A suited up Ken Roczen says he has been back to Europe to visit his old training team in a bid to improve his health for the upcoming season – but then he got sick in December!
The German, who came close to a title last year before his health issues and a ruthless Webb came and took the title away, seems confident he will be better physically this year but the illness over December, that he was quick to stress wasn’t Covid, may mean we have to dampen expectations for Roczen early with Ken saying it has affected his preparation a bit for the season.
“I actually ended up going to Europe this year to catch up with some family, but more of a business trip rather than just pleasure,” Roczen explained of his off-season in the press conference. “Me and my trainer Blake (Savage) caught up with APC Training Facility which are the Red Bull guys in Austria, and that was awesome. Obviously, I had history with them back in the GPs, I would go to them three times a year and did testing and training with them. We had some fun there, but they have really upped it to a whole ‘nother level.
“They basically have a specialist in every category. I really enjoyed going back there. It was just going back to the basics, on the training side of things I was super covered, scheduling wise, and Blake and I looked at it like a collab a bit. We also saw a doctor over there to try to get some more things figured out and that went really, really well.
“Everything was going to plan until December when I came down with a gnarly sickness for some reason. Kind of still battling the effects it – it wasn’t COVID. It kind of threw a wrench in our program in December which was a bit of a struggle.
Interestingly, last year and this year, Roczen seems to be coming from the angle of making things fun and less serious, enjoying the moment and the process, possibly to take away the pressure of going for his first supercross title and allow him to ride to his considerable potential every week.
“ I just felt revived myself a little bit. I made the sport my hobby again, and training,” admitted a candid Ken. “Felt really good to go back to having fun, spending a lot of time at the track and trying to work on my craft a bit.”
Image: Honda
Article: Jonathan McCready