It has been an eventful start of the season for Lucas Coenen who has been battling for wins and then before Arco di Trento, picked up a shoulder injury. Things weren’t looking good on Saturday, but he showed true grit and determination on Sunday securing some vital championship points.
We spoke with him after to discuss his injury, weekend and more which you can watch/listen/read below:
GateDrop: Lucas, a difficult weekend, I think you picked up an injury just before the weekend, can you talk me through what happened?
Coenen: Yeah, I made a quite a big crash on Tuesday and my shoulder isn’t good at all, like they say muscular but I cannot hold the bike. Like yesterday I tried and yeah in the qualifying race I did two laps and it was impossible, I had no power. I thought yesterday, I said no I’m not racing tomorrow, impossible but this morning I had like an energy boost. I saw some people and they didn’t think I was going to ride but I give it a go full of tape to block it. Somehow I managed to get 21 points, this massive for the championship but I was truly in a big pain. I managed to get some good points. We already know the speed is good like in Riola and already in the second moto in Argentina. Now with the shoulder, it is really bad so yeah I mean I think we showed everybody that we’re really strong and to get the top 10 with a shoulder injury. Yeah, I think we showed everybody how we were so I’m just looking forward to get healthy and show everybody.
GateDrop: Like you say, I mean it looked like you weren’t even going to race, you got some big points there – it shows you’re a fighter and that you really want this…
Coenen: Yeah, of course. I work for everything, every day for this so I’m hard on myself but yeah I do my best.
GateDrop: What was it like with the track, it was technical with quite a lot of bumps and quite a lot of ruts, it’s not an easy track with an injury like that…
Coenen: No, no, no, no, no, not easy but I managed to get some like I said good points and with the shoulder, it was worse but I managed that.
GateDrop: Just on your season so far up, until the injury, happy or do you want more?
Coenen: Obviously I mean I have a lot of bad luck since the beginning. I should have been more on the top like in the top position, I would say maybe first because I showed everybody immediately in the first round in Argentina in the qualifying race how fast I could be and yeah then I had that luck and things happen. It’s part of the of the process and now we just keep grinding and get the shoulder perfect and then we can show the results.
GateDrop: Like you said the speed’s really good, a lot of riders don’t have that speed so if you can just get through the next couple rounds, get back to 100, you shouldn’t be far away from the front…
Coenen: No, not being far away is not possible. I’ll always have to be at the front.
GateDrop: What is it like having Kay as a team mate and battling with him for the title?
Coenen: We had some nasty moment some like in the first race. I was clean but it was a bit sketchy but yeah I respect him.
GateDrop: What are you going to do between now and the next GP – just recovery?
Coenen: Yeah, I think just recovery to get it best as possible. That’s the only thing I can do.
GateDrop: In terms of the future, you signed a long-term contract with Husqvarna but we all know you want to go to America. Do you know when you’ll be going to America or will you still be Racing MX2 next year to going for go for the title if you don’t get it this year?
Coenen: I’m going to see, we don’t know. We need to see with the manager.
Interview: Andy McKinstry
Image: Shot by Bavo
