Field of dreams!
By TMX Archives on 16th Jun 05
"I can break and take it with a smile.I am so resilient. "I can break and take it with a smile.I am so resilient. I recover quickly.I'll convince you soon that I am fine."The above three lines from Dashboard Confessional's 'Bend and Not Break' sort of ring true for Molson Kawasaki's Tom Church - all except the bit about recovering quickly at least - as the 23-year-old Wiltshireman is without doubt British MX's perennial comeback kid.In fact, the MX-related injuries of Tom Church could quite possibly - although it's highly unlikely - become a future specialist subject on BBC's Mastermind. Now in his seventh year as a pro motocrosser, TC has spent an astounding 50 per cent of his chosen career recuperating from injuries - most of which are shoulder related.But between those bouts of bandages there's no denying that TC is quick - no matter how long he's been off the bike - and he's not shy when it comes to admitting it either. "I come back and I'm fast," reckons Tom. "Some riders struggle to come back from a long time off the bike and run the pace but I'm always right there."Keeping up to pace so well is quite a feat considering how quickly the sport and its techniques are constantly evolving but TC is a man with a plan... "Every time I get injured it's for a long time - three or six months or so - and in that time other people get better and they move on. So what I try to do is think about how good I was riding when I stopped and instead of just coming back at the same level I think about where was I bad before, where I was not so good, where I can be better and I try and work on that for when I return."That's why I think when I come back I can challenge the guys who are supposed to be the best - like coming back this year and being on the pace straight away and running second in the British championship. There's a lot of work goes into it - it doesn't just happen."But before we delve too deeply down the path of how Tom stays motivated and what keeps him coming back at full speed, let's take a wee step back in time with a brief history of the injuries and medical problems of TC. 1999 - duff knee with snapped ligaments 2000 - serious stomach cramps 2001 - exhaustion due to over-training 2002 - broken collarbone 2003 - same collarbone re-brokenAnd then there was 2004... "I'd had so many injuries that I really just wanted to finish the season. Everything was going all right - I was second in the British championship and around 15th or 18th or so in the world. I was reasonably happy with where I was and not going for anything spectacular, just trying to race every weekend and to try and finish the season because I haven't - to this day - finished a season without getting injured."At Neeroteren the sump plug got hit out of the bike or something happened with the sump plug and all the oil came out. The engine seized up on a double and that was it - out again. It was difficult to deal with because - yet again - it was the end of another season."While doctors reconstructed his shoulder at the beginning of July, Tom didn't get back on a bike for a long time giving him plenty of opportunity to recover and reflect. "I had time to sit and think about my racing - what I want from it and it gave me an opportunity to re-evaluate things and sort of know that if I was going to do this I've got to give it 100 per cent. Then I worked out a plan of how I was going to come back stronger."I didn't ride until mid-January - I left it a little bit longer than I had to but I wanted to make sure I was right and there was no rush to come back. I just wanted to get ready for the season and carried on doing strength work to get as strong as possible so that I wouldn't have a problem again."And so far the shoulder's been holding out pretty much okay although a crash at the first GP of the year almost ended in disaster. "I was running eighth at Zolder and coming forwards - I felt I could've come sixth there - then I just hit a soft spot on the face of a jump and nose-dived into the second one."I hurt my wrist - I thought it was broken - and I can't even describe how low I felt for the next 12 hours until I found out it was just sprained. All I could think about was if this is broken after everything I've just put into this season after the shoulder... Well, I never really planned or thought about what would happen if I got hurt straight away again."It was also pretty gutting because I felt I was riding good and felt I could have got good points in that race and the second race but I ended up with two DNFs instead."Round two at Spain didn't go much better with a 15th place finish in moto one darkened by yet another DNF. "Nothing seemed to go right there. I crashed on the first lap but then in Portugal everything just seemed to come right."A second moto sixth at Agueda was soon backed up with an 8-9 scorecard two GPs later at Teutschenthal. In between the two came Namur and things were looking pretty good there too until a late race error. "I crashed out of sixth on the last lap but that's just one of those things and I'm not gonna get too stressed out about it."And that's because stress, unlike injury, is something Tom seems to steer clear of which is quite surprising considering the amount of flack he gets for being employed by (what used to be at least) his dad's team. "I could say I don't give a **** about what other people think but then I'll just sound like MacKenzie - which I'm not. I could also say I'm not into wearing French knickers - which I'm not - which he did. I personally would not wear them (French knickers] because they would chaff too much - or so I would imagine."In my mind I'd hope that people would think I've earned everything I ever got - worked for it and achieved it and maybe they'd have a bit of respect for that. I realise that everyone has to work for it but people need to know I had to work for it as well - I would hope that that's how people perceive me."The main thing is I just wanna prove to myself that I'm my own person and I can get by on my own and I want to achieve things in my life and not just get by on the fact that my family have done well. Personally, I can't imagine being like that - I like to be my own person and do my own thing."tom on...Being based in Belgium"I like Belgium in the sense of the motocross thing where you can go and ride for seven Euros on a mega track but aside from that it's ***t. It's just not home - there's nothing like coming home, all your friends are here and there's stuff to do all the time. Being out there all the time is good for racing but that's about it.Working for big sis"It's good working for Lisa. I know she's now officially team-manager but she's pretty much run things for the last two years because she's always done everything. Things haven't changed that much - for her it has because she's been pushed forward into that role but how we work together hasn't really changed."I think she's doing a really good job this year and got everything really well organised and everything's working good and it's all cool."Hanging with Josh and BT"Just being around those guys you pick up the little things they're doing. Riding with them helps because they're faster - if you ride with slower guys than yourself or on your own you sometimes just think there's no better way of getting around a track but if you ride with them you'll see them going much faster than you can go through a part. It's good fun living with them as well - they're gifted but they also work pretty hard."Moving to MX1"I haven't really thought about that properly just yet. If things hadn't gone the way they have and I hadn't been consistently injured I might already be in MX1 but right now I don't really see the point in me changing."I do ride a bigger bike quite well and Kawasaki have got the four-stroke out next year as well but I'll just wait and see how things progress."Alternative lifestyle"If I wasn't racing I dunno what I'd be doing - it's really hard to say. I did quite well at school and if I hadn't been racing I think I'd have gone back to my education - sixth form, university and all those sort of things. I didn't enjoy it that much and I used to do some work for my dad - 12-hour days which I wasn't into at all and that made me realise I didn't want to be doing that for the rest of my life and racing was a whole lot better."Down time"I go out and socialise. I also like a bit of surfing even though it made me really sick the last time I done it - I swallowed a load of manky sea water."I used to do loads of different stuff but getting injured kinda ****ed all over that - all I do really is race and go out on Monday nights. I used to ride minibikes until I got hurt on one."For full interview don't miss the July issue of dbr - on sale now!Words and photos by Sutty