Posts
805
Joined
8/17/2016
Location
CZ
Edited Date/Time
12/11/2020 1:30pm
MAX NAGL INTERVIEW PT.1 “No other normal person would pay to go to work!”
A long and interesting interview with the strong german rider Max Nagl, winner of multiple GPs, the 2012 MXON and vice-world-champion. We talked about hot topics like MXGP, tracks, his career, the Czech Championship and his plans for the future…enjoy the reading!
Hello Max, how are you?
We didn’t have news about you in MXGP since your injury in Argentina last year. Explain us what happened.
In Argentina i had a really bad knee injury, I didn’t have a crash or anything, just some wild riding over a jump. The knee popped out, all the ligaments, meniscus and knee cap were damaged. It was totally broken. After that, i had 3 surgeries on the knee to get it fixed and still this year at the end of the season I had 2 other surgeries to make other reconstructions on the knee. Now it’s fine, but I decided to retire from MXGP because it was almost impossible to find a decent Team in these tough times where you have to bring so much money…so I decided to stop but I didn’t make any big story on the media.
What do you think about the current MXGP situation: a lot of riders without a bike, strong riders like Paulin, Desalle (not so old to say the truth) are retiring. Also Leok.
Yes I think the current situation in MXGP is difficult, I don’t want to say nothing negative because there are some people who do their best and trying to improve the MXGP paddock, media and other stuff but the problem is that motocross is not on TV, only pay TV or internet…so it’s difficult to attract new sponsors. Yes the fact that many strong riders like Paulin, Desalle and even me are retiring because they can’t find a good team, it shows how strange the current situation is in MXGP. If you’re really lucky you have your personal sponsors who can bring money to the team and you can get a ride in any team otherwise it’s so difficult. So many riders decide to stop because they can’t get paid well anymore…and like I say no other normal person would go to work and pay for it! We also have the risk, we risk our body. I hope that they will change the system in the near future to give a chance to the new young riders.
It looks like with the emergency things that were already difficult are now even worse. The 2021 Calendar looks to be even more dangerous for the team. Many flyaways in different time of the year. Riders are not getting prize money from the organizer, they rather be paying the team to race. Teams pay high entry fees and have nothing back. The system, in our opinion looks not equally balanced. Especially in this tough time. What’s your opinion about it?
Yes the entry fees are quite high, about 10.000 Euros per year…this is really a big cost. For the smaller teams for sure it’s really difficult. Talking about the calendar, I think they will change it again, because there are so many overseas race (you can count Russia almost like an oversea race) so in total they are like eight races…I think only factory teams will go there. Probably there will be not so many riders on the gate and all the others will be local wild-card…well, I think that’s not how a world championship should be. For the smaller team’s gonna be difficult. Most of the teams give their riders only a top 3 bonus system. So there is no prize money from the organizer and if you do a P4 overall (which is a great result in MXGP!) you go home with nothing!
What’s the Czech championship like? For sure they have beatiful tracks and i heard of some kind of prize money. How’s the competition and movement in general?
Yeah, the Czech championship was really nice this year. The tracks were beautiful, so nice that I was surprised! The organization was so simple but effective. Racing now in Czech this year felt for me like racing 20 years ago, a in a good way! Everything it’s so easy, you just come there, you quickly make your paper and technical controls and you can have a nice weekend! The tracks are really well prepared, they are ripped and watered but in a different way than GPs. The dirt is well prepared you almost always have a clean bike, and that’s really good for the sponsors and their logos! That’s what they want. I will go there again in 2021.
Talking about the track, what’s your opinion on them? You have so much experience, you raced for like almost 15 years in the World Championship. Are we really sure that racing in artificial one-day tracks has its benefits? Almost every track now looks the same flat design. Multiple times, riders like Clement and Gautier said that they don’t enjoy anymore to ride in these conditions.
Yeah like I mentioned before, the good thing in Czech is the bike is always clean and that’s good for the sponsors while in MXGP your bike is always covered in mud after like 2-3 laps. They rip the track so much. Another difference is that in the Czech championship the tracks are 6-8 meters wide and you can use every inch of the track, it’s easier to pass, you can change line so easily and many other things. In MXGP they rip and water it so much that many times you can only use 1 or 2 meters of the track because the other lines are covered in mud or there are so many ruts you can’t ride it. I think they should work on this side because the German and Czech tracks are much better prepared, plus we have natural tracks like in the old days. Not to forgot the sponsors’ visibility thing like I mentioned before. If they can’t get visibility they will step away from MXGP in a few years.
Don’t you think that riders and tracks should be more on the focus?
They tried it once, there was a Saturday evening meeting with the riders where they could talk about the track on what it should have been changed or done differently…but since it’s a world championship every rider tries to make an advantage out of it…someone wants it drier, someone wetter, someone rougher, someone flatter…so that’s why they stopped it after one year. It didn’t work.
…….
Part 2 coming soon ….. stay tuned!
A long and interesting interview with the strong german rider Max Nagl, winner of multiple GPs, the 2012 MXON and vice-world-champion. We talked about hot topics like MXGP, tracks, his career, the Czech Championship and his plans for the future…enjoy the reading!
Hello Max, how are you?
We didn’t have news about you in MXGP since your injury in Argentina last year. Explain us what happened.
In Argentina i had a really bad knee injury, I didn’t have a crash or anything, just some wild riding over a jump. The knee popped out, all the ligaments, meniscus and knee cap were damaged. It was totally broken. After that, i had 3 surgeries on the knee to get it fixed and still this year at the end of the season I had 2 other surgeries to make other reconstructions on the knee. Now it’s fine, but I decided to retire from MXGP because it was almost impossible to find a decent Team in these tough times where you have to bring so much money…so I decided to stop but I didn’t make any big story on the media.
What do you think about the current MXGP situation: a lot of riders without a bike, strong riders like Paulin, Desalle (not so old to say the truth) are retiring. Also Leok.
Yes I think the current situation in MXGP is difficult, I don’t want to say nothing negative because there are some people who do their best and trying to improve the MXGP paddock, media and other stuff but the problem is that motocross is not on TV, only pay TV or internet…so it’s difficult to attract new sponsors. Yes the fact that many strong riders like Paulin, Desalle and even me are retiring because they can’t find a good team, it shows how strange the current situation is in MXGP. If you’re really lucky you have your personal sponsors who can bring money to the team and you can get a ride in any team otherwise it’s so difficult. So many riders decide to stop because they can’t get paid well anymore…and like I say no other normal person would go to work and pay for it! We also have the risk, we risk our body. I hope that they will change the system in the near future to give a chance to the new young riders.
It looks like with the emergency things that were already difficult are now even worse. The 2021 Calendar looks to be even more dangerous for the team. Many flyaways in different time of the year. Riders are not getting prize money from the organizer, they rather be paying the team to race. Teams pay high entry fees and have nothing back. The system, in our opinion looks not equally balanced. Especially in this tough time. What’s your opinion about it?
Yes the entry fees are quite high, about 10.000 Euros per year…this is really a big cost. For the smaller teams for sure it’s really difficult. Talking about the calendar, I think they will change it again, because there are so many overseas race (you can count Russia almost like an oversea race) so in total they are like eight races…I think only factory teams will go there. Probably there will be not so many riders on the gate and all the others will be local wild-card…well, I think that’s not how a world championship should be. For the smaller team’s gonna be difficult. Most of the teams give their riders only a top 3 bonus system. So there is no prize money from the organizer and if you do a P4 overall (which is a great result in MXGP!) you go home with nothing!
What’s the Czech championship like? For sure they have beatiful tracks and i heard of some kind of prize money. How’s the competition and movement in general?
Yeah, the Czech championship was really nice this year. The tracks were beautiful, so nice that I was surprised! The organization was so simple but effective. Racing now in Czech this year felt for me like racing 20 years ago, a in a good way! Everything it’s so easy, you just come there, you quickly make your paper and technical controls and you can have a nice weekend! The tracks are really well prepared, they are ripped and watered but in a different way than GPs. The dirt is well prepared you almost always have a clean bike, and that’s really good for the sponsors and their logos! That’s what they want. I will go there again in 2021.
Talking about the track, what’s your opinion on them? You have so much experience, you raced for like almost 15 years in the World Championship. Are we really sure that racing in artificial one-day tracks has its benefits? Almost every track now looks the same flat design. Multiple times, riders like Clement and Gautier said that they don’t enjoy anymore to ride in these conditions.
Yeah like I mentioned before, the good thing in Czech is the bike is always clean and that’s good for the sponsors while in MXGP your bike is always covered in mud after like 2-3 laps. They rip the track so much. Another difference is that in the Czech championship the tracks are 6-8 meters wide and you can use every inch of the track, it’s easier to pass, you can change line so easily and many other things. In MXGP they rip and water it so much that many times you can only use 1 or 2 meters of the track because the other lines are covered in mud or there are so many ruts you can’t ride it. I think they should work on this side because the German and Czech tracks are much better prepared, plus we have natural tracks like in the old days. Not to forgot the sponsors’ visibility thing like I mentioned before. If they can’t get visibility they will step away from MXGP in a few years.
Don’t you think that riders and tracks should be more on the focus?
They tried it once, there was a Saturday evening meeting with the riders where they could talk about the track on what it should have been changed or done differently…but since it’s a world championship every rider tries to make an advantage out of it…someone wants it drier, someone wetter, someone rougher, someone flatter…so that’s why they stopped it after one year. It didn’t work.
…….
Part 2 coming soon ….. stay tuned!
First of all I’m actually really happy about my career, I achieved almost everything I wanted…I was 3rd in the championship, then 2nd…I won the Motocross of Nations with Germany in 2012, I only missed the World Championship title. I have many red plates, many holeshot awards, I won many other international races etc.
I think 2015 could have been my year, I was leading with more than 50 points in front of Cairoli in the championship and that was really the year where I could have won the title. The 2015 bike was unbelievably good, I had a good team, I was just on point. Unfortunately in Germany at my home GP I had a crash and when I was getting up, another rider passed on my feet causing me a fracture. It needed so much time to heal that my season was over. That was my worst memory. Another good memory was my first GP win in Faenza in 2008, where I went 1-1. It was my dream when I was a little kid to win a GP and that was really good. I had a few times where I could fight for the championship but the biggest problems of my career were the injuries I had.
There is something that, if you could turn back time, would do in a different way?
Apart from Germany 2015, like I said, I’m happy for everything in my career and how it went, I achieved all what I wanted to.
Favorite track and bike.
My favorite bike was the 2015 Husqvarna, it was so good both on the engine and on the chassis side. It is still now the best bike I have ever ridden. Also the 2014 Honda was really a special bike. My favorite tracks were Bellpuig in Spain and all the American ones. Red Bud, Budds Creek…Glen Helen probably is the best track in the world, the biggest one…a nice natural track.
Have you ever had offers from America? If yes, from which teams? You ever thought to go there?
No, I’ve never had offers from US, I was never mentioned to go there because I’m a guy who likes to be at home and to go there would have meant to adapt to their lifestyle. But I have to say it was always on my head to go there for an AMA National Race or for a complete season because I really loved the tracks and every time we raced there at GPs I got on the podium.
What’s in store for the future?
I started to build my future already last year, I think I have so much experience in the sport, both in a good and bad way because of the injuries and mistakes. I’ve never had any coach in my career apart from my dad. When I went to Factory KTM I worked with Stefan Everts and I really learnt a lot from him. Then I had a trainer (Hugo America) in Belgium for couple of years. I also learned a lot from him! Of course I made many mistakes in racing, strategy, training, food, traveling, everything! But from mistakes you learn and I have much experience. I want to help other young riders not to make these mistakes again.You have to learn so many things, on food, on physio, on how and when to train, how to do the winter preparation etc. That’s why I started help other riders.
Now I have a workshop in Belgium at my second home and I built there a special place for the bikes, riders and myself. For next year the Yamaha MXGP team, the MX2 guys will be at my home. Kevin Brumann is already at my house and we are doing the winter preparation together. I still don’t know who’s going to be the second rider and I have some other riders from Czech Republic and Germany that I want to help. I take a maximum of 5 riders, because I don’t want to lose quality in what I do. With a higher number of riders would be really difficult to follow them all. In Lommel at my second house they have everything they need, I will still keep working to be even better.
Talking about myself, in 2021 I will be back on a Husqvarna (this year I was on a KTM) and I will do the ADAC German Championship and the Czech Championship. I will be quite busy but is super motivating to compare myself to my boys, I’m now still faster than them on the track but it’s good that I can learn them something new. From my side it’s possible that I will stop racing in 2022 or 2023, but for the coaching side it will continue and be even bigger and better for sure.
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