Red Bull KTM Factory rider Jeffrey Herlings isn’t the luckiest guy that ever raced a motocross bike and for sure not at Grand Prix level. Despite already claiming four World motocross championships and 90 Grand Prix victories and standing amongst the all-time greats of the sport, “The Bullet” has probably seen five World titles thrown away due to his ongoing struggle with injuries. Apart from his rookie season in 2010 and probably 2011 up against Ken Roczen, the Dutchman has been the best rider in his class, when fit.

Unlucky championship losses in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019 and now in 2020 have robbed the KTM hero of becoming the greatest Grand Prix rider of all time. Unfortunately, could have, should have would have doesn’t count in the all-time lists and for now, Herlings statistically wise is in eight place in the list of World champions and third in the all-time GP winners list. Still not bad is it?

We caught up with “The Bullet” at his home in Holland and chatted about how his crash in Faenza happened, the aftermath of that crash and now, the recovery time.

MXLarge: When I saw the accident, and then heard what happened, the helicopter flight the short term paralysis, as a Jeffrey Herlings fan, and like a lot of Jeffrey Herlings fans, or even just fans of motocross in general, I was shocked and felt really sad. My first thought was we will never see “The Bullet” race again.

Herlings: You know, it is no secret since 2019, January 25^th to be exact, I had a career changing moment. I jumped into a wall and completely shattered my ankle. Since then, I have always been in pain with my foot and ankle. I couldn’t run anymore, it hurt whenever I rode. It was okay at times when racing, because of the adrenaline, but when I would flat land jump I would be in pain, the next day after racing I was in pain and at one point the pain was so bad near my ankle. I was in a cast for three months after the accident and while the ankle is fine, the bone close to the ankle was growing and sometimes you have the feeling when your knee locks up, I had that with my ankle and they had to scrape away a lot of bone and also clean up the scar tissue and things like that. I was always in pain and I used to have to put the force of my weight on my heal and not on my foot, because the pain was so bad. That is why my riding style looked bad sometimes and in Faenza, they ripped the track and there were a lot of lines and when I landed over that jump, my foot came off the peg and my front wheel went sideways and I flipped twice over and in my first flip my neck hit the ground and it rotated and luckily I wasn’t paralyzed, but I did have fractures in my C1, C6 and T something, I can’t even remember now. I am very lucky, and I don’t have any problem with my neck now. When I was on the ground, I was thinking I don’t want to do this anymore, but after two weeks I was doing everything I wanted again and I could start riding three weeks after my crash, but I wanted to get my foot fixed and I had that fixed last week. It is starting to feel better each day and it takes some time to get it recovered and I should be back on the in four weeks, but there is no hurry. That last two years have been really bad, because I could ride with it, but I couldn’t be my normal self. I still have a three year deal with KTM, so I will do those three years, and I got to get some wins, because if you look at my GP wins compared to my World championships, it doesn’t balance out. I have 90 GP wins and only four World championships and most riders with four World championship only have like 40 GP wins, so I need to improve on that.

MXLarge: I mentioned to you when you came back at the end of 2019 how you looked different on the bike and were you struggling with your ankle and I mentioned it again in Latvia after your GP win, but you always acted like it was nothing. Why was that?

Herlings: You know, when you tell your competition you have something and you are riding in pain, and they know you have a weakness, then they will fight back even harder. I don’t want to give my competition any knowledge of that injury. I always kept my head up, but I was always in pain. In Latvia I raced, but I needed to take a pain killer the next day because I couldn’t even walk on it. It was so hard, because every day I went riding, I had pain and it wasn’t fun anymore. I didn’t want to go riding, but I needed to. The pleasure was gone from riding and hopefully now, with the operation I will enjoy it again. You know, in this sport, and with the injuries we are seeing this year, you need to be 100% fit. You see the race on Sunday in Lommel, there are nearly no riders left. Husqvarna don’t even have one rider, I am injured, Prado was out with corona, Glenn got injured, and so many more.

MXLarge: The moment of the crash, you mentioned on your social media you couldn’t feel parts of your body, what parts did you not feel in that moment?

Herlings: I couldn’t feel anything, I could move my neck and head, but that was it. I could feel a little bit my fingers, but for 30 minutes I couldn’t feel anything. I was like, this isn’t good, this is a done deal, order my wheelchair now. After about 20 or 30 minutes I started to get feeling again and then after about an hour, I felt like new again. At 4pm I was out of the hospital and I walked out of that place.

MXlarge: You went to McDonalds?

Herlings: Yes, I was over it, I was like I am going to get McDonalds, and I am done. I need to heal up now.

MXlarge: Obviously the feeling of having no feeling must have been indescribable, but that feeling when it started coming back, WOW, that must have been pretty nice?

Herlings: At that point, you don’t care about racing or recovering. I mean when I felt nothing, all I could think was my life is worth nothing, you can have millions of dollars in the bank, but it is worth nothing. Championships don’t count, nothing counts. Mentally it was difficult, but a week later at home I was walking about the house and it didn’t seem that bad anymore.

MXlarge: I was speaking to Dave Thorpe about it, and I am not a racer, or a sportsman, so I don’t get it, to me, you break your neck and have no feeling and I am staying on my couch for the rest of my life, but Dave said you will be back no problem. You guys are nuts, you motocross racers. I mean Pit (Beirer) is in a wheelchair, your good mate Ruben has a limp from a back injury that ended his racing. Did you speak to those guys about it?

Herlings: No, the doctor in Italy said four weeks you will be like new. We decided as a team to not race again in 2020 and fit my foot. I am hearing now the 2021 season won’t start until April, but at that time we didn’t know, and I really wanted to get my foot fixed so I can be 100% again. The championship this year was over anyway, and I could have come back for Spain, but for what, I was out of the championship anyway. I wanted to get my body repaired and my foot will never be 100%, but I want to be racing again and keep racing. I don’t need to race for the money, I am not spending crazy money, I am racing because I want to race, and I want to win and show what I am capable of. Whenever I was there, I showed I was one of the fastest, or the fastest and the years I didn’t get injured, I usually won a championship and now its time to get some of those championships I missed.

MXlarge: It has been a bad year for injuries and if you look at you and Glenn, both pretty dangerous injuries and then Arminas was in a coma in hospital with a serious head injury, a lot of really serious injuries. Why do you think that is?

Herlings: I mean, to do three races in a week, that is heavy. Obviously Infront did the best thing they could do, because everyone wants to race, the teams and riders because of sponsors and the promoters because of TV rights and things and they needed to click off a certain number of rounds. The only option in a three-month time frame, they had to run three races in a row, but it takes a lot out of the rider. You really need to be focused, and if you look at the (old school) tracks, and then also the weather conditions at times, it made it difficult. If you see the American tracks, they are so wide and in Europe, if you get off the track, you hit something. The older circuits I understand they are hard to change, but we need to look at which tracks we race at with the speeds now. The track in Faenza, it was so difficult to pass and that makes it also dangerous, because you take extra risk to try and pass. Obviously it is a corona year and we needed to race some of these tracks and of course, we don’t have the space they have in America to make these tracks, but the bikes we have now, with the speed, we need wide tracks.

MXlarge: You have had a lot of broken bones, maybe not so many crashes, but a lot of injuries. I was googling about building strength in your bones, what is possible. Have you looked into a way to maybe strengthen your bones?

Herlings: You know what, I hardly ever crash, but when I crash call the ambulance, because I broke something, and that is so difficult to take. It is so frustrating, because I am watching a lot of races at the moment and I see the riders who crash often, and they just get up and if it was me, I was in the ambulance. Some riders are like a ticking time bomb. I am so focused, and I hardly make mistakes, but when I do, I pay for it. I don’t want to be rude, but Jago Geerts last Sunday, if I had his crashes for just the Lommel rounds, I would have broken 15 bones. I mean I am happy for this kid, that he is okay, and he gets up from his crashes and I love watching him race, but if I had his accidents, man.

MXlarge: Even Tim in the past had some really big crashes, but he seems to usually just spring up and get going again. He has been a lot better this year and even last year.

Herlings: Yes, this year, he is really in control, but sure, in the past he had more crashes and bigger ones than me, but he is way more flexible and I am happy they don’t have injuries, but it is difficult to accept.

MXlarge: It has been a crazy 2020 and some really big drama in the early part of the MXGP championship It has toned down a bit the last few rounds, but you mentioned you have been watching, what have you thought of the last few rounds?

Herlings: I respect everyone out there, every single rider, but it isn’t nice watching the races at the moment. I don’t want to be harsh, but the last races there hasn’t been any battles, because so many top guys are injured. The speed they are carrying, it isn’t easy, but I don’t know your opinion?

MXLarge: The last few have been a bit boring.

Herlings: That is what I think, but still, I respect everyone out there and I know what they are going through, but it wasn’t exciting racing. He riders that are left and not injured they are riding around. If you look at Faenza I, I watched it and that race was crazy, everyone was within a few seconds of each other and bar banging and really exciting, but Lommel, no, it was boring. Now you start first and then somebody passes somebody 10 minutes later. When you don’t have guys like me, Glenn, Jorge or Arminas, they are all podium guys.

MXlarge: Well, finally, have a great winter, get 100% and come back and kick ass!!

Herlings: Thanks man, I will do my best and have a great winter.

Ray Archer images