MxLarge Story
Stefan Everts interview - Working With Another Legend
Interview Wednesday 13th October 2010 By Geoff Meyer
It doesn’t matter how many times I interview Stefan Everts it remains one of the pleasures of the job. With KTM recently signing Roger De Coster for their American effort and both Everts and De Coster being the two biggest legends of the sport I had to sit down and ask him about the working relationship with “The Man”.
MXLarge: Stefan, first I want you to repeat something you said to me about Roger De Coster at the Grand Prix of Lierop in September. I remember we were chatting and I told you how much you and Roger meant to the sport and you told me about your opinion of Roger. Can you mention that again?
Everts: I was saying that many people come to me and say I am like Roger but to me that isn’t right. Championships I have won twice as many as him, but I don’t look at it like that. What he has accomplished as a rider and also he has a great image and people like to be around him. He has this positive thing around him and he is still very popular and I look up to him. I still have a lot to learn from him.
MXlarge: I remember watching him race for the first time back in 1972 when Roger, Joel Robert, Bengt Aberg and a bunch of GP riders rode some International races in Australia. I was just 11 years old, but I still clearly remember looking at him and thinking how cool he looked. His long hair and all these beautiful girls hanging around him. He was cooler than you for sure.
Everts: Yes, but your first impression was when you first saw him in Australia with all those chicks, which is why he is so cool. It’s true, I wasn’t a nice guy when I was young, I had my bad days, and I think Roger probably always had good days, he was more natural in that. I learnt to be a better person, again a point where Roger was better.
MXlarge: Where else is Roger De Coster better than
Stefan Everts? Everts: Roger is very technical, he knows what is inside an engine, what type of crank, the geometry of the bike, and he knows all that, which I don’t know. I feel closer to coaching a rider, rather than the final set-up for a rider. I can test and I can feel things, I am a good test rider now, but he is stronger on those points.
MXlarge: Didn’t you tell me you wanted to go into the KTM Factory and work for some time on the engines, to learn the engine better?
Everts: I planned once to go separate an engine and go through it in detail, it hasn’t happened yet to do that, but I still plan to go and do that in Austria and spend two days and do that. I want to do that with our chief engineer and mechanic. I always want to learn new things, the more you know about the bike the easier you can understand things.
MXlarge: I was talking to Roger at the MXoN and I said to him that you and him at the two Kings of Grand Prix Motocross, he got a big smile on his face. It is obvious you guys are, I mean you both have a lot of World Championships, probably considered the two top guys in your on and off track results. How does that feel to you when Roger gets a big smile when I mention his name with yours, but how is that for you?
Everts: For me it’s the same, for me I get a big smile, to be put with Roger De Coster. I mean that is what is cool about our relationship, first we are countrymen and there is a close connection, and Roger always had this huge respect for me, it goes back to when he offered me a contract to race in America at the end of the 1990’s. I remember at Budds Creek in 1999 and I won the first moto of the USHP against Windham and the rest and I rode my usual style and I didn’t look fast, but then Roger came to me and said man you can teach these guys a lot with that style, and then he offered me a contract to race in the US. It never happened, but I never forget that sentence he said.
MXlarge: In many people’s eyes KTM is a very special company, what KTM have given to the sport is immeasurable, the atmosphere in the team is second to none and the results are clearly at the very top this year. To have somebody like Roger involved and improving that image, how important is that for you and KTM?
Everts: This year has been really a cool year, the first three years we were going in a direction and we came from very deep and very far and now we finally got everything together and that leads us to Roger and our next dream is the USA and we already announced this year when the 350 was coming out, that the next thing was USA. We have had success in Europe this year, and it is important to try and keep everything in control and for some people in the paddock it is already coming that we are dominating too much, instead of loving us they are starting to hate us.
MXLarge: Michele Rinaldi was watching the press conference when you announced Roger De Coster signing with KTM (at Lierop). I remember his look of concern and I asked him what he felt about the KTM domination. He said that it was like David versus Goliath. What do you think of that statement?
Everts: I didn’t understand that, I saw that on your website, but what did he mean, did he mean we just buy everything?
MXLarge: Michele more or less said it’s not KTM’s fault, it’s the position of the market. Let’s be honest KTM more or less are buying everything, or have the chance to.
Everts: Yes, but would you believe four years ago we could buy Roger De Coster or buy Antonio Cairoli, I mean four years ago I didn’t ride for them, but that was my challenge to get these people involved that was never possible and that all started with the bike of course, to believe in the bike and the quality and also the image. KTM has always been linked to Red Bull and that helped already, but finally we had to bring it out to the track and win races and show people. We got it all together and for sure if I had asked Cairoli four years ago he would have said no. If I had asked Roger he would have said no, but because of how we built everything up it is possible now.
MXlarge: KTM how it is set-up in 2010 and 2011, is it the biggest team to ever be involved in the sport in World Motocross. Are there any teams that can compete with KTM?
Everts: I don’t like to say that from us, there are great teams in the Grand Prix paddock, teams like Michele (Rinaldi) and Sylvain (Geboers) and those are top teams and they have a lot of respect from us. In America you have Mitch Payton and Roger (Suzuki) and I wouldn’t say we are the best, we are the nicest, no, because we can always be better and we have to continue to work to have the good team spirit and the good team around and before you know it you can lose those things. Look at what happened to Suzuki, they lost Roger and they lost other things, which can also happen to us; we have to stay alert all the time.
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Everts: I was saying that many people come to me and say I am like Roger but to me that isn’t right. Championships I have won twice as many as him, but I don’t look at it like that. What he has accomplished as a rider and also he has a great image and people like to be around him. He has this positive thing around him and he is still very popular and I look up to him. I still have a lot to learn from him.
MXlarge: I remember watching him race for the first time back in 1972 when Roger, Joel Robert, Bengt Aberg and a bunch of GP riders rode some International races in Australia. I was just 11 years old, but I still clearly remember looking at him and thinking how cool he looked. His long hair and all these beautiful girls hanging around him. He was cooler than you for sure.
Everts: Yes, but your first impression was when you first saw him in Australia with all those chicks, which is why he is so cool. It’s true, I wasn’t a nice guy when I was young, I had my bad days, and I think Roger probably always had good days, he was more natural in that. I learnt to be a better person, again a point where Roger was better.
MXlarge: Where else is Roger De Coster better than
Stefan Everts? Everts: Roger is very technical, he knows what is inside an engine, what type of crank, the geometry of the bike, and he knows all that, which I don’t know. I feel closer to coaching a rider, rather than the final set-up for a rider. I can test and I can feel things, I am a good test rider now, but he is stronger on those points.
MXlarge: Didn’t you tell me you wanted to go into the KTM Factory and work for some time on the engines, to learn the engine better?
Everts: I planned once to go separate an engine and go through it in detail, it hasn’t happened yet to do that, but I still plan to go and do that in Austria and spend two days and do that. I want to do that with our chief engineer and mechanic. I always want to learn new things, the more you know about the bike the easier you can understand things.
MXlarge: I was talking to Roger at the MXoN and I said to him that you and him at the two Kings of Grand Prix Motocross, he got a big smile on his face. It is obvious you guys are, I mean you both have a lot of World Championships, probably considered the two top guys in your on and off track results. How does that feel to you when Roger gets a big smile when I mention his name with yours, but how is that for you?
Everts: For me it’s the same, for me I get a big smile, to be put with Roger De Coster. I mean that is what is cool about our relationship, first we are countrymen and there is a close connection, and Roger always had this huge respect for me, it goes back to when he offered me a contract to race in America at the end of the 1990’s. I remember at Budds Creek in 1999 and I won the first moto of the USHP against Windham and the rest and I rode my usual style and I didn’t look fast, but then Roger came to me and said man you can teach these guys a lot with that style, and then he offered me a contract to race in the US. It never happened, but I never forget that sentence he said.
MXlarge: In many people’s eyes KTM is a very special company, what KTM have given to the sport is immeasurable, the atmosphere in the team is second to none and the results are clearly at the very top this year. To have somebody like Roger involved and improving that image, how important is that for you and KTM?
Everts: This year has been really a cool year, the first three years we were going in a direction and we came from very deep and very far and now we finally got everything together and that leads us to Roger and our next dream is the USA and we already announced this year when the 350 was coming out, that the next thing was USA. We have had success in Europe this year, and it is important to try and keep everything in control and for some people in the paddock it is already coming that we are dominating too much, instead of loving us they are starting to hate us.
MXLarge: Michele Rinaldi was watching the press conference when you announced Roger De Coster signing with KTM (at Lierop). I remember his look of concern and I asked him what he felt about the KTM domination. He said that it was like David versus Goliath. What do you think of that statement?
Everts: I didn’t understand that, I saw that on your website, but what did he mean, did he mean we just buy everything?
MXLarge: Michele more or less said it’s not KTM’s fault, it’s the position of the market. Let’s be honest KTM more or less are buying everything, or have the chance to.
Everts: Yes, but would you believe four years ago we could buy Roger De Coster or buy Antonio Cairoli, I mean four years ago I didn’t ride for them, but that was my challenge to get these people involved that was never possible and that all started with the bike of course, to believe in the bike and the quality and also the image. KTM has always been linked to Red Bull and that helped already, but finally we had to bring it out to the track and win races and show people. We got it all together and for sure if I had asked Cairoli four years ago he would have said no. If I had asked Roger he would have said no, but because of how we built everything up it is possible now.
MXlarge: KTM how it is set-up in 2010 and 2011, is it the biggest team to ever be involved in the sport in World Motocross. Are there any teams that can compete with KTM?
Everts: I don’t like to say that from us, there are great teams in the Grand Prix paddock, teams like Michele (Rinaldi) and Sylvain (Geboers) and those are top teams and they have a lot of respect from us. In America you have Mitch Payton and Roger (Suzuki) and I wouldn’t say we are the best, we are the nicest, no, because we can always be better and we have to continue to work to have the good team spirit and the good team around and before you know it you can lose those things. Look at what happened to Suzuki, they lost Roger and they lost other things, which can also happen to us; we have to stay alert all the time.
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