Up next in 10
We’re calling this one ‘The Royalty Episode’ because our guests are the GOAT, Santa Cruz Syndicate’s Greg Minnaar & 2017 World Cup Overall Winner & 2019 World Champion, Commencal Muc-Off’s Myriam Nicole! From Greg’s advice for younger riders to how Myriam conquered her fear of jumping, this episode, recorded just before the World Championships, has it all…
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0:02
[Music]
0:14
welcome to the making of the numbers
0:17
podcast
0:18
the making of the numbers podcast is
0:21
sponsored by hope technology jtag
0:24
suspension revolution bike park ride
0:27
southern spain
0:28
schwall on the world's finest
0:31
independent mountain bike magazine
0:34
single track
0:37
season 3 episode 7 of the pod and we
0:40
should probably call this the royalty
0:41
episode because we're hopefully going to
0:43
be chatting with the king and queen of
0:45
downhill greg bernard and miriam nicole
0:48
i say hopefully because we have a bit of
0:49
a role reversal going on this episode
0:52
i'm out in praloop france racing masters
0:54
worlds this week with sporadic internet
0:56
connection and jack you're back in the
0:57
uk holding the fort is it still summer
1:00
over there
1:01
it's freezing mate i am a rab on out in
1:03
gloves last couple of days walking the
1:05
dog
1:06
it's 26 here today 26 and sunny i was 36
1:11
in maribor link on
1:13
we'll come back to this so yeah british
1:15
summer in force
1:17
so we're mid-season now and it's been a
1:20
hell of a few weeks for you let's start
1:22
with the mega avalanche
1:23
so i've done the mega a couple of times
1:25
before but you've never been and there
1:27
were two bits of advice i passed on
1:28
which i'll be honest felt strange for me
1:30
to be giving you tips but the first was
1:33
that you needed to be whole shot on the
1:34
first corner in the qualifier and i
1:36
think you got that you won your quality
1:38
yep
1:39
yeah folger advice there i've learned
1:40
from the previous year as well when i
1:42
didn't get the whole shot and i
1:43
misunderstood the start i didn't realize
1:45
last year that the whole look that 10
1:47
second board
1:48
and it's not 10 seconds it's
1:50
any amount of time could be one second
1:52
when he pulls it down and runs away
1:54
so last year i'm still sat there waiting
1:57
for ten and half of him
1:59
to the first turn so i had to fight my
2:01
way back through at that maxi avalanche
2:03
last year whereas this year i'll never
2:04
knock so yeah i got the snap and uh and
2:07
carried it to the line
2:08
how good is the kowali track
2:11
yeah it's meant to be fair apart from
2:13
the last four minutes which is just
2:14
uphill um
2:16
but but yeah the quality track isn't for
2:19
sure really good fun and we didn't start
2:20
from the top because it was too much
2:22
snow so
2:23
we started on the fire road so it was
2:25
like
2:26
there wasn't much uphill at the top so
2:27
yeah it's good
2:29
cool the second thing was that you need
2:30
to be pushing 100k an hour on the snow
2:33
if you want to win how achievable did
2:35
that feel after your first run
2:38
well it was impossible because they
2:39
don't groom it in practice do they so
2:41
like
2:42
me and dan went up there
2:44
proper hung over midweek while i was
2:46
proper remember and i think down at
2:49
11 hours beauty sleep as usual but um
2:52
yeah we went up there to have a go and
2:54
like it was like
2:55
foot deep roots like it took us probably
2:58
an hour to get off the glacier like you
2:59
walk in and and then we went up the
3:01
following day and they pasted some of it
3:03
so we got a bit of an impression but
3:05
yeah first section
3:08
they hadn't groomed at all until we
3:10
raced it so it was it was proper
3:12
intimidating like sitting there front
3:14
row staring down a glacier because i've
3:16
done a lot of skiing um
3:19
and i'm looking at it thinking i'm about
3:21
to sprint down there into a 90 degree
3:24
corner
3:25
you know people behind me or hopefully
3:27
300 people behind me so yeah it was
3:29
proper proper adrenaline stuff i just
3:32
remember the first time i did it and and
3:34
i think i'd i'd managed to maybe get up
3:36
to 20 20k an hour 30k an hour or
3:38
something like that and i felt like i
3:39
was absolutely flying and then johan
3:42
barelli just came down next to me i
3:44
stopped and he just came down and he was
3:46
actually it was just like another level
3:48
yeah and it just there was a tight right
3:51
hander at the bottom of the bit we were
3:52
on and i just remember thinking he's not
3:54
going to get around there there's a lot
3:56
of rocks he's going to hit the rocks and
3:57
he just stood in yeah yeah i watched
4:00
some i would obviously watch some gopros
4:02
and i think i'd watch damien otten's
4:04
from a couple of years ago and
4:08
like
4:09
he's going fast on the glacier and he's
4:11
kind of in the first pack and then
4:13
people come past him like he's not
4:15
moving and i was like
4:17
oh my god like if he's going that fast
4:19
and then people are doing that like what
4:20
the hell so like my game plan was
4:24
attack as hard as i could off the line
4:27
and like i'm not the most powerful
4:28
riders and i'm sat next to mick hammer
4:31
and with other lads so i was like i'm
4:33
not going to get the snap but i want to
4:35
be in that first group off the glacier
4:37
i've never done it before so it'd be
4:38
nice to like get a bit of a toe
4:40
and i was second off the line um which
4:43
was a surprise the guy who won who i'd
4:46
already been told was a bit of a unit on
4:48
the glacier he's done it like seven
4:49
times before and he's known to have been
4:51
fast on the snow he got the snap and you
4:53
can see on my youtube like and well you
4:55
can see on dan's youtube even better i'm
4:58
still pedaling and everybody else has
5:00
just gone into a tuck and i'm still on
5:02
the cranks going through the gears
5:04
and then he hits the brakes you can see
5:06
it on my youtube and i was like nah mate
5:08
we're still a couple hundred meters from
5:10
our corner like so i just kept going and
5:12
from there i didn't see anyone until the
5:14
end of the snow because i got in front
5:15
of him
5:16
wall rode the first turn and then was
5:18
like [ __ ] i'm out front so i just i just
5:21
basically tried to touch the brakes as
5:23
little as possible it was mint but it's
5:25
so wide and so
5:27
like obviously yeah we're going like 60
5:29
65 miles an hour but you do not feel
5:31
like you're going that fast at all hoshi
5:33
from sr sunshine's got these pictures
5:36
of me
5:37
completely on my own
5:39
i feel it yeah yeah i'm like
5:42
i've probably got a 150 to 200 meter
5:44
lead down the second straight and i'm
5:46
just in a talk just on my own on this
5:49
glacier it's me mad man
5:55
the reason i lost the lead was that
5:56
whole section we hadn't ridden quick so
5:59
at the bottom of it there's a tight
6:00
right hand it may well be the one you're
6:02
talking about and i just got my entry
6:04
completely wrong yeah i think it is that
6:06
one yeah and i just i just lost a
6:08
shitload of speed i almost crashed and
6:10
then old mate who won peter he's done it
6:12
stefan he's done it loads of times
6:14
before
6:15
and he just obviously got the corner
6:16
right and then i'm going along the flat
6:17
afterwards i'm out of gears so i can't
6:19
sprint but
6:21
i'm not going as fast as him because i
6:22
didn't get the corner speed and he just
6:24
comes past me and then i tucked him
6:25
behind him and and it was mint from
6:27
there really like it was just
6:29
fun you're a second coming into the
6:31
climb out of outdoors i once stopped
6:33
there mid-race and had a beer and some
6:35
cheese with some people at the side of
6:36
the side of the track
6:38
how much did that climb hurt and because
6:40
i believe a couple of riders passed you
6:42
on it
6:43
well i i got passed by um
6:46
killian before i climb there's like 10
6:49
minutes of flat and then climbing yeah i
6:51
climb watch my gopro is about three
6:53
minutes long and you're already dead
6:54
when you get to the bottom of it um so i
6:57
was in third when i got to the bottom of
6:58
it and then i've got magnetic or neil
7:01
goggle lenses which are real handy um
7:03
because
7:04
the main problem was the sweat like it
7:06
was so hot my goggles even though the
7:07
double lens they were trying to steam up
7:09
so i pulled my lens out
7:11
and i was going up the climb um
7:13
i'd just been
7:15
um i was in fourth by now so a guy
7:17
passed me right at the bottom of the
7:18
climb so i'm into fourth and i'm going
7:20
up absolutely dying and i could see my
7:22
essential teammate torben who used to
7:25
race world cup cross country as a junior
7:27
i could see him coming and i was like i
7:30
knew from the top of the climb and have
7:31
a chance of holding him off because for
7:33
the entire climate about 15 minutes of
7:34
like long down illinois short climb and
7:36
the short time i'm fine i can match him
7:38
for power it's the long climbs i just
7:40
didn't have the consistent wattage to
7:42
hold him off
7:43
so i'm going on this climbing goggle
7:44
lens in my hand and i got distracted by
7:46
this blonde chick on the side
7:50
if you watch my youtube video you can
7:52
literally see it happen i see this
7:54
blonde girl i look at her and then about
7:57
two seconds later i dropped my lens on
7:59
the floor i have to get off my bike grab
8:01
my lens get back on and keep going oh my
8:04
god watching back it's so funny but like
8:06
at the time i was so
8:08
and i managed to hold tobin off by about
8:10
five seconds of maybe ten at the top of
8:12
the climb and then me and him had this
8:13
wicked wicked 15-minute battle of cat
8:16
and mouse um
8:18
so yeah the whole thing's just meant i'd
8:20
recommend that race to anyone but yeah
8:23
he's so cool yeah so fourth place at the
8:26
mega your shoulders on the mend and then
8:28
you go out and have a huge you want to
8:29
put fort william tell us a bit about
8:30
that
8:32
yeah it's just [ __ ] really like
8:34
obviously dan had a a difficult start to
8:37
the world cup struggling a little bit
8:38
mentally um just with the the pressure
8:41
and i've i'd had me injuries so i
8:43
structured a three-week plan before
8:45
leaving for maribor the final part of
8:47
that going to fort william for two days
8:49
just to do some timing nothing crazy
8:51
just like some good speed um and it was
8:54
my last run dan had been riding
8:56
incredibly well it was like proper loose
8:58
um and i knew i was like cooking a
9:01
couple of seconds back on him but i was
9:02
i was happy with where i was i wasn't
9:04
really pushing to match it um
9:07
and it was on my last run timed run and
9:10
i ripped a tire just one of those things
9:11
could happen to anyone um just those
9:14
rocks that fought with him it was in
9:15
that bit after the deer gate so i was
9:16
probably going about 30 mile an hour
9:18
my front tire went down instantly and so
9:21
there's nothing i could have done and uh
9:23
just mash myself head neck
9:27
elbow ribs back um hands and yeah i had
9:32
such a rough week after that trying to
9:33
like i mean i couldn't even get physio
9:35
was that sore
9:36
for five to six days all i could do was
9:38
just lie still um and just try and like
9:41
wait for the pain to go away and stuff
9:42
so so that was yeah a bit of [ __ ] really
9:45
brutal place to crash there exactly
9:47
where you crashed that's like probably
9:48
the worst place on the track to crash
9:50
matt walker said to me marijuana was
9:51
like oh i've had nine nights about
9:52
crashing there
9:54
well on to the races in maribor europe
9:56
champs went okay but the world cup not
9:58
so much another big crash you know the
10:00
bang to the head and you had to pull out
10:02
and take a break from racing how
10:04
frustrating is that
10:06
yeah massively um so you're a chance my
10:08
game plan was just get through i was
10:11
still sore i was having to do 90 minutes
10:13
on the stretch mat every morning before
10:14
i
10:15
before i even tried to get on the bike
10:17
so thank god it was there to kind of
10:18
take over the pit work and stuff um and
10:21
even when i wrote i was still in pain
10:22
because my ribs were the worst it's
10:24
three almost three
10:25
am i three weeks four weeks post that
10:27
crash i think four and my ribs are still
10:29
sore like i didn't break any but yeah so
10:33
got through built my speed um dan was
10:35
riding amazingly well um and i knew that
10:38
so it was just kind of i was using him
10:40
as like a marker of where i felt i could
10:42
keep up and where i felt it was too much
10:44
risk i didn't i knew i couldn't afford a
10:46
crash
10:47
so yeah i was happy with my result i was
10:49
19 so i was kind of at the back of dan
10:51
was best at the rest behind danny
10:53
yeah then why and like uh loris and and
10:56
i was kind of in the in the mix at the
10:58
back of the rest if that makes sense i
10:59
was happy where i was there was i didn't
11:01
really not know anyone who beat me so i
11:03
was sad with that
11:04
um and then yeah the world cup it was
11:06
second run i was riding with i was
11:07
riding well i was my mindset was good
11:09
with a couple of days on the beach in
11:11
croatia i was using down as a bit of a
11:13
hair to chase and i was keeping up with
11:15
him we weren't right second room we
11:16
weren't going crazy it was just a
11:18
natural build but i'm just not sure like
11:20
i'm just not my brain isn't ahead of me
11:22
my brain is either where i am or behind
11:24
me so as stuff happens i'm not able to
11:26
correct it and react to it as i normally
11:27
would and
11:28
just clip the front wheel with someone
11:30
that went down face first and i remember
11:32
the first thing that ran through my head
11:34
before it even stopped rolling was i'm
11:36
done like
11:37
i just need a little bit of time
11:40
and then i didn't even realize it hurt
11:41
my hand until i got to the bottom and
11:43
then my hand was the size of a you know
11:46
my hand was massive for a few years
11:47
everyone was telling me it was broke got
11:49
it x-rayed monday and thank god it isn't
11:51
so
11:52
so yeah i mean i've got the feeling back
11:54
off the off the off helping dan i've got
11:57
the buzz back so i just want to get on
11:58
the trail but i can do some riding
12:00
well the kid's been absolutely smashing
12:02
it hasn't he fought in the european
12:03
championships and then we'll talk us
12:05
through his his world cup weekend in
12:07
maribor
12:08
yes i mean i said on this podcast night
12:10
before leo game you asked me my rider to
12:12
watch would be you know i'd mentioned
12:14
joe breeden coming into season strong
12:16
and he went is it joe breeden and i was
12:17
like no it's not it's down and and then
12:20
he let me down denis leo gang and uh
12:24
but that was not his riding that was
12:26
just the pressure of world cups and uh
12:29
you know maybe feeding off my negative
12:30
energy a little bit being being injured
12:32
um
12:33
and we did that three week reset and he
12:36
just come out punching in maribor for
12:38
euro champs and i just
12:40
yeah so the world cup i just said to him
12:42
just don't do anything differently just
12:43
keep riding how we would when we're
12:45
testing just keep attacking it and just
12:47
letting it feel natural and um
12:50
he just went from strength to strength
12:52
on the track and
12:53
before quality i just said to him just
12:54
go out and have fun just keep doing what
12:56
you're doing is nothing other than you
12:58
riding downhill um
13:00
and then qualified 11th and then
13:02
obviously there's all the hype then
13:03
people are messaging him and i just took
13:05
him aside straight away and just said
13:07
just ignore it as white noise you just
13:09
rode your bike down that hill don't
13:11
listen to anybody telling you anything
13:13
else like just ignore it stay focused
13:15
because i've been there like very
13:17
similar situation 2011 second season of
13:20
race in world cups i qualified 12th i
13:22
had nobody there to help me and in fact
13:24
i had the opposite i had lads like matt
13:26
simmons i remember him doing it to me
13:28
somebody who i looked up to at the time
13:30
as i couldn't even wouldn't even dream
13:31
of beating him
13:33
and out qualified him and before the
13:34
middle rock garden and parked up in the
13:36
morning before the race and matt stopped
13:38
and said he wanted to follow me and i
13:40
remember at the time thinking what you
13:42
want to follow me and i had a massive
13:44
crash because i just didn't know what to
13:46
do with that um and then in the race
13:48
pushed too hard because i felt like i
13:50
didn't belong where i'd qualified so i
13:53
felt like i needed to do something other
13:54
than what i'd just been doing huge crash
13:57
still came 38th
13:59
earned the famous rob warner quote he's
14:00
like a monkey driving a football uh
14:03
that was that day
14:05
me on the ellsworth um
14:08
the 10 second crash and came 38th minar
14:10
who were about to interview i've looked
14:12
up to my entire career i was on him at
14:14
the split before i crashed but
14:16
ultimately i just didn't have the head
14:17
game so
14:19
my plan for dan was just keep him calm
14:21
keep him in the same space as he'd been
14:23
in
14:23
and that was what
14:25
my approach was um the fact that dan was
14:28
then able to do that
14:30
he ate he ate his entire lunch he was
14:32
having a laugh with me and l before his
14:34
race run it was just like a normal day
14:36
out for him like he was fired up
14:38
obviously but i just kept saying to him
14:40
stay calm just do your thing and and i
14:42
can't believe he managed to do it he
14:44
said he wanted to do a 311. i thought
14:46
he'd do a 312 and he did a 310 and came
14:48
10th it was just unreal and the little
14:52
bastard i'd said i'd said before it to
14:55
my dad and a couple of other people my
14:56
best ever world cup result is 18 and if
14:59
he beats it today i'm going to be both
15:01
happy and furious all at the same time
15:04
and when he come through and running to
15:05
third i was like filming him and i was
15:07
buzzing i like even shed a tear and then
15:09
i i quickly did the maths and i was like
15:11
[ __ ] he's going to be 13th or better i'm
15:14
never going to let me live this down
15:17
so yeah it was it was absolutely mint
15:19
for me for the team and obviously for
15:21
dad it was just unreal but i took him
15:23
aside again on the way home and i just
15:25
said
15:26
you've done amazing but just make it
15:28
normal
15:29
if you want to be the best in the world
15:31
that [ __ ] just needs to be your bread
15:33
and butter so buy it now go home and see
15:35
your family and get buzzing but
15:37
from from tuesday it's just [ __ ]
15:39
normal
15:40
carry on as normal keep grafting and
15:42
just just keep going so
15:44
how much pride did it give you seeing
15:47
you know him get a world cup top 10 and
15:49
knowing that you'd played such a massive
15:50
part in it massive mate as i said i shed
15:53
a tear i'm like emotional now as you can
15:55
tell like i've started swearing and mate
15:58
all i've worked with down for 18 months
16:00
and like yeah the kids got so much
16:02
natural talent i can't even take a
16:04
percent of the credit but but yeah to it
16:08
to be helping him and to be his coach
16:09
and and for him to be so grateful for
16:11
that like yeah well he's obviously
16:13
thanked me and his family thanked me and
16:15
yeah
16:16
it's just mint
16:18
bc published the gb team for uh worlds
16:21
this week i wasn't expecting him to be
16:23
in it but he'd make a crack in reserve
16:25
it should be in it now but that's the
16:27
thing like me and michael vickers have
16:28
had a conversation and the way the team
16:30
is picked because of the system the
16:32
deadline was 12 p.m on monday this week
16:35
so there would be no
16:37
no possible way for british cycling to
16:39
to confirm the team this week this team
16:43
shouldn't be picked
16:44
with a world cup still left because
16:46
we're taking injured riders and we're
16:48
not taking down he's in amazing form val
16:50
the soul oh my god i would love to see
16:52
what he could do down there it's exactly
16:54
the kind of stuff that suits him so yeah
16:56
you should be going but the system
16:58
dictates that you can't so it's a real
17:00
shame
17:01
and on that now we'll move on with the
17:03
show then we'll be talking with the girl
17:05
greg minar after these messages
17:09
greg minar welcome back to the podcast
17:11
how you doing
17:12
well good george thanks a lot uh sorry
17:14
it's uh
17:16
there's a bit of a mess trying to get on
17:17
yet but yeah it's good to be on yeah
17:19
thanks for having me always a pleasure
17:21
since we last spoke we've had the
17:23
shortened 2020 season which you did
17:25
rather well fifth and ninth in maribor
17:27
first and second and loser ending up
17:29
third in the overall the highest place
17:31
syndicate rider
17:33
although all three of your team were in
17:35
the top ten prior to that winning loser
17:37
though your last world cup victory was
17:39
in 2017. how did it feel to know you
17:41
could still win
17:44
it was amazing and i must say it
17:48
it was a tough but short season um
17:51
coming out of slovenia i think i came
17:53
out on seventh overall
17:55
slovenia is a track that i've always
17:57
battled at so
17:58
um when you look at the world cup
18:00
schedule being in two venues
18:02
uh
18:03
one venue we hadn't raced on and the
18:05
other venue i haven't really
18:07
had a lot of success on and i don't feel
18:09
comfortable and you you try and be as
18:11
positive you can and uh so i was pretty
18:14
stoked um so then one one uh which
18:18
hadn't done in a while was was
18:19
incredible
18:20
um straight after
18:22
2017 was it was a great season for
18:24
myself you know battling out with gweny
18:26
right on the final round
18:28
um
18:29
it was a great season
18:32
and then the start of
18:33
2018 i think had done one race in
18:36
croatia and then broke my arm so i
18:38
missed most of the season
18:41
and coming back from that was a bit
18:43
tough you know that that missed an
18:44
injury in my arm
18:46
and uh
18:48
when the bone had healed i had this
18:50
wrist injury because the the tendon was
18:52
broken my wrist so
18:54
i
18:55
made the decision that
18:56
who knows how long i'll be racing for so
18:58
i can't waste another six weeks
19:00
recurring from
19:02
um
19:03
this injury i need to get back on track
19:05
and try and strengthen this wrist and
19:06
get back up to pace so i ended off 18 uh
19:10
okay i think at top ten at worlds or
19:12
something so it wasn't too bad
19:14
but it it wasn't easy coming back you
19:16
know you
19:17
um
19:18
you missed out half a season you're
19:19
coming back with a lack of confidence so
19:22
to finally be able to win one and to
19:24
know that you can it it's yeah it takes
19:26
it took a bit of time
19:28
cool well in the second race out in lucy
19:30
you finished just the tenth back on loy
19:33
you banged your head as you exited the
19:34
start house but you refu refocus super
19:37
quickly was that something you do
19:39
consciously or did you just crack on
19:41
with your run
19:42
what bang my head consciously
19:45
i mean
19:46
you know it's happened to me once before
19:48
in leo gang
19:50
and it's it's all my fault because you
19:52
know when you come out the gates
19:54
uh in in trainia and qualities and
19:56
everything else you normally just you
19:58
know you just turn the crank over and
19:59
then gun it down the straight
20:01
and uh when it comes to race you just
20:03
put everything in and you know you
20:06
somehow pick up a bit and then hit your
20:08
head you know the problem in your head's
20:09
not not the biggest problem at all
20:12
it's the helmet bumps the goggles and
20:14
the goggles go into your eyes
20:16
and so now i'm going down that straight
20:18
which wasn't much of a straight you you
20:19
came down the start ramp into a left
20:22
hand and then you had a few jumps to
20:23
negotiate so
20:25
um super key part of the track because
20:27
you've got to outlay some power and get
20:28
up to speed it's quite flat up top and
20:30
i'm trying to shake my head to get my
20:33
goggles out my eyes because i couldn't
20:34
see where the hell i was going
20:36
and uh piddling on the straight
20:38
managed to just get it right moved a
20:41
hand shook the helmet got it got
20:43
everything aligned and off i went
20:45
had a great run gets to the bottom and
20:47
you lose bar whatever it was it was
20:50
it was
20:51
the tiniest of margins and the first
20:54
thing that goes through your head was
20:56
i don't think i would have lost this if
20:58
i hadn't hit my head
20:59
you know a very simple way to look at it
21:03
because who knows i might not have gone
21:04
as hard as i did if i hadn't banged my
21:06
head but um that's the first thing
21:08
across your mind that pisses me off
21:10
straight away but i think the pros out
21:12
of that is you finish the season on a
21:14
win if i'd won two races in lucer
21:17
i do not think i would have had such a
21:19
productive off season but as soon as you
21:21
wouldn't you lose one by such a small
21:23
margin you know if it was it was like a
21:25
second and a half or two seconds you
21:27
know he's definitely a better racer on
21:29
the track on the day and the time and
21:31
everything else he he smoked you but
21:34
when it's that close you kind of go well
21:37
hey he's still in the mix you know
21:38
that's
21:39
um that's a different race so that
21:41
definitely um let the fire going to
21:43
offseason
21:44
well ironically i'm out here in prague
21:47
when i at breakfast this morning i was
21:49
sat next to will london
21:50
and i said to him you were the smoothest
21:52
person i saw come out of the gate
21:54
yesterday i mean you're you're
21:56
absolutely flying and he said well
21:58
that's just racecraft isn't there he
22:00
said you know that's a tip for you you
22:02
shouldn't just roll out of the great in
22:04
practice you should go at your full full
22:06
speed so everything you hit you know
22:08
start straight away you know the speed
22:09
that you you're going and i just learned
22:11
that kind of this morning if you know
22:12
what i mean yeah
22:14
well i think it's you know it can go
22:16
both ways i
22:17
i'm a more 80 writer i like to
22:20
uh do my training at 80 and rap and ramp
22:24
it up to the race you know risk we're in
22:26
a risky sport and very high risk if you
22:28
ride it 100
22:29
every day every run
22:31
you got a good chance of being injured
22:33
and i don't like
22:35
dealing with it and i feel like i'd
22:37
rather ramp up to the 100 than to just
22:39
ride it all the time
22:41
yeah well my next question was do you
22:42
think on reflection that cost you
22:44
another win the banging of the head but
22:45
i think you've answered that already
22:49
i mean over the years there's been a lot
22:50
of things that i could have said but it
22:51
could have cost me wins but you know
22:55
it's just one of those things i i i
22:57
haven't been in the the sport i didn't
22:59
start the sport to try and win races and
23:02
and tally them up as accountants you
23:03
know obviously you race and you're
23:04
competitive because you want to win
23:06
and it couldn't it doesn't matter how
23:08
many times i've won or how many times i
23:11
lost this one being the next race
23:13
uh challenging the winner okay
23:17
well we've seen that you've been
23:18
spending a chunk of time out in andorra
23:20
you know the offseason and you just said
23:22
you're back there now has that been a
23:24
coverage related decision or a decision
23:26
around your training plan what's um
23:30
it's just really my european base you
23:31
know and
23:33
i moved here last year
23:35
i should have been here pre-covered but
23:37
unfortunately i couldn't fly out of
23:39
south africa i was stuck for a little
23:40
bit but
23:41
it's a great place you know it's um
23:43
we've got
23:44
loads of mountains
23:46
um
23:47
and then it it's socially it's really
23:49
good as well you know there's a whole
23:51
bunch of athletes from all different
23:52
walks of life and different sports
23:55
and we all kind of run the same schedule
23:56
we still need to train in the morning so
23:58
we need to go to the gym
24:00
and now we can do it with a group of
24:02
guys so you know some friends of mine
24:03
are racing superbikes this week so
24:05
they're not yet so then i've got some
24:07
other friends that are here so we went
24:09
out for a road this morning
24:11
and uh
24:12
it's nice to be able to train with
24:14
groups of people so i've really enjoyed
24:16
being in andorra the riding's really
24:18
good the training's good and you're not
24:20
too far from the races
24:22
nice okay makes sense so you're known
24:25
for puzzling on the bike um aside from
24:27
what might possibly be a nuisant
24:29
drivetrain and a different link um the
24:32
bike you're running for the first half
24:33
of the season looks pretty stock have
24:36
you reached a point where you think it's
24:37
perfect now or are we going to be seeing
24:39
some new developments on that v10
24:41
yeah i think um
24:44
i think right now it's
24:46
right now it's perfect
24:48
um but you know i'm i never want to
24:52
to be content with where where you are
24:54
there's always ways to improve things
24:56
and so i think
24:59
you can reach your own ceiling too
25:00
quickly by by saying that this is the
25:03
best bike you're on and there's nothing
25:05
to improve on it and and or go back
25:08
going last year's bike was better than
25:09
this year's bike that shouldn't be the
25:11
case
25:12
um you should always be progressing uh
25:15
and that goes for training as well
25:17
the puzzling stuff is pretty funny uh
25:19
you know it's a phrase we use with me
25:21
and our friends and it's come across
25:22
quite
25:23
in quite a way and we joke around a bit
25:25
about it but for sure we've been we've
25:27
been um
25:29
playing with a few different things
25:32
um
25:34
now we've got the link on um a link
25:36
that's just uh
25:38
slightly linear than than the standard
25:42
v10 link
25:43
and then i run a half a degree slack
25:45
ahead angle
25:46
um
25:48
those are those are the only differences
25:49
on my bike
25:50
nice it's funny you should bring up the
25:52
uh you know the puzzling as you know a
25:54
bit of a bit of fun or a bit of whatever
25:56
i am
25:57
i was having a conversation with dan on
26:00
either saturday night or sunday morning
26:01
i can't remember which um it may have
26:03
even been when we were walking the track
26:05
after qualities and he said i'm gonna do
26:07
a warm-up run in the morning and then
26:08
i'm just gonna do a full run and i want
26:09
to do a 3 13 or something like that i
26:11
said well i said tomorrow morning you
26:13
know the speed's there and there's
26:15
probably some points on this track with
26:17
all the holes coming out that you're
26:18
going to want to look at stuff and he
26:20
kind of looked at me i could see him
26:21
absorbing what i was saying thinking do
26:23
i am going to listen to him and i said
26:25
honestly dan i'll usually see minar on
26:29
race day morning
26:30
once or twice on the side of the track
26:32
and he's standing there scratching his
26:34
head looking and
26:35
that you know that's something i've
26:37
always kind of noticed you do you you
26:39
you don't seem to leave anything down to
26:41
the chance you'll you'll still be there
26:42
right at the end
26:44
looking for those little little bits you
26:46
can find um
26:47
well it's also just to make sure that
26:49
the line is going to be there you know
26:50
sometimes you're picking a line that
26:52
could easily just break away with uh
26:55
some puzzler before you uh breaking
26:58
through a corner or something so it's
27:00
it's you know we race
27:02
so much later than in the day then when
27:05
we train we've had
27:07
the whole junior field to go through
27:09
we've had the woman
27:10
uh we've had
27:12
50 odd men
27:13
yeah so so the track can change so to me
27:16
it's that morning practice before the
27:18
race is tough
27:19
we've got an hour to to check out the
27:21
track
27:22
um
27:24
nerves are normally really high
27:27
and i find
27:29
to do a full run at that time
27:31
you you
27:33
you're tired you're you don't have a lot
27:35
of energy because of the race knows
27:37
because you want to suss out everything
27:38
so
27:39
instead of being focused on a full run i
27:41
try and make sure that everything's
27:43
there in line i know what to do i know
27:44
the pace yeah i just got to make sure
27:46
that everything's perfect
27:48
and um and then i'm set on my line going
27:50
into the finals so that that's a lot of
27:52
reason why i'm stopping and looking
27:54
and uh i must say sometimes i've gone to
27:57
that final and i've tried to learn that
27:59
i've looked at the night before and it
28:01
hasn't worked
28:02
and i need to rethink it quickly and uh
28:04
just to make sure that i can visually
28:06
see myself going into the line
28:08
because i'm only going to be able to
28:09
ride it once before the final but i need
28:12
to know how to get into it and how to
28:13
get out of it
28:14
and uh make sure that i'm mentally ready
28:17
to take it so you don't want to be
28:18
coming down the track making a decision
28:20
of whether you want to go left of a tree
28:22
or right at the tree you know that's
28:23
just something that's going to be pretty
28:25
uh
28:26
pretty thought of so
28:27
yeah that race day that like that uh
28:30
morning practice is a very intense trick
28:32
yeah yeah it's not long is it
28:35
so on to this season leo gang cd12
28:38
finished 12. i believe you had a small
28:40
mechanical which meant you couldn't push
28:42
on like you wanted to yeah i was a
28:44
little bit bummed i mean
28:46
yeah leo gang is a good track i enjoy it
28:49
i think they've done some really cool
28:50
improvements to to mix it up
28:53
and i was ready for it i was up for it
28:55
my qualities
28:56
um wasn't so amazing i
28:59
slept offline in the first off camber
29:02
managed to save it but my
29:05
my
29:06
crank had a rock so i twisted my cranks
29:11
how they didn't break i have no idea
29:13
and but i managed to get down
29:15
and um
29:17
that was a good sign there was
29:18
definitely a lot of time and uh left on
29:22
track so i was ready for that final but
29:24
before these things happen i mean we we
29:26
push in the limits of ourselves our
29:29
equipment
29:30
and it was just something that that went
29:32
in there there's nothing we could do it
29:34
it is but you know i was
29:36
i wasn't overly happily uh happy with
29:38
12. um it's not a position i'm stoked on
29:41
but uh
29:42
hey it is what it is
29:45
legere you seeded 13th and finished
29:47
seventh everyone who finished ahead of
29:49
you started before you
29:51
the vast majority on a much drier track
29:54
of the riders that started after you
29:55
bernard kerr finished 16th loris 25th
29:58
memoir 28th
30:00
how important are results like that when
30:02
you're chasing a championship
30:04
oh definitely so important i mean we've
30:05
seen it in
30:06
um previous years as well when we had
30:09
the opening round and lords and the the
30:11
top
30:12
ten got rained out
30:14
um
30:15
this is the biggest damage control of
30:17
most events
30:18
is how well he can perform when the rain
30:20
comes for the final 10.
30:22
um for me it was was a great turning
30:25
point in the season you know it put me
30:27
right into the mix obviously we got
30:29
you know
30:31
and this is a very rare um situation
30:34
with uh with uh tiwa de brello up front
30:37
with with such a large lead you know
30:40
um he had had a few crashes in legere
30:42
and decided to take it really easy in
30:43
the quality
30:45
um and he took it really easy and it
30:46
worked out really well for him so it
30:48
wasn't something planned it's just a it
30:49
just happened that way
30:51
and um
30:52
so so that that's just the way it goes
30:54
but now we've got you know myself troy
30:56
and i think loris is creeping up behind
30:58
me the little frenchie but
31:00
are we super tight and uh based from
31:03
second to fourth is is so tightening
31:04
points so um those races are key you
31:07
know and uh
31:10
yeah
31:10
yeah i was happy i mean legend was was
31:12
it was tough and
31:15
and i was pretty i was pretty stuck uh
31:18
pretty stoked with my ride there
31:19
there was another weather affected race
31:21
a few seasons ago it might be the lord's
31:23
one you've just mentioned i can't
31:24
remember exactly which one it was but i
31:26
remember you clearly had the best i did
31:29
the best of anyone who everyone who came
31:31
down in bad conditions how do you do
31:33
that is it a mental thing or is it an
31:34
experience is it just experience of
31:37
riding those conditions
31:39
um
31:40
it's probably the conservative side of
31:42
my riding that benefits in those
31:44
conditions i think if i remember back to
31:47
lords i think when he crashed and went
31:49
out the tapes and
31:51
and maybe my conservative over breaking
31:54
natural
31:55
um
31:57
riding style just kind of works in that
31:59
condition you know
32:01
yeah
32:03
that's funny that greg mcdonald's just
32:04
told us he has a conservative over
32:06
breaking right inside what does that
32:08
mean you george
32:11
[Music]
32:17
all right so
32:18
greg let's talk a little bit about
32:20
pressure um i mean of course you still
32:22
feel pressure um as you just said race
32:24
day morning is a nervy time for you um
32:27
but has the pressure you feel
32:30
changed over the years
32:35
no
32:37
i don't think the pressure's changed
32:40
i've always been the one that puts the
32:41
most pressure on myself so
32:43
um
32:44
if i can handle the pressure that i put
32:46
on myself you know
32:48
uh then then things are good i don't
32:50
really feel i've never had any pressure
32:52
from come from many other angles
32:54
um
32:55
i would say the most pressure i had was
32:57
was world champs in south africa at home
33:00
you know that's
33:01
more of an opportunity to win at home
33:03
and and that's only going to happen once
33:05
so the pressure is there to make sure
33:07
you absolutely do it this one time
33:09
yeah okay but generally i'm i'm pretty
33:11
hard on myself so
33:15
everyone else's pressure and although
33:16
the pressures around seem to uh
33:19
come second to the pressure that i put
33:20
in myself fed away for sure what was
33:22
there a time earlier in your career when
33:24
as well as the pressure on yourself to
33:26
perform and get your results were you
33:28
also feeling
33:30
oh
33:31
i've got i've got to do this to to get
33:32
my ride to secure my sponsorship has has
33:35
that kind of become less
33:37
of a factor now you're so established
33:39
with the syndicate or do you still feel
33:40
that as well
33:43
i haven't felt it no
33:46
it hasn't really been something that i
33:49
focused on
33:51
there for sure there's there's been
33:52
moments where i've
33:54
um
33:56
where i've thought about things a lot
33:58
more going into race but that actual
34:00
race once you
34:02
once you've gone through qualities and
34:03
you you're in the motion of racing it's
34:05
to me it's that challenge of winning the
34:07
race or being in the mix
34:10
um
34:11
and that's what i love about it and it's
34:13
all down to one run
34:15
and
34:16
i think that pressure is really cool
34:18
because
34:19
you know you can
34:20
you can walk the track with it with
34:23
with the the guy who you're gonna try
34:26
and beat the next day but if he can't
34:28
put it together and you can you beat him
34:29
on that day doesn't matter what line
34:31
you're on doesn't matter if he knows
34:33
your little sneaky inside or not
34:35
um and and that's what's so cool so it's
34:37
uh
34:38
the pressure's on and the pressure to to
34:41
make sure that you can handle it in that
34:42
race run
34:44
sure and i couldn't agree more with what
34:46
you've just said the sport is so cool
34:48
for the fact that we don't directly
34:50
affect each other as athletes on the
34:52
track and the vibe in the pits is just
34:55
meant for the most part everybody gets
34:57
on everybody has a laugh there's great
34:59
kind of friendships there and you won't
35:01
get that in a lot of other sports like
35:02
maybe motocross or you know because they
35:05
are directly able to affect each other
35:07
whereas as you've just said
35:09
for us
35:10
you've just got to ride your own by down
35:11
the hill faster than that guy and uh for
35:14
sure
35:15
and of course it's easier said than done
35:16
but basically that's the
35:21
so coming into 2020 we had a period of
35:24
consistency for four to five years it
35:27
had been you know the same five or so
35:29
guys at the top lori comrie danny troy
35:32
yourself
35:33
you've seen your fair share of
35:34
generation changes over the years but it
35:36
feels like we may be in the middle of
35:38
another one at the moment those guys are
35:40
still up there but loris seemed to be
35:42
the man to beat last season and of
35:43
course he's just won this weekend in
35:45
maribor tebow's on a charge this season
35:47
then there's matt walker who won the
35:49
overall last season
35:51
rhys wilson's kind of
35:53
got himself in there now of course the
35:55
current world champion benoit collage
35:57
the french national champion is now
35:58
stepping up and getting top tens podiums
36:01
um
36:02
do you feel like there's a shift taking
36:04
place or do you think maybe this is a
36:06
knock-on effect from the inconsistency
36:08
we saw from coded
36:11
no i think there's definitely a shift
36:13
um
36:14
there's new guys and you've named them
36:16
all
36:17
um
36:18
as well as dan slack i mean he had a
36:20
brilliant ride he's come out of nowhere
36:21
you know just to
36:23
to get some momentum from the europeans
36:25
into the world cup that's a brilliant
36:27
ride yeah um
36:29
and you know you're looking at
36:31
you're looking at what five or six guys
36:33
you just mentioned those are
36:35
guys in the top ten i mean you take it
36:37
back a few positions back and you've got
36:40
uh toyota from new zealand coming in
36:42
there i mean yeah you know there's a
36:45
whole bunch of new guys
36:46
and it's really cool to see um
36:50
it there's definitely a new wave and you
36:53
know you've got guys like you've been
36:54
around for for quite some time
36:57
things are starting to click for him
36:58
he's on a good team
37:00
and he's running really well he's
37:02
running really aggressive so
37:03
uh
37:05
that's cool to see um
37:07
he's an incredibly
37:09
skilled rider and he's managing to put
37:11
it all together so
37:12
yeah there's definitely a shift there's
37:14
definitely a change and you're so right
37:16
by saying loris is the the guy to beat
37:18
and he was last year as well
37:21
he has got incredible pace
37:23
and but with that pace he is
37:26
he is in control he's smooth
37:29
and he can do it you know
37:31
and that's the difference with the pace
37:33
that loris rides it that
37:35
to me um
37:37
it's
37:40
it's a scary pace being a competitor to
37:42
someone who rides like that
37:44
then to watching someone
37:46
just as fast but with less control
37:48
um
37:50
there will be school fees for those who
37:52
ride out of control and that usually
37:54
slows you down with time
37:55
but with the pace like laura says riding
37:57
and with the um
38:00
this
38:01
the
38:02
how efficient and smooth he's riding
38:04
it's that is super impressive
38:08
i was kind of like coming on to my next
38:09
question which was that in your
38:11
unfinished business video that dropped
38:13
at the start of the season you talked
38:14
about how one of the changes you've seen
38:16
over the years as being that riders used
38:18
to attack sections
38:20
now they attack 100 from the moment they
38:23
leave the gate
38:24
we're seeing riders pushing the edge
38:26
more and more and
38:27
and this seems to be the level you have
38:29
to be at if you want to win
38:31
i'm sure it's not a coincidence but
38:33
we're seeing those riders to sustain
38:35
some pretty serious injuries too do you
38:37
think in the future should we
38:38
see riders still racing in their 30s or
38:41
do you think it's going to become even
38:42
more of a young man sport where rad is
38:44
coming and kind of burn look brightly
38:45
for a few seasons and then fade away
38:48
hey i don't know i mean i didn't think
38:49
i'd be racing at 39 i mean
38:52
i definitely didn't have a plan to
38:55
but who knows i mean
38:57
it definitely got eliminate some
38:58
injuries to to prolong your career
39:02
um
39:03
that is for sure but
39:06
it's uh
39:09
it's again we're talking about it
39:10
earlier writing 100 out the start gate
39:14
all the time every time you're on your
39:15
bike yeah
39:17
i don't know if that's going to give you
39:19
a prolonged career
39:21
right now 100 anywhere is a good chance
39:23
of crashing
39:24
so you know we're in a risky sport these
39:26
things happen and you eliminate that
39:28
risk
39:28
um and that's gonna definitely affect
39:31
your longevity
39:34
so if you were starting out now as one
39:35
of these young guys let's let's use dan
39:38
as an example um
39:40
you know with the depth of talent in the
39:42
field and how hard everybody's pushing
39:45
how how would you play it if you were
39:46
starting now
39:49
same way as you have done no um
39:52
yeah you know i
39:54
i find it's going back to the basics a
39:56
lot is what most top riders or writers
39:58
trying to get to the top avoid
40:00
you know every rider that wants to go
40:02
faster goes to the steepest gnarliest
40:04
track and tries to ride it as fast as
40:06
they can and feel like they're going to
40:07
improve but
40:09
in my opinion all they're improving is a
40:11
bad technique down a steeper gnarlier
40:12
track and creating a lot more risk
40:14
because they're going faster than they
40:16
probably should be
40:17
um
40:18
you got to attract like
40:20
slovenia i mean it was gnarly it was
40:23
super dangerous a lot of riders injured
40:26
that's one thing i was thinking about
40:27
this morning actually there's been a lot
40:28
of serious um
40:31
injuries quite a few spleens removed
40:32
this year which is something i've
40:34
noticed
40:35
and
40:36
was super unfortunate but you know this
40:38
is a
40:39
really fast track
40:41
and uh
40:44
we're just talking about it it's it's
40:45
not necessarily the speed you know
40:47
it's only so fast you can ride a bike in
40:49
a straight line
40:50
and i think for someone starting out
40:52
they're trying to find speed in the
40:53
wrong places
40:55
um they're trying to ride faster
40:57
and running faster is not necessarily
41:01
straight speed in a straight line or
41:03
down those straights i mean that's
41:04
it it's only so fast you can do that but
41:07
it's it's in the corners it's in your uh
41:10
how you break into a corner how you exit
41:11
the corner yeah um that's where the time
41:14
is it's not how it balls to the wall you
41:16
can go down the straight
41:18
and and and i think that's the
41:20
difference i think
41:21
for someone young coming into it needs
41:23
to go back to the
41:24
just the simple basics of breaking
41:26
corner body position
41:29
um
41:30
and that's a good place to
41:32
start cool great advice
41:35
so
41:36
is it
41:37
age
41:38
or experience and wisdom that stops you
41:40
doing events like hardline and rampage
41:43
would you say
41:43
[Applause]
41:45
i mean i've done
41:46
rampage i've been to look at hardline
41:49
and when i was at hardliner it was the
41:51
year i was just coming back from a
41:53
broken arm so i didn't feel the need to
41:55
break something else
41:57
you know it's a it's uh
42:00
it's a tough one a lot of risk
42:04
yeah with barely much reward
42:06
yeah and uh
42:10
my job is to race world cups i want to i
42:12
want to try and win the world cup
42:13
overall and be ready for world champs
42:15
sometimes these events take it away
42:18
yeah um yeah they cool and and that's
42:20
really cool we need the events like this
42:22
but it doesn't do anything to
42:24
to helping me win the world cup or be up
42:26
there for world champs
42:28
so i definitely think there's a time in
42:29
place if if i wasn't racing i'd probably
42:31
do it
42:33
um or these trying to attempt it but man
42:35
they they are pushing the boundary of
42:37
risk there it's yeah incredible i mean
42:39
i watched it again this year and
42:42
and only because i've been out there to
42:44
commentate a few years ago
42:46
and
42:47
these those riders make it look so easy
42:50
and even when i was there it looked so
42:52
easy but when you stand at the top of
42:53
their road gap at hardline
42:55
it is incredibly high and
43:00
yeah it's just
43:03
it's an it's an
43:04
it's a very interesting one it's uh
43:07
it's good to watch it's great
43:08
entertainment
43:09
yeah for
43:10
sure the hot topic at the moment seems
43:13
to be well it is over here i don't know
43:15
if it is with you but it seems to be
43:17
visualization and it's stemming from
43:19
some of the things sam hill said on the
43:21
gypsy tales podcast
43:23
basically that when he was racing
43:24
downhill he he could lay in bed after
43:26
the first day of practice and he would
43:28
do a timed visualization of his run top
43:30
to bottom and he could usually get it to
43:32
win within a second of his actual time
43:35
i was chatting with danny hart and he
43:36
said there's nothing groundbreaking
43:38
there it's what all the top guys have
43:39
been doing for years
43:40
is that something you do and when you're
43:42
learning the track what are the key
43:43
things you consider
43:45
yeah i think danny danny's probably
43:47
right um i think anything groundbreaking
43:50
is
43:51
he can do it within a second of his
43:53
final winning time i mean that's
43:56
yeah that's the best
43:58
um
43:59
yeah i think it's it's been a big part i
44:01
think it's what's helped me create
44:02
consistency and
44:03
and it's a part of my process for
44:06
sure do you have a technique for
44:08
remembering a track or
44:11
are you just learning each run
44:13
just visualize really
44:15
um that's why i walk it you know you can
44:17
see so much more walking a track and
44:19
understanding and and being able to
44:21
visualize
44:22
going into a section that's we were
44:23
talking about earlier about that final
44:25
race
44:26
uh the final practice before before the
44:28
final you know you're only going to try
44:30
a line once so
44:32
you know you need to
44:33
visualize your entrance into the section
44:35
how it's going to
44:37
ride what you are able to do once you're
44:39
able to visualize the body movement and
44:41
then visualize your exit so
44:43
that's your second run down that
44:45
section is is mentally yeah can i ask i
44:49
saw on your instagram after finals a
44:51
video of you coming into the top into
44:53
the mario ball rock garden and you were
44:55
on a different line to everybody else
44:56
down the inside
44:58
was that a race day line or had you been
45:00
on that all weekend no
45:02
you know nowadays it's so hard to do a
45:05
race day line you've got
45:07
um
45:08
some teams with like four or five guys
45:10
filming you down yeah and everywhere you
45:12
stop you've got a guy timing you and
45:14
he's just you know it's so hard
45:17
to keep anything my idea for that rock
45:19
garden was to
45:21
um
45:23
pick the line walking the track
45:25
found the good line yeah slightly tweak
45:28
it i'd slightly tweak it into the whanau
45:31
but i felt like
45:33
if they're gonna see it they're gonna
45:34
copy it
45:36
but by then i've got a few runs deeper
45:37
on them so they won't be able to get it
45:39
as good as i will and yeah um that
45:41
proved me right in the final you know
45:43
it's like anything if it's not your idea
45:46
and it's not
45:47
something you've planned to do and
45:49
you're trying to execute someone else's
45:50
plan
45:51
yeah it might not suit you it might not
45:53
work well
45:54
and i think we're in a in an industry
45:57
that likes to follow
45:58
others in many different ways from bike
46:00
development to anything else you see a
46:02
one brand or bike doing well all of a
46:04
sudden that's the way the bikes need to
46:06
be
46:07
and you see a line and that's what we
46:09
need to ride but i'm a big guy for me to
46:11
ride alone like sam hill used to ride
46:13
back in the day it was impossible when
46:14
he used to ride these inside lines if
46:15
you're crazy yeah i was all about the
46:18
outside with no brakes so you know
46:20
you've got to do what works well for you
46:21
but i i knew some guys would get on that
46:23
line and uh
46:25
i just felt that by the time they go on
46:27
to i'm gonna be comfortable on it and
46:28
i'm gonna be off the break so good luck
46:30
to them
46:31
yeah nice
46:33
so mario ball last week and then you
46:35
were p1 the access cup
46:37
um
46:39
over to valdasol for a bit of testing
46:41
back for the world cup and then you were
46:42
fourth in quality and fourth in the race
46:45
hmm not a bad weekend happy
46:48
yeah i was happy
46:49
um
46:52
yeah i was i was i
46:54
it was a good race
46:56
i think i was really really stoked with
46:58
the race because when i saw that lurk
47:00
bruni was in the hot seat
47:02
and i'd gone into the hot seat i knew
47:05
that was a good run yeah
47:07
you put that on your instagram
47:10
and when he's in the hot seat you know
47:11
he's putting it he's putting a good run
47:13
so that's that's a great standard to be
47:15
above yeah i mean
47:18
slightly above
47:20
ever so slightly yeah i think you like
47:22
and lori were you all within a tenth or
47:24
something something like that
47:26
so i
47:28
i can't be disappointed with that yeah
47:30
but i was really disappointed with how i
47:32
rode the bottom half of the track after
47:34
the race you know as i come to the
47:35
finish line i was really stoked without
47:36
was you know that but i just made some
47:39
really stupid areas right and in
47:41
hindsight i i
47:43
had a great
47:44
well i thought i had a pretty good one i
47:47
made a bit of mistake in the start on tv
47:49
through the top woods is cool i i was
47:51
catching up
47:52
and then i felt like i'd over break
47:54
through the chicane and i carried no
47:56
speed out
47:57
down to that straight before the rock
47:59
garden okay and i felt like i'd really
48:02
messed it up
48:03
and
48:04
i knew that that tb and laura
48:07
loris were were really strong on the
48:09
bottom half
48:10
and i felt like i'd now just drop some
48:13
time up top which i really need to push
48:15
hard down bottom even more so than i
48:17
needed to because i had to catch up a
48:19
bit of time from qualities yeah and uh
48:22
i just kept making these stupid mistakes
48:25
and when i go back and look at all the
48:26
times you know the i'd made up time
48:28
through the rock garden i actually
48:30
entered that bottom half of the track
48:32
um not far off loris
48:35
and uh if i just stuck to my guns and
48:39
tried not to ride at 105
48:42
and just stuck to 100
48:44
i probably would have been closer to
48:46
lowest than i was
48:48
and so i was really disappointed with
48:50
that um it was just some very stupid
48:53
mistakes
48:54
that's fair can i ask greg
48:56
i noticed even at the eye even at euro
48:58
champs but definitely the world cup as
49:00
well right the top of the track to the
49:03
end of the rock garden there didn't seem
49:05
to be much variability in the times
49:07
riders were doing but
49:08
the bottom part of that track especially
49:11
there just seemed to be some guys like
49:13
loris i think benoit had an amazing
49:15
bottom split
49:16
what was you of what would you put that
49:18
down to like
49:19
there wasn't really that much going on
49:21
at the bottom of the track but there
49:22
seemed to be so much variability in the
49:24
times laurie was another one who ripped
49:26
time out of everybody at the bottom
49:28
where'd
49:30
the top was a lot of flow
49:32
yeah and and that just kept the you know
49:34
you were going to lose time you weren't
49:36
going to make a polo time up top
49:39
um low flow once you got through the
49:40
rocks down through the
49:43
the the road pedaling section and you
49:45
dropped off
49:46
um it was super fast through there so
49:48
you need to be quite precise and then
49:49
that bottom is
49:51
it's fast but it's flat so you need to
49:53
carry speed really well
49:55
and one mistake but whether it's over
49:57
breaking or
49:58
or
50:00
or making you know just the dab of
50:01
breaks in the corner you're going to
50:02
lose that that little bit of average
50:04
speed through the next straight you know
50:06
it's there's not much gradient down
50:07
there
50:08
and and that's what that's what creates
50:10
these gaps and
50:14
so you know for instance you've got that
50:16
before you pop out the woods you got to
50:17
straight with all these jumps
50:19
and you go back up from there there's a
50:21
little creek gap i mean that's where
50:23
that section kind of starts you need to
50:25
carry that speed all the way from that
50:26
little creek gap
50:28
that carries you right down to the
50:30
finish line i mean that's a long section
50:31
of track
50:32
um you're not really touching the brakes
50:37
from that creek gap so as soon as you
50:39
mess up that creek gap you've lost a lot
50:41
of speed on to that jump straight which
50:43
then you know you're not going to be
50:44
able to catch up
50:46
down to the finish line so
50:49
that's that's what makes it get those
50:51
gaps down the bottom
50:52
appear carrying the speed out the flat
50:55
sections for sure okay
50:57
tell us a little bit about how it feels
50:59
in loris taking the win you brought him
51:01
onto the syndicate he was with you guys
51:03
for three seasons he's now with trek
51:06
many riders leave the syndicate do you
51:08
wish you'd stayed with you guys a little
51:09
longer
51:10
yeah i do i i really enjoy loris he's
51:13
he's a bubbly character
51:16
and uh
51:18
you know
51:19
take him out of the sport he's a he's a
51:21
great guy and i do enjoy spending time
51:24
with him he's
51:26
he's a lot of fun on the back i think
51:28
he's just incredible to watch and
51:30
and uh
51:31
one of the things i first remember
51:33
seeing him ride was
51:34
when he was testing out the santa cruz
51:37
and um
51:39
we just wrote down a trail
51:41
okay i didn't really know it very well
51:43
um
51:44
but i just found the way that he was
51:47
so light on his bike
51:49
and he'd pop it out really wide and
51:51
carry so much speed through these
51:53
corners it was
51:54
it was beautiful to watch
51:56
um
51:58
it kind of reminds me you know when you
52:01
i don't want thinking of it right now um
52:04
but uh when you watch someone play the
52:05
piano
52:06
it's kind of janky and you're like kind
52:08
of stabbing at all these buttons because
52:10
if you watch someone who really knows
52:11
how to play a piano
52:12
they just float over those keyboards
52:14
that's that's what loris kind of reminds
52:16
me of on a bike just
52:19
he he's so
52:21
fluid yet so strong as well
52:24
and i think it's such a dangerous
52:26
position as a competitor to be competing
52:28
against someone like that
52:31
yeah for as long as i can remember the
52:33
syndicate has always been a three this
52:35
season it's a two how are you getting on
52:37
with it and does that bring more
52:39
pressure just having two guys on the
52:41
start line
52:42
yeah no it it doesn't i mean yeah it
52:46
it's not the norm for us to have two but
52:48
you know it is what it is it's hard you
52:50
know we
52:51
we've gone through a short and race
52:53
season
52:54
and i think it's just about trying to
52:56
find someone that wants to be on the
52:58
syndicate that uh
53:00
um
53:02
that fits that fits within i think it's
53:05
cool i think it's you know there's
53:06
obviously
53:08
new generations coming through i'm gonna
53:09
be around forever so yeah there will be
53:11
a bit of uh transformation happening
53:14
over some time and there's no point
53:16
rushing into it
53:17
yeah
53:18
so you've you've spotted loris and and
53:21
luca and they've come on really well and
53:23
you've brought them onto the team you're
53:25
going to give us any clue if there's new
53:26
riders coming on
53:28
i'm sure they will be i don't know
53:31
uh yet what's happening um i don't know
53:34
myself
53:35
i'm still uh
53:38
are we still i just heard a noise yeah
53:41
yeah i mean i don't know what the
53:43
who or what
53:45
my contract's unfortunately up as well
53:47
but um i'd like to stay on the
53:49
syndicator it's it's been a great home
53:51
for me i think it's um
53:53
it works while i have fun within the
53:55
team and i think that's what you know
53:57
makes the the hard side of racing is the
53:59
traveling and when that when you can
54:01
have fun traveling you can race
54:03
with a bit more heart
54:05
so we were trying to get this episode
54:07
recorded last week and as jack mentioned
54:09
it was a big week for you
54:10
if i remember correctly there was also a
54:12
trip to vienna in there is that what
54:14
your life is like every week during the
54:16
season or was that just a particularly
54:18
busy one oh bloody hell it's been a
54:20
nightmare
54:22
i mean i'm trying to keep my girlfriend
54:25
under control here too she's freaking
54:27
out
54:29
i'm trying to convince her that this is
54:31
not normal that i'm not normally this
54:33
busy but
54:34
when i think back i'm
54:37
probably normally was busy so anyway
54:40
yeah it's just been it's just been mad
54:41
house uh you know
54:43
it's
54:44
it was so hard it's uh and i think it's
54:47
just you to cover you know we we're in a
54:49
really compressed season um again oh
54:53
that was me sorry um when a really com
54:56
pre-season
54:57
um cover doesn't help all the paperwork
54:59
and all the
55:00
um
55:02
admin side of that it's just a nightmare
55:05
and so it's just that
55:07
that added time to the schedule doesn't
55:09
help
55:10
yeah
55:12
current stand-ins you're currently
55:14
sitting in third place in the overall of
55:16
330 points two bars in first on 590 and
55:19
troy second on three five three with two
55:22
seconds in the first already is it
55:24
tebow's title to lose now
55:29
yeah i would say so i mean it would
55:31
it would have to be um
55:35
but it it he's riding really well and
55:36
he's running really maturely it's
55:39
um
55:41
i feel like since leger
55:44
he his riding has
55:47
has adjusted and
55:49
and he wrote really well in maribor
55:52
um
55:54
not quite what we saw in in leo gang
55:58
yeah where it was just
56:00
um wild yeah it was wild you know he had
56:03
cut it back
56:05
and
56:06
that too is just a
56:08
really
56:09
tough competitor to beat when they're
56:11
racing like that
56:12
you know they're starting to race with
56:13
his with his head and um
56:17
it's
56:18
it's uh quite impressive to watch a
56:20
young guy like that being able to adjust
56:22
his head game into into his racing and
56:25
and race accordingly so
56:28
although
56:29
you know we'd look at him as
56:31
the gutter you know as
56:33
the guy to beat and you know
56:36
can he lose it yeah he can but
56:38
i think it's going to be tough i think
56:39
the way he's riding now it he
56:42
he'll be really tough to beat this year
56:44
and you know he's had a bit of luck and
56:46
and
56:47
that's just how things roll sometimes
56:48
and um but he's also then been really
56:51
smart once he's
56:53
um
56:54
like he rode in in maribor you had a
56:56
really good race and qualifying as well
56:59
so
57:00
yeah it's going to be it's going to be
57:01
hard to catch on points but then again
57:02
anything can happen in downhill i mean
57:04
um
57:05
[Music]
57:06
we've all been in positions where we've
57:08
um
57:10
had mechanicals at wrong times and
57:13
unfortunately it just goes away so
57:16
well it's it's it's hotting up to be a
57:18
good season you know it's it's tight and
57:20
it's uh it's close it's good it's
57:22
awesome
57:24
so we've got some uh back-to-back races
57:26
coming up um
57:28
correct me if i'm wrong but i don't
57:29
think you've won in valdosol is that
57:31
correct no i've had a second that's it
57:34
yeah okay yeah um but there have been
57:36
five world cups in lenza hyde you've won
57:38
twice second the third and then eight so
57:41
very good record in london hide they're
57:43
very different tracks uh will you be
57:45
targeting lanzaid in particular and the
57:47
world cup series or are you going to
57:50
valdasol going for that gold medal i
57:52
mean it's
57:54
it's so hard to separate them
57:57
yeah you got the same competitors you're
57:59
in a similar venue to world cup yeah
58:01
you've got different clothing so
58:04
i
58:05
haven't really
58:07
kind of approach the world champs as
58:09
another world cup
58:11
um i'm not able to do that
58:14
that whole refocus on one race and lay
58:16
everything down it's
58:18
you know and kind of forfeit the world
58:20
cup series i've never been able to do
58:21
that
58:23
so for me it's
58:24
obviously uh
58:26
australian to world champs lanzard and
58:29
well then we're down to one venue so
58:31
um
58:34
yeah we we midway midway in a world
58:36
champs in between so that's cool
58:39
yeah okay so off what you've just said
58:41
there about you know being a rider who
58:44
can just
58:45
say [ __ ] it for world champs um we've
58:48
seen that tebow de prella is one of
58:50
those riders who's very happy to just
58:52
press uh full send we saw it in leo gang
58:55
question for both of you i guess if you
58:57
were teebo da pela how would you play
58:59
this world champs do you take it easy
59:01
like we saw in maribor and see how he
59:03
can do or does he go all right well i'm
59:06
on form
59:07
let's let's press send
59:10
oh man it's i'd hate to be in this
59:12
position
59:13
it's normally like a world champs a
59:15
world cup final towards the end of the
59:17
season so you gotta go for it
59:22
i don't know i mean veldasol
59:25
i don't know if you can win it on a on a
59:27
play safe run
59:29
um no
59:31
and you definitely want to beat someone
59:32
like bruni who's just a master at
59:36
refocusing on that one event
59:38
yeah so that's going to be tough and
59:41
you've got lori greenland who podium
59:43
developed a solo few years ago he's
59:44
coming on four yeah
59:46
he's gonna be up there
59:48
um
59:49
so
59:51
yeah laurie actually won the last world
59:53
cup that i didn't in 2019. he did well
59:55
he did so i don't know
59:58
i'd hate to be tebow trying to figure
59:59
this one out yeah i would imagine that
1:00:03
the best thing to do wouldn't be to
1:00:06
maybe not think about it too hard and
1:00:07
just go and race yeah just do your first
1:00:09
practice run and get going just get
1:00:11
going and take it as another race yeah
1:00:13
yeah
1:00:14
i've got a question for all your
1:00:16
experience greg um obviously i'm i'm dan
1:00:18
slack's team manager i'm his coach um
1:00:21
but i coach him off the back of my best
1:00:24
world cup result being 18th i do have 11
1:00:27
years experience
1:00:30
my advice to him off the back of last
1:00:31
week has been
1:00:33
rain your neck in
1:00:35
refocus
1:00:36
the hype's done
1:00:38
let's just keep working and keep
1:00:40
focusing on trying to build what would
1:00:42
you say to dammit 19 years old first
1:00:44
elite world cup and he's just come 10th
1:00:46
what would your advice be moving forward
1:00:49
into the second half of the season
1:00:51
yeah
1:00:52
just be you keep focusing on what you do
1:00:54
you know
1:00:55
i think at that point you you've got to
1:00:56
take
1:00:57
the results away from it
1:00:59
um
1:01:00
because it you know you could have a a
1:01:02
great race
1:01:04
say in lanzard or world champs and you
1:01:06
could be in
1:01:07
in 30th place quite easily and
1:01:12
if you gear up to to now be in the top
1:01:14
10
1:01:15
and you get one of those results you can
1:01:16
set yourself back quite a bit
1:01:19
um i think you just got to look at the
1:01:20
bigger picture of where do you want to
1:01:22
go you're going to have these these
1:01:24
stand out results and these are tracks
1:01:26
that maybe you are comfortable maybe
1:01:27
suits you've got to figure out
1:01:30
you know
1:01:31
what it was that that worked
1:01:33
and it's funny i was actually chatting
1:01:36
brad binder lives up the road from me
1:01:37
and we were out on a road ride this
1:01:38
morning
1:01:39
and he was saying how long it's been
1:01:41
since he won a motor gp
1:01:43
and we're laughing i said well i was the
1:01:45
same you know i'd won a race and then
1:01:48
you know i didn't win on for a couple
1:01:49
years and that's just the way it is it's
1:01:50
like you you're almost going back to
1:01:53
trying to wear the same socks you walk
1:01:55
to try and find that whatever it was a
1:01:57
click to win the race so
1:01:59
we're laughing about this morning but
1:02:01
it's the same thing you know you can
1:02:03
research in all the wrong places and
1:02:04
it's just a matter of just finding that
1:02:06
groove and that what clicks and uh get
1:02:09
that consistency going
1:02:11
um because ultimately if you up the top
1:02:13
end of the field and you're consistent
1:02:14
up there you're going to get those wins
1:02:16
yeah for sure
1:02:18
so yeah it's it's a great achievement to
1:02:20
what dan's done and and advice going
1:02:22
forward is definitely just keep focusing
1:02:24
on the race and and try and get that end
1:02:26
goal um you're gonna have some peaks
1:02:28
along the way and you're gonna have some
1:02:29
dives as well
1:02:30
um
1:02:31
but ultimately if it will leverage out
1:02:34
for sure great advice yeah nice one
1:02:37
thank you
1:02:38
we'll finish with a couple of big
1:02:39
picture questions some of your
1:02:41
competitors are half your age now tebow
1:02:43
was born in february 2001. you won the
1:02:46
world cup overall that season it can't
1:02:48
go on forever have you had any thoughts
1:02:50
about what you'd like to do when you do
1:02:52
retire or can you not really let that
1:02:54
into your head until the time comes jeez
1:02:57
i was relieved you said that cause i
1:02:58
thought you're gonna be asking me if
1:02:59
these could be some of my kids
1:03:07
it's so cool i think i'm so privileged
1:03:09
to um
1:03:10
to be in this position
1:03:12
it's it's really is a privilege it's
1:03:14
you know you i didn't expect this
1:03:18
um
1:03:19
i did not expect to be racing this age
1:03:21
and i didn't expect to be competitive at
1:03:24
this age
1:03:26
and uh
1:03:28
you know you stan i still on that podium
1:03:30
and and yeah i was fourth and i've got
1:03:33
um
1:03:33
a bunch of really really talented riders
1:03:36
around me
1:03:38
three really talented guys above me and
1:03:40
one really talented guy below me it's
1:03:42
not a bad position to be in
1:03:44
um
1:03:45
i
1:03:46
i just uh
1:03:49
you're right i did look at some of the
1:03:51
ages especially uh deprela and
1:03:54
and looking anyways 2001 right
1:03:57
and uh
1:03:58
well it's
1:04:00
has time flowing that's what i thought
1:04:03
yeah because i go back to 2001 and i was
1:04:05
thinking wow what a time that was
1:04:08
first you're on a big team traveling the
1:04:10
world
1:04:11
um
1:04:12
it was incredible so
1:04:15
time waits for no one
1:04:17
i'm with you on that i can still
1:04:18
remember i used to dj and i remember
1:04:20
doing the millennium you know that was a
1:04:22
big night
1:04:23
and it just it's gone in the blink of an
1:04:26
eye it's 20 21 yeah millennium was a big
1:04:29
night it was i think i was 18.
1:04:32
um the olympics have just taken place
1:04:35
would you like to see handle in the
1:04:36
olympics and if so we might need a
1:04:39
statesmanlike champion to leave the
1:04:41
charge and i can't think of anyone
1:04:42
better is that a challenge you'd like to
1:04:44
take on uh you know i think jono you
1:04:47
know
1:04:47
it's it's uh
1:04:49
it's in there i'm i'm in the air on it i
1:04:51
mean it's
1:04:52
i love donald racing
1:04:55
i love where we at with it
1:04:57
i personally don't know if it's for
1:04:58
olympics
1:05:00
um
1:05:02
and purely because what i look what
1:05:03
happened to bmx i think
1:05:05
bmx has changed so much
1:05:09
i personally don't like the style of it
1:05:11
anymore
1:05:12
i used to love the style of bmx i
1:05:14
remember getting bmx plus magazine and
1:05:16
watching these guys
1:05:18
and you know bmx has transformed so much
1:05:21
you see these guys in lycra with
1:05:23
with
1:05:24
shorts on i mean they look horrendous
1:05:28
that's not what i remember bmx to be um
1:05:33
cross country on the other hand's done
1:05:34
really well i think you know the the
1:05:37
image the soul of chris country hasn't
1:05:39
been lost within the olympics
1:05:41
i just don't know if we'll be taking
1:05:42
steps back going to the olympics because
1:05:45
everything will change you'll suddenly
1:05:46
be the federation run
1:05:49
um
1:05:51
will we lose the image of daniel which
1:05:54
we've created over the years which seems
1:05:56
to have lasted quite well within the the
1:05:58
clothing and and the style of helmets
1:06:01
where we don't wear the most aerodynamic
1:06:02
dynamic clothing but everyone's under
1:06:05
the same understanding as there's an
1:06:07
image behind it on that image then
1:06:09
translate
1:06:10
transfers into enduro race and
1:06:12
everything else so there's there's a
1:06:13
reason being there's a reason for it
1:06:16
um that's been um
1:06:18
quite a lot of money pushed into sport
1:06:20
through that twos you know
1:06:22
is uh
1:06:23
santini gonna gonna pay riders to wear
1:06:26
some teeny skin suits i don't know
1:06:28
i don't think so but
1:06:31
if we had a way to have more control
1:06:33
over the olympics and to be able to
1:06:35
maintain the image that's been created
1:06:38
over the last couple years
1:06:40
i'd be up for it i think it'd be really
1:06:42
cool
1:06:42
but um i've been through the the
1:06:44
transition of downhill where
1:06:46
in the late 90s we were in this boom
1:06:49
and then had this crash in the early
1:06:51
2000s and skin suits and taking the
1:06:54
visors off helmets came in
1:06:57
and slowly chipped away till
1:07:00
you know i think 2008 i had the the uh i
1:07:04
passed the
1:07:05
the ruling on clothing
1:07:07
uh with uci and the commission to to ban
1:07:10
skin suits
1:07:11
and i think since then we've seen a lot
1:07:14
of economic growth and downhill um and i
1:07:16
think we're in the healthiest position
1:07:18
it's been in the last
1:07:20
25 years
1:07:21
um i'd hate to see that get lost because
1:07:24
of the prestige of having an olympic
1:07:27
gold medal
1:07:29
i would feel that would be taking some
1:07:30
steps backwards but if that was
1:07:32
controllable then i'd be up for it
1:07:35
excellent what a great place to end it
1:07:37
thanks ever so much for taking
1:07:40
thanks everyone for taking the time to
1:07:41
come on the part greg it's it's always a
1:07:43
pleasure chatting to the go and best of
1:07:45
luck for the rest of the season hey
1:07:47
george thanks a lot thanks jack i really
1:07:49
appreciate being on the show and uh
1:07:51
sorry again for messing around to be on
1:07:53
yeah
1:07:56
i remember probably being a great track
1:07:58
in 1999 as a junior
1:08:01
it was my first top 20 scratch in the
1:08:04
french cup and let me tell you the
1:08:06
french live by scratch it doesn't matter
1:08:08
your position where you finish that's
1:08:10
where you finish scratch that counts
1:08:11
yeah
1:08:12
it's the best track i've ever raced oh
1:08:14
it's great
1:08:16
it's [ __ ]
1:08:18
we'll be back with pom-pom after these
1:08:19
messages
1:08:21
it's been a long time coming but we're
1:08:22
delighted to welcome the 2017 world cup
1:08:25
overall winner and the 2019 downhill
1:08:28
world champion miriam nicole to the
1:08:29
podcast how are you doing miriam hello
1:08:32
i'm doing good yeah still recovering
1:08:34
from last weekend it was a tough one but
1:08:37
uh yeah i'm back at home and getting
1:08:39
ready for world champs next week
1:08:42
excellent so as i just mentioned when we
1:08:44
were talking to greg we were trying to
1:08:46
get this episode done last week but it
1:08:48
just didn't happen and i have to say
1:08:50
that as you were sat in the start gate
1:08:52
on sunday no one was praying more than
1:08:54
me for a good result because i was like
1:08:56
if it doesn't if she doesn't do very
1:08:57
well she's probably not going to want to
1:08:59
come on the podcast and chat
1:09:02
uh yeah the week before maribor i was at
1:09:04
european champs and i arrived i was so
1:09:07
sick so i had to stay one day in bed and
1:09:10
then try to practice to set my bike
1:09:13
ready
1:09:14
and then you know i i was over it you
1:09:17
know and i was a bit pissed off and a
1:09:20
bit anxious about the world cup coming
1:09:22
so we left with my boyfriend we went to
1:09:25
the lake bled for two days
1:09:27
and uh and that came back brand new for
1:09:30
maribor so sorry i missed you but um
1:09:35
it was another amazing weekend for you
1:09:37
and we'll come on to that in a bit first
1:09:39
question though and it's probably been
1:09:41
explored elsewhere before but i've never
1:09:43
heard the answer where did the name
1:09:44
pom-pom come from
1:09:48
i was younger when i was really small i
1:09:50
was riding horse
1:09:52
you know i can say riding a horse like i
1:09:55
had a pony and the pony was called
1:09:59
pom-pom so
1:10:01
beside the bike side i was doing pony so
1:10:04
i was just talking and talking about
1:10:06
this tony was called pom-pom and then it
1:10:09
stayed but i'm i we're five years old so
1:10:12
you know
1:10:15
i remember i was playing with my
1:10:16
brothers and pretending they were
1:10:18
pom-poms they say now it's not true but
1:10:21
me i can i remember
1:10:25
cool long-standing nickname pom-pom was
1:10:28
a pony
1:10:31
okay so 2020 turned out pretty good for
1:10:33
you second fourth first and fourth
1:10:36
finishing second in the overall
1:10:38
were you happy with that or were you
1:10:39
frustrated to come so close to taking
1:10:42
the overall
1:10:43
yeah you know like in leogang finishing
1:10:46
second with a crash in this condition
1:10:48
was a tough one
1:10:50
and then it was a bit of a struggle to
1:10:54
to go from leogang with that feeling
1:10:56
into straight maribor reigning maribor
1:10:59
and then loser you know it was just
1:11:02
the mood was not really good after such
1:11:04
a long wait
1:11:05
for for those races so now i was
1:11:08
disappointed to be honest with second
1:11:11
europe at um words and overall
1:11:14
okay
1:11:15
okay um
1:11:19
did coming so close fire you up going
1:11:21
into the offseason
1:11:23
yeah for sure you know like this was a
1:11:25
good thing i found after
1:11:27
after loser in portugal i was like well
1:11:31
at least this winter you know it's a
1:11:33
good feeling when you finish winning
1:11:35
something but it is also a good feeling
1:11:37
to be like well i'm not gonna be it's
1:11:40
not gonna be hard to find any motivation
1:11:42
this winter because i just wanna go for
1:11:44
it and and give my best
1:11:46
yeah greg said exactly the same to us
1:11:48
earlier that if he'd uh he got beat by
1:11:50
loick by a tenth or something and loser
1:11:53
at the fourth round and he said if he'd
1:11:55
won that race he wouldn't have had as
1:11:57
good an offseason so yeah he definitely
1:12:00
said the same
1:12:02
how tough did you find dealing with the
1:12:03
whole corvid situation going into the
1:12:06
2020 season did you find it really
1:12:07
difficult or
1:12:09
well where i live is like i've got like
1:12:11
the nature right
1:12:13
at the exit of my door so this was not
1:12:16
hard to keep doing stuff and keep
1:12:19
training i have a gym in my garage and
1:12:22
so it was not i think the worst
1:12:25
the worst part for me
1:12:27
but i found it hard to
1:12:29
because i wanted to take this time to
1:12:32
improve my physical skinness and maybe i
1:12:35
did a bit too much and i was a bit
1:12:37
frosted at the end but
1:12:39
but no we did we did a great job and um
1:12:43
i've i've really found like
1:12:45
we could work some other stuff that we
1:12:47
never have time normally to work and i
1:12:49
could enjoy sometimes at home and so now
1:12:52
it was not that horrible for me
1:12:55
cool
1:12:56
i'm not going to name them but a writer
1:12:58
at the top of the sport recently told me
1:13:00
that
1:13:01
ultimately there's only two factory
1:13:03
teams that put winning ahead of winning
1:13:05
races ahead of marketing and what they
1:13:07
meant by that was that those teams would
1:13:09
have no hesitation in running ugly
1:13:11
looking bikes if that gave them a
1:13:13
competitive advantage
1:13:15
common sell mukhoff was one of the teams
1:13:17
they mentioned is that a dynamic you
1:13:19
feel on the team that there is like this
1:13:21
100 commitment to winning bike races
1:13:23
nothing is left a chance
1:13:25
yes for sure you know it's really
1:13:27
important that's why we we work really
1:13:29
hard on the bikes and
1:13:32
and the engineer like austria uh made a
1:13:34
new bike and even if it's still
1:13:37
prototype you know if it's
1:13:39
a first bike we just ride it
1:13:41
but yeah we we do a lot of testing so
1:13:44
from december until the race season we
1:13:48
just do some testing camp every month
1:13:51
so it's a lot of work and but it's uh
1:13:54
it's a cool times to
1:13:56
improve everything suspension tires will
1:13:59
bikes
1:14:00
so it's really the important part of the
1:14:03
team yeah
1:14:06
so this season you look really fired up
1:14:08
and you had an interesting race in leo
1:14:10
going you crashed in sector one you were
1:14:12
second in sector two you were fastest in
1:14:14
sector three you went down again in
1:14:16
sector four and then you were fifth in
1:14:18
sector five finishing eighth
1:14:20
it was really clear that you were
1:14:21
attacking the course do you feel like
1:14:23
you're being more aggressive this season
1:14:26
yeah and i think the bikes the new bike
1:14:28
helps a lot you know it's uh
1:14:30
i can't wait for the riders to try it
1:14:33
because it's uh
1:14:34
it's a bike you you want to you want to
1:14:36
push this bike you want to be aggressive
1:14:39
with it and this is crazy because this
1:14:41
is a feeling it comes back and
1:14:45
but yeah maybe also because i feel
1:14:47
stronger from training but i definitely
1:14:50
feel better
1:14:51
in every way
1:14:53
nice
1:14:54
one of the things we've talked about
1:14:56
with greg and aaron on a previous
1:14:58
episode
1:14:59
sorry i'll have to start again somebody
1:15:01
called me for some reason my laptop does
1:15:03
not like it
1:15:06
george can edit it yeah
1:15:08
start again one of the things we've
1:15:10
talked about with greg and aaron on a
1:15:12
previous episode is that more and more
1:15:14
riders are now
1:15:15
riding the edge they're pushing their
1:15:17
limits from the top of the track to the
1:15:19
bottom of the track to win races are you
1:15:22
feeling that in the female category as
1:15:23
well
1:15:24
yeah you mean like it on the last pleat
1:15:27
you mean
1:15:29
actually i i mean i just mean all the
1:15:31
way down it looks like there is just
1:15:33
commitment from top to bottom
1:15:36
yeah yeah everyone is pushing and but i
1:15:38
was talking about maribor because you
1:15:40
could feel that the difference was made
1:15:43
in the bottom of the track and in
1:15:45
maribor for example you have to go flat
1:15:47
out from start to finish and this is
1:15:49
something that is a bit tough you know
1:15:51
when you have no race on track but yeah
1:15:54
definitely the
1:15:55
the level is pushing i could feel it
1:15:58
already last year with a
1:16:00
different winner on every races almost i
1:16:03
think only marine one two
1:16:06
races but you know the level is pushing
1:16:09
and pushing everyone uh
1:16:11
and then all the girls are like
1:16:13
firing and you know it changed this
1:16:16
weekend we could see eleonora being
1:16:18
charging at the back so really cool to
1:16:21
see nice i asked greg a question and
1:16:23
with what you've just said i will ask
1:16:25
you the same question as well it's not
1:16:27
in the script but um
1:16:29
the the race definitely
1:16:31
in maribor had a very important sector
1:16:33
and it was that last sector there were
1:16:34
some crazy times and some crazy
1:16:37
variation for example the times that
1:16:40
vergier
1:16:41
and laurie did were very different to
1:16:43
the times that some of the other guys
1:16:45
did in that last split
1:16:47
what do you think
1:16:48
was causing such a difference in the
1:16:50
times in that bottom sector what would
1:16:52
you put it down to
1:16:54
i mean like
1:16:56
it's for sure
1:16:58
how you were feeling if you were tired
1:17:00
you don't know if because this is a flat
1:17:02
sector so you know when it's flat and
1:17:05
you push or when it's flat and you kind
1:17:07
of keep going with the speed but because
1:17:09
it's flat you're not going really fast
1:17:11
you know it was if you had some power
1:17:13
left and you could push
1:17:15
more and more i think that would make a
1:17:18
lot of difference compared to if you
1:17:20
were
1:17:21
trying to survive like you need to
1:17:23
arrive to the finish
1:17:25
but yeah i kind of
1:17:27
knew this sector would be really
1:17:29
important and the last
1:17:32
term also was really important i think
1:17:34
so
1:17:35
in on the road and
1:17:37
yeah now i feel like now you have to
1:17:40
you don't you cannot let anything you
1:17:42
know you have to check everything in
1:17:44
person until the finish line
1:17:46
nice
1:17:47
so um in terms of how hard the riders
1:17:49
are pushing you've got two of the the
1:17:51
wildest riders on your team um in omri
1:17:55
and tebow they've both had big crashes
1:17:58
recently um
1:18:00
does it scare you guys in the team
1:18:01
sometimes watching how fast they're
1:18:03
going
1:18:05
yeah yeah i'm always scared and
1:18:08
um
1:18:09
you know
1:18:10
when they are in control i can feel like
1:18:12
tibo now is riding more in control than
1:18:15
he has been yeah and rory is is doing
1:18:19
really good and
1:18:20
i'm pretty confident but after what
1:18:22
happens in that in the french cup um i
1:18:27
think i will watch their runs a bit more
1:18:30
freaking out
1:18:32
but yeah okay
1:18:34
it's not
1:18:35
off you know they feel like it's like
1:18:37
all the top men's you know louie clarice
1:18:39
they feel really consistent and strong
1:18:41
so
1:18:42
this is
1:18:43
this is not scary not scary to watch
1:18:46
them i am scared but this they are they
1:18:48
are good to see writing for sure for
1:18:51
sure how is omori doing any idea when
1:18:53
he'll be back on his bike
1:18:55
well he's doing some more exam next week
1:18:57
so we will know more but for the moment
1:18:59
no not much news okay okay um
1:19:03
so leger you went down in sector three
1:19:05
and still finished second only 0.3
1:19:08
behind tiny a great result especially
1:19:10
considering you crashed did you enjoy
1:19:12
that new tracking leger
1:19:14
yeah really at the beginning i was like
1:19:17
cool this is a new track but i really
1:19:19
loved the old one and for me that was
1:19:21
like a classic that we could not find
1:19:24
anywhere else flat out
1:19:27
so
1:19:28
at the first day i was like i'm not sure
1:19:31
if i'm not gonna miss the other one but
1:19:33
the new one man was so good so it was a
1:19:36
really technical and natural
1:19:40
with mine so no yeah for me real daniel
1:19:43
it was a good one yeah for sure we want
1:19:47
to ask you about jumping because
1:19:49
you hit every feature on that track in
1:19:51
leget is that correct
1:19:53
yeah yeah
1:19:54
yeah and and i can say from personal
1:19:56
experience because obviously i was there
1:19:57
um
1:19:58
the jumps were huge and
1:20:00
and they weren't just huge but they were
1:20:02
quite technical and some of them had
1:20:04
like blind take-offs um
1:20:07
tell us a little bit about how you kind
1:20:08
of got through that in practice to take
1:20:10
all the features off get them done
1:20:13
well the jumping my jumping story has
1:20:16
been a long one i've broke four
1:20:18
collarbone crashing on germs and
1:20:21
and my foot was on the jump as well so
1:20:25
this was the main work of the last two
1:20:28
years with my coach nick's training who
1:20:31
is a bear mix uh
1:20:32
coach
1:20:33
so i've been working out on this one and
1:20:37
for me uh the road gap in leigh was on
1:20:40
my list you know it was like i knew
1:20:42
there was gonna be this road gap and i
1:20:45
knew this was going to be a tough one so
1:20:50
i was really motivated to do it and i
1:20:52
analyzed everything while walking the
1:20:55
track so i was imagining like well the
1:20:58
gem doesn't look so scary but this is
1:21:00
before that you have to do the work
1:21:03
because if it was like just a road gap
1:21:06
this way it would have been okay and the
1:21:08
turn after was technical as well so
1:21:10
i just took it apart and tried to list
1:21:13
every single things that i had to do
1:21:16
to do it properly
1:21:18
and on my
1:21:20
first run i did two top in leisure you
1:21:23
know you could go down and do two top
1:21:26
sides in two top to get used to the
1:21:28
speed to get used to it and on my third
1:21:30
run i was like oh if you do wait and if
1:21:33
you do watch all these guys crashing
1:21:35
you're never going to do it again so i
1:21:38
just went straight to for it after the
1:21:41
my second run and um
1:21:43
yeah i mean like
1:21:45
it was a big of a commencement to do it
1:21:49
but because i took all the list of what
1:21:52
i had to do it worked pretty good and
1:21:55
i'm so glad i did it and didn't wait too
1:21:58
long for it because
1:21:59
when you were watching you could see
1:22:01
some horrible stuff happening so
1:22:04
i was not
1:22:05
i was just going for it
1:22:08
yeah i think i i saw the instagram video
1:22:10
of uh one of the comments how guys
1:22:12
showed me the video of you jumping it
1:22:14
did you follow someone who did you
1:22:15
follow off it yeah
1:22:17
so i'm writing a lot during the world
1:22:19
cups with a junior rafaeli nigez is what
1:22:23
homies i know from for ages you know i
1:22:26
was riding with him when he was so young
1:22:28
and now he's not scared at jumping at
1:22:30
all and i trust him and uh
1:22:33
this is still the part that i don't feel
1:22:35
confident enough to go on my own i
1:22:37
always need someone to give me the speed
1:22:40
but uh no good one
1:22:42
nice
1:22:43
excellent so last weekend maribor
1:22:46
i was messaging you and you mentioned it
1:22:48
earlier that you weren't very well
1:22:50
coming into the race how much did that
1:22:52
upset your your preparations
1:22:55
this was a tough one because i
1:22:57
energetically didn't feel really strong
1:23:00
because
1:23:01
i spent the full day
1:23:04
like i said in bed i could not move
1:23:06
anymore and then the next two days i was
1:23:08
trying to ride but
1:23:10
i really felt scared everything was
1:23:12
going just too fast and the goal to go
1:23:15
to european champs was to set my bike
1:23:19
for it to be ready for
1:23:21
the world cup and then at the work up
1:23:23
just be focused on my riding and not on
1:23:25
my setting anymore
1:23:27
but then because i was riding a bit slow
1:23:31
i think i set my bike with the wrong
1:23:34
conditions
1:23:35
and when i arrived at the walker i was
1:23:38
lost with my bike i was lost because my
1:23:41
speed was
1:23:42
faster the track has changed
1:23:44
and like for example some setup setting
1:23:47
i
1:23:48
didn't like the week before were finally
1:23:51
good and all the other way around so my
1:23:53
poor mechanic and the engineer i think i
1:23:56
love them
1:23:58
and
1:23:58
at some point so in time training
1:24:02
i got
1:24:04
fourth force i had a good run and i got
1:24:07
fourth and i was five seconds behind
1:24:10
come here and i was like
1:24:11
okay it's not gonna be a good one
1:24:14
so i start stressing and i start like
1:24:17
being nervous
1:24:19
and the boys mechanic and engineers they
1:24:21
were like well we all lost as well and i
1:24:24
was like i am standing well so we kind
1:24:26
of
1:24:28
people sat around and were like so what
1:24:30
are we going to do so on
1:24:33
only on race day
1:24:35
i put like all my steps up at the base
1:24:38
like i wrote in legend
1:24:40
and i was like i just went back to zero
1:24:44
on
1:24:45
on that day and uh it was a good choice
1:24:48
because my speed
1:24:50
was going
1:24:51
really
1:24:52
i was going much faster on the last day
1:24:54
compared to the first one so it was a
1:24:56
tough week but we finally
1:24:59
put everything back together and with
1:25:01
the help of uh jordy for
1:25:04
from fox as well so
1:25:07
that was good cool you took the win
1:25:09
i've watched the helmet cam it's
1:25:11
available for everyone to watch it was
1:25:13
an absolutely flat out run do you like
1:25:15
it when conditions are like that when
1:25:17
it's dry and dusty
1:25:19
yeah i mean i like when the conditions
1:25:21
are a bit extreme because i don't like
1:25:24
it when it's too easy and you have
1:25:25
nursing because then it means it will go
1:25:28
way too fast so at least when it's rough
1:25:31
you know it slows down a little bit to
1:25:32
speed
1:25:33
and
1:25:35
all the work i do on my bike to make it
1:25:37
work good
1:25:38
are more efficient when tracks are
1:25:41
destroyed than when it's
1:25:43
when there is nothing
1:25:45
cool
1:25:46
so first place this weekend into first
1:25:49
place in the over all tied on 560 points
1:25:51
with camille then there's valiant third
1:25:54
on four seven five tani on four six two
1:25:56
and monica on four two seven and
1:25:58
elianora on four twenty the season is
1:26:01
absolutely wide open isn't it
1:26:03
yeah for sure like all the girls are
1:26:05
able to to win the overall and i think
1:26:08
this is what people like and what i like
1:26:12
it's uh it's good racing you know when
1:26:14
it's this way so i'm stoked
1:26:17
with those riders plus nina there's
1:26:19
probably seven women who could win on
1:26:20
any given weekend
1:26:22
psychologically is it harder racing a
1:26:26
whole field of fast women where you know
1:26:27
you're in a chance but also there's six
1:26:30
others or was it harder in say 2016 2017
1:26:34
when rachel was at the peak of her her
1:26:36
powers and and you had one super fast
1:26:38
woman to try and beat
1:26:41
i mean like it's uh i think i'm gonna
1:26:44
use my experience and when i was like in
1:26:48
2017 when i was leading and leading and
1:26:51
you know the last races you have to be
1:26:54
consistent and you have to start
1:26:55
calculating
1:26:57
the points this was not the feeling i
1:26:59
liked you know because i like to race
1:27:01
free and just do to run alike and now
1:27:04
because you have to do your best and all
1:27:08
the girls can win and just go for
1:27:10
for it and don't think about the point
1:27:12
and
1:27:13
with rachel winning it was it was kind
1:27:15
of cool because we were
1:27:17
aiming for someone you know like so we
1:27:19
were like we were looking at her a lot
1:27:22
and analyzing her segments and
1:27:24
everything but
1:27:25
not the best situation is right now i
1:27:28
mean like
1:27:29
anyone can win and
1:27:31
girls are pushing so
1:27:33
just uh no choice to win
1:27:36
it's so exciting i know like
1:27:39
um
1:27:40
it's just it's really exciting to watch
1:27:42
there's people who didn't i know who
1:27:43
didn't really watch the women's racing
1:27:45
before but this season they're really
1:27:47
into it because you know as you say
1:27:50
it anyone can win
1:27:52
yes exactly now and celebrate so tight
1:27:55
and
1:27:56
it's cool the best racing
1:27:58
yeah so valdisol next to world champs i
1:28:01
think you've had four or five second
1:28:03
place finishes there which surprises me
1:28:05
because i would see that being a track
1:28:07
that suits you um
1:28:09
so
1:28:10
are you excited to try and get your
1:28:11
first win there next weekend
1:28:13
yeah i'm gonna go for it this was
1:28:15
actually the first walker by one back in
1:28:18
2011. would you have one there before oh
1:28:21
that's that's our stats guy getting it
1:28:23
wrong
1:28:24
that's my fault i didn't i apologize
1:28:26
yeah sorry that's my fault
1:28:29
many times
1:28:33
were you a junior then or were you elite
1:28:35
no i was elite that was my first
1:28:38
win
1:28:39
in
1:28:40
11 with rachel she will she carried me
1:28:43
at the end that was a cool one yeah
1:28:45
i remember i i remember that because i
1:28:47
think was that the same year that aaron
1:28:49
won by like
1:28:51
eight seconds or something
1:28:53
no because that was the year when um
1:28:56
dania won world champs so i don't think
1:28:59
that was the same year as an iron win
1:29:03
i don't know we'd have to look
1:29:05
is that not g that one yeah that's a us
1:29:09
i simon crush on that last corner that
1:29:11
was 2008. it was 2008 that was world
1:29:14
champs
1:29:15
that was worth championships yeah
1:29:17
we're diving deep into old stats
1:29:24
okay where was i um so the french
1:29:27
federation they invest a lot into world
1:29:29
championships for you french riders
1:29:31
which which is great do you feel like
1:29:33
you almost have an advantage or
1:29:34
advantage over other riders that perhaps
1:29:37
don't have that investment from their
1:29:39
federation no because we are i'm i'm
1:29:41
really happy for the
1:29:43
for the riders that doesn't have a big
1:29:45
team but because
1:29:47
i have my team for the last two or three
1:29:49
years even for world champs i'm not
1:29:52
going with a federation and i'm going
1:29:54
the team to try to stay in the same
1:29:58
routine than we are
1:29:59
but um
1:30:01
yes they are doing an awesome job they
1:30:03
are doing a lot of video and stuff so i
1:30:05
know if i have doped i can still ask
1:30:08
them
1:30:09
but
1:30:10
from my experience watching too much
1:30:12
video and
1:30:14
it sometimes it confused me
1:30:16
so yeah
1:30:18
i'm not going there to watch every night
1:30:20
and also i think my style doesn't
1:30:23
impress me and i'm impressed by all the
1:30:25
other girls so
1:30:28
myself i'm like
1:30:30
not good
1:30:33
i'm just not watching anymore and that's
1:30:36
where
1:30:36
that's the best for me i think
1:30:39
so yeah that that would be pretty cool
1:30:41
for there was a frenchie but i'm i'm
1:30:44
just gonna take this this race like any
1:30:46
other race and and do the same i have
1:30:49
the best team around so
1:30:51
we'll follow the process
1:30:54
for sure for sure well if it helps you
1:30:56
mentally i think you've got one of the
1:30:57
better styles out of women so
1:31:00
thank
1:31:01
there you go um you've also done well at
1:31:03
lens hide and snowshoe i think you're a
1:31:05
good bet for the overall going in tied
1:31:08
with cameo first what would mean more
1:31:11
another world championships win or
1:31:12
another world cup overall
1:31:15
oh it's a tough question honestly
1:31:18
my heart is like
1:31:21
i do want both and i just want to give
1:31:24
the best and i have no regrets if it
1:31:26
were chance i take it if it's overall
1:31:28
i'll take it and if it boasts
1:31:31
i hug it
1:31:33
who else did we ask that question to
1:31:35
george and they said both it was
1:31:37
quinn wasn't it was it aaron yeah i
1:31:39
think aaron said exactly the same he was
1:31:41
just like yeah i want both
1:31:44
true racer
1:31:45
i cannot choose i think the word chants
1:31:49
have more impact in
1:31:51
in life you know because you can said i
1:31:53
am more charms just a name when i won
1:31:56
the overall
1:31:58
people were like so you're a champion
1:32:00
i'm like no i won the overall and they
1:32:03
just get confused so when you win watch
1:32:05
out it's like boom armor champion but
1:32:07
it's just to tell the people so
1:32:10
now i add both in my um
1:32:12
i had i won both so it's just to
1:32:16
to try to give the best and um and take
1:32:18
really racist each by how they come nice
1:32:23
tell us a little bit about this new
1:32:24
common cell frame how different does it
1:32:26
feel to the old one because it does look
1:32:28
quite different
1:32:29
yeah it's not the same at all it's uh
1:32:33
it's much more dynamic you know the old
1:32:36
one was working really good
1:32:38
but sometimes when it was a bit flat or
1:32:41
when
1:32:42
you wanted to
1:32:43
to get some speed
1:32:45
you had to
1:32:46
bag was a bit too soft you know so this
1:32:49
new one
1:32:50
is the same than the other one in the i
1:32:54
mean it works really good in a technical
1:32:56
part and when it's steep and when it's
1:32:58
rough but it's also at the part but when
1:33:01
it's flat
1:33:02
and when you want it to accelerate it
1:33:04
does work you know you rip it respawn
1:33:07
better i don't know it's my words if you
1:33:09
understand what i mean
1:33:11
the answer is more like yeah i would say
1:33:14
this bike is much more dynamic but still
1:33:16
works really good in the tough section
1:33:19
yep excellent you're also on fox
1:33:21
suspension this season you mentioned
1:33:22
jordy earlier how has that been a smooth
1:33:25
transition over to fox
1:33:27
yeah yeah it was uh really good you know
1:33:30
like the junior i can't remember this
1:33:32
the first time the first testing camp
1:33:35
tristan the junior said after the first
1:33:38
training was like
1:33:39
this is cheating to be unfortunate
1:33:44
and honestly yeah it's um it's really
1:33:48
good you know we were doing an awesome
1:33:50
job with rockshox as well and loris is
1:33:53
probing that the workshops is working
1:33:55
really good as well but
1:33:58
i feel so much more confident with my
1:34:00
folks you know like
1:34:02
just a gnarly landing
1:34:04
or
1:34:05
when it's really destroyed and you have
1:34:07
to push this forks give me so much more
1:34:10
confidence
1:34:11
than
1:34:12
the one i had before this is a
1:34:14
difference i feel a lot
1:34:16
excellent final question we recorded an
1:34:19
episode at the end of last season about
1:34:21
increasing female participation in
1:34:23
downhill and we've got plans to do a
1:34:24
follow-up episode later this season
1:34:27
one of the changes the writers really
1:34:28
wanted to see was an increase in women
1:34:31
riders in practice at world cups i know
1:34:33
you're the the kind of technical uh the
1:34:36
the lead with uci
1:34:38
it was i think they thought it was a bit
1:34:40
of an unfair advantage for the top five
1:34:42
women last season um
1:34:44
you've got that change this season just
1:34:46
tell us a little bit about about how
1:34:47
you're progressing with that
1:34:49
yeah
1:34:50
so
1:34:51
at the uci we were wanting i wanted to
1:34:54
have more girls in a group as
1:34:57
the the men at the top 60 in the group a
1:35:01
junior at the top 10 so i was like why
1:35:04
this woman doesn't have any chance to be
1:35:06
in the top hey you know like all the men
1:35:09
do have so i asked for 15 and 10 but
1:35:13
then a question of safety appear for the
1:35:16
men that the level of woman after 10 was
1:35:19
so much slower that could cause
1:35:22
some red flags or
1:35:24
dangers so
1:35:26
the uci agreed for top five so i was
1:35:29
like well this is uh
1:35:31
at least the first step and then we can
1:35:34
push and now because it wasn't fair
1:35:36
obviously like we didn't have the same
1:35:38
conditions and stuff
1:35:40
despite marine tiny and i proved that
1:35:43
being in b practice we could still do
1:35:46
good but i kind of understand this was
1:35:48
not a good way so we went back to group
1:35:51
b for all the girls now
1:35:54
and we are working for next year i
1:35:57
really felt like the level was being
1:35:59
faster and faster for the woman so i
1:36:02
have asked again to have the top 15 in
1:36:05
group a for next year
1:36:07
because um yeah i mean like i'm not sure
1:36:10
this would cause safety issue
1:36:13
and you know if you're a girl and you
1:36:14
know you have a man you know when you
1:36:16
are trying to be a bit careful and you
1:36:19
you know you feel someone behind you go
1:36:21
right on the on the side and stuff i
1:36:23
think this would work so this is a
1:36:25
discussion we still need to have with
1:36:27
the uci and the men's obviously
1:36:29
but uh yeah this is what we will try to
1:36:31
have for next year
1:36:33
because being in big practice
1:36:36
i want to have more girls in um
1:36:39
in big teams but when you're on b
1:36:41
practice
1:36:43
practicing at 8 30 in the morning you
1:36:45
know there is no media for example
1:36:48
and this doesn't help with the
1:36:50
communication for for women so
1:36:53
we'll see
1:36:54
thank you for the update so before we go
1:36:56
i'm out here in prague loop racing
1:36:58
masters worlds and your brother is it
1:37:00
olivier yeah
1:37:03
he's here racing too he's won world
1:37:05
masters worlds twice before how does the
1:37:08
conversation go in the nickel household
1:37:10
is your elite title worth more or does
1:37:13
he edge it because he's got two
1:37:15
no he
1:37:17
i think he's really happy to do it he
1:37:19
has two kids now and
1:37:21
he was like well i still have to go back
1:37:23
to racing because this is what i really
1:37:26
love and
1:37:27
it's a good family trip and
1:37:29
i think when you have a racing thing in
1:37:31
new you you know it never go so i hope
1:37:34
you will do well and i'll be cheering
1:37:36
for him
1:37:38
excellent well miriam thank you for
1:37:40
making the time to come on the podcast
1:37:41
and the very best of luck for the rest
1:37:43
of the season
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