We caught up with Glenn Coldenhoff after his impressive performance at Hawkstone Park to go 1-2-1 that showed the classy veteran still has some serious speed in the tank ahead of 2025. He says he feels in a much better position with the bike this season.
Hawkstone win
This is like those conditions I’ve been growing up in and you know, it’s like it comes natural to me, so I always love racing here, especially this time of the year, and it’s a huge lap, it’s over two minutes, which is super nice, you know, and we had some great racing. Also the second one I had to push a lot and try to catch my team, and I was able to catch, but wasn’t able to pass, but still, one-two-one on the day, getting the overall back home again, third year in a row, I guess, so a very positive day.
He (Febvre) was definitely quicker that first moto, but I pulled the holeshot and that made me win, because I wasn’t feeling so comfortable in that first moto, I struggled a bit with the arm pump, and I think we should work still a little bit on the setup of the bike, and I mean, we still have time, next week we’ll do some testing and try to get better again. But yeah, he was pushing me, and like I said, he was a bit faster, but I was able to hold him off, so I was good enough for the overall.
Bike changes from 2024
Quite a bit, I mean, there’s a new rule, in MXGP, which has 2 dB less on the noise, but I have to say, I’m really surprised what Fantic came up with, and they made a huge step in a good direction, and I’m super happy with that, they have done a great job,. So yeah, we’ll work from here, next week we are going to Italy, and it’s a hardpack track, so we’ll see how the bike is there, but in general, I’m just more happy, also on the training days, like, I enjoy riding a lot more now than I did last year, so that’s very positive.
Last year we had a few issues to deal with, and that was following me for most of the year, I would say, and I didn’t enjoy it so much last year . Of course, I had an amazing race in the home GP in Arnhem, which I really enjoyed, but yeah, the results has been quite awful last year, and hopefully can make a lot better this year.
Confidence from the Arnhem GP win
It definitely gives you some confidence, I mean, fighting, especially last year, you know, with Prado, with Gajser, and of course, Herlings, you know, it was, those guys were on it last year, like, really on it! And they came every time, top three, you know, they all the time took the podium, and that was super hard, so of course, that gives you some confidence, you know, if you are able to fight with them, and yeah, it was just good.
Goal for 2025
The title is really, really difficult, but you know, if I can make it back to the podiums, and maybe with a little luck, I’m able to win one GP, or maybe more. I don’t know, it depends all my own feeling and stuff, so we’ll see.
Full interview below:
