Mark

I agree with a lot he says in this article. The bit about Greg Hancock pushing him wide, the bit about Woofy knocking him off, and he never moaned. Thursday 19th June 2014, 16:03 Triple world champion Nicki Pedersen called on his rivals to take responsibility for their own mistakes and said “I’ve never gone out to injure anyone in 25 years of racing.” The 37-year-old was incensed by criticism from world champs Greg Hancock, Chris Holder and Tai Woffinden that he lacked respect for his rivals and has been racing beyond the limit. Pedersen is upset with the reaction to his collision with Matej Zagar at the Swedish SGP in Malilla on Saturday and says he was merely racing hard for the World Championship point on offer for third place. The Odense-born star feels he has become an easy scapegoat for rivals when they make a riding error or leave a gap and then crash when he attempts to capitalise on it. Speaking ahead of the Danish SGP in Copenhagen's PARKEN stadium on June 28, Pedersen feels the criticism for his tough riding style is just opponents shining the spotlight on him, rather than considering their own mistakes. "We all make mistakes, but I have never taken anyone off on purpose. Yes, I race hard and yes, I crash with people sometimes. That’s because I race for the championship." - Nicki Pedersen He said: “We all make mistakes, but I have never taken anyone off on purpose. Yes, I race hard and yes, I crash with people sometimes. That’s because I race for the championship. “You won’t find any time when I haven’t raced for a point. You won’t find any occasion when I’ve raced into somebody to take him off. "The riders are saying I’m going out to hurt someone. I’ve never done this. I’ve never gone out to injure anyone in 25 years of racing. “When someone spits at me, as Matej did on Saturday, that’s more disgusting than anything else. And I certainly never punched anybody. “I know I can be a hard rider, but I know exactly what I am doing on the bike. There are lots of young guys who don’t know what they are doing on the bike. They don’t care; they don’t have the respect. It’s a different generation. I don’t have a problem with that, but stop being cry babies. “They might be 10 times more talented as riders than I’ll ever be, but I know where I’m putting my bike. “I don’t want to slag anyone off like my colleagues are. They don’t see their own mistakes. They blame somebody else. All of us have made mistakes and that’s why I don’t want to blame anybody in the press. The next day it could be me making a mistake. “They don’t see their own mistakes. I know when I’ve done something wrong. If I don’t know, I have good people around me who will tell me straight away. I don’t think some of my colleagues ever think they’ve done something wrong. That’s the biggest concern. They always blame somebody else. “People bring up my old reputation. I’m not doing any worse than riders like Darcy, Tai, Holder and all these youngsters.” Pedersen is far from happy with Woffinden’s comments in the media and on Twitter following Saturday’s meeting and feels the Brit has no room to criticise his hard-charging style. He said: “Tai broke my hand two times last year in Gothenburg and Cardiff and smashed Gollob down in Stockholm. No-one blamed Tai for any of this whatsoever. “I’ve said nothing to Tai and I have not taken Tai off the bike. So they should stop saying all this. He says I’ve taken him off two times this year. “I lifted in the corner at Wroclaw (in May) and went out half a metre. The track is quite wide and there is plenty of space. If Tai wanted to, he could have stayed on. But he was down on confidence at the time, so he jumped off the bike. When I lifted with my bike, is that something you do on purpose? No it isn’t. It’s rubbish. “Yes, I make mistakes – I do all the time. But I don’t want people to think I do it on purpose. I’ve had enough of everything Tai is saying. I’ve blocked him on Twitter – I don’t need to see anything from him anymore. These guys are just trying to make themselves look good. They claim they’ve never done anything wrong.” Pedersen says he had no intention of felling Zagar in Malilla, as he chased third place in semi-final two, which would have earned him an extra World Championship point. "I’m not going to change whatsoever on the track – it’s just going to make me even stronger. It’s going to make me even better." - Nicki Pedersen He said: “I went for the gap and it went wrong – I didn’t race straight into him. I passed him halfway through the turn, we got tangled and it went wrong – it’s as simple as this. “I went for the gap; Zagar was a little bit slow and kept opening the gap into the corner every single time. On the last turn, I went for the gap. I could either get one point or zero. “I didn’t nail him. When you get tangled at that speed, these things happen. I didn’t want to take him off. But of course, I wanted a point. “Some of the fans don’t understand the sport. If they think I race into someone just to race into somebody, and don’t realise I’m racing for the points at stake, then they are wrong.” Hancock felt Pedersen rode him excessively hard in heat eight of the Czech SGP, but the Dane denies this and felt the American was tough on him in the final. He said: “Greg shouted at me like a baby in Prague, but an hour or so later, he pushed me wide in the final. That was okay, though. Nobody said anything and he didn’t even say anything. I didn’t say anything either. It’s racing and I’m not a cry baby. “I went past Hancock and needed to avoid Darcy’s back wheel. I had to go right instead of left because he locked the bike up. It left Hancock in no man’s land. He wanted to cut back and his foot slipped. “He overcooked it and wanted to blame somebody else. It’s so easy to blame me, as I said to him. Even the mechanics were surprised. They didn’t know what he was on about.” Pedersen says the knocks he has received will only make him stronger as he bids to silence his critics in style with his first ever Grand Prix win on home shale at the Danish SGP in Copenhagen. He said: “I’m not going to change whatsoever on the track – it’s just going to make me even stronger. It’s going to make me even better. “I’ve just had enough of the other guys trying to make me out to be a bad person. I’m not. They claim they’re better than I am. They’re not. “If you look at Tai, Holder and Hancock, I’ve won more medals than they have ever won together. There must be a reason. They could do it if they focused on themselves and didn’t keep moaning about somebody or other. “I must have been doing something right over the years. So I’ll give it my all once again in PARKEN and I’ll do my talking on the track.”

If ever a mountain has been made of a molehill this is it.

Rubbish. Same divebombing move but Hansen stayed on his bike.

I'm not defending Pedersen for Saturday but on Eurosport's Swedish match today Peter Kildermand did exactly the same move in heat 8 as Pedersen to Zagar. He fenced himself but he could have took two opposition riders with him.

Zagar went to Nicki's pit space so it's reasonable to find Nicki's pit crew working on his bikes in that area.

Have just seen Nicki's ride against Emil. He didn't do him any favours but Emil could have shut off instead of going down. It wasn't dirty just a blocking move. Has anyone heard Pedersen moan about being stuffed by a fellow rider ?

SCott Nicholls is doing a good job. No reason he won't work with Sky as he worked for them before.

Absolutely right. People will pay to watch him. Must be horrible to work for, to ride with or against, but an entertainer

Probably because he is told to do so by his employers

Just seen the replay. Hard move, have seen worse,and nobody hurt. Nicki Pedersen is worth the entry fee by himeself. Good meeting but Nicki made.it better with hard riding. When he has retired we will miss him.

well done for getting the GP on live.

There will be no passing tonight.

very good.

Could they change the streaming regulations on the SGP website to allow live pictures ?

very good pictures but very poor racing

Poor forecast for Saturday. Could be heavy rain all day so hope that is wrong

thanks. To have the title possibly decided by a gate draw isn't right. I'd be in favour of countback, race wins, GP wins, something like that.

if the points total is level between 2 or more riders after the Torun GP how is the Championship decided ? GP wins, race wins ?

Unless we get some good racing the GP series will loose spectators. Agree that any one of 15 can win a race from the front but plenty of the tracks provide excitement and a few (Tampere, Prague) don't. Why not get rid if the poor tracks that, year on year, give us a boring meeting.

There is a 2hr time difference so 5.30 UK is 7.30 Danish time.

If you run a business that needs clients to buy tickets for an event, particually fans who are travelling a long way, it's mindnumbingly dumb to make the ticketing process far harder than it should be. Websites should have an English option, buyers should not have to transfer money via bank payment but instead use a debit card for an immediate transaction and you should be able to print each ticket rather than collect at the stadium. Its 2014 not 1814. If BSI could make those improvements for each GP in 2015 then it would be progress

is there a live stream to be made available ?. the other meeting in Slovenia is on a stream.

Yes, well done Phillip.

I agree. They are too expensive to tempt me buy.

He is taking every rule or lopohole to the limit. And doing it when having a poop. Thats the efficiency of the German's, they never get caught with your pants down..