In an interesting interview with Jason Weigandt, Ken Roczen’s agent, Steve Astephen, replied to the allegation from the Whiskey Throttle show that KTM pulled out of trying to sign Ken Roczen because he refused to take a WADA drug test in Australia – Steve refuted that rumour and said Ken did take the test but wasn’t aware Roczen would have to do one! Steve Matthes also admitted he heard Ken took the test.
I disagree Ronnie, if a top rider refused a test it’s big news. But weeks ago I did some digging & believe that he did eventually take the test so to me, it’s a non reportable issue. Was I in the room when KR pissed? No, but if ur going to report he didn’t, you better have proof https://t.co/hUS9EnSBVQ
— Steve Matthes (@pulpmx) December 1, 2022
There is nothing to suggest Roczen has done anything wrong at all, however, the biggest surprise is that it was indeed a surprise to Roczen’s agent that WADA, always aligned with the FIM, were doing drug testing, given it was an FIM series and a big profile new WSX championship that Roczen was headlining.
The industry reacted with bemusement to Steve’s quotes – here is a sample of the reaction:
I like Steve Astephen, good guy (he does have a tendency to go 0-100 too fast) but holy smoke, that’s not a great look in his interview w Weege.
— Steve Matthes (@pulpmx) December 1, 2022
Roczen meanwhile was back in Europe this weekend to collect his FIM WSX gold medal alongside the fellow world champions like MXGP champ Tim Gajser and MotoGP’s Bagnaia, saying: “It feels amazing, I have been trying to come to the FIM awards for a really, really, long time, obviously the wins haven’t been in my favour but finally with this one I was able to come here for the first time ever and I hope to come back many more times, it’s time to rack up some championships.”
