Video: Roczen on his return – I’m happy

Jason Weigandt caught up with Ken Roczen as the German prepares to come back to racing for the US outdoors, and the very open German talks about his aborted supercross season and his health issues over the last few years, even admitting he wasn’t sure if he would race again.

Ken said: “Right now, I’m doing great, it’s taken a long time for me to get there, not going to lie. There was a lot going on, I feel just recently it’s starting to come around, I wouldn’t say I am 100% by any means but I’m happy and I’m super ambitious, putting in the work and I’m ready for the road ahead of me.”

“That December thing (illness) that happened was super annoying, becuase before that I felt like the old Roczen was coming back and I hadn’t had that feeling that I had, i was happy, I was strong, it was something that was a little foreign to me to be honest because it had been so long!

“At some point (after) I caught Covid, it sat on my brain, I was just feeling super weird. I flew to Europe between races to get some treatment. There was a lot thrown at me so quickly, essentially it felt to me like everything just exploded and I was so physically and mentally drained to keep trying and always being set back….it made no sense to keep going, it was a recipe for disaster so we decided to take a step back and work on everything. It’s really frustrating for me.”

“I think this whole EBV thing has always been in my body, its just been dormant. I feel I had signs back in the day but with being young and a strong immune system, I could manage and it didn’t really phase me too much. After both injuries, it was just never really the same again and I didn’t know about EBV, I just knew I wasn’t feeling that great.”

Roczen then said on getting to race Cairoli this summer: “He’s going to be good, mark my words. I don’t look at him as being retired. We are close friends, we talk all the time, I really love the whole family. I feel like he’s had a normal off-season, he’s good. I admire what he has done even after 30, staying so sharp. I’m so excited to race both those guys (Dungey and Cairoli) I would never had though I would be racing Tony again but I’m glad it’s happening.”

Get the full interview with the articulate German below:

Image: Honda