Velospitty (Speed Talk) Episode one: Freddie Bartlett & Frederik Rahn Stampe

Two young talents to look out for in the future are two 85cc Yamaha riders, Fred Bartlett from England/Sweden and Frederik Rahn Stampe from Denmark. South African’s Tinus Nel, recently caught up with them to discuss their careers so far and plans for the future in the first episode of the Velospitty (speed talk).

Below are some quotes from both riders but you can watch the full episode at the bottom of the article.

Frederik Rahn Stampe: I started riding a KTM 50 when I was five years old but I got hooked when I was seven, that’s when I did my first race.  I wasn’t really that fast but I switched to Yamaha when I was 9 or 10 and that’s when the speed came to me.  When I was nine, I did my first Danish Championship and I finished fifth or sixth that year. I started with the 85cc in December, and I’ve been working my way up. It took some time to adjust to the bike but now I’m really comfortable. The plans for this year would have been to do the 65cc European Championship as well as the Danish Championship.

Freddie Bartlett: I started because my Dad rode so I tried it, I thought it was fun so just kept on going. The first race I had was when I was five and a half on the 50cc KTM SW.  When I was five I would have been like fifteenth out of twenty or thirty riders but the year after I got a bit bigger and stronger. When I was six I got on the BW auto and I got my first ever British Championship and I went out and won it – that was the first big race I ever rode. I started with the 85cc after the 65cc season. I was born in Sweden but when I was three we moved to England, when I was eight we moved back to Sweden again. When we moved here, I did one year in Sweden and won almost every race so then we just asked, “can we do the EMX with a Swedish license?” They said no because you have to be twelve so then we decided to change to the Swedish license because then we could do the Europeans as well as the Danish Championship.