Why beating jet lag hurts and tests a MotoGP rider’s discipline – Neil Hodgson explains and says, just ask John McGuinness

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In this week's column, Neil Hodgson explains the difficulties that MotoGP riders face with jet lag as they travel the globe, after the motorcycling roadshow arrived in Japan this week. From 4pm bedtimes to wonky watches, Neil has some tips on how to battle tiredness - but insists learning from experience is a big part of it. Watch the 2025 MotoGP season live on TNT Sports and discovery+.

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Japan is one of the worst for jet lag. I always struggled going east. It basically means you’re wide awake late at night and then when your alarm goes off at 7am, it’s an eight-hour time difference, so it’s like 11pm.

You are waking up just when you would be going to bed. You feel drowsy all day and when you’re riding the bike you’re drowsy. Then at nighttime, around 7pm, you start to come awake.

When you go west, you’re up early in the morning. You feel brilliant in the morning and you feel tired at night. So when you’ve finished work, finished all your riding, you go back to your hotel and go straight to bed early. That’s what I used to do.

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Japan is definitely one of the worst that I have found. Also, it gets dark at 5pm here. It’s weird because it goes dark, but you’re wide awake. It’s really difficult.

What I used to do to try and deal with jet lag is as soon as my last race had finished, I would change my watch to whatever time zone I was going to, and straight away try and get onto that time zone.

I was a nightmare to live with, because I used to go to bed at 4pm and wake up at 1am. I would do that while I was at home for three or four days, getting ahead of the jet lag and onto the time zone I was going to. I found that really helped.

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You only learn by your mistakes, you learn the hard way. My first race abroad was in Australia. I flew economy. Back then, planes had smoking in the back three seats, so the plane was full of smoke. I can’t remember where we stopped off, but you couldn’t fly direct.

I got to Sydney, checked into the hotel in the morning, and I just went straight to bed because I was exhausted. Then I woke up at 1am and was wide awake. I was there for about a week and never got over my jet lag.

I remember when I was racing in World Superbikes and John McGuinness, the famous TT rider, did one year in World Supersport, and we went to Australia. I’ll never forget meeting him on Phillip Island.

He had just arrived there, and he went: ‘I’m absolutely knackered’. I said whatever you do, don’t check into your hotel, and certainly don’t try and have an hour’s sleep.

The next day I saw him, and he said 'I obviously didn’t listen to you, I went straight to my hotel', - he did what I did. John McGuinness was there on Phillip Island for a week, and he didn’t sleep at all at night, but then he was shattered all day. You learn the hard way.

What you learn is to pre-empt how it’s going to be, and then also that you’ve just got to be disciplined.

It hurts, it’s painful, you want to go to bed, you’re exhausted. But you’ve got to do whatever it takes to stay awake.

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Spare a thought for the Moto3 riders

We’ve got six races in eight weekends coming up - and in different time zones. It’s harder for the younger riders, because you also deal with heat.

We follow the summer around a little bit, so riders are used to riding in the heat, but when you get to places like Malaysia and Indonesia, it’s a shock to the system. You’ve got a big time change, you’re not sleeping.

For the Moto3 riders, they’re not staying in five-star hotels. A lot of them are staying in hotels that don’t have air conditioning.

When you get to Lombok, the small Indonesian island, there’s not a lot of choice. All the big teams, the factory teams, take up all the five-star hotels and by the time you get to the Moto3 teams, they are in one-star hotels.

You’re not sleeping, it’s hot on the bike, it’s humid, there is a lot to take in.

Stream every race of the 2025 MotoGP season live on TNT Sports and discovery+

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