After an eventful opening round of the EMX250 season, Denmark’s Nicolai Skovbjerg showed both resilience and speed to salvage a strong result despite battling injury. A dislocated shoulder during the first race could easily have ended his weekend early, but the determined Dane fought through the pain to charge from outside the front group and secure an impressive fourth-place finish in the second moto.
With the EMX250 Championship looking deeper than ever this season, Skovbjerg knows that every point counts, and his comeback ride demonstrated the pace needed to run at the front. We caught up with Skovbjerg as he discusses the shoulder scare, adapting to a brand-new track, his winter preparation after signing late with the MX-Handel Husqvarna team and the challenge of improving his starts. He has big ambitions for both the EMX250 series and the ADAC Youngster Cup as he continues pushing toward his long-term goal of stepping up to the MX2 World Championship.
GateDrop: Nicolai, obviously the first race of the championship did not go to plan whatsoever, so after that you probably weren’t too happy, but you were able to end your weekend on a high, pass a lot of riders and finish 4th in that second race, so I’m sure you were happy with that one?
Skovbjerg: Yeah, actually quite a good weekend considering how my shoulder was feeling. In the first race it popped out in the start, crashed all on my own – a stupid mistake. I finished 13th and then 4th today with a really sore shoulder, but I’m quite happy with this.
GateDrop: Just how bad was the shoulder when you were riding around there, and there’s quite a lot of sharp bumps at this track too, so I’m sure you were in quite a lot of pain there?
Skovbjerg: Actually the race was okay, I could feel it for sure, but it was quite okay. It felt worse during the sighting lap but after the gate drop it was quite okay.
GateDrop: I mean, coming into this weekend, did you have any expectations? You know, you can lose a championship at the first round, but you certainly can’t win it, and after everything that’s happened, you’ve salvaged a good result I would say?
Skovbjerg: Yeah, I want to be fighting at the front for sure and that’s the goal. I feel that the class is a bit stacked this year, but I think for sure I can be at the top.
GateDrop: It was a new track for everybody this weekend, did you like it and what did you think about the track? I was happy they left it rough from yesterday, they didn’t do too much track prep, so that was quite good
Skovbjerg: Me too, free practice was really bad, I came out of that not happy at all. It was just weird and I didn’t feel good on the track. But then some bumps came, something to put the wheels into, so it was fun in the end.
GateDrop: Just on your winter, how would you describe your winter, because obviously you signed pretty late with this team, and then when you signed with them, where did you spend most of your time, just at home, or did you go to Germany quite a lot?
Skovbjerg: I was mostly at home when I could ride, and then I was one month away in Spain. Of course I did a lot of physical work before I got the bikes and stuff so it went quite well.
GateDrop: Is there anything specifically you worked on over the winter, compared to last year, or just much of the same?
Skovbjerg: It was pretty much the same, a lot of hard pack riding, and then I tried to do some more sprints, which I hope paid off, looked like it yesterday with the strong qualifying, so it should be good.
GateDrop: One thing for me is, starts were a big problem for you last year, today I don’t feel like this weekend the starts were that great. Do you think that’s an area you need to work on?
Skovbjerg: I need to work on that for sure. In the first race, I made a stupid mistake, same as I did before, but today I don’t know what happened, really. I just running back the whole way up the start. I know I can start because I showed it, also Frankenbach was really good starts, and at Tensfeld I did one really good start also. I practiced on the anomaly quite well, but I still need to work on that.
GateDrop: When you get a bad start, you know the EMX250 class, it looks really stacked this year, just how tough is it to come up through the field, you would have experienced that in race 2 there, and not 100% with the shoulder, so it made it even more difficult…
Skovbjerg: Yeah, so the first seventeen minutes, it was impossible to pass, and then riders got tired. They started to roll the bumps, and then you can start doing moves pretty easy I would say.
GateDrop: But at a track like Switzerland, there will be a lot of ruts and stuff, but it won’t be quite as bumpy, so the start there is probably going to be very important…
Skovbjerg: For sure, more important than here so I need to figure something out next week, and get better out of the gate.
GateDrop: As you said you’ve done a lot of hardpack riding over the winter, how do you feel in the hardpack now, compared to maybe other years, do you feel a lot better?
Skovbjerg: I actually feel a lot better. I don’t know, because I feel the Husqvarna is more of a qualifying bike, which also helped me there. I feel really good on the hardpack, I don’t want to jinx it, but I feel almost better on the hardpack than sand I would say.
GateDrop: Good to hear, and before the start of the season, obviously you signed a really late deal, and you done really well last year, I thought there would have been quite a lot of interest in you, but just how difficult was it to get a ride, and I know you wanted to go to MX2, but unfortunately you had to stay EMX, how disappointing was that?
Skovbjerg: I got some offers, but for sure I’m happy with this bike, the team is quite nice as well. The MX2 World Championship was the goal, but now we’re here. Hopefully I can do some good results to go MX2 next year.
GateDrop: You’ll be racing the ADAC Youngsters Cup, I’m guessing your expectations for that one is just to go out there and win the championship?
Skovbjerg: For sure, I’ll also be at the top there, same as EMX, I think some of the top riders are pretty much the same as EMX and ADAC.
GateDrop: It’s probably the first year you’ll go into a series where you think, I want to win this, do you feel that adds any pressure, or not so much?
Skovbjerg: Yeah, but mostly from me, I want to do good, sometimes I put a little too much pressure on myself, but I need to deal with it, and I’m feeling good.
GateDrop: In the past you have done a few MX2 GP wildcards, is that on the plan this year, or is it just full focus on the EMX at the moment?
Skovbjerg: The full focus is on the EMX250 series and ADAC.
GateDrop: Obviously last year you never got picked for Denmark MXoN team, I was very surprised by that, how much motivation do you get from that, to try and show them that you’re the best to get picked this year?
Skovbjerg: I want to do it. For sure it’s a fun event, I didn’t do good at Matterley Basin but I had some problems with crashing and hitting my head before that. I don’t want to put that as an excuse, but I did really bad there. I want to earn the spot and do good there. I think I was deserving of it last year but it was not my choice.
