We caught up with Jeffrey Herlings in Arco to talk about his comeback to racing after his knee injury, his future, if he considered racing the US Nationals in 2025 and Haiden Deegan. Watch or read below:
Jeffrey Herlings, you are two GPs down after six months off, how are you feeling?
I think it’s my tenth day on the bike, I’m not exactly sure if I run tenth time so it’s not too bad, like I feel like I already made a little step, it’s just not used to like running between different riders and things like that, like it’s been such a long time, I haven’t rode from I think 13th of October till I don’t know somewhere end of March more or less, so it’s quite hard still, I feel like I’m still a bit off base, which is quite normal, I thought it was six months off the bike but by giving a second motor was like 50 seconds down, I think 50 seconds on an almost 40 minute moto is not that much from the top guys and I think I finished 10th and 11th, so for 9th overall, I just try to build every single weekend.
Last weekend, Riola, it didn’t go well in the first moto, but first laps of the second moto you just come out and for two laps you showed Jeffery Herlings real speed, was that good to feel you still had that raw speed and obviously then arm pump came and everything it brings after that.
Yeah I did it for three laps and I just blew myself up! Arms, lungs, everything, like okay I still got the speed but I don’t want to do that again. So this weekend I was like just want to do an average speed, good speed, what I can do for two 35 minute motos and for me it wasn’t for even finished 8th or finished 10th or 6th, anything outside the podium wouldn’t really matter, I’m not capable of running a podium yet, so I just took it as a good practice. I had a good weekend of racing and like I said 10, 11 for P9 overall, good enough for the third week back on the bike.
You aren’t used to battling mid-pack like that, it seems really intense, those guys aren’t going slow either, is it different for you to adjust to that just riders everywhere?
Well obviously this weekend there were like I think almost 50 riders for practice, so for both races were like 40 and well mid-pack, I’m always riding around 10th place, I’m still like you know quite far in the front, not all the way in the front, but it’s different, you know battling different guys, guys like Calvin and Ben Watson and Jan Pancar, all those guys are quite fast as well, like they’re not super slow either, so even to fight with them might be, yeah, doing my best.
Are you in some good battles with Cairoli, that first moto was that fun or was that stressful?
No, that was so much fun, I felt like 2017, 2018 all over again! Just instead of being 20 and 30 and we’re not fighting for P1, we’re fighting for P10 probably, so that was fun, I really enjoyed it, I always enjoyed battling Tony, there’s so much respect for the guy. For me he’s been maybe the best ever in motocross world championships.
Was there any thoughts of doing the full AMA season, did you think about or any options of doing any rounds, considering you’re not a championship guy?
Well I think you know if Chase would have got hurt, maybe Katie would have sent me there, but with Chase being completely healthy, luckily he’s healthy and he’s trying to fight for a championship at Supercross, I mean he’s faster than I am right now, so why would they don’t need me there, and also even here, well I’m not ready for any championship anymore, but I’m just trying to be in a second part of the season, trying to fight for podiums and yeah, work from there.
And how was the rehab from the knee, I believe you didn’t even crash when you did it, when Jad done his he said it was like incredible pain, did you fail that pain, how did you finish that motor?
It happened with one lap to go, and I just land and my feet came on the foot back and just twitched in the dirt, and I would have done that like probably a thousand times in my life and never there was anything, I just felt like a massive pop and I was like damn, I just messed up my knee, but then I just did, I was one more lap to go so I just finished the lap, I won the moto obviously with Kay, and yeah, straight I felt it wasn’t something right, and my knee wasn’t so swollen, and yeah it was really weird because didn’t crash, just my feet came off on the landing and that’s it.
And I think the first foot injury you did that was really bad when you were in your absolute prime (2018), you didn’t crash either, you crushed it against the wall, two really bad injuries, you didn’t even crash, I think people think you crash all the time, you really don’t, the reality is you don’t, but like you’ve two major injuries.
Yeah I rarely like, I need to knock now on this thing because I rarely crash, but when I do, I always get hurt for some reason, and yeah what my feet was between a bank, my knee just yeah, even without crashes, when it happened it also jumped on my back, didn’t crash, I had plenty of injuries just without crashing, so yeah I think I’m built quite fragile, like a piece of glass.
On Haiden Deegan, if you were 18 and you were racing Deegan, do you think it would be must-see TV, because his mindset and your mindset back then would have been really incredible.
Yeah I got the same, I had the same attitude when I was 18, like oh like I didn’t care about anything, and he’s the same and he was winning, I mean yeah I have a lot of respect for him, I watch his vlogs, I rarely watch any vlogs, but the danger boy ones I really like and also very professional, so I always like it and I’m a massive fan of him, I think he’s not like super super talented as Jett Lawrence, don’t get me wrong he’s super talented still, but not like you know Jett , but he works so hard and he is like so mentally strong, so him and being talented, super strong mentally and fast and have so much desire to win, I think that’s why he’s that good.
How long after the injury to attack you for your mind, I presume you were gonna come in hot into this year, based on the last season, but then the injury, along with mentally dealing with that, oh my goodness not again, it’s another season I can’t win a world title?
I didn’t know it was gonna take that long, obviously I felt like I felt like you know I was gonna be back in time, I spoke to some riders but then they came back with three months and they redone the ACL and then they took them like six to nine months, I was like okay better I invest by taking an extra month to lower the risk of redoing the ACL instead of yeah coming back early maybe due to ACL again and then I’ll be out for the rest of the season, so it’s also been my contract year, so yeah I couldn’t afford to lose the entire season normally, I mean I still got hurt but yeah I try to put the risk as far as possible.
So a contract year this year you’ve been off six months, I presume you don’t want another six months off you want to race again, you’re probably bored, the plan is to race at least one more year, I guess all options are over at this point.
Yes I still want to race in 2026, I mean right now my value isn’t that high by finishing top ten but people in the industry know when you’ve been out for six months. I mean also when Gajser did his femur, when he came back at Loket and Lommel he was also struggling, it’s normal you know? It just requires time, it also took him like plenty of races before he go back winning and I think it will be the same with me, but you know what I’ve had in the past, that talent is not gone.
Obviously I do get older, but when I see today’s podium with Glenn and Romain they’re like 33 and 34 years of age, they’re three years or four years older than I am so and this is like the podium guys so why wouldn’t I be? So, I really want to race next year, obviously, and yeah, I’ve been always on the good contracts I think and I still want to do it for a good contract. I don’t want to go to a B team on a very low salary then I don’t want to take that risk anymore. But I feel like yeah I can still show a lot this year at some point and then I hope to yeah get some gear ride and a good contract some more.
So when do you feel you’ll be a hundred percent, has it gone quicker than you thought about these first three GPs or is it?
Well obviously I think like Riola, it was my sixth day and this week was like my tenth day on the bike, so I was struggling a bit with my setup. My setup was still from last year when I was in my prime, I wouldn’t say like my prime like 2018, but I was quite fast, I won the sand races at Lommel and Arnhem. I tried that setup and I was just too slow for running a setup! So, right now I’m just running a bike which was given to me. I feel like I’m too slow to really test I feel like I’m still improving every week so to make a setup today and maybe be faster like in three weeks, then that setup like wouldn’t be good. So it’s better I just keep riding and once I feel like I’m up to speed to then make a good setup.
I think KTM has done a great job I feel like yeah they really improved throughout the winter and even though they had a rough time I’m so impressed like how much they improved the bike so I’m quite happy with that and the complete team has been behind me throughout my injury time and also back right now so I can’t thank the team enough for the good work what they’re doing.
Good job and nice to have you back on track.
Thank you.
