Webb on battling Tomac – we laid it all out there!
Red Bull KTM’s Cooper Webb was in good spirits after the race in Salt Lake City even though he didn’t quite beat Eli Tomac after an epic battle all race long on the rutted circuit in Salt Lake City.
Webb’s ultimate racing desire came to the fore again after the defending champ got passed by Tomac. He refused to give up, found new lines and a new pace to come back at the points leader and from there, it was all to play for once again!
Webb commented on the battle: “Overall it was an incredible race. Man, we were left it all out there. I don’t know how long I was able to lead, but he was all over me. I was doing that line right in the whoops, it felt good but after he passed me I saw it was definitely not the preferred line. It was a barn barner, he led, I led, I think I ended up leading twice, he led twice, the lappers were insane. I know I left it all out there, I felt like we bother wanting to just purely win. I thought I uncorked a pretty cool rhythm, I just watched the highglights and saw he was able to do that three-three, I feel like that was a race for the ages. It’s unfortunate to lose by a second but at the same time it’s cool to go wire to wire like that with the red place holder. He has seven wins so he has been on it this year. It’s cool to be able to run with him, we laid it all out there that’s for sure.
Cooper didn’t go on the parade lap to check out the track before the main event like riders like Roczen did and he didn’t hold back his thoughts on the subject saying: “I don’t know why they went out, I thought that was pretty dumb! I mean, we knew it was going to be wet, the start was important and you were going to go get your bike muddy heavy, tyre dirty for the start, but hey, everyone does things their way.”
And Webb says he didn’t want to take Tomac out during the battle despite his own championship aspirations: “Last year I was finally able to battle Eli and this year too, we are both aggressive natured and want to go for it but we have always been pretty respectful of everything and tonight was the same. Obviously I want to get after this championship and stuff but it’s still a ways out so for me I was just wanting to race hard and try to win. It’s cool for us to be able to battle like that and especially with him with red plate, you don’t want to just clean some one out like I saw I think it was Bam-Bam and him in the heat race.
“For me I have really enjoyed it,” explained Webb on racing during the week. “My favourite part of the sport is racing. It’s less practice, less risk during the week and you just have to bring it on race day every time. Recovery is definitely more vital, especially on elevation and stuff but that has been a little better honestly because you are not so worried about riding during the week and training during the week and trying to maintain. I feel like we did a good training block before it and now it’s all about racing, it’s been cool and it’s the most money I ever made in a week so I am pretty happy about that!”
Article: Jonathan McCready
Image: Feld Entertainment, Inc
