Five Minutes with … Jeremy Medaglia
MARCH 20, 2008

Jeremy Medaglia holds his #1 plate from the Walton TransCan last year. Medaglia won the 125 Intermediate class, beating out guys such as Kyle Stephens, Kyle McGlynn, Shane Wiebe, Tony Gallo, and Ryan Millar. He's now racing the MX2 class for Canada's factory Suzuki team.

By Danny Brault
Photos by James Lissimore


This is just the week of the Medaglia’s, isn’t it? Well, I spoke with Suzuki OTSFF/Rockstar’s Tyler Medaglia on Monday, and since his younger brother (and teammate), Jeremy, was around, I figured we should get some words from him. “Jer Bear” is working his butt off to kick the older kids’ butts in the MX2 series this year, and, for a while we thought we’d see him in Toronto….


RXC: Jeremy, how are you going?
Jeremy Medaglia: I’m doing great!

How is the dirt bike riding in Georgia?
Everything’s been going well. I’ve been riding a lot down here and was thinking about racing Toronto, but that’s not going as planned; I don’t think I will be racing Toronto. But other than that, things have been great and the weather’s been good so I’ve been getting a lot of riding in.

Why won’t we see you racing Toronto?
Well, we were thinking about it and I was going to get a new practice bike because my bike is getting a little tired. I wasn’t going to start riding supercross until I got the new bike, because I didn’t want to take a chance of something happening on the jumps. I didn’t get the new bike when we planned to, like two weeks ago. I just got it two days ago so I don’t think I have enough time to get ready. I had a talk with Andre [Laurin] from Suzuki and he thinks it’s best if I hold off and continue preparing for the outdoors because, really, there’s not much point in me doing Toronto.

I understand that. No point in jeopardizing your national season for one supercross. I heard from Derek Schuster though that you were riding well on GPF’s supercross track.
Yeah, it was good. Two or three weeks ago I was riding with Tyler, and I had all of the obstacles down but the main thing when it comes to supercross is the whoops. I didn’t have suspension, just my outdoor stuff, so I never got to practice them. There’s no point in racing supercross if you don’t have time on the whoops. I didn’t want to go out on something I’m not fully prepared for.

Back to you getting a new bike. You’re known for putting a lot of hours on a bike, so how is the Suzuki holding up?
I’ve been riding one bike, and I think it has around 106 hours on it. It’s nice to get a new bike. As for clutches and stuff, the Suzuki clutches are strong this year and I’ve only gone through like three or four since I’ve been down here for two and half months.

Who’s working on your bikes while you’re at GPF?
Nick of the Suzuki team. He’s working with Tyler in supercross. He’s going to work with me this summer and he helps out Tyler and I while we’re down here.

Medaglia rode to a mid-pack finish at the Montreal SX last fall. He was hoping to race the Toronto SX next weekend, but he and the team agree it's probably best for him to focus on the outdoors.

When will we see you back in Canada?
I’m going to fly home with Tyler to watch the supercross, take a break and see my family. Then we’ll come back down here, Tyler has some supercrosses left, and then ride until we can start riding in Canada.

I would imagine we’ll see you racing some Provincials with your brother?
Yeah, for sure. We’re doing as many as we can. My brother, dad and I will plan out our schedule. We’ll do some provincial races and local races at Broome Tioga and Frozen Ocean.

Cool! It’s great to hear things are going well for you, Jeremy.
Yeah, I couldn’t ask for much more than being down here in the sun, riding my dirt bike!