No wonder: Carlton ruckman Matthew Kreuzer stands 200cm tall and weighs in at a tad over 100kg. At just 168cm and 59kg, Marquez is typical of today’s jockey-sized motorcycle road racers.
What do they have in common? Although half a world apart most of the time, both are elite sportsmen; and both are passionate about motorcycle racing. They came together at Phillip Island ahead of Sunday’s Tissot Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix – and ‘Kreuze’ gave the young pretender a grilling that was good practice for the weekend ahead.
Kreuzer knows as much about two-wheeled sport as most so-called experts and the chance to meet the man about to take the sport’s greatest crown – in his rookie year as a premier-class rider – was one he couldn’t turn down.
The two exchanged team shirts (no sizes disclosed) and chatted about their respective sports, with the Australian asking most of the questions: what settings would Marquez change on his bike from last weekend’s? Malaysian conditions to those at Phillip Island? What was it like riding in the wind? The friendly interrogation went on.
It was on April 5 2008 that Kreuzer made his AFL debut for Carlton. He was 38 days shy of his 19th birthday. Just eight days later Marquez made his World Championship debut in the 125cc class of motorcycle racing in the Portuguese Grand Prix. He was 56 days beyond his 15th birthday.
Their passion for motorcycle racing aside, the two young men have something else in common: the ability to cope with injury. Kreuzer missed an entire season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in 2010; as he met Marquez he was wearing a ‘moon-boot’ to protect the right foot in which he broke a bone at the end of the AFL season and he still has the scar from an operation on a broken thumb.
Marquez painfully dislocated his shoulder earlier this season in practice for the British Grand Prix but did not allow the injury to deflect him from pursuit of the world title in this, his rookie season in the premier class. The two compared and contrasted their fitness regimes.
“My priority now is to get the body right for a big year in 2014,” Kreuzer said.
“Our training is largely a combination of stamina work and muscle-building – in the position I play I need a bit of weight behind me, but I’ve also got to be able to run.”
For Marquez, weight is the enemy. “I train a lot,” he explained, “but when I go to the gym I work without weights, just working the body. Otherwise I do a lot of mountain-biking and cycling on the road, I run at least once a week, and I like to add in some motocross.”
Kreuzer, a regular spectator at MotoGP since he was 10, was impressed with the 20-year-old Spaniard’s demeanour. “A bloke of his age, on the brink of the world title – you’d think there’d be a bit more spring in his step but he’s amazing, he’s so down-to-earth. It took him no time to get going in the class, and from a spectator’s point of view I think he’s also great to watch, the things he does on the bike.”?
These two young lions of sport can now add another autographed jumper to their own personal trophy collections.
