RT: Which rider has asked you for the most changes and who has asked you for the least changes? Can you tell us an anecdote?
The walls of Paxau's workshop document the decades he has been involved in development and competition.
P: The one with the least odd habits and asked me for the least amount of changes was Cabastany, he is the most refined rider that passed through here and I have seen many come through here.
P: The one with the least odd habits and asked me for the least amount of changes was Cabastany, he is the most refined rider that passed through here and I have seen many come through here.
With Tarrés a bit of both: The first three years were also fantastic we had a very good understanding and he didn’t ask for changes other than what I did. He believed in me blindly but I had to show him that I knew what I was doing. I am going to tell a story that has been written and re-written. The first year that he was at GG we went to Luxemburg and we didn’t win. He blamed the bike, the gears jumped, etc. The second event was in Belgium, the team went there but I stayed behind. In the evening the mechanic phoned me and told me that Jordi was changing everything and the bike was not going well. He changed the handlebars the suspension the footrests etc. I told him to be calm, to let him do whatever he wanted to do and that I would catch a flight and I would meet them. When I arrived, we changed the motorbike back exactly as it had left my workshop. But between Sava Garcia and I ,we calmed him down and we motivated him. The following day, he won.
Paxau is always a regular team member at World Trial competitions.
When we told him that the motorcycle was exactly as he had started with, he could not believe it. We demonstrated to him that it was not the bike. The fourth year when he started going downhill, he started questioning everything and he wanted to change everything. In the end he wanted to compensate with the bike what he was not able to do.
He was a super competitive rider, the most competitive one and that’s why when he started to decline and the others overtook him he did not know how to cope with it.
I am a very tranquil person, I don’t like to become agitated or shouting or being upset, its not my style. Therefore, I did not enjoy this situation.
The fifth year I didn’t want to work with him and we split up.
The fifth year I didn’t want to work with him and we split up.