Rockstar Energy Suzuki Europe’s Jeremy Seewer interview is the team’s factory rider in the MX2 class of the FIM Motocross World Championship and is embarking on the second Grand Prix season of his career. The 20 year old Swiss took the works RM-Z250 to fifth position at Qatar almost two weeks ago (in the first moto) to equal his personal best at the first time of asking. The 40-degree heat in Thailand eight days later was too much for the youngster to bear as he’d also been suffering with a cold. Seewer is still ‘green’ at this level. In 2013 he was winning EMX250 European Championship races with the RM-Z before jumping into GPs in 2014 while still completing a college course. Towards the end of last year he finished his studies (with good grades) and became a full Pro, making 2015 his very first as a dedicated Grand Prix star. Here he talks about the luxury of a full winter of preparation for a GP campaign…
My first full professional championship and it felt good to be able to focus 100% on my racing through the off-season. Joel Smets is almost like the manager of the team in terms of taking care of the riders and their fitness and how they work, their diet and so on. Together with Yves Demeulemeester [team trainer] they made a programme for me and then Joel follows it up, and it is like that with most of the guys in the team. For me it was nothing majorly new for the work I have to do, but now in these first races I can feel it has been working pretty good. I am simply doing a lot more! I also have more time to rest. I am swimming a lot more and it is part of the recovery after races; that is a big difference for me. From December to January it is a lot of hours towards a goal to be ready for Qatar but as a Pro the target is just to keep working and looking and improving to reach your goals. Of course it is hard! There might be some guys who don't need to practice that much to be fast but we all need to be in good condition.
When I was still in school I would have exams and it was time consuming. I remember last year I was hardly riding at all before Qatar because of the studying schedule. Now I am on the bike a lot more instead of just doing it at the weekends or every other week. The frequency has helped me. Now, instead of just an hour cycling on the bicycle after school I’ll be doing a gym session in the morning, then on the bike for an hour and a half in the afternoon and riding the next day.
It is difficult to say in numbers how much I have improved my conditioning. I was a bit sick in Thailand with a cold but before the first moto I still felt better and fitter than I did the year before. I know I can ride at a higher level for longer.
I rode for two weeks around Christmas and then had a week’s break for recovery, then did another two weeks and another break. You cannot ride for four weeks in a row, doing two 40-minute motos without it taking a toll and the body gets tired because of the high heart-rate. It became two days ‘on’ and a day ‘off’ for a while…and it also depended on the weather. It was frozen in Belgium so it became tough to plan where would be good for riding.
I am freer now in terms of my time. Before it was always hard to get to Belgium and then get back for the studies. Now I can go there and stay for two weeks if I need to test and ride. It is my job now.
I am on my own in the team as the only MX2 rider. It is quite a strange situation but in a way it is better for me. I have the whole team behind me. Last year I was a little bit like ‘I have to try and beat Glenn [Coldenhoff]’ and this situation with a team-mate is ‘kinda normal in every team I guess. Now I don't have that but I do have the support and the determination of everybody to get better. Glenn is still here obviously but like Clement [Desalle] and Kevin [Strijbos] he is in MXGP. They still help me. They are riding the same track. I feel good and the bike is better than last year because I’ve spent more time with the team and testing.
My goal is the top-five this year and we had a good start in Qatar, even if I did lose a lot of points in Thailand. I know there are quite a few fast guys in MX2 and five, six, seven guys are all going for that top five. There are many with similar speed and it just comes down to how you feel on that particular day and how you start. I think top-five is a realistic goal and I will also be hoping for podiums. I feel that my speed is there and I need to keep on working on my fitness.
