You still had another crack at the US
in 2010 though.
Yeah I tried to get everything back in
gear and raced for Troy Lee Honda
in 2010 and had a decent season,
finishing fourth in the 450s. But then
I decided because I wasn’t racing
supercross, I should head back to
Europe and race some rounds of
the World Championship. I ended
up crashing and received a bad
concussion that really affected me for
a long time.
After a good showing at the Monster
Cup at the end of the year, I had a
few options on the table but decided
I needed to hit “reset” and race the
Australian MX Nationals. I had a great
bike and was really happy with the
setup - I had everything I needed. And
it showed, as that was the fastest I ever
rode, in fairness.
I remember that first round of the MX
Nationals where you just destroyed
everyone. Not to blow smoke up your
arse, but I’ve never seen anyone ride
a dirt bike as fast as you did that day.
Yeah, man, I was really feeling it. At
the time, I was talking to Chad Reed
and arranged a ride with TwoTwo
Motorsports - Honda Australia released
me with their blessing - but then at the
next round of the MX Nationals, just
before I flew to the US, I crashed and
broke my hip. That was a real turning
point for me and my career.
Was that the worst injury you ever
had?
Yeah it was. It was a major injury and
it lingered on until my career finished.
It sucked to have that opportunity with
Chad and the factory bikes he had
waiting for me, then to crash and lose it
all in a split second. S**t happens eh?
Then when I’d recovered from that I had
another concussion and that’s when I
decided I didn’t want to race any more
internationally. I’d had enough at that
stage.
56 | FreestyleXtreme.com
But you did mount another
comeback. How did that come
about?
I was cruising for a bit at home, sold
my property, moved house and just
got a lot happier again. After having
all those injuries in succession, I was
really enjoying my riding and racing
in New Zealand, so I decided to stick
my hand up and race for New Zealand
at the 2015 Motocross of Nations. I
put my head down and showed up at
Ernee ready to go and finished with
a 6-2 result, including a big battle
with Roman Febvre for the lead in the
second race.
Off the back of that result Suzuki
offered me a ride for 2016. I talked
about it with my wife, Lucy, and
said “you know, I wouldn’t mind an
opportunity like that again” so we
decided to give it another shot. In
reality I wasn’t where I thought I’d be.
Based off my MXoN performance I
thought I’d be regularly in the top five,
but really, I only had one moto where I
was a podium guy, and the rest of the
time I hovered around the top five-to-
eight position. And then I got injured
again and that was it.
That last injury was a crash during
one of the MXGP rounds, right?
No, it was while testing at Mantova in
Italy. I caught the handlebars to my
stomach and suffered some internal
injuries. And yeah, that was the end of
my professional career.
What was different about this injury
that made you call time on your
career?
I wanted to give it one more shot and
see how long it lasted, but I didn’t want
to drag my family around the world to
finish in the positions I was, so that
made the decision easy for me, really.
That’s right, I forgot your family were
based with you in Belgium. That
must’ve been quite a balancing act.
I do think it had a detrimental effect,
as it was never the plan for the family
to travel with me to every event. I did
worry about my young blonde-haired
kids running around, and although I
probably didn’t notice it at the time, it
did take my focus off racing. u
I was probably 23-24 and I realised
how good New Zealand was. I’d been
focused on pursuing my career as
an athlete, but I got to come home
and spend a lot of time with friends
and family and do stuff I hadn’t done
before. At the time, it was amazing -
but looking back now, it was a dumb
decision.