CRUTCHLOW: ‘I’M STILL FAST’
Top Brit looks for wins as he enters his 10th season in MotoGP
● ‘I’m still fast enough to be in MotoGP and be competitive’
Given the choice between writing off Cal Crutchlow or prodding a sleeping lion, I’ll take my chances with the big cat seven days a week and twice on Sunday.
For as Britain’s leading MotoP rider prepares to kick off his 10th season in the premier class, the one lesson I’ve learned since he left the comfort zone of World Superbikes back in 2011 is that you write him off at your peril.
Heading to Qatar this weekend, Crutchlow is in familiar territory. He has his back against the wall after a tough final pre-season test where he was again fighting with every ounce of his 5ft 6in frame to tame a Honda RC213V that doesn’t go where he wants it to.
It’s in this type of scenario, though, where Crutchlow operates at his best. He thrives on the underdog tag and loves nothing more than proving people wrong and silencing the doubters.
And I’m convinced he’ll do it again in 2020.
After all, it’s what Crutchlow has done for almost a decade on the most unforgiving stage in world motorcycling.
Against all the odds, Crutchlow has become Britain’s most successful premier class export since the late great Barry Sheene.
Only legendary British racers Geoff Duke, Mike Hailwood, John Surtees, Phil Read and Sheene have won more premier class races than Crutchlow. And Cal has finished on the podium in eight successive seasons, a feat only matched previously by Hailwood and Duke. Crutchlow’s impressive CV is the result of his sheer bloody-minded determination to succeed. Nobody typifies the old fashioned British bulldog spirit more than him.
So it will come as no surprise, despite his Qatar test struggles when he finished 18th, that Crutchlow is also still bullish about his prospects going into 2020. Speaking exclusively to MCN, he said: “I really want to grab the bull by the horns and go for it. Last year I didn’t feel like that. I wasn’t prepared but I still got on the podium (in Qatar) but maybe that’s why I did because I wasn’t stressed. It’s swings and roundabouts.
And he continued: “MotoGP is that hard, you cannot just focus on winning. I think there are so many other things surrounding it and how many people can win, and so many people are fast. You can’t just think ‘Ok, ‘I’m going for the championship and I’m going to win.’ There is only really one guy that can do that.”
There’s no question that Cal remains more than capable of adding in 2020 to the three MotoGP victories he’s recorded so far as long as he can put an end to the stopping issues he’s having with the new Honda.
Right now, he says, he feels too much on a knife-edge on corner entry.
“The pushing is worse than last year and last year was worse than the year before,” he told MCN.
“We can still go in deep and brake late but it’s 50/50 as to whether you will stop or not. Our strong point was always braking whereas if you look at last year, our competitors were stronger in a lot of the races compared to us. I think a lot of that is down to this ‘pushing’ that we have going into the corners and I hope that Honda can fix it before we get to the first race.”
One big unanswered question for Crutchlow is what happens to him beyond 2020. The incessant pain from his season-ending horror crash in Phillip Island in 2018 led to him hint at retirement this year. He’ll be 35 by the end of the season, so where’s his mind at right now about what the future holds? “It depends how the season is going. I’m still fast, I’m still capable. If I wasn’t still fast enough, I wouldn’t have been second at that first test, so I’ve still got the speed and I was on the podium last year,” the LCR Honda rider said. He continued: “You don’t suddenly just go slow. I’m still fast enough to be in MotoGP and be competitive. It’s whether you still have the desire to keep travelling and to keep getting back up when you have a knock. It’s an emotional rollercoaster and sometimes you want to be in it and sometimes you don’t. At the moment, I want to be in it. I want to continue.”
It’s good to hear there’s still life in the old underdog yet...