Cerro Abajo Valparaiso 2025: Interview with Johannes Fischbach: "What kind of freak is that!"
Dimitri Lehner
· 10.03.2025
Interview with Johannes "Fischi" Fischbach
BIKE: Have you already received your prize money?
Fischi: What prize money? There's nothing for sixth place. Nobody is interested in sixth place. (Laughs!)
Yes, we are interested in a sixth place. We were impressed by your run. Are you not happy with your run at the Red Bull Cerro Abajo Valparaíso?
I'm already happy for how I felt. My problem was that I switched from GasGas to Raymon as my bike sponsor. I only got the new Rokua 170 enduro bike from Raymon two weeks before I left. I wanted to test and train on the bike for a fortnight, but that's exactly when I fell ill and was actually laid up for 10 days. Really flat in bed. That's why I only managed two rides before I flew out.
A nightmare - before one of the most dangerous downhill races in the world.
Yes, there's no comparison with last year. I was perfectly prepared and flew to the race in great shape. Unfortunately, I had a bad crash right at the start of the final race last year. I then caught pneumonia on the flight back and was unable to fly to the next race in Mexico.
This time you finished your run and others fell - including many of the favourites, first and foremost the Colombians.
The boys gave it their all. When you see it in real life, you'll be blown away. The track is much more blatant than it comes across on TV. And when you see what the Colombians do live, you go crazy. Because the consequences of the slightest mistake are murderous. On his first training run, Juanfer Velez "doubled" down the stairs between the telegraph pole and the wall of the house. Completely sick. Normally I always do things like that when I see someone jumping. But not there. It was too dangerous for me, because you're travelling at 45 km/h. One little stumble and you crash into the pole, thunder into the wall of the house or wrap yourself around the railing. Too high a risk - especially as the jump in the race only gave you a 0.3 second advantage.
Was that also due to your lack of training time?
That's for sure. You have to feel safe and be full of self-confidence to perform such stunts. You have to know your bike and know how it behaves in every situation. I lacked that. On top of that, the new track was extremely steep and extremely hard. Two riders broke their bikes. My Rayman Rokua is a very light enduro bike. I first had to build up my confidence. I've now managed to do that with this race. I can now go full throttle in Mexico.
Winner Tomas Slavik said after the race: "There's Juanifer Velez and the rest of us". Is Velez really that superior?
I say: there's Juanifer Velez and Sebastian Holguin and the rest of us. Sebastian is the other Colombian, almost as good as Velez. When I see the two of them in training, I simply can't believe what they do. The two of them have so much confidence and skill that they can do almost anything. However, you have to realise that they spend half of their training time a year on stairs. Super specialists! I have the greatest respect for Juanifer Velez. Juanifer is one of the greatest talents on two wheels that I have ever seen. I believe that he will also ride to the front in the World Cup. He'll be a top 10 rider if he curbs his South American temperament a bit.
Is he also trying to look stylish during his run or is that fast driving?
This is the new level of driving. From a new generation of riders. Similar to the new-school motocrossers who are also constantly flying sideways. They're so comfortable in the air that they can put their bikes back and forth just as they need to.
You won the entire Red Bull Cerro Abajo series. That was in 2016. Are the races still comparable - what has changed?
The fact that the South Americans have fully specialised in precisely this race format. The level has risen incredibly as a result.
Do you still have a chance?
A podium is definitely possible if I have a good run. I can be in contention for victory if a few of the favourites slip up. This time I really wasn't at the highest level. I was ill, didn't know the bike and yet I was only 2.8 seconds away from victory.
Yoann Barelli was also at the start. Yoann became famous with his "Tour de Gnar", an event where the aim is to master the trickiest possible steep descents. The Cerro Abajo races should suit him, right?
Yoann used to be a top enduro athlete. He has also competed in a few city races. But the level has risen so much that guys like Barelli usually don't even make it to the qualifiers. Look, Bernard Kerr didn't make the qualifying either.
How is that? He made it to the final.
He was only allowed to ride the final because he was "protected". The first overall in the Cerro Abajo is protected, the best in the UCI World Cup ranking - that's Bernard - last year's winner of the Cerro Abajo Valpariso is also protected. Four riders in total. I can't think of the fourth.
Are there more mishaps and crashes at the Cerro Abajo than at the World Cup DH?
It's difficult to judge. But the mentality of the South Americans is different. They go all out. Velez could have won in half a cruise mode, but he doesn't know that and that's why he gives everything and that's too much for the South Americans. And the lads are also very young. I used to feel the same way. They have to learn that first.
Do the long pedalling sections suit you and Tomas Slavik as sprinting ex-fourcrossers?
The sections suit Slavik very well. Not for me any more. I'm now losing time in the passages. I now have to compensate by riding nicely because I can no longer train as intensively due to my damaged knees. But I used to be the strongest sprinter alongside Tomas Slavik. Not any more - unfortunately!
You announced after the race that you will now train for Mexico. How?
Sprint, where you give it your all for two minutes. And that over and over again. I want to be fully focussed on racing.
How can I imagine this in concrete terms - sprinting out of the front door and down the street?
Not on my doorstep, but in the forest. I have a tarmac road there where I'm somewhat alone. Otherwise the neighbours think: "What kind of freak is that!" (Laughs) It's hard to explain to the farmers in the neighbourhood why you're doing something like that. Otherwise they think you're totally crazy!
Did you use your special hard tyres in Chile?
By now, everyone has realised that a hard rubber compound rolls so much better. You have to weigh up how much you gain by rolling and how much you lose in the corners with the hard compound. Slavik, the freak, ran hard tyres front and rear. And he used very thin tyres. In practice, he was at the absolute limit. But he concentrated on the rolling sections and approached the corners rather cautiously. If you look at the replay, you can see that. Slavik seems to be standing still in corners compared to Velez. I tried something in between: hard at the back, soft at the front.
Slavik also said that he put 140 psi and 4 tokens in his Zeb fork and 330 psi in the shock. Nothing bounces anymore. And you?
I had 125 psi at the front and 285 psi at the rear. That's incredibly hard for my body weight. You think you're riding a hardtail, but you have to ride so hard. That's why the bumps hurt so much. After the stairs I was completely exhausted because I had to hold on with all my strength. After the first training session - and we only went down the stairs three times - I had sore muscles in my calves because I had to hold back blows that my body wasn't used to. I haven't ridden stairs since Genoa last October. Slavik, on the other hand, is travelling to Prague and training on stairs.
And then qualifying and the final were on the same day.
City downhills are always one-day events. This is because the cities cannot be cordoned off for longer.
You could be heard breathing heavily during your POV runs. How high does your pulse rate go on the descent?
I haven't measured that, but I suspect maxed out. I already have a pulse of 185.
In training, the rear end slipped off on the Wallrider, but the stairs also looked scary - which feature in the run scared you the most?
The upper section. After you have jumped out of the house, you come to an ultra-steep passage. Here you also push yourself to the max to get into the stairs. You're going so fast there and it's so narrow that the slightest mistake would result in a horrendous fall. I think at a certain age you realise much more what happens if you make a mistake in a place like that. This stair section was tough.
And tight! Had you trimmed your handlebars?
I was still riding 760 mm in training, but then I shortened it even more: a little under 740 mm. Because I wanted to do everything but hit the fence on the stairs.
Tomas Slavik said to you in the hotseat: "You were killing it in the MotoGP, but fucked up in the Square". What do you say to that?
He's right about that. I made up time in the MotoGP section, half a second. My lower section would have been great if I hadn't jumped too far into the small space. I didn't catch the landing, I almost exploded and all my speed was gone for the last straight. The mistake really cost me time. He saw the mistake.
The spectators cheer along the entire route. Can you hear any of it?
They scream from top to bottom. That spurs you on again to keep the brakes on. When people are freaking out, you want to give them a show - and let go!
I'm a bit confused as to what now counts as part of the Red Bull Cerro Abajo 2025 race series. First they said Genoa in October was the final. Now it seems that Genoa from last year still counts. Do you know more?
It's not entirely clear to me either. Because there is supposed to be an event in India this year. Will it be included in the ranking? I don't know, but it would be strange if it didn't. Maybe Red Bull themselves don't know exactly yet.
Tomas Slavik was in Amman, Yemen, to check out the city like he did Genoa. Could there soon be a Cerro Abajo Amman?
If Slavik was there, that's a good sign that an event is to take place there. He was also in India last year.
Nice to know
Red Bull changed the schedule of its Cerro Abajo Series 2025, recently listing the October event in Genoa as the final, now the 2024 Genoa event is to count towards the 2025 series, which is a little confusing in our eyes. There are also rumours that another event is to be held in India this year - which will also count towards the 2025 series. One thing is certain: The next Urban Race will take place on 29 March in Guanajuato (Mexico).
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Dimitri Lehner
Editor
