that other ramp … the new one … the cheater ?
The cheater ramp I ’ m really against . My friend , Jacko Strong , has been doing Front Flips off a normal ramp for five , six years now . And , even the Pagès brothers , they both landed Front Flips off a super kicker .
Then they go and build a ramp that does the trick for you - I think it ’ s cheating . It ’ s not just bad for the guys who ’ ve spent all this time learning to do it properly - it ’ s also cheating all the other guys who they ’ re competing against , like myself . I want to learn a Front Flip , but I want to learn it off a genuine ramp . Not a ramp that does the trick for me . It ’ s straight-up a cheater ramp , and I really don ’ t like it .
So you ’ ll be giving that one a miss ? Definitely .
Tell us a bit about your injury , how well-prepared are you feeling for the competition ?
The surgery I got in November was pretty rough one , and it was on a wrist injury , an old injury that . It was scary , after the surgery it looked really bad , and I wasn ’ t sure on how it was gonna heal . It ’ s been taking a lot longer to heal than expected . It was really painful for months after the surgery . It was from a crash many years ago . I walked into the hospital fine and walked out with a cast on , which was a first for me .
Battling through the pain of it and all the rest was dragging on a lot longer than expected , so I ’ ve missed out on a few events already this year . I ’ ve only been practising almost two months now , leading into Madrid . So it was hard to get many new tricks going . But I ’ m definitely where I was at before the surgery . I ’ m feeling really comfortable and confident on my bike . I just haven ’ t had much time to try any new things .
Was having X-Fighters and X Games coming up a motivation for you ?
Yeah , X Games and X-Fighters have been pushed pretty close this year , but I ’ m taking each event as it comes . I want to do my best here in the bullring , and I ’ m not gonna hold back to save myself for X Games . I ’ m just