Motocross Buchtipp: Will to Victory

Ende Oktober haben wir euch das Buch „Will to Victory“ von Roddy MacLeod schon als Preview empfohlen. Nun hatten wir selber die Möglichkeit, einen Blick in das 288 Seiten starke Werk zu werfen. Um es vorweg zu nehmen, wir sind begeistert.

Das in englischer Sprache geschriebene Buch kommt in den Maßen 28,5 x 35 cm und ist damit schon recht beeindruckend. Das Cover ziert eine Aufnahme vom letztjährigen Grand Prix in Loket / Tschechien.

Roddy MacLeod ist bekannt für seinen speziellen Fotostil und den zeigt er den Lesern bzw. Betrachtern auf den ersten Seiten seines Werkes. MXGP Bilder wie sie so eher selten zu sehen sind. Den Bildern der Grand Prix Veranstaltungen des Jahres 2018 folgen Interviews mit Legenden wie Stefan und Harry Everts, Joel Smets oder dem dreifachen 500ccm Weltmeister David Thorpe.

Wusstest du, das sich die Kinder in der Nachbarschaft über den Jungen Harry Everts lustig machten? Oder dass sein Sohn, Stefan Everts, der größte Weltmeister aller Zeiten, einfach nur den Rekord von vier Weltmeisterschaften seines Vaters übertrumpfen wollte?

In langen Interviews mit diesen Größen, ging Roddy MacLeod auch der Frage nach, wie man überhaupt Weltmeister werden kann. Das Ergebnis dieser Interviews ist ein sensationeller Einblick in die Köpfe der Champions.

Hier ein kleiner Auszug des mit Stefan Everts geführten Interviews:

The domination of the paddock. You can see it with Jeffrey Herlings this year. It comes to a point where the rider’s belief in his world championship becomes other people’s belief. I think everyone in the paddock this year believes Jeffrey will win. And I believe, when you were racing, most years everyone in the paddock believed you would win. The first rounds you see everybody is still going full gas because they believe they have a chance.

They have their own vision of their year. And then, after some rounds, the order gets established. Or not, and the battle continues. And the best seasons are when nobody gives up. It’s a little bit of this I want to talk about, this domination of the paddock. How does one manage that? How do you get there? And how does the idea go from your mind into the minds of everyone else?

(Stefan Everts) I think, to start off, you are not working your ass off in the winter to have that goal to dominate the paddock. You think, „I want to win this championship“ and be as ready as possible. At one point, like in the situation now with Jeffrey, everyone has been beaten before the start. Everyone is already racing for second place. They know that Jeffrey is from another league. But everyone is beatable, even Jeffrey herrings is beatable, but you have to find the way how and for sure its going to take a lot of hard work because the work he puts in is a lot.

You are going to have to also put in a lot, maybe even more, and find that weak spot. But it’s true, that’s the way it is. You’ve seen that in many championships, and many big champions, that the paddock is already beaten before the race has started.

For me, in my time, I wanted to control everything. I wanted to be in charge. That was my goal always. To control my riding, my bike, my setup, my rivals, tracks and control myself. Control my mind, control my confidence. It’s about being a control freak. Not everyone is getting to that point but I was lucky to get there. I could go to a GP and know in advance what to expect already, what was coming.

So again, it was control about situations that were coming and, especially in my last years, I was most of the time right. And it felt good. That gave me a big satisfaction, to be the boss, you know, and control everything. To control the paddock, to control motocross. This felt good. I felt like a king then. Just for myself, not to play it outside to the people and act like that, but that was my satisfaction. 

Dies ist nur eine kleiner Einblick in das gut 7000 Wörter umfassende Interview welches einen tiefen Einblick in das Leben des Stefan Everts gibt. Lasst euch nicht die ebenfalls umfangreichen Interviews mit den anderen Legenden nicht entgehen und ordert euer Exemplar von „Will to Victory“ noch heute HIER.