Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Christophe Pourcel is on top of the world right now. Despite some crashes and injuries during the week that have kept him from riding at 100 percent, Pourcel has still managed to win all three rounds of the Lites East. And chances are he’s only going to get faster as the year progresses. We caught up with him after the main event in Daytona.

Monster: Coming into a track like Daytona, do you think differently about it than you would an Indy or Atlanta supercross?
Christophe Pourcel: Not really, it’s just another race. The only thing you worry about is the weather, because rain here sucks, but that’s it. It’s just a race otherwise.

You said in the press conference that you really like the outdoors more than supercross...
I like it better!

Why?
Because it’s outside, and really, that’s what we do. Supercross is about the fans and jumps and stuff, but the nationals are about real motocross, so you can ride the way we grew up learning how to ride.

Your known for your creative line choices, so does motocross allow you to be more creative?
Yeah, you can do whatever you want. If you want to pass someone, and you’re faster than them, you can pass them. If you work on the bike and get it set up right, you can do anything you want in the nationals, and hopefully that means you’re going to be in the front. That’s where you want to be. When you think about dirt bikes, you think motocross, not supercross, and that’s what I think, too.

I heard something about you being hurt after Indianapolis...
Yeah, I had a big crash and landed on my head. I was knocked out, and then I couldn’t ride the rest of that week [going into Atlanta], and I couldn’t ride this week, either.

But you raced last weekend anyway...
Yeah, well, I had to, but as you can see, the main event wasn’t too good.

Well, you won...
Not like I usually do. I was second, and I got stuck behind them, and maybe I would win the race, and maybe I wouldn’t...

It was obvious in seeing the race on TV from Atlanta that you could’ve gotten the holeshot, but you let off because your teammate Dean Wilson was on the outside of you, and then he got the holeshot...
I know, but I was trying to help Dean. I told him, “If you want to be on the podium, just let me go, and get behind me, and breathe, because otherwise you’re going to be tired after 10 laps, and you’ve got five more. And my last five laps will be like a second faster.” But he was too excited, and I let him go, and he was thinking, “I’m going to win!” but now he knows. Now he knows he can talk to me, and he said, “Hey, next time, I’ll try to follow you.” When you want to win the race right away, you can blow up. The guys behind you, they ride good, so you have to be ready.

You did that same thing with Jake Weimer last year at Colorado, where you told him to follow you, and he did that in the first moto and got second, and then in the second moto, you fell, and he won, and he ended up with his first-ever AMA National overall victory. That was one race after he didn’t score any points at High Point.
I think it’s why he won so many races! (Laughs) He had my speed when he followed me, and then he kept it, and he kept going. When you don’t have the speed, you can’t do anything.

That’s pretty unique for somebody in your position to help your teammate like that...
If they’re nice... I mean, I’m going to be out there and try to win the race, and if they can be second, that’s even better for me and for the championship. With Weimer, if he finishes behind me, and in front of Ryan Dungey, that’s good. If I can win the race and my guys are on the podium, too, that’s the best deal.

But what if they beat you? Then what?
I don’t want them to!

Do you stop talking to them if they start beating you?
No, no, it’s good, because I’ll just follow them. If I can learn from someone, then why not? I’ll ride with anybody if they can teach me. If I’m too slow, I need to learn why they’re faster.

I know you haven’t been riding much lately, but do you still ride 450s during the week?
I was riding one before I got hurt (before Anaheim 1). I like riding it, but I haven’t ridden much since I got hurt.

How long until you can start riding regularly during the week again?
I think probably two weeks, because I have knee pain, too. I crashed really hard.

What did you do?
I was skimming the whoops, and then the bike went crazy, and I flew like 20 feet out of the whoops. I’ve hit that whoop section a thousand times, and when you crash at that kind of speed, you just fly. That’s what I did. Right now, the race just ended, and I’ve got neck pain, knee pain, head pain... I’m better than last weekend, though. Last weekend, when I did the track walk, I couldn’t even see. My vision wasn’t good. The doctor told me that my vision wasn’t good enough to ride that weekend, but I was like, “Hey, I’ve got to ride!”

The crash you had, does that mess with your confidence to know you did it thousands of times, and then it all went wrong that one time?
That’s how it was with my clavicle, too [which he broke before Anaheim 1]. It’s usually like that. You never know what’s going to happen. I almost crashed today, too...

Yeah, I saw that, over that big quad jump in the first practice, you nearly endoed bad...
I almost went over the bars like Grant [Langston]. It was pretty scary. But you never know what’s going to happen. Sometimes, you don’t want to ride during the week just because you don’t want to crash, and then you end up not able to ride anyway, because you’re in pain. Instead, sometimes I’d rather go running or whatever. But when you crash, and you’re in pain, you can’t even do that...

How’s your stomach? You had that issue all last year, so is your stomach better now?
It’s much better, but it’s not good yet. It’s better because I can manage it, so I know what to eat, what to do, and usually, it’s pretty good. But during the week, sometimes I’ll eat something, and then I get this stomach pain, and then I’m stuck for an hour or two until the pain goes away. I take a lot of pills to fix it, and then go to the restroom and do what I’ve got to do, because it’s not working really good. It just sucks because you’re like, “I’ve got to take these pills every day.” It just sucks. And then if you’re sick or something, then you have to take other pills, too, and you end up taking like 10 pills for breakfast, lunch and dinner! It’s crazy. But it’s a lot better now than it was.