Part 2: Gunther Ghysels ends active motocross career
Yesterday you could already read part 1 from Gunther Ghysel's column, today you can devour part 2 of his story!
In 2011 I switched to the MX1 class. Winter was the same scenario again and this time I dislocated my other shoulder just before the start of the season. I ended up with a KTM 350, which then went into production for the first time, and despite how strong those bikes are now, I had a lot of bad luck with them in the first year and due to the persistent problems I switched to Yamaha halfway through. At that time I had again hardly competed and I completed the remaining season relatively unnoticed.
In 2012 I had indicated in advance that I wanted to remain injury-free at all costs and I did just that, I came 3rd at the Inters MX1 BMB, but afterwards I was absolutely not satisfied with how I had performed. No aggressiveness, no progress made, afraid of injuring me,…
In 2013 I went to France on Kawasaki and again in the run-up to the season I injured myself. I broke my shoulders which were also dislocated and suffered a nerve injury in that fall. My shoulder was paralyzed for weeks and the recovery took months. Once back I rode quite well, I won several races and in August I went to England to participate in the MXGP rookie challenge. I succeeded and was promised a number of free World Cup participations for 2014. The following week I broke my collarbone during training and the season was once again over.
As always, I was extremely motivated for 2014 and won a number of amateur competitions before the BMB started. I had a bad start in the first race in Genk and a few laps from the end I was in contention for the win. Due to a stone that got stuck in my gear, my wheel jammed while landing and I dislocated my shoulder again. After a few weeks I was back on the bike and the riding went quite well, in Kester I was without a doubt doing the best series of the season. In principle you can already guess what happened then, in the very last corner before the flag of the series I got into a duel with Butron and dislocated a shoulder again. I then won an international competition in France, but in principle you could say that I had already lost my motivation.
For many, this text will already be too long to read, but I feel it is necessary to explain everything in detail so that outsiders do not make too quick judgments. It is so often the case that they draw a conclusion on Sunday without knowing what has happened in the previous weeks. I can honestly say that year after year I have given everything to achieve what I wanted to achieve. If you do so much and leave so much behind for so many years in a row to be successful and you always have to deal with so much setbacks, then I don't think anyone can blame you for the fact that motivation is harder to find. I am very honest to say that I have trained all these years to get into the World Cup. This is impossible, especially in combination with the current management in the World Cup and, no matter how harsh it may seem, I currently have no ambition to go for titles in amateur associations. I'm a technical pilot who can handle hard technical tracks and I just don't enjoy competing on fields.
The decisive reason is still that I need 3 operations if I want to start another season. When you look at it as a whole, I just wonder, is it all worth it? I have often been lucky in my career to have 'only' fractures, so in principle I can consider myself lucky.
I would like to once again thank all the sponsors over the years, MC Mikkola, Motorsport Future, BVE training, my supporters and especially my parents.
Text: Gunther Ghysels – Photos: CDS
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