Vice MX3 world champion Martin Michek is one of the riders who wants to follow up Matthias Walkner and be crowned the new 2013 champion. Last year Martin mixed victories with minor results which made the difference between him and Matthias, who delivered more consistent scores.
Martin Michek scored his first MX3 podium in Holice, Czech Republic, in 2010 and his first overall MX3 victory was at Troyan, Bulgaria, last year. Later in that season he scored a double win in Senkvice, Slovakia, and a second place in both England and Germany.
Question: After a long season how did you get ready for this year’s MX3 series?
Martin Michek: “I booked a 3 week holiday with my girlfriend in Dubai to be away from the bike and clear my head. After this break I picked up my training program with gym, cycling, swimming and running but I did not want to see my bike for two months.”
“When the physical training was in order I went to south Spain to train on the bike with John van den Berk starting from end January. This was another couple weeks of hard work. Back home the weather was too bad with snow and therefore it was impossible to continue my riding. We went to Belgium but after 2-3 days the temperature dropped under zero again so I returned home to the Czech Republic. Also Italy was cold and frozen.”
Q: Last year’s opening race in Valkenswaard went bad for you with some weird incidents resulting in zero points. You had a better start of the 2013 season?
Michek: “With John I had done some sand training but sand is not my favorite soil. Anyway this year I scored 22 points more in Valkenswaard than in 2012, so that was a step forward and only one point less than Matthias. From there we build a better base.”
“My focus is on hard tracks because in our calendar 90% of the tracks are hard-packed and those are my favorites. You know I like high speed and big jumps. At the same time I must say that there are many good riders who are fast on hard tracks.”
Michek: “I have very good memories of this track with my first ever overall win last season, but I did not have a good qualifying race on Saturday. In the first race the track conditions were good but my start was bad, maybe around tenth. I got out of the gate okay but in the corner I was pushed wide so I lost some places. Then I did the best I could, opened the throttle with some good passes on the opening stages. In the middle of the race I landed behind Bertuzzo who was difficult to pass and it took some time. In the end I managed to close the gap on Muratov and Gercar but could not do better than fourth.”
Q: Are you happy with your second race?
Michek: “With a bit better focus I had to make a better start. The top ten guys are fast. My start was still not how I wanted it with sixth place. I pushed and pushed because I wanted to be on the podium.”
“On some parts of the track it was slippery and easy to make mistakes so I had to settle my speed a bit when Matthias was the last rider in front of me but he was quite far ahead. Anyway second is okay this time, three times I raced at Troyan and three times I stood on the podium. I was 9th in the qualifying race, so I did not have the best start position on the gate. I must be happy – there is more you can lose than win.”
“I moved to fourth place in the championship just a few points behind Gercar and Walkner so all is wide open. Then there is Krestinov who had a big crash in the first heat and Muratov and Brockel, so a total of five – six riders that will make it an exciting championship.”
Text and photo: Harry van Hemmen