It had all been going so swimmingly for MXGP star Romain Febvre. In 2015 the Frenchman blasted MXGP, and became the first rookie champion and the first for Yamaha since 2009. His attacking speed and confidence caught the division by surprise and the Belgium resident carried on the momentum during the first phase of 2016 as he filled the role as the only challenger to the equally lively Tim Gasjer. The ’16 Motocross of Nations was claimed again for the three-man tricolour squad with Romain again in the team.
2017 has been a mystery however. Monster Energy Yamaha’s flagship signing was misfiring and groping in the dark, fumbling for results, feeling and a search for a cure to the podium-less streak in arguably the toughest field seen in MXGP this century. #461’s predicament of slipping from MXGP leader to top ten-middler was a classic case of confidence-crisis and an athlete losing his way and trying a myriad of solutions to rediscover the mojo. Therefore there were few bigger smiles on the MXGP rostrum this year at the recent Grand Prix of Sweden where Febvre finally broke through the malaise and grabbed his first trophy in a year and first moto victory in fourteen months. The toil behind the scenes had been rewarded and spoils eagerly savoured.
Sitting down to interview the popular but often stern racer was a delicate matter. It is fairly obvious that he has faced a singular line of enquiry since the launch of the FIM World Championship in Qatar: what went wrong? Mindful of the fact that it is a riddle the racer has himself puzzled over together with his team as well as dealing with the interest and sympathy of fans; chatting with Romain is also like also being aware of an elephant sitting too comfortably in the corner of the Yamaha awning. Searching for a subject other than his struggles in 2017 and how he is trying to become the principal blue blur of MXGP again feels like skirting around the issue. Sweden proved that the end is in sight however so we wondered if he might be able to dissect the method of ‘the comeback’…