An hour after a day-long test session with the Monster Energy / Pro Circuit / Kawasaki team race at the nearby Glen Helen Raceway Park, 2009 AMA Supercross Lites East Champion and 2009 AMA Motocross 250 Christophe Pourcel sat in a conference room in Corona, California and stared at a large photo of Valentino Rossi MotoGP impresario.

He looked impressed. Coming off shoulder surgery, in shape and back on the bike after a two month hiatus, Pourcel was in good spirits and happy to be in California sorting out what will ultimately be his 2010 Kawasaki 250F race bikes.

Still unable to tell us what Region he’ll be riding come the start of the Monster Energy Supercross Series (although we suspect he knew), the sensational French racer, despite some lingering stomach problems, was just stoked the new race year was rapidly descending upon us and had a lot to say about 2009, 2010 and beyond. Q: Christophe, what have you been up to the last few months?

A: I’ve been working on my tracks at my new house.

Q: So your new home is in Florida, correct?

A: Yeah, it’s in Orlando.

Q: Do you ever see any dudes like Dungey and Tedesco and Stewart around?

A: Not really. I’ve just got my place and I do my tracks in the jungle (laughter).

Q: It is like a jungle down there, huh?

A Yeah.

Q: Did you spend any time during this off-season back in France?

A: I got my surgery for my shoulder - I got the plate taken out of my clavicle - and it took me like six to eight weeks to get back on the bike. Now I’m 100% and I just started to ride on Friday.

Q: So you’ve just started testing then?

A: Yeah, I’ve got a 2009 and we’re just testing everything. We’re testing pieces from the 2010 bike and just trying everything. Everything is good. We’ll get the 2010 and then that’s it.

Q: Will you be testing here in California with the Monster/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki team quite a bit?

A: Yeah, I’ve been here for a few days and then I’ll go back to Florida and ride my tracks and everything and the team will send my stuff over there. I’ll come back here when I need to.

Q: A broad stroke question: When you look back, how do you feel about your 2009 season? You won the East Region Supercross Series and should-have, could-have, would have won the 250 National Championship if not for a engine failure…

A: Everything was pretty good. I liked working with the team. They are people I like to work with because you just get on the track and work and do your job and try to win races. They work a lot for you. I mean everybody in the team, not just Mitch [Payton] and your mechanic, but everybody around. I just have to fix my stomach right now and all the pain that I got from it this year. I was not feeling good before the races.

Q: So you had stomach problems in 2009? A: Yeah. (Note: “There’s a nerve center on your spine that goes to all your internal organs and when Christophe has stress it triggers the problems,” explained Russ Stratton, Pourcel’s business manager). I can’t control it because of my accident (suffered at the Grand Prix of Northern Ireland in 2007).

Q: Did your stomach bother you all summer? A: Yeah, all the time. I could only eat a few apples before a race. Anything else would make me sick.

Q: We didn’t hear much about that. Did you purposely keep the problem quiet?

A: I told the team that I didn’t feel really good, but I’m not going to tell them what I ate or whatever I was going to do before a race. I’d tell them before the race. I told them that whatever I do in the race, I don’t feel good. If they wanted to believe me or not, it didn’t really matter.

Q: Winning the supercross title, was it a dream come true for you? A: Yeah. The first race was just the best one because I came back from nothing.

Q: That’s right. After you broke your sacrum in Northern Ireland in 2007, it took you 16 months to return to the starting gate at Houston on January 24, 2009. A few weeks before while hanging out at Anaheim I, you told me, “I will ride like I can go. If I can go really fast and win the race, I will try to win.” Still, it sounded like you weren’t quite sure what would happen at your first race back. And as fate would have it, you won…

A: Yeah, I worked a lot for that. At certain times I didn’t even know if I would be able to get back on the bike. So it was just amazing to win. And then after that everything went pretty good (Note: Pourcel won the next five of eight main events, including the East/West Shootout in Las Vegas). I just worked for everything and I was happy to get it because I worked every day for it. The first race was just a big surprise.

Q: Beginning with the very first moto at Glen Helen – which you won – you were just amazing in the 250 Motocross Championship Series. In fact you won a total of 13 motos. Did you expect to do so well?

A: I expected to be better than what I did, but my stomach pain just didn’t make it work, so I rode the way I could ride and that’s it. So I wasn’t that good. In some races that I was feeling good, the team was really happy because when they saw me while I was training, they were like, “Wow, he’s fast.” But then at the race, I couldn’t even make it. The pain in my stomach just unbelievable. So I didn’t have big expectations. I was sad about what I did. (Note: “To me, the real telling race was at Unadilla, where it was so rough,” explained Russ Stratton. “Even though he had problems with his stomach at that race too, the rougher it was the better it was and he just killed them at the hardest track of the year.”) Because when it’s rough I can just breathe and get my style on my track. It was even better for me.

Q: In watching you race, your style and the way you ride and the way you see things is just incredible to me. It’s like you can almost see things before they even come to you. Does it all come that naturally to you? A: You get used to it. I wasn’t like that, but then I got better. Then I had my big accident and then you can see everything from me so differently. I was not the same way. Usually, when I was in the races, I never crashed or whatever. I just used my style to get the speed and I never crashed. That’s the best way to do it.

Q: While racing, you also seem to see different lines and places to go on the track. You use so much creativity on the bike while racing. Is that something that you notice that you’re doing? I don’t even know if I’m making sense here…

A: Yeah, I know what I’m doing. I just have to be smart on the track and that’s what I’m trying to do all the time. I don’t want to go fast because I have to go fast. I want to go fast because I want to find the right line and everything and I around the bumps and all the stuff like that. That’s why it’s motocross.

Q: Your engine let go at Southwick and essentially cost you the National Championship. That next week I asked Russ how you took it and Russ pretty much said, “Well, Christophe took it pretty well. He’s been through so much in his life the past two years of you life that losing that championship wasn’t a life and death matter to him.”…

A: I wasn’t mad. I was like, “I’m still walking out of here.” You get some bad times sometimes. It wasn’t my championship. It was Dungey’s championship. He rode good, too. I didn’t give it up, but I had to let him win. I tried to do my best, but fate didn’t want me to win. So I wasn’t mad at all. I was like, “Just take it.”

Q: You smoked everyone at the last race of the season at Steel City. Did that race mean a lot to you?

A: I was just trying to ride with Dungey, but he didn’t want to ride with me. He was just scared about something. He knows me. He knows I’m not going to do anything. I just wanted to ride with him because we had not ridden much together all year. He was pretty fast on the track there, but didn’t want to race with me. I was like, “If you want to show me who is the best because you’re going to get the championship, then show me. It’s the time right now. I’m waiting. Let’s go.”

Q: During the off-season, we heard all kinds of things about you and who you were going to race for in 2010. Recently, I spoke with Mitch Payton. Here’s what he said about wanting to keep you for 2010: Christophe, I think believes in our team. For him it was he’s at the moment where he’s thinking, “Should I move up this year or should I wait one more year?” I read some of the internet bullshit where people have said that he should have moved up this year and all that.

A lot of that was not to do with him, but to do with me asking him to stay down one more year for me and try to achieve the original goals that we set. The goals we set were to win supercross and to win outdoors. I’m probably responsible for him not accomplishing one of his goals and I want to help him accomplish that goal. When Ricky [Carmichael] left here, he left and moved up to the 250, and you can ask him to this day and he’ll say he probably stayed on the small bikes one more year. I don’t think there’s a rush to move up until you’ve accomplished your goals. I think, hopefully for Christophe, the economy might be better next year and there might be more opportunities for him to ride a 450. Basically, I really wanted to keep him. I wanted for my own benefit to achieve my own goals with him and I wanted to give him the goals that I set for him a long time ago. You know we waited a whole year. I want to accomplish what we set forth. Christophe, what’s your take on all this?

A: I was ready to go to the 450, but then when I talked about that and my stomach and everything, I thought about it. I went back to France to try and get my stomach fixed. We didn’t find anyway to fix it. The doctors said, “You have to just wait and be patient for the nerve in your back to get better. It’s going to come back later on. We can help you out with the medicine, but it’s not going to be someone else.” So none of the off-season was going to be easy with the economy and I love to ride with Mitch. I know my bikes. They know me. It’s not easy to go somewhere else and start over again. So we talked with him and found a way to go back over there and work with him another year. I was pretty happy about riding a 250 again. I was like, “We’re not going to get too many races and we’re going to fix my stomach this year. Next year, that will be the time go into the 450 class.” I’m good. I like to ride with my 250. I rode with my 450 in training, so I never get bored. It’s fun.

Q: What are your goals for supercross?

A: I just want to try and win the races and we’ll see for the championship. I just want to be ready to go and win. That’s it.

Q: Did you get to watch the Motocross of Nations?

A: No.

Q: You didn’t watch it on TV or anything? A: No. I didn’t see it.

Q: Did you hear about it? A: Not much. If you told me who won the races, I don’t even know. I just know that the U.S. won.

Q: Marvin Musquin rode very well there. Do you know him at all?

A: No. I’m here in the U.S. all the time, so I don’t really know those guys over there. Pretty much all the people say he’s going to kick my ass, so I’m still waiting for that. I’m waiting for next year and then we’ll see. I think he’s riding pretty good. If he came over here, he would be in the top five, but I don’t see him winning races right away.

Q: Did you enjoy racing in the United States in 2009?

A: Yeah. That’s why I’m here. I just like to be here.