Catching up with...Teddy Maier

Catching up with...Teddy Maier

Interview and photos by James Lissimore

Reigning MX2 champion, Teddy Maier, didn't have the start to his title defense that he hoped for last weekend at Kamloops. Grabbing a great start he battled for the lead on the opening lap only to get that sinking feeling that something was wrong with his bike. Sure enough, he had a flat tire and would score no points. This weekend in Edmonton, he made no mistake about getting back down to business. The Fort Dodge, Iowa native blasted out of the gate to take both holeshots and both moto wins. We caught up with the friendly Monster Energy Leading Edge Kawasaki rider to get his take....

Congrats on your win today! Tell me a bit about how your day went?

The day went good. It started good, practice went well. I was having fun on the track and I knew it was going to be rutty. I like the dirt here, it's a lot like home and I've got a corner track I practice on during the week so I'm good with the ruts – I ride it all the time.

I felt good, got the holeshot in the first moto and just stayed consistent, smooth and picked good lines and, kinda, worked away from those guys. It was a good race for sure and exactly what I needed to do. The second moto was the same thing pretty much. Tyler(Medaglia) was on my butt till pretty much the halfway point or so, I think, but I finally just settled in. I tried gapping him a little bit so I'd have a cushion in case I did something stupid. It was a good weekend, I couldn't ask for any better!

Teddy Maier swept both MX2 motos this past weekend at Edmonton.

You had a little bit of bad luck last week. Did you kind of expect that you'd have a bad moto here and there? It seems like it's always harder to defend a title than to earn it the first time.

Oh yeah. I knew those bad motos would come. I mean, I don't think anyone's going to be perfect, it'd be hard for sure. Especially if you get some mud races and stuff; I'm kinda hoping for a mud race now to make up some points. I like the mud so it'd be a good opportunity to make up a lot of points.

Tyler Medaglia's been pretty consistent so far. Did you expect him to be right in there with you for the title? Who did you think was going to be your main competition this year?

Yeah, I knew both of the Medaglia's were going to be good. I knew Beaton was going to be good, but he's out now and I saw Shawn(Rife) ride when we were breaking bikes in and he was going really good. Obviously at the first round he was a contender but today he was a little off the pace. He was strong in the first moto but he swapped out and dropped his leg in the second moto and hurt his ankle really bad so that's a bummer for him. All I can do is just keep plugging away and try and make up points.

You were twenty three points down coming into this weekend and you managed to chip six more off of that deficit. What do you do know to get back into the title hunt?

Stay ahead of Tyler!(laughs) Staying ahead of him is the biggest thing. I think Jeremy has got to be up there in points too so basically just keep the Medaglia brothers behind me is the biggest thing I need to do. There's a lot of motos left. Like I said, I just have to focus on that and stay smooth and consistent, and stay healthy – that's the biggest thing.

Maier has 17 points to make up if he wants to keep that number one plate.

We're heading to Calgary next weekend, what are your thoughts on that track?

I like it, I've always done well there. Last year was awesome. Second moto I had some bad luck - I went down going down one of those hills, me and Nye came together and I went down but first moto was good. Like I said, I've always done good there so it should be a good weekend.

Cool. Well good luck next weekend!

Thank you.