Danish blues!
By TMX Archives on 17th Jan 06
A factory contract must be the dream of every motocross rider but for Brian Jorgensen his 2005 season with Rinaldi Yamaha turned into a nightmare. A factory contract must be the dream of every motocross rider but for Brian Jorgensen his 2005 season with Rinaldi Yamaha turned into a nightmare. As the Great Dane looks forward to a renewal of his winning ways on his return to Martin Honda, DBR caught up with the 30-year-old to find out exactly went wrong last summer."First of all I never really felt that good with the bike and I found it difficult to find a good set-up for the bike. I pretty much struggled all year - I didn't even feel good on the bike when I was winning in Namur or leading in Italy."It was a tough season and I even got to the stage where I was thinking 'if I don't ride better than this then perhaps it's time to stop and do something else in life'. I think I work as hard as anyone and when the results are not coming then it is not satisfying at all."I just didn't feel comfortable with the bike. I tried to set the bike up better for me but every time we were too far away from what I wanted to do on the bike. The team tried to make me a little bit happier with the suspension but there was still no comfortable feeling. It was the same problem we had right from the beginning of the season. I don't know what it was - the suspension, the frame, the engine - but it was just a totally different feeling from what I had on the Honda."It was frustrating to go in a factory team and not get the results. And in the end I was just plain slow - as soon as I got near to the limit I would crash and that leads to other things, like in Portugal when I got knocked out. It was difficult for me to come back after that because I've never been knocked out before in my life and I lost seven hours of memory. Seven hours of my life just disappeared and that's scary!"Then I got knocked out again in England. I was having difficulty with concentration and that affected my confidence too, not knowing what was happening in my head. A broken bone or leg, you can come to terms with that and know that after a certain time it's going to be healed but with the head you never really know what is happening."It is to Brian's credit that he does not try to play down the problems he had in the wake of repeat concussions but just one week after Matchams he was back on the gas, leading the Italian GP right up until the last lap when a sudden loss of engine power cost him the win.The main reason the GP winner of 2004, the man who had ended Honda's three-year drought in the premier class, slumped to 13th in the world rankings is his incompatibility with the YZM450F!"Already from the first time I rode the Yamaha I felt that we were too far away from what I wanted with the bike. It was my own mistake that we never found a solution. I was trying to be so positive about the year and kept telling myself it was me and that it would come together and get better - but it didn't. Even to my wife I was being really positive but deep down inside I knew I didn't feel good. And the worst thing you can do is to lose confidence in yourself."I was trying my hardest every weekend but I'm only a human being and you can only take so much. I think I showed in 2004 that I am not weak mentally when I got injured before the third round, had to have a month off and came back to win both motos at Teutschenthal - then crashed again in Holland and dislocated my shoulder but still pulled myself out of the big hole again. I got through all that but last year it got so bad I ended up in such a hole that I eventually went to a guy back home in Denmark to help me."The team tried to do their best with the bike - even if they didn't succeed - but from the start of the season I should have been tougher and put my foot down and say 'I can't ride this'. But being off for six months after my operation you don't feel you can tell them the bike is a piece of ***t because you don't feel good on it. And Stefan was winning on the same bike!"And therein lies the clue - Rinaldi make a bike for Stefan Everts!"The engine had good power but it was more peaky that the Honda and that makes it more difficult to ride with my riding style. You can be on the powerband and there is nothing, then suddenly it is too aggressive for me to even control. I am so aggressive in the corners while Stefan just rolls on the throttle. He hits the powerband he needs when he comes out of the corner - I believe he is the only guy out there with really good corner speed, he is turning the throttle so smoothly."The bike was perfect for Stefan but there are 39 other guys at the gate and we all ride differently to him. They needed to do something different for me to what Stefan needs and they just never did it."The team works very hard for Stefan and he wins the world title. But for me, coming into a factory team, I felt and expected that we should have also been able to make a bike for me which was adapted to my style. I should not have been expected to adapt to the bike. I blame myself for not being tough enough to say 'this is not going to work for me, we need to do something else'. I guess we'll never know what would have been if they would have changed it."I don't even know if it would be possible because there does seem to be a lot of difference between four-valving and five-valving - the character of a four-valve bike like the Honda is more bottom, you can do more torque. The Yamaha has a good peak but not so much torque, not so much power in the bottom. I'm not saying it is bad but for my riding style the Honda suits me better."I never had one single training where I felt comfortable with the bike so I know I can look back and say that this bike was not for me. It is such a shame because everything else was perfect. I was living in Italy five kilometres from the team so I was even practising on a factory bike, I love the area and the people in the team but it just didn't work out on the track."We went through the same discussion all year because every time I complained they would say 'you were leading by 20 seconds in Namur' but that was no measure of what was happening."I never liked the track there. I was 18th in quali and in the morning I was 12 seconds off the pace but in the race I was doing exactly what I had to do, crossing all of the bumps and the ruts. The speed is not high there so it didn't show up the problems I was having with the bike. I just rode my own race and I pulled it of. When I came back in after the race the team said 'that was great' but I didn't feel good out there at all. I had won but I knew I had ridden so bad."I rode around for 60 laps in practice and was pushing really hard and never got anywhere near the lap times I was doing in the race. In the race I was just cruising, just trying to get the fun out of jumping from one smooth patch to the next and trying to take out the fear of hitting the trees. There's more to it than just being fast at Namur. I got the start, I didn't have to think about anybody else and was playing with the bike."Brian's relationship with team-mate Everts did not blossom through 2005."We didn't have much of a relationship - we would say hello but no more. I don't get stressed about that, I just try to do my job and I'm sure he does the same. But then at Nismes he started complaining that I was holding him up. He complained about the first two laps and there were 18 still to go. If I'd held him up for 21 laps then I can understand it but for two laps that is bull***t."After the race the team told me I had to let him by and that gets at you. You start riding with a different attitude, you don't want to get involved in conflicts with the team so when he was behind me at Loket I wanted a five-second gap so no-one could complain. I tried to ride so hard and used up so much energy that in the end I started to lose concentration and was thinking about whether I should let him past or not, when and where."If Stefan thinks I was holding him up, I'm not really bothered. That's his problem. I believe if you're nine times world champion then you should be able to pass no matter what!"But now Brian is looking ahead to Martin Honda where he enjoyed his greatest successes through the 2003/'04 seasons. "I was talking again with Paolo Martin before the season ended. I even tested the Honda again before Ireland - 10 minutes back on a Honda and I was back to my normal self so that already proved to me that I can still ride a bike well."I used such a lot of energy riding the Yamaha but I felt immediately so good again on the Honda. I was riding spec from Pichon and maybe we are a little bit down on power but I was loving every minute of it because I could put the power to the ground again."Some people were saying 'he's done and can't even ride good on the factory bike' and I want to prove them wrong. I need to return to a team where I am the first rider, a team where they can make the bike to my satisfaction."I believe that it is a lot about winning that the team works for the rider. That's what Yamaha do for Stefan and it's worked out pretty successfully for them!"Words and photos by Alex Hodgkinson