It was an amazing MXGP for Glenn Coldenhoff racing in front of his home crowd at Arnhem. He won the qualifying race on Saturday and then finished fourth overall on Sunday – he was one pass away from a podium! It was nice to see Coldenhoff racing back at the front of the field.
We caught up with the likeable Dutch rider after the event which you can watch, listen or read below…
GateDrop: Glenn, there’s been a script this year and it’s usually been the same top three or four in the top three, but this weekend the script, you broke it in that qualifying race, pretty unexpected I would say. You must have felt amazing to win your first qualifying race in MXGP, quite unbelievable…
Coldenhoff: It’s not the first one, I won last year in Lommel…
GateDrop: I’m pretty sure Fantic tweeted that…
Coldenhoff: Yeah, no, with Fantic it is the first. It’s a long way coming, we’ve been struggling quite a bit and you know we always kept working and kept improving and yeah I would say this weekend here is definitely a big big step forward… especially if you look at all other GPs. Most of the times there were three guys which were up front and yeah this weekend I was battling with them, so it was definitely a good weekend. A bit of a shame that I was not on the podium, but I left nothing on the table so I can’t blame anything and anyone.
GateDrop: I mean did you expect to be so good this weekend? I wouldn’t say you’re struggling really badly, but that was like the real Glenn Coldenhoff of a few years ago. Did you see it coming?
Coldenhoff: I think if you look to Lommel, I was a bit unlucky on the Saturday and we definitely did some more testing after Lommel and that definitely helped out. I know for myself that I’m able to do this if I’m feeling good and got big help from the team. Like I said, they worked really hard and you know they got me back comfortable and obviously the starts were amazing this weekend. I got three hole shots, even in front of Jorge, I mean that means something. Let’s try to keep this line going and next week in Switzerland is completely different circumstances, but you know I’ll keep working and we’ll go back to the hard pack on Wednesday and hopefully kind of similar results in Switzerland.
GateDrop: I was going to ask you about the starts actually because I don’t think people realize in MXGP just how important the starts are… It makes life a lot easier when you start first instead of having to come through the pack and I’m sure the crowd in the first lap was very loud.
Coldenhoff: Yeah sure, it’s always nice to take a holeshot and you know, you have 40 riders who want to take a holeshot so it’s not that easy and I mean to do that here in the Netherlands, leading first lap, it’s something really nice. Especially you know the crowd, they go wild and all over the place, all over the track and it was a really good feeling.
GateDrop: You talked about testing with the Fantic there. Have you made much changes to the bike in the last couple of weeks?
Coldenhoff: Yeah, we did quite a bit.
GateDrop: Can you tell me a little bit more about the changes?
Coldenhoff: I think about five weeks ago we started testing again on engines and we still did a little bit of testing before Sweden and yeah we changed the suspension big time after Lommel and it looks like it’s fitting more to myself. Yeah, there were some big changes but just happy now, feeling more comfortable and I’m able to do what I want to do.
GateDrop: What was the track like to ride? It’s not quite like a Lommel where you can use the big bumps as waves almost and just glide over them. How would you compare it riding? I mean at the end there it was brutal as well but in a different kind of way to a Lommel type track?
Coldenhoff: Yeah, no, I must say this weekend was completely different than for example last year. I felt like the sand was more heavy.
GateDrop: This year?
Coldenhoff: Yeah, this year and they made a few more jumps again which makes it more hard on the body also. I would say there were a few parts in which it was really demanding on the body and you know if you’re able to go through there with decent speed it’s still doable but no I feel like it was still very tough. I think everybody kind of suffered today and so I did.
GateDrop: Confidence is always very important in this sport after such a good weekend. I’m sure you’re looking forward to the rest of the season now and I’m sure you’ll be knocking on that door for a podium. I’m sure that’s the goal between now and the end of the season?
Coldenhoff: Yeah, sure, it’s been the goal already for all year but things didn’t go as planned. But like I said, this is a good step forward and it’s good for the confidence, it’s good for the team. They’ve been working very very hard and finally they have some reward as well. It was a good weekend.