That is a tough legacy to follow, teenage prodigies happen but they are not a given, with young riders it is all about finding the balance for them, a balance between work, training, school and above all parents. 2011 was a dark year for the team; with Valentin Teillet they had an undoubted talent and a rider with great self belief but also a series of troublesome injuries. Crashes weakened the Frenchman’s frame to the point where lining up on he gate itself was a result. In 2012 two new riders joined the fray, the young Bulgarian Petar Petrov and the new Finn on the block Harri Kullas. Neither rider will go down in the record books as mastering the Yellow peril. One year
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later and hope began to spring again as both Max Anstie and Julian Lieber began to put the bikes inside the top 8, and for the British rider inside the top 3 in a few motos. For Anstie the experience went south, confidence, speed and tenacity left his side of the team and like many before him he went to pastures new for 2014. However, for Julian Lieber a second year beckoned, alongside new but sadly now injured recruit Glenn Coldenhoff, the first rider to get a double stint on the Suzuki since Roczen, and despite the injury that robbed him of the second half of 2013 the Belgian was ever hopeful of a return to form, a hope that turned quickly to expectation. “It’s tougher this year be-
cause I trained a lot in the winter so I thought I was ready for the beginning but then I did not so good result, after mentally I was not so good and it was difficult to do good results and stay on the bike so yeah, I put a lot of pressure one me!” Team manager Thomas Ramsbacher has more to say on the subject: “Julian is a fantastic rider, he can do things in practice that you can’t believe, when he goes practicing with other riders, also with Jeffrey sometimes, then you see how he is on the bike and how easily he can do it, an that was the point how he joined the team, how he jumped in and also the beginning of last year up to his injury. He had a really difficult