Red Bull KTM Factory rider Antonio Cairoli is the man in MXGP, no doubt about it. With a small foot injury the Italian legend comes into the 2014 GP season under-prepared, but isn’t too concerned about that. We caught up to him today and asked him what to expect at the Grand Prix of Qatar and how his injury is.
MXlarge: We all saw the images of your injured foot. How is your injury now?
Cairoli: For riding it is okay, but you can’t push over the limit. The doctors told me I need a month to recover, but I don’t have a month to heal. So I started with this race. I haven’t trained for two weeks, and I think my condition isn’t 100%, I wasn’t even fit before I hurt my foot and I have done nothing recently, so it’s not 100%.
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MXlarge: What can you expect from this opening round then?
Cairoli: I know it’s the first round and many people will be going fast, but it’s a long season and the first races everyone is fired up. I was enjoying my races in the Italian Championship. My goal is the championship not winning the first GP. My first hope was to race without thinking too much about my feet. I will see in first practice how I feel and I still want to win, but I don’t want to make it worse by some stupid action, or go over my limit.
MXlarge: Gautier Paulin won the race where you got injured and from all reports he looks pretty strong this year. What is your opinion?
Cairoli: The track was pretty rough, many ruts and different lines. I think he looks good, for sure he is more prepared than last year, I think everyone is more prepared for this year, me too.
MXlarge: What is the plan for Thailand, to recover from riding with this injury?
Cairoli: My plan is to rest as much as possible, because I am sure I will have some swollen and some problems. I can’t train on the bike in Thailand and I can’t run. I will do some gym and upper body, just to do something, but not much. With this kind of injury you need to rest and heal up and be better later in the season.
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