Frid’Eh Update #1 | Eve Brodeur | Presented by Gas Gas Canada
By Billy Rainford
Welcome to the first DMX Frid’EH Update of 2022 presented by Gas Gas Canada. This one is coming to you from Viney Ranch in Murrieta, California, where I’m down here for A1. It feels like everything is right in the world again!
This is a short trip that is jam-packed with stuff going on, so I don’t really have a whole lot of time to type. I’m off to Media Day shortly, so be sure to check our social media pages for information and photos from today.
We don’t have an official #1 in our usual Update Intro Interview stable of riders, so I was more than happy to be able to get in touch with the winningest rider in Canadian MX history for the #1 honours this season.
Eve Brodeur is the rider from Quebec who looks like she could continue racking up WMX titles until she simply loses interest. And that was something I thought was about to happen a few years ago as she made plans for her future and her post-secondary education goals. Well, she’s still here and she’s still winning!
She went undefeated in her bid for yet another Canadian championship in 2021 and has lots of new things going on in her program to keep her interest levels at a max. Here’s what she had to say when we got in touch with her this week:
Direct Motocross: Hello, Eve. Happy New Year and thank you for being our 2022 #1! Since we never get to do one of these Frid’EH Update interviews with you, we’d better take it back to the beginning. Can you tell us how you first got into MX in the first place without mentioning Sylvain? Haha Kidding, of course.
Eve Brodeur: Hey Billy, thank you so much for giving me this opportunity! Can’t believe we’re doing this for the first time after all these years! Haha
Well, it’s pretty hard – might I say impossible – to talk about any part of my racing career without mentioning my dad, considering he is a very big part of it. This man made sure I had a PW50 waiting for me in the garage before I was even born, it’s almost like he knew I would love it and would want to win championships racing dirt bikes, odd…
In all seriousness, I can’t remember a time when motocross wasn’t a part of my life. I grew up doing local races until I was about 9 or 10 years old, and then in 2011 we started racing in the US a bit more and even went to The Ranch (Loretta Lynn MX) that year. After that, we basically split our racing time between Canada and the US, doing many WMX championships in the states and even getting a #3 one year.
We made the decision to focus more on Canadian races after the 2018 season when things started slowing down for women in the US! We went on the west coast in 2019 to fill up our racing season before COVID hit and we can’t wait to go back.
Who were the ladies you came ups through the ranks racing against?
Too many. Haha. I started racing nationals back when Heidi Cooke and Jocelyn Facciotti were still the top girls out there, but I wasn’t even close to them at that point. Through the ranks, I’d say my biggest rival throughout my career has been Kennedy Lutz! Although she retired a few years ago, we were always pretty much the same speed and battled it out every time we went out on the track. Some tracks I was faster, and some tracks it was her (as shown by her title win and my #2 in 2017… Not even bitter about it 😉), and that rivalry goes all the way back to small bikes when we were only 10-11 y/o racing at LLMX.
In the past few years, I’ve had some nice battles with Jacqueline Ross, Megan Brodeur, Isabelle Thibault (who can forget, really?) and now Sarah-Kim Villeneuve and many more! I’ve also had the chance to battle it out with Kylie Fasnacht, Marissa Markelon, Jordan Jarvis and many more in the states. So, let’s say I’ve always been surrounded with quite badass ladies!
What other classes did you race? Have you always raced against both guys and gals?
For the first few years of my racing career, there weren’t any girls/women classes I could race in, so I started out by racing with the guys. Once I could finally race with the gals, there was just one class available and that was just not enough, so I kept racing with the guys. We realized quickly that racing both classes was a winning formula, which is why this is something I still do (most times) to this day! 110% recommend.
With the guys, I did all the basic small bikes classes (from 50cc to Supermini), followed by schoolboy classes. After that, I raced a bit in the C class, but realized quickly that it was a bit too hectic (and crazy…) for me, so I moved on to the B class, which I raced for many years – until last year.
I never planned on racing the A/Pro class, I was very content with being a B rider forever, but I guess my racing career took another turn with that 72 and I was moved up a class! Can’t complain, but it’s been quite the ride this season. Haha… we’ll talk about it later!
I would always see you and your family at big US Amateur Nationals over the years. Do you have a memory that stands out most from back in those days?
One memory? That’s basically impossible. Haha. However, I’d say the highlight of my career in the states was definitely the 2017 season when they joined the WMX series with some rounds of the Pro Motocross Championship. We got to sign autographs with the Pros (I was once seated next to Eli Tomac for an entire evening… needless to say I wasn’t too focused on the task at hand and I was skipped over quite a few times!), race on pro days with all the fans and so much more. It was absolutely crazy; we were treated like queens and it’s definitely something you’d call a once in a lifetime opportunity since we’re quite far from that reality now!
Have you acquired the love of beer like your dad? Your pit was always (and still is) a stop for me on race days.
Beer? Ew. That’s all I have to say on this one. But, the Sylvain and Marco will still always be happy to take a beer with you on race days.
You just completed a perfect season, having not lost a single WMX moto. I can’t believe I’m going to ask this, but how many times have you done this? Do you head into the seasons hoping to accomplish that?
I raced my first national season at 12 years old in 2012, so this past season was actually my 10th one! As far as championships go, I have 6 National Championships as well as 5 Walton Championships, which I still can’t believe to this day.
Honestly, winning races has never been the first goal, and at this point in my career, I don’t think it will ever be. Sylvain and I have always agreed that my only goal when going on the track is: go out there and give your 110%. If it ends up with me winning, all the better, but if it’s a 5th, then so be it. 110%, that’s all that matters.
To this day, that’s the mentality I still put forward every time the gate drops, and I think that’s why I end up winning, because I don’t focus on winning. Quite confusing and doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, right?
Sarah-Kim Villeneuve was the only rider able to keep you in sight this season. Are you guys friends off the track? Did she motivate you to keep pushing last season?
Sarah-Kim and I have always been friends off the track, and we get along really well! There’s more of a rivalry now than there has been in the past I’d say, but it’s just healthy stuff and we don’t let it affect our friendship. She was definitely my biggest push in the butt this past season. She was always there if I made a mistake or if I slacked off a bit, so it was 100% a motivation to be on my A game, and I don’t expect any less from her for 2022.
You also dip your feet in the 250 Pro Am class. Can you tell us how racing that compares? Is that something you’ll continue to do?
It honestly doesn’t compare at all. The boys just do not care and will do whatever they need to gain positions, which always makes for eventful races and is something you don’t see in the women’s class. Also, getting lapped… how freakin’ scary is that?? I definitely didn’t know until that first 250 Pro Am class and it took quite a bit of time to get used to it! The longer motos and rougher tracks took some getting used to as well. And, somehow, I always manage to be almost 5 to 10 seconds a lap faster with the guys, even when I try to go as fast as possible with the gals, how is that even possible? Quite the mystery.
For the next season, I plan to go with the same formula we used this season: race the Pro class only when it’s not on the same day as the WMX class or, when I reallyyyyy feel like it. The reasoning behind it is very simple, I just do so much better (as far as results go) in the Pro class when I can solely focus on that class during the day and not have to worry about saving some energy for the WMX class, and I don’t like to do things halfway so…!
What have you been doing since the season ended?
After the nationals ended, I did a few local races, but ended up taking a much-needed break while we figured out the details of the brand switch and joining the new team. I also started school mid-August and have been knee deep in that since then. The MyPITBOARD team and I have also been hard at work getting ready to start the 2022 in full speed!
How is school going?
School has been quite hard to be honest! I’m in my 2nd year of university studying Occupational Therapy and it’s a pretty big workload, which makes it hard to train and have a social life, but I love what I’m doing and can’t wait to keep learning more about it. I’m one year away from finishing my bachelor’s degree, and then I have another 1 ½ year to do to acquire my master’s degree! So, I’m not quite done yet, but I’m staying positive about it. Haha. Also, all of my university experience has been during a pandemic and I’ve gone to school maybe like 20-25 times in the past year and a half… so yeah, a little less entertaining.
What are your winter plans?
I plan to have a pretty chill winter. We weren’t able to go to Florida over Christmas since I only had a small break from school, so my only goal is to start riding and getting ready for the season as fast as possible – weather permitting. I’ve started getting back into more serious training in the meantime and we will be riding sleds to stay occupied until I can get back on the bike!
We have to talk about your joining the Cobequid Mountain Callus Gas Gas team! That’s a pretty big change. Can you take us through how this all came about and how it’s been going?
This honestly came out of nowhere. Haha. Around mid season, during a meeting, my boss Kibby Pollak mentioned to me that the boss of CMS team was interested in offering me a deal and wanted to know if I was interested and he should put us in contact. At that point, it seemed impossible to me and I almost said there was no way it would work, but after chatting with Sylvain, we decided to give it a go and chat with Alex (Parker) to see what he had to say.
Following that chat, there was a lot of back and forth between all of us for a few weeks (while trying to be subtle when doing it at the races) until everything was finalized.
The next step was to go to Nova Scotia to shoot for the announcement and then impatiently wait until all my old contracts were over so we could announce the new team. Sylvain, Alex, Marco and I along with all our new partners are so excited to show everyone what we can do together. It’s very weird for me to be changing things that have been a constant in my racing career at this point (from seeing orange to red while riding after almost 20 years… it’s weird), but I’m super excited and motivated. Stay tuned to hear more about it as the season gets closer!
What’s the racing plan for 2022?
If COVID can finally calm down and we can go to the west coast, you best believe we’ll be there! Following that we’ll definitely be hitting the east coast along with Walton TransCan and then I think that’s enough. Haha. We’re open to any opportunity that comes our way so we’ll see as we go!
What’s your motivation? I’m told winning feels great, so is that what keeps you going? Are you looking to rack up enough titles to stay at the top of the record books forever?
I just love it. At this point, that’s my main motivation and I think that’s all that matters. Sure, I don’t mind racking up titles and maybe setting a pretty nice record in the books, but I think that’s just a nice side bonus. Haha. I love helping grow the sport, being a role model to the younger girls and having fun, which all comes with racing and winning, so I think that’s plenty enough!
What’s your favourite track on our circuit? And how about your favourite anywhere?
I honestly don’t have one single favourite track on the circuit. I believe they all have their own attributes that make them special and stand out from all the others, which means they all have something I love. For example, Gopher (Dunes) is hell because of the deep sand and how rough it gets, but it really brings out the rider and machine in every rider, and shows everyone’s true colours, which I love. Same principle goes for Deschambault that is just spectacular, as well as Walton with the hard pack soil and all the other tracks.
As far as my favourite track ever… I’d have to say High Point Raceway. I’ve always loved the vibe of that track, I’ve always had a blast when I went there and I have some awesome memories of it.
How many more years will you keep racing? What is it that would make you consider stopping?
Well, I’ve always said that I have no reason to stop racing as long as I’m in school, since I have summers off anyway. So that means another 3 years for sure. Following that, well I guess it depends on when I decided to start popping out babies. Haha.
Seriously, I’m excited to get a big girl job once I finish school and Marco and I are super excited to start growing our family eventually, which are both things that make it hard – well, almost impossible – to race professionally at the same time, so I think the timeline of all of that is what will determine when I’ll stop. But like I said, not for at least another 3 years, so no need to start crying now.
OK, I’m heading into overtime here, so I’ll let you go. Congratulations on another dominant season and good luck this year. Who would you like to thank?
This took me longer than all of my homework… But my class was boring anyway this morning, so I forgive you. I want to start off by thanking all of the sponsors that have supported me the last years and that will not be with us going forward, such as KTM Canada, FXR racing, Mathias Sport, amongst others. The support I got from these guys over the years was absolutely amazing and we are eternally grateful for it.
Now, I also need to thank our new and continuing sponsors: Cobequid Mountain Sports, GasGas Canada, Callus Moto, MyPITBOARD, Oakley, Team CTi, Dunlop Tires, 139 designs, Dirt Care, MD distributions, Forma boots, 6D helmets, Seco Seat Cover, Automobile Bruno Giguère, Dynamitage Forage MB, Prospec Suspension, DID Chain, FMF, Twin Air, DP Brakes, Rekluse Canada, Dirt Care and Leatt. Finally, I have to take the time to thank my parents and my boyfriend, Marco, for everything they do for me. Thanks to you as well, Billy, for this opportunity! Talk soon.
Now that’s how you answer an interview! Thank you for taking the time with us this week, Eve. All the best in your studies and at the races this week.
OK, I have to make the drove into LA right now so I have to get going. Watch for lots of coverage from Media Day at Angel’s Stadium throughout the rest of the day.
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