We caught up with Jake as he prepared to head off to work at his father’s TRUCKS ‘R’ US hire business. Just working around the yard and learning the trade of a business his father has built and a place Nicholls junior might one day work, once his Motocross career is done and dusted.

MXlarge: Going back a month to the MXoN. Are you recovered from just missing the podium?

Nicholls: Well, I was gutted on the Sunday afternoon, but I’ve thought about it and looked back at the result and I am pretty proud we could do that result. I mean I was running well in that last moto and lost some places and that was disappointing at the time, because we lost that podium place by the slimmest of margins. I felt I rode well, as did the others guys and it was a good experience.

MXlarge: What are you up to at the moment?

Nicholls: I have some presentations to do, also the Dirt Bike Show this week, then I also working for my dad.

MXlarge: How is that doing a normal job? I mean obviously being an MXer is hard work, but it’s also something you love doing.

Nicholls: When I started (working for his father) after the season it was so much easier than what I had been doing all season. I mean when you are racing Motocross you are self employed and there is a stress. When working like I am at my dad’s it’s not the same pressure, I know what I have to do and get on with it. I find it easier; I get on okay with it really. If I want to go into the business in a few years and eventually run it, then I have to ease my way into it really.

MXlarge: What do you do at your dads?

Nicholls: I just do bits and pieces, cleaning diggers and moving stuff around in the yard. I am not a mechanic or fitter, so I can’t do that. I see the diggers coming in and out of the yard and I know what is going on, just getting an idea of a bit of everything really.

MXlarge; When do you start your preparation for 2011?

Nicholls:  I start getting into gear for training at the end of the month I think, so I am then in full swing with training. I won’t ride until January.

MXlarge: We have Tommy Searle and Max Anstie coming back to race the MX2 class in 2011. That’s great for the Grand Prix’s, but how about you? Fellow Brit’s, so the pressure is on to be the top British rider. Do you think you can battle with those guys?

Nicholls: I really do. The week after Hawkstone Park the last round of the Maxxis I rode the new KTM and I felt so much better on that bike. I know people say that every year, but I really feel comfortable on that bike and I can flick it around better and feel more consistent. I am really pumped for next year. I feel like I can up it again. I learnt so much this year, it was really a big year where I had big ups and big downs. I think this year has done me a big favor. Max and Tommy another two British riders in the FIM World Championship and that is good for the sport. I mean at times this year it was just Mel Pocock, Shaun (Simpson) and myself. I am more than happy to have those guys there and I am not worried about it at all, I would rather have two British guys in front of me and racing them than a bunch of French. I am confident I can beat Max and mix it up with Tommy.

MXlarge: What happened this year? You started the year well; even led that race in Valkenswaard, but then it went a little south didn’t it?

Nicholls: I had a crap time just before Lommel. At Foxhills (British Championship round) I had a big crash in practice and hit my head really, really hard, and also I ran over my foot in the first corner of a race. I thought I just twisted my ankle, but the pain never went away. A had torn a ligament on the front of my foot and also on the left outside of it, and I didn’t realize how bad it was. I’ve broken like 24 bones, but I have never torn a ligament ever, and it was more of a stress injury than an actual pain injury. I would be okay and then I would be in the worst pain I have ever been in. I thought am I being a pussy or what. I was in no man’s land with that and it messed with my head really. Then I got it behind me in Lommel but DNFed with bike problems, and then in Loket I wrote my ankle off and didn’t finish my race and then went to Brazil and had two DNF’s again. I was torn apart by then.

MXlarge: Riders like yourself or a Josh Coppins, it seems like you make a bit of an improvement, then stay on the same level, then makes an improvement, it’s not like it happens quickly that journey to the top. You mentioned you had injuries and stuff, but it often seems the case that the blue collar worker often seems to progress that way. How do you look at that?

Nicholls: I was ninth in the Championship then dropped to 10^th, then 11^th, then 12^th and finally 13^th because of Loket really. I never think it will get easier, it will only get harder. I was talking to a friend when I was going through that shit, and I thought about it and from the middle of 2009 until all this shit happened I had always progressed, I hadn’t had any slip ups, but then I hit this flat spot and didn’t know what was going on. I am happy it happened because it’s made me realize it’s not always going to get better and better. On a positive I started the year in 8^th overall and ended the year with an 8^th overall, so that was good. It wasn’t a bad ending at all.

MXlarge: It’s funny, I know you and Josh are good mates, but you finished 17^th in 2009 and 13^th this year and Josh did the same in 1997 and 1998, then went 7^th in 1999, so maybe you can do the same in 2011 and pick up a 7^th place.

Nicholls: That is weird; I hope I can continue that progress.

MXlarge: What do you do for fun in the winter; do you like to have a drink?

Nicholls: Sure, we have a drink; generally knock about a bit with my mates. I am not doing too much. I have a suspension test this week, but otherwise it’s just a bit of work and I don’t know really, just chilling out and eating crap.

MXlarge: Will you maybe go to America to ride, what is your plan once you start riding?

Nicholls: I don’t know what I will do this year. I am pretty sure I want to go to New Zealand in January, stay with Josh for three weeks or so and try and hook up with him and maybe Ben Townley as well, that would be perfect. Josh’s season starts then, I don’t know, I won’t do too much riding in January. I like to train there, it’s so much warmer and it’s something different. I’ve training in the winter the last three years and you just get sick in January in Europe.