Roan van de Moosdijk is looking forward to race again. He went through a period when everything went against him and he would almost have been forgotten. But van de Moosdijk managed to win a moto in the MX2 world championship last year and was on the podium in the Grand Prix’s of Portugal and Latvia. He can ride a bike, he has shown that so many times. Now that he is completely injury-free again, van de Moosdijk picks up where he left off and will start building to get back to his old level. As recently announced, he will finish the season with the German Kosak KTM team.
At the end of last year, a dream came true for van de Moosdijk as he signed a factory contract for the MXGP world championship. A lot of work was done to be fit for the first race in Argentina. However, during the preparations, van de Moosdijk had to deal with a major setback.
“I was really looking forward to this year. I had done a lot of work in terms of condition and the riding started to go well. However, during a training session in Spain, I had an unfortunate fall, which gave me a big blow to my head and I had to take a rest. As a result, I missed a period of training and therefore I could not immediately participate in the first pre season races. My first race ended up being in Hawkstone Park in the UK, but unfortunately it went wrong here too.
I suffered a serious knee injury that ruled out the start of the world championships,” Roan said.
After the race in Great Britain, Van de Moosdijk immediately travelled back to the Netherlands to be examined by a PSV specialist. Here it quickly became clear what was going on and this was that his inner knee ligament was almost completely torn.
“For me, this was a huge downer. You work towards a certain point throughout the preparation and that was the start of the world championship. During the examination, it immediately became clear that I would be out for six weeks or more. I got over this pretty quickly and tried to stay fit. The season is always long and unfortunately injuries are part of our sport. That’s why I was determined to come back strong and show great things later in the season. However, things changed when I unexpectedly found myself without a team.”
There was a lot of interest in Roan when he was back on the market. Due to an injury of Ruben Fernandez within the HRC Honda team, a place became available here. The HRC Honda team is of course one of the best teams in the whole world and van de Moosdijk did not want to miss this opportunity. But was this really such a big chance because he had only been out for four weeks of his knee injury?
“Of course you feel honoured that the HRC Honda team is interested in you and that you can finish the season for them. However, I soon found out that my knee was not ready to get back on the bike. During the first test with the team, I put my foot down once and I went through the ground in pain. At that moment I already knew that it was going to be very difficult to meet expectations. I didn’t dare to report it to the team because they had already done so much for me. In the following weekend, the Grand Prix of Sardinia was immediately on the program. With temperatures above thirty degrees and a knee that was far from recovered, I rode below my level here. The same was the case at the next Grand Prix in Arco di Trento. I just couldn’t ride freely and that’s why we decided after Saturday to inform the team and fix my knee first.
It was a quiet time for van de Moosdijk in which he could put everything in order. Just to set his sights on something else and think carefully about how he sees his future in motocross. The will to get back on the bike soon came and therefore it was clear to van de Moosdijk that a step back is certainly not yet one of the wishes of the motocross rider from Eindhoven.
”After giving my knee the rest it needed, I started to feel better and better. I started exercising again and in the meantime I have done several training sessions with the bike. It’s clear that I’m not done with high-level motocross yet and I want to go for it again.”
The MXGP World Championship enters its second half of the season. There are several injuries so he can race as a fill in rider at several teams. However, he chooses to focus on certain races and not on all races of the MXGP championship.
“I’ve learned a lot from this year and that’s why I decided to start building slowly from here. I’m trying to get stronger and stronger and grow to my old level. If I step into a team now, I have to be top again and I don’t want that. I want to slow down now and try to be strong in certain races. For me, it’s important that I show myself and have a good team for next year so that I can chase my dreams.”
It remains to be seen where we will see van de Moosdijk in action for the first time in a Grand Prix. In any case, he is in full training and next weekend we will see him in action for the first time at the ADAC Masters Series in Tensfeld.
