Wednesday 30th June 2010

Speedy recovery...

So here I am in Avignon for a few days to follow meticulously the program that Dr Delestré did for me to speed up the bone consolidation process after my foot injury.
The goal is to come back as soon as this week-end in Sweden, we will know on Thursday if this is possible or not.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the Ferrandis family (Dylan Ferrandis is my teammate riding in EMX125) for their warm welcome allowing me to stay at the family home in Avignon. Dylan's parents are very cool and I'm having a good time here.

"Where is Aubin?"

After two weeks off, I had the time to think a lot about the problems I faced since the begining of the season. And I also had the time to read the last issue of the French monthly magazine "MX Magazine" where I discovered a 6 page article about me!
When I read this article where a lot of people talk about my bad season start, I couldn't stop asking myself "why the journalist didn't even try to get in touch with me to at least know my own opinion on that?"

I read with a lot of interest the explanations from Yves Demaria, Olivier Robert, Mickaël Pichon, and of course from my Team manager Stéphane Dassé.

In the end everyone has his own analysis, and the points mentioned by Yves, Olivier and Mickaël made sense and were quite objective. Mickaël's words are certainly the closest from the reality, as of course he's the guy that knows me the best since the "Minivert" (French kids series).

However I must admit I've been quite surprised and annoyed by my Team manager's words (Stéphane Dassé), especially when he says that I didn't fight enough, and that I was listening at myself a little too much !
Since the very first day after I signed my contract, I accepted and followed every single rule of Jacky Vimond's physical preparation program that was planned for Greg and I. First the bike ride across all Portugal, and then California.
When I got back home from USA, at the end of January, I had lost 6kg for a total of 60,5 kg weight!

From Valence I started to feel a strong chronic fatigue syndrome that got worse and worse until the first GPs where I felt the need to sleep in the middle of the day. Mickaël told me to do blood analysis, but it didn't show that much, however according to my Doctor I was already more than exhausted and I should have had a consequent break, but of course it was too late as the GPs were beginning.

On the night of the 3rd round in Valkenswaard, I asked my agent (Gérard Valat) who was also trying to understand my bad performances to take my pulse. It was about 3 hours after moto 2 and he was surprised to see that my pulse was staying to 100! He then realize that I really had a true physical problem.

On Jacky's side, I tried over and over to explain him how I was feeling, but he had troubles to consider my opinion t and mainly tried to convince me that it was only a mental problem, that I was listening myself too much.

How can I accept this version when I see that my pulse doesn't reduce even at rest, and that I fall asleep in the middle of the day?


I didn't do all those sacrifices and efforts during 5 months where I questioned myself a lot, to then not react to those words that are unfair to my eyes.

Of course, my mental took a hit, but what I want to say is that it is the consequence of that tiredness and not the opposite.

I obviously taking my share of responsibility, as I'm the rider. However towards those few lines I wanted to talk about the few facts that weren't mentioned in that article. It's a shame that the journalist didn't felt the need to ask for my opinion.

The good news is that before my foot injury I finally started to get some good feelings, and a recent blood test confirmed that I feel better.

I want to take this opportunity to thank all the people that are behind me, including my partners who showed some great understanding in those hard times, and of course my family.

See you soon on the races, with full gaz I promise...

Nico