During our interview with Roger de Coster, we asked the legendary Belgian what it would take to beat Jett Lawrence and what makes the best riders of all time like Stefan Everts, Jeremy McGrath and Ricky Carmichael as well as De Coster himself above the rest.
Roger said of Jett: “Jett was exceptional you know and I think anybody that wants to beat him is gonna have to get up early.
“What advice I would give? (to beat Jett). Just watch, really observe what he does and how light he is on the bike and work on balance. Focus on what you can do and not expect that the team your team can compensate for the talent that he has.
On what makes the all-time greats, De Coster said:
“First of all the most important thing for any athlete whether it is a motocross or supercross, any sport, is take responsibility for the outcome where you end up and then really look at what is your weak points. What can you do? Don’t expect somebody else to fix it for you, do what you can do and a rider can do a lot more on his results, in the way he rides, than any factory can do.
“I think the ones that took responsibility for their results. The ones that are open minded and knew what advice fits them and to take that but don’t listen to everything you know? Just take the path that fits. Even what I can advise a rider to do, even with all the years (of experience), I mean maybe some of the things I tell them fit, but some of the things don’t fit because of what the rider does.
“It is what they do under pressure and at the high level, there’s a very fine line between what works and what doesn’t work. But, as soon as the rider gets good, there’s advice coming from all over, everybody wants to be part of it you know? And everybody wants to give you some advice and you cannot listen to 25 different styles of advice.
Watch the full interview below:
And here the mentality of one of the greats, Jeremy McGrath, as he looks back on his record breaking career.
