After moving across to Europe to compete in the MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship for the first time in 2020, American Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) has spent the winter in both his native USA and in Europe, where he lived throughout the season. Gerloff, who took three podiums in the latter stages of the 2020 season, explains how he has been training during the off-season while splitting his time in two continents.

Gerloff spent time near Barcelona as the season came to an end, returning to the Circuito de Jerez – Angel Nieto in November for a post-season test with his GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team, and also getting to know his new teammate for 2021 as Kohta Nozane joins the team. Following this test, the Gerloff returned to Texas so he could spend time with friends and family.

“I went back to the US in December,” Gerloff said. “I just enjoy being home, I missed my family, my friends, and so I just wanted to get back and see everybody. Christmas was coming up and yeah all of those were my biggest motivations to come home, rather than to stay in Europe over the winter. I did stay in Barcelona for quite a while after we finished with the season and testing. I trained a lot in Spain before I came, but I knew it wouldn’t have been the best thing for my mental fitness to stay there away from all my family.”

The 25-year-old has spent time with two trainers across the winter period depending on Gerloff’s location at the time. In Europe, he trains with Aleix Santacreu, who has worked with MotoGP™ star Maverick Viñales, while in America he works with the trainer he used while competing and winning in MotoAmerica.

Gerloff said: “Aleix Santacreu is a really great trainer and I was lucky enough to be a part of the group. I’m actually really excited to get back to Europe and working with him again before the new season starts.  I’ve had a really good trainer over here for the past five years now, he does the training for The Texans - the American football team – and he also works with a lot of bodybuilders and other athletes from different sports. I haven’t been able to see him as much as I used to, but I’m keeping on top of things over here.

“To be honest, I’ve never really been a big gym guy in the first place, so my training regime this winter hasn’t really been too much different to how it’s been in the past. A lot of things are almost ‘normal’ again where I am I guess, in terms of things being open, but of course I’m taking precautions.”

As preparations begin to ramp up for the 2021 season, Gerloff has been racing on two and four wheels at a local karting track as well as attending a supercross event in his home state of Texas, enabling him to watch the championship opener in America.

“I’ve been doing a bunch of things here to be honest, just trying to enjoy being over here for the most part,” Gerloff said. “Going to the Supercross races was really fun, I went with a few of my friends, staying in a place downtown, the racing was great. I’ve been doing a bit of Karting as well and riding my Yamaha R3 at the track, which has been fun. I also rode at my local motocross track with the Yamaha YZ250, so as you can probably tell, most of my life revolves around some kind of motorcycle. I’m always on two wheels, but outside of that it’s just been good to relax, not much else has been going on.”

Next up for Gerloff is a return to Europe to continue preparing for the upcoming season, where he will spend time in Andorra on various two-wheeled machines before heading to the Adriatic coast and Misano for a two-day test with Yamaha. Gerloff’s plans include riding his bike as well as some Flat track and Motocross events.

Gerloff said: “When I come over to Europe, I’ll probably be straight back to Andorra, which is where I live out there, but I’ll be training again pretty quickly. Before the season starts, I’ll try to get in as much as possible: riding my bicycle, the YZ450 and riding some Flat Track, Motocross, and doing pretty much everything I was doing before. Then, we’ll be in Misano for the first test of 2021, where we’ll hopefully be able to see how competitive we are ahead of the season.”

Follow all the action from WorldSBK in 2021 using the WorldSBK VideoPass!