Five Minutes with … Ben Milot
SEPTEMBER 17, 2007

Coors Light Suzuki's Ben Milot

photo: Garth Milan

By Danny Brault

Like many of the world’s top freestyle motocrossers, Yamachiche, Quebec’s Benoit Milot fine-tuned his motorcycle skills in racing before he started hitting ramps and monstrous gaps. After a couple of years racing pro, Milot made a career change into freestyle in the late `90s. He’s accomplished a lot since then; he’s traveled the world, competed against the world’s best FMXers, and with the help of Felix Trepanier, has produced two DVDs, Invasion and Invasion 2. (Invasion 3 will be released at Montreal.) Like JSR, Simon Homans, or Marco Dube, Milot looks forward to impressing his friends and family at the Montreal Supercross each year. We checked in with the Suzuki rider to see how things are coming along for this year’s jump show.


RXC: Ben, are you getting excited for Montreal?
Ben Milot: Yeah, exactly. I’m training pretty much everyday to be ready for this event and I have a Coors Light event before and after the supercross.

What was your first experience like at Montreal, Ben?
It was nerve wracking, for sure. All of those people … it’s like the biggest race in Canada! All of your friends and family are there, because there are so many people from Quebec and Canada. There is a lot of pressure, but at the same time, it’s fun because it’s not too far from your house and we get awesome coverage from the media. It’s cool.

Being a French Canadian, do you find there is added pressure because it is a local event for you?
Oh, yeah, for sure. Most of the crowd knows you. It’s like JSR; you’re kind of the local hero. For me, I take it as good pressure. It’s motivation for me. I’ve never had a problem from pressure in Montreal.

Milot whips it out at Montreal last year.

photo: Allison Kennedy

What was your best finish or race you had in Montreal?
Well, my best finish was in freestyle, the year that I won in 2002. The best result in a race, I don’t even remember because it was so long ago. The last time I raced it, I think, was in `01.

When did you begin competing in the freestyle competition at the Montreal SX?
`99, I think. The first year I was supposed to do the contest was in `98 or `97. I was racing an amateur class and I was doing a bunch of jump shows on the arenacross circuit in Quebec, and the promoter saw me and asked me to jump at the show in Montreal. I was racing a 125 and back in the day, all of the riders were using 250s because the jumps were designed for 250s. I wasn’t able to clear the jump with my 125 so I had to quit before Saturday.

What’s the difference between racing and jumping at the Montreal SX?
A lot of things. Preparation is different; you don’t have to be in as good of shape. You need to be super-comfortable on the bike, to push your tricks to the limit you need to be comfortable on the bike. It’s a little bit cooler—you don’t need to be rushing around like you do when racing. There are no qualifiers for the evening show. It’s not as stressful for us; we’re all friends and we have a little bit more fun.

What are you working on now? Do you plan out your run or tricks before the show?
I will pull a flip, for sure, some variations, big whips as usual, rock solids, holy mans and I just learned a new trick a couple of weeks ago. It’s a holy man to a rock solid, so it’s pretty technical because you leave your bike twice. You need a big jump to do that trick. I’m also working on a backflip whip to no footer.

Do you help setup the Montreal SX course?
I used to bring my own ramps and everything, but now they rent ramps from our team manager. It’s kind of cool so I can ride at my own track until the last minute without having to take care of all the ramps at Montreal. Every year I’m still there though, just to try the jump and make sure the distance is good. I’m always involved a little bit.

Obviously, you hit ramps and big gaps all the time, but do you still get nervous when they set the ramp up at Montreal and ask you to hit it for the first time?
[Laughs] Oh, yes, for sure. Even if it’s the same ramp, the same distance, it’s always nerve wracking. The landing can be lower or whatever; it’s always a little bit different. You have to adjust your speed to land at that sweet spot. But usually, you land fine.

You had a tough summer this year too, right? You hurt yourself back in the spring?
Yeah, I got hurt in March at the Red Bull X-Fighters. I broke my wrist, my elbow and my arm; I broke my scaphoid and it took like three months to heal. It’s been a long healing process. When you’re pushing it a little harder, you have a bigger chance of crashing. I missed out from March to July. I had to relearn a lot of my tricks, but now I’m fine and have all of my tricks and confidence back.

Milot's spent a lot of time riding down in SoCal, learning and riding with the best in the freestyle business. It's also made for some stunning photos and clips in his Invasion videos.

photo: James Lissimore

We’ve posted the trailer to the new Invasion 3 DVD and, again, it looks to be a great video.
I’ve seen most of the clips and I think it’s the best movie we’ve made so far, with the section with Travis [Pastrana] in California, the section of X-Fighters in Mexico, we rented a helicopter for my section, there are HD shots and real film shots, and the nationals section is pretty sick with all of those wild winners!

Cool. We’ll be cheering for you in a couple of weeks at the Big O!
Thanks. And just a quick shout to my sponsors for their help: Suzuki, Troy Lee Designs, Oakley, Base Energy Drink, Madda, Etnies, Coors Light, SixSixOne, Kimpex, 66graphx.com, PSL Karting, Elka Suspension, Ipone, Ogio, Radio Energie, Universal and LGM.