Rockstar Energy Suzuki Europe’s young Spanish rider talks about his first podium in last weekend’s Bulgarian MX GP and his move to Belgium.
Wow – that Bulgarian GP was quite a rush! It’s quite special to be able to ride there after all that has been going on over the last couple of months. Being in the Rockstar Energy Suzuki team is like a dream come true, but getting to know and work with the team’s trainer, doctors, mechanics and moving to Belgium full time was quite a lot to take in!
I rode a couple of races beforehand like the ADAC Championship and they went well, but it’s at that first Bulgarian GP that I could see the result of my work in the last months – and the first time I could really see what I’m up against! I know the track from back when I raced 65cc’s and it’s one of my favorites, but still, I was quite nervous going to Bulgaria for the first race of the EMX 125 Championship. Especially after seeing the final start list of the race, there were a lot of fast riders on it and I was really curious to see how I would do against them with the RM125 and to see the results of the preparation that we did in the last couple of months.
I’m really happy with the result of the races – the first was the best; my start wasn’t so good, but I managed to finish second. In the second race on Sunday I had a great start, but I made a mistake in the first lap which meant I had to fight my way back from last place. When we rode our second race on Sunday, the track was already pretty rough, making it even harder to find different lines to pass riders. I managed to get back to eight position which got me onto the podium in third position! It was great to see everybody from the team and my family after the race, everybody was so stoked! I’m looking forward to the next races and I know in which direction I have to work to get closer to the guys who were in front of me this weekend.
Today I’m doing a training session on a track just over the border in France, together with team mate Tanel Leok to prepare for the Italian GP. I moved to Belgium in January which is a lot better for training. This way I’m close to the workshop, I can go riding with my team mates a lot and I have the team’s trainer Yves Demeulemeester around to push me in the right direction. It’s really nice to work this way, just a shame that the weather in Belgium isn’t as good as Spain!
Living at Eric Geboers’ place is quite special too, there’s always something funny going on there. Certainly when I just moved in, we had Japanese rider Yohei Kojima staying there too. He’s a really funny guy and we had loads of fun doing all sorts of things. I do miss the Spanish homemade cooking though; the Belgian “cuisine” is not really my favorites, but I’ll get used to it somehow!
