Up next in 10
Loris Vergier, winner of Maribor and Lenzerheide DH World Cups, in his first solo podcast.
Sep 6, 2021
He might not consider himself the man to beat at World Cup level but we certainly think he is and this is his first solo podcast! We’re delighted to welcome ‘The King Of Maribor’ Trek Factory Racing DH’s Loris Vergier to the show.
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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
0:38
season three episode a of the pod
0:41
jack
0:42
greg minar can you believe he did it
0:45
i can't mate he's just another level in
0:47
me i mean already the greatest of all
0:50
time and then he goes and does that
0:52
i know
0:53
he's still trying to get my head around
0:55
it i mean
0:56
he could have just shared the link can
0:58
he
0:59
but no he writes an instagram story
1:02
saying he's honored
1:04
honored to be invited on our on the
1:06
podcast on our podcast still struggling
1:09
to get me head around it what a guy
1:11
he's just a legend and you mate so
1:13
bloody humble
1:16
oh we just what a weekend what a race
1:19
thank you to greg me now for posting
1:20
that you made my week
1:22
then of course greg and miriam go and
1:24
win worlds and people have been asking
1:26
if we had a crystal ball did you see it
1:28
coming jack
1:29
i think i called miriam didn't i but i i
1:32
definitely didn't call gregor called
1:34
loris and uh i mean he's been looking
1:37
mint in maribor on track and then i saw
1:39
some videos of him at baldur and i was
1:40
like wow but he's definitely going to be
1:43
up there but he's never wouldn't have
1:45
all the soul i don't think he'd
1:47
i don't know he's never really done that
1:49
well there so yeah no i didn't see it
1:51
coming but
1:52
yeah what a ride
1:53
well let's rewind a little bit because
1:55
there are there are a couple of big
1:56
crashes before racing started
1:59
like and brooke both had big ones loicks
2:01
almost broke the internet i think
2:03
how lucky were they both to walk away
2:05
from them
2:06
yeah likes was really weird like it was
2:09
almost like
2:10
the bike magically saved him on that
2:12
second rock like yeah
2:15
maybe it's just the way he had his forks
2:16
out set up a little but it looked like
2:18
he should have gone over the bars on
2:19
that
2:21
nosing into that rock and he just ended
2:22
up bouncing out of it and so yeah he got
2:25
really lucky and i mean brooke just had
2:27
a horrendous crash to me and he's just
2:29
so hard so he just dealt with it
2:32
have you watched the video though
2:34
the video of him like what happened when
2:36
he's like talking to the doctor and
2:38
stuff no i i don't like watching crashes
2:40
um so i just had to half watch the crash
2:42
lane oh
2:44
the doctor goes are you in pain anyway
2:47
i'll be all right just let me get my
2:48
breath
2:49
yeah it's just insane yeah i know
2:53
so on onto the racing
2:56
valley seeded fastest and then crashed
2:58
in a run
2:59
i thought she was gonna do it i had a
3:01
bit of a change of a heart after our um
3:03
predictions i i went valley holland and
3:05
i thought matt walker might do it
3:07
um but i thought
3:09
it's the fairy tale in it she's not
3:11
having the best season but then she goes
3:13
and wins worlds but it wasn't to be
3:16
you adding money on miriam
3:18
did you think valley was going to do it
3:21
yeah i mean after she qualified first i
3:23
thought
3:24
i mean the thing is it's i wasn't
3:26
surprised when she qualified first
3:27
because we know she's been up there with
3:28
speed but
3:30
you know she just needs that
3:33
it just needs to click forward doesn't
3:34
it and i'm sure it will um
3:36
so so yeah it's uh probably frustrating
3:39
for her but i'm sure it will click and
3:41
happen soon
3:42
yeah i mean it was a great race maureen
3:44
looked like she'd done enough but then
3:45
miriam puts nearly five seconds into her
3:48
she's just riding brilliantly at the
3:49
minute isn't she
3:50
yeah she's she's
3:52
i mean yeah maureen's run was really
3:54
good and to put five seconds into that
3:56
was was pretty crazy so yeah she's she's
3:59
doing really really well it's nice to
4:01
see she had so many injuries over the
4:02
years it's really nice to see it
4:04
clicking now yeah i saw a comment
4:06
somewhere that somebody said she's
4:07
riding like rachel was in her prime now
4:10
she's been that she's riding at that
4:12
pace where you think
4:15
she she's
4:16
smashing it now yeah for sure yeah she's
4:19
doing real well and i spoke to the
4:21
head engineer at common cell earlier
4:23
when we're on track walk and he said it
4:24
was kind of a weird situation for them
4:26
for miriam to be in last week because
4:29
she went into it the favorite and i
4:30
don't think she's kind of felt like that
4:32
before
4:33
so she says they said it was kind of a
4:35
difficult situation for her because it
4:37
was quite new mentally so
4:40
cool marine ended up second it's good to
4:42
see her back up there and and commit
4:44
camille and camille took the bronze she
4:46
cemented her place at the top of the
4:48
elite field now hasn't she kami oh
4:50
absolutely yeah she's done it on all
4:52
different kinds of tracks now um
4:55
and yeah she's that's just gonna be
4:57
interesting to see how good she gets
4:58
because she's still got way less
5:00
experience than riders like miriam so
5:02
it's gonna be interesting
5:04
so greg as you've just said you didn't
5:06
think you you didn't see it coming i
5:08
didn't see it coming
5:10
at what point in the race did you think
5:12
he's got this until tebow crashed out
5:15
because or until tebow's split came up
5:18
because for me like worlds usually it's
5:20
one with that like stand out ride and
5:22
usually valve saw is one with that
5:24
standout ride even
5:26
in 2019 um when laurie won at baldur's
5:28
hall i think he won by three seconds
5:30
plus gweney's one there by eight sam
5:33
hill would have won there by a
5:34
ridiculous margin if he didn't wash out
5:35
in that corner so it's one of those
5:37
tracks where there is so much time on
5:38
the track
5:40
so when greg was only 0.3 up going into
5:43
um the last few guys i was like it's not
5:45
enough
5:46
somebody's going to turn it on yeah
5:49
so yeah it was only when tebow's splits
5:50
came up i thought hang on and then when
5:53
he crashed it was like well that's
5:55
we know now yeah
5:57
indeed the top five were separated by
5:59
under two seconds
6:01
that's super tight racing isn't it yeah
6:03
definitely for worlds same what i just
6:05
said for sure crazy wasn't expecting it
6:08
so benoit collage now a solid podium
6:10
threat at world cup level
6:12
yeah like shout out to benoit i know he
6:14
listens to the pawn and he's he's a top
6:16
lad i've known him for years and
6:18
i saw him in the pits today and
6:20
had a chat with him and
6:22
i said uh i said point three mate point
6:25
three and he and he just looked at me
6:27
and just went well point two as if
6:31
my kind of point was can you believe you
6:33
were 0.3 of a gold medal right and his
6:36
point was just like
6:38
yeah i was i was really close like i
6:39
almost had it and then i said it you
6:42
know in the conversation i said is it
6:43
sunk in yeah and he just went i'm sorry
6:46
i don't know say that again at one point
6:48
in the conversation i said is it sunk in
6:50
yet and he and he just looked at me and
6:52
went yes so
6:54
like my point is he's clearly like
6:57
owning it and he's making it it's normal
6:59
to him now that he is a podium threat
7:01
and he is a top 10 rider so yeah it's
7:03
great to see and that's his english
7:05
coming along because he said he we've
7:07
asked him to come on the pod but he
7:08
wasn't that confident with his english
7:10
and i'm i'm really keen to get him on
7:11
now to see how he's made that jump yeah
7:14
for sure i mean i i think his english is
7:15
good enough for it for sure um so yeah
7:18
i'll put a bit more pressure on him
7:19
hopefully we'll get in the next couple
7:21
of weeks
7:22
so normal service has been resumed i'm
7:24
back here at ms station back in the uk
7:26
looking out on grace guys and you're uh
7:29
in lenses hide now but yesterday we
7:31
recorded with trek factory racing's
7:33
loris vergier and you can you can hear
7:35
that interview after these messages
7:38
laurie's first year a big welcome to the
7:39
show how's it going
7:41
it's uh going pretty good we are in
7:44
lindsey right right now it's a bit cold
7:46
but other than that like all good and
7:48
you guys
7:49
excellent yeah we're all right thanks
7:51
i'm i'm in the uk a very gray uk
7:55
and jack is in a service station
7:57
somewhere
7:58
yeah we left home
8:01
uh what time do you believe dan about
8:03
two o'clock yesterday in the afternoon
8:05
um we're on for an 11 30 crossing at
8:08
night but we managed to get about four
8:10
hours earlier so
8:11
yeah i still had five hours sleep which
8:13
was good so we're going to push on two
8:14
hours left and then we'll be joining
8:16
laura sidlinside so yeah excited cool
8:19
well loris i had a quick look and i know
8:21
you did a couple of pods with the
8:22
syndicate but i couldn't find any solo
8:24
ones surely you must have done one
8:27
um i've done one uh with the boys and it
8:31
was quite hard like everyone was
8:33
speaking english and you know it was
8:34
tough for me like
8:36
it's not the most comfortable thing to
8:38
do when you're french
8:40
so i'm trying to avoid them really
8:42
[Music]
8:44
well thank you very much for agreeing to
8:45
do this one and
8:47
you might have a bit of trouble
8:48
understanding me and jack because we're
8:50
quite northern accents so just shout if
8:52
there's anything we um say that isn't
8:54
clear
8:55
um thanks very much for coming on let's
8:57
go back a little bit um 2014 you were
9:00
the junior world champion and you won
9:02
the junior world cup overall
9:04
if you look at the list of riders who've
9:06
achieved those wins it's it's almost
9:08
like a right of passage up through the
9:10
elite ranks did those wins give you a
9:12
lot of confidence
9:14
um so my junior years were pretty good
9:18
um i was battling with luca and i had
9:21
like couple wins and it was actually
9:23
really stressful so
9:25
i ended up getting a lot of experience
9:27
into like that managing a season uh but
9:31
then confidence wise like it was good
9:33
for sponsor too like you could get a
9:35
good deal and
9:37
yeah people were looking up to you so
9:39
yeah a little bit of confidence for sure
9:42
cool you came on pretty quickly and had
9:44
three second place world cup finishes
9:47
you finished second at leo gang in 2016
9:50
to our own and again at 2017 to our own
9:53
at lea gang and then 2018 to amari at
9:55
fort william did you ever doubt that you
9:58
might win one
10:00
um
10:01
so back in the days like when you look
10:04
at a season like gwen was dominating
10:07
like he was putting hita like every week
10:10
basically and
10:11
i had some moments i got some good runs
10:14
but overall in the season i was
10:15
struggling to get like podiums all the
10:17
time so
10:18
i was more focused on getting uh
10:21
consistency
10:22
pace fast pace
10:24
than getting like a win
10:26
but obviously uh in leo gang had like
10:28
some crazy moments and i thought i could
10:31
do it um
10:33
and it's been the same like with mario
10:35
like have some
10:36
tracks that i like more um
10:39
but yeah back in the day i was just
10:41
trying to be consistent on the podium
10:43
and it was tough
10:45
well the first win did come just a few
10:46
weeks later in 2018 in valmar i remember
10:50
it well because we were out there racing
10:51
masters worlds and so we arrived a few
10:54
days early to watch the world cup and i
10:56
was in the stands when you crossed the
10:57
line
10:58
i think you went nearly five seconds up
11:00
but there were about ten or so riders to
11:02
cut still to come down and maori pushed
11:04
you your closest tell us a little bit
11:06
about that experience and what it meant
11:08
to you to win your first world cup
11:10
so andorra is special to me it's like
11:15
probably my first podium as a junior
11:18
like i crashed into the finish line and
11:20
finished second and that was while like
11:22
had a great time um
11:25
so that was a little bit different in 18
11:28
like i qualified maybe 11 414 with a
11:32
crash and a stupid one and i hurt my
11:35
hand so i was like
11:36
i was really pissed off like i didn't
11:38
really sleep well at night like i was
11:40
like i'm not sure i'm gonna ride
11:41
tomorrow like
11:42
it was a really bad weekend and uh the
11:45
weekend previously we went badly so and
11:47
i crashed during my restaurant so let me
11:50
tell you i was fired up like i was
11:53
yeah angry so for my restaurant i just
11:56
fueled the the power with yeah angriness
11:59
i guess and
12:00
i did a really good run and i was like
12:03
this is
12:04
good uh that feels nice like keep going
12:07
like it feels really good
12:09
and then my all family was there like my
12:11
brother like my whole family so
12:14
it was definitely really special i cried
12:17
and it probably one of the best moment
12:19
of my life for sure like winning in
12:21
front of your parents and family in a
12:24
crowd that you like in on the track that
12:27
you really love so it was insane
12:30
excellent well i traveled out to masters
12:32
worlds that year with mark wakeman and
12:34
he won the 45 to 49 category
12:37
a big shout out to mark because he's a
12:39
legend of the uk scene and he's he's out
12:41
at the minute with a really bad shoulder
12:42
injury
12:43
you stuck around for a few days and you
12:45
presented the winners medals which was a
12:47
really nice touch
12:49
your dad's raced masters worlds a few
12:50
times and outs has low extend are they
12:53
as big arrivals as you and loic
12:56
um
12:58
uh
12:59
yes and no cause like my dad is more
13:01
into
13:02
it was faster like xc writer than jp so
13:05
like that so whenever it was xc my dad
13:08
was a bit faster and whenever it was
13:10
down here my leg start was faster so the
13:13
rivalry was different i'd say
13:16
but yeah they always together like they
13:18
did a three-day charles um
13:22
murdo like two weeks ago so really that
13:25
my dad and tebow's that umbrella yeah so
13:29
yeah we are like our family are still
13:31
close and it's funny to see but yeah
13:34
they always ride bikes and have fun so
13:36
even when you're almost 60
13:38
it's crazy to see like it's amazing well
13:41
claude's still pretty handy on a bike
13:43
isn't he he put nearly a minute into me
13:45
at valdisol in 2016. really
13:48
yeah yeah yeah
13:51
so loic he's always been the big brother
13:54
he's kind of steaming ahead setting the
13:56
pace on the last episode of the pod jack
13:59
started and then greg agreed with him
14:01
that you've become the man to beat now
14:03
do you feel like you've taken over the
14:05
running
14:07
um
14:08
i think lewis has
14:10
[Music]
14:11
a better understanding of our full
14:14
season works and like he has more
14:16
experience he knows what to do and he
14:18
has
14:19
the surrounding to do it well also so
14:22
i'm still learning like every day and
14:26
so far i don't feel like that like i'm
14:28
trying to be as fast as i can like every
14:31
race and i don't consider myself as like
14:34
the man to be really like everyone is
14:36
really fast they can win every round not
14:38
everyone but like there's five people
14:41
who can do it so
14:42
i'm part of that five people and i'm
14:44
just trying to be as fast as i can but
14:47
you know so far like he's still the man
14:50
and
14:51
a lot of people are other men so yeah
14:53
it's you know it's cool i mean the sport
14:56
evolves in a way that
14:58
it's good to watch a race because you
15:00
never know what's going to happen and i
15:02
like it that way also
15:04
nice
15:05
so fast forward to 2019 and there's
15:08
certain races that i've been at in my
15:11
career that i will always remember and
15:13
valnord 2019 is one of them
15:16
because when you came down from that run
15:18
i remember i think i was standing with
15:19
mike jones and matt simmons and we all
15:21
just looked at each other and went well
15:23
that's that done um you went into the
15:25
lead by about five seconds and it was
15:28
that standout run that normally
15:30
wins a world cup um i think
15:33
we've been told that like heard your
15:35
time when he was at the top maybe maybe
15:37
that's right maybe not and then he put
15:39
three seconds into
15:41
you and god knows how much into
15:43
everybody else at the top split
15:45
um
15:46
what did you think when you saw that top
15:48
split come on can you remember back
15:52
that race was again like pretty crazy um
15:55
i had a good run i had like some moments
15:57
where i don't know why like i was
15:59
struggling with my cleats at the time
16:01
like i was getting unclipped sometimes
16:03
so i was not fully happy about my run
16:07
but i knew it was a good run like i had
16:09
some what i lost what 0.5 at some point
16:13
but then
16:14
anyway so i was on the hot seat and i
16:16
was like oh
16:17
it's you know hope
16:19
and so 3.5 second quick i was like oh
16:22
yeah okay i'm not even looking like he's
16:24
gonna win that's for sure and then every
16:27
single split it was coming down to a
16:29
little less and less and less and then
16:31
he crossed the finish line it was
16:33
actually really tight and i was like
16:35
that's insane like
16:37
how and
16:38
yeah it felt good because we did
16:40
first and second and i would have wanted
16:43
to win obviously but it was still a
16:45
great weekend um
16:48
so the yeah it was pretty crazy like to
16:50
be that tight after such a high margin
16:53
on top like
16:54
we basically did two different races
16:56
like i started slowing and catch up and
16:59
he did a fast start so
17:01
in the end it was cool for the public i
17:03
guess because it was you know
17:05
a little bit tight yeah it was cool for
17:07
the public and call for all of us as
17:09
well because as i said when you get a
17:11
standout ride like that where somebody
17:13
is miles ahead i mean it didn't even
17:15
happen last week at worlds and it
17:16
usually does but for two of you guys to
17:19
be that far out front it was
17:21
pretty crazy so it was cool to watch
17:24
so 2020 um it seemed like someone
17:26
flicked the switch for you um you went
17:28
from being as you just said one of the
17:30
the five guys who you know
17:32
people were looking at to kind of
17:35
as what we said before the man to be
17:38
you don't see like that that's fair
17:39
enough um
17:40
is there anything in particular you put
17:42
your success down to in 2020 did
17:44
something change um so what happened
17:47
2020 was a really tough year for
17:49
everyone um
17:51
we had obviously uh covered like late
17:54
season and everything but in france so
17:57
far we had still races we had like
17:59
french cups
18:00
so probably four or five races that i
18:03
did before the season
18:05
and also
18:06
something that nobody recalls but i was
18:09
riding full 29 for my whole like
18:12
syndicate days and then in 2020 we had a
18:15
mullet bike and
18:17
that was a relief for me because
18:19
you can actually do what you want on the
18:21
bike like you can have fun you can go
18:23
fast you can feel yourself and that was
18:26
one big step and also
18:29
obviously riding four or five races
18:31
before
18:32
basically anyone like only the frenchies
18:35
and greg and luca were at the are those
18:37
races so i think we had a little ahead
18:40
time on the bike like racing weeks
18:44
uh like weekends and
18:46
came to maribo and the race like the the
18:49
season and i was like i'm fired up like
18:51
i know how to race i know to
18:53
go fast on the clock and end or pressure
18:57
so definitely helped
18:59
the combo was good for me and
19:01
i was ready i wanted to be world
19:03
champion really um it didn't happen like
19:06
it was quite tough but
19:08
we moved forward and
19:10
uh
19:11
put down like some good laps and yeah it
19:14
was a great season so far and
19:16
yeah
19:17
it didn't work out as i wanted but we're
19:20
still here to fight and we keep doing it
19:24
absolutely um i believe you started
19:26
using a sports psychologist as well what
19:29
made you decide to do that and
19:31
what have you taken from it um
19:33
so 2019 was a
19:36
kind of tough situation because like
19:39
the bus at santa cruz was like it's the
19:41
first time no one has won a world cup uh
19:45
for the syndicate in a
19:47
wow
19:48
we had like you know
19:50
not pressure but okay you we need to
19:53
hurry up and do good you know
19:55
so i wanted to do good for myself also
19:58
because
19:59
i've been racing in a way that i don't
20:01
think was let's say sustainable like you
20:04
just go too hard or crash or just go
20:06
slow kind of
20:08
and
20:09
you help me
20:11
figure it out like how to race kind of
20:13
because
20:14
in your head it's tough like it's a
20:17
risk this is reward and you don't want
20:19
to
20:20
overcook it you don't want to do too
20:22
much you don't want to do not enough and
20:25
you just want to be into that zone where
20:27
you feel comfortable and be happy or
20:30
whatever you've done like
20:32
so i've grown up in that sense where
20:35
i try to do like everything possible to
20:38
feel good on sunday and take every boxes
20:41
and if i did i'd be happy anyway so
20:44
it helped me in that sense where yeah
20:47
now i'm trying to do the best i can and
20:50
be proud of myself so it definitely
20:52
helped
20:53
nice i've just clicked my fingers at dan
20:55
to make sure he was listening to that
20:57
because he doesn't listen to podcasts
20:59
everything you've just said is pretty
21:01
much what i've been telling him
21:02
throughout the last couple of weeks and
21:03
i think hearing you say that we'll
21:05
really uh i'm going to message him we
21:07
couldn't agree more um so you seeded
21:10
first at worlds and you were fastest at
21:12
the first split this is still 2020 and
21:14
ended up 10th and as you've said it was
21:16
disappointing and then boom race one
21:18
maribor first place you win by over 2.5
21:21
seconds
21:22
raised to maribor first place again um
21:25
everyone's saying how great you're
21:26
riding and that the title is basically
21:28
yours did that put a lot of pressure on
21:30
you're going to lose it how did you feel
21:32
leaving maribor
21:33
um so
21:35
after the first race i felt
21:37
good um you know winning is always nice
21:40
um well we have to go back the next day
21:43
like riding and you know you want to
21:45
enjoy your
21:48
like it was a great night for whatever
21:51
and then
21:52
just move forward and you're already
21:53
riding on the same track and you need to
21:55
be focused again and it wasn't the best
21:58
win because obviously no one was there
22:00
like it was coveted times and
22:02
it felt nice but it wasn't like winning
22:05
in andorra you know like it was
22:07
lame let's see
22:10
so fast forward you just race again and
22:13
i just
22:14
didn't feel again like the man to be i
22:16
was just like trying to having a good
22:18
run i was wearing for the first time the
22:21
leader jersey and i was like oh that's
22:24
not common like it's cool
22:26
so i try to to have a good run and i put
22:30
down like something just consistent
22:32
nothing crazy and
22:33
it was enough it was really close again
22:35
with like um so i had that edge on him
22:38
for once i was like ah nobody was it so
22:42
sorry bro like i'll take this one
22:46
yeah we moved to loser and definitely
22:48
felt
22:49
a bit different like a new loser a
22:52
little bit like we've been testing there
22:54
and i knew i could do good
22:56
but then
22:57
same i'd like to margin with points and
22:59
i didn't want to do too many stupid
23:02
things and
23:04
stupid things happen um got a flat on
23:06
the only spot like possible and from
23:09
that like it was a big moment for me
23:12
like i wasn't ready for that
23:13
i had like a
23:15
a platter with food on it and then just
23:17
step and then everything falls and
23:19
you're like oh i thought i had food um
23:22
so it was a tough moment and
23:25
basically trying to save that the next
23:28
day by
23:29
not peddling too much because we didn't
23:31
have like points on quality the second
23:33
race because it was the last race and
23:36
same didn't work out because i
23:39
raced under the rainy condition
23:42
and if
23:43
if i would have like tried harder on
23:45
qualia i would have raced with everyone
23:47
at the end of the
23:49
the yeah the race so
23:51
again
23:52
i say
23:54
bad luck or karma i don't know but
23:57
yeah it was a bad loser loser was bad
23:59
for me
24:01
yeah but same like when you're growing
24:03
up you just
24:05
take it and move forward like there's
24:07
nothing wrong about it i'm happy in life
24:09
everything was good won two races still
24:12
on the podium at the end like uh top
24:14
five overall
24:16
so
24:17
it was still a good season
24:19
nice well it's good to hear you moved on
24:21
well from that and quickly so
24:24
nice
24:25
three seasons on the santa cruz
24:27
syndicate what made you want to move on
24:30
um so when you look at your career and
24:34
yourself um
24:36
you just have periods of
24:38
your life where you feel like you need
24:40
something and
24:41
i was in the
24:43
french team with loic being the fast
24:45
writer and i was like okay
24:47
i kind of want to be you know in the
24:49
american team look cool and want to be a
24:52
friendship but
24:53
not the second frenchie so um move to
24:56
the syndicate because i wanted to be
24:58
cool and you know it's the dream team
25:00
like he
25:01
everyone that's been on that team has
25:03
been
25:04
like super cool so like yeah try i want
25:07
to be part of that and then
25:09
just go there and it's basically
25:12
a good bike everything is fun and like
25:15
okay now what do i do like i want to go
25:18
faster i want to improve things i want
25:20
to be professional like it's another
25:22
step in life in your racing career and
25:26
it wasn't going the direction i wanted
25:28
like it it was stuck somewhere like
25:32
just okay and i wanted to try to have
25:35
excellence and
25:37
yeah just
25:38
it needs to keep going forward with
25:40
everything otherwise you just get stuck
25:42
in a random
25:44
place so that was my move like i wanted
25:47
to
25:48
go into a race team and
25:50
i did and
25:51
so far it's
25:53
it was difficult because you change
25:55
everything for sure but then i think it
25:57
was worth it
25:59
because
26:00
um we are improving things i'm improving
26:02
myself and
26:03
the team is helping me to be a better
26:06
writer so
26:07
it was
26:08
the reason why when when did you make
26:10
the decision because
26:12
you know you had a really good 2020
26:14
season did you make it before that and
26:17
then did you have any doubts after
26:18
you've come in and smoked everyone twice
26:21
at maribor did you think i've had a
26:23
great season on the v term
26:26
yeah actually yeah um the decision was
26:28
made like beautiful worlds um
26:31
i was like i need to leave boys i'm
26:33
sorry and it was difficult because
26:36
yeah the whole team knew i was living
26:37
but nobody knew so it was weird
26:40
and i think it also removed some
26:43
pressure like when you think about it
26:44
like you know you're gonna leave like
26:46
no pressure anymore just
26:48
ride and i had a great time i had one
26:51
and i was like yeah
26:53
i can do it again i want to do it again
26:55
somewhere else and i will and i did and
26:59
that's why it was also a great win for
27:01
me in maribor again
27:03
this year just because
27:04
it was a relief that i can do it
27:07
basically
27:08
in another team in another bike on like
27:11
it was the same track that's sad
27:14
i'm too yeah i'm yeah i'm running well
27:17
in maribor that's not too good so i need
27:18
to figure out things to
27:21
write better everywhere else but so far
27:24
yeah it was a
27:26
let's say great move but a hard one for
27:28
sure
27:29
okay
27:30
were there lots of offers on the table
27:32
or was it just trek came in and you
27:34
thought yep that's where i want to be
27:37
um
27:38
so the problem with offers like when you
27:40
think about it like every
27:42
good team has a
27:44
one face already you know like mondraker
27:47
like every big team as someone and
27:50
trek were looking for
27:52
a person and they've been asking like
27:55
they were
27:56
maybe two years before like same like
27:58
asking like oh we really want you like
28:00
they were interested and we were having
28:02
like conversation like
28:04
a good conversation like good
28:06
relationship
28:07
so i always knew it was
28:09
some way i could fit and be
28:12
good
28:13
and when the
28:15
the time
28:16
like was
28:17
uh when it was the time like i was like
28:19
okay let's stop let's actually talk and
28:23
we tried the bikes and i was like okay
28:26
i don't know and yeah it was pretty
28:29
difficult because you basically don't
28:31
know much like
28:32
you
28:33
don't have a season on the bike you
28:34
don't have anything you just expect it
28:37
to be a certain way and
28:39
obviously worked out but you never know
28:42
so it was a difficult moment but
28:45
the choice was a good one so
28:48
so far it was good
28:51
the syndicate is known as being a real
28:53
like
28:54
fun team environment um
28:56
after european champs in maribor um
28:59
after no after the access cup sorry
29:02
before european champs in maribor we
29:04
were walking i mean down and just being
29:05
the track walk or something and we came
29:06
back and
29:08
greg and steve and the mechanics and a
29:10
couple of other people were having beers
29:12
out the back of the pits playing
29:13
football i ended up joining in a game of
29:15
footy with them and almost took steve's
29:16
head off and everyone was just having
29:18
the right laugh um
29:20
do you have like a favorite standout
29:22
memory from from being on the team
29:23
because it seems like you must have some
29:25
good ones from my small experience with
29:27
them two weeks ago
29:29
yeah so
29:30
every time we
29:32
had fun so it was pretty much like every
29:34
week like
29:36
there's always a moment with the
29:37
syndicate where you have fun like it's
29:40
the
29:41
most important things is to have fun
29:43
really so every time we were going to
29:45
lisbon oh my god it was going well like
29:49
the main thing we remember it was one of
29:51
the first year we went to lusa to test
29:55
and then
29:56
after the test like it was the week
29:58
before the race uh i don't know where we
29:59
were flowing to like maybe lords or
30:01
something we went to cuban bar and then
30:04
we started trying to dance like the hot
30:06
chick in there and it was yeah so many
30:10
moments i don't have like a special one
30:12
but it was pretty crazy like steve is on
30:15
fire and greg obviously
30:17
yeah greg
30:21
even after he's winning like last week
30:23
we had so much fun
30:25
they're great people and they happy in
30:27
life and that's all that matters like we
30:29
want to have
30:31
yeah a good life and so far that's what
30:33
they they do and
30:34
that's why they are my friends so
30:37
nice
30:38
um so
30:40
moving back to trek you've gone from and
30:42
this is
30:43
really interesting i found um you've
30:45
gone from a carbon frame and carbon rims
30:48
to an alloy frame and alloy rooms you've
30:51
gone from shimano to sram from fox to
30:54
rockshox and from maxis to bontrager we
30:57
honestly can't think of any other things
30:59
really that could be different for you
31:02
um
31:03
which of those changes have been most
31:04
noticeable has it been a big change on
31:07
the bike or have you not found it to be
31:09
too difficult to change
31:11
so something you
31:13
not let's say you didn't
31:15
forget but like the most
31:17
standing out thing it was like the high
31:19
pivot really um
31:21
that's like
31:23
to ride it's completely opposite so i
31:26
had to
31:27
take time and
31:29
almost rethink the way i ride
31:32
so when you push on a corner with a v10
31:35
you just
31:36
go and turn and that's it and you just
31:38
learn how to do it and you keep doing it
31:40
and
31:41
i jump on the high pivot i was like i
31:44
can't do that anymore like the bike goes
31:46
longer it doesn't want to turn as good
31:49
so you need to
31:52
take a step back and be like okay
31:54
rethink how to ride so just carry speed
31:57
don't be aggressive in corners and stuff
31:59
like that and then
32:01
obviously like we had so much more
32:03
choice like my v10 was like
32:06
carbon wheels carbon frame
32:08
stock basically frame um
32:11
so we didn't have
32:13
crazy options and now i can be you know
32:16
like
32:17
we have
32:18
carbon rings that we can try we have
32:20
so many stuff to try and i
32:23
let's say i got lost i tried everything
32:25
and now i found you know the setup so
32:27
it's good but before the season like
32:30
people would tell me oh you had the
32:31
great winter like
32:33
i can tell you i can put my money on you
32:35
and i was like you know i haven't raced
32:38
any woke up on my bike like i don't know
32:40
the pace i don't know
32:41
what setup works like it it takes time
32:44
and
32:45
um after a while like now i found it but
32:48
definitely like carbon
32:50
wheels were a big deal um the flex like
32:54
the comfort you don't get on carbon
32:57
wheels was
32:59
noticeable and then same with the frame
33:01
like the frame allows you to
33:03
feel
33:04
like less bumpy and like you know it's
33:07
definitely more comfortable
33:09
and
33:10
the other things
33:13
nothing really like breaks it break
33:16
suspension they work
33:19
let's say
33:20
wheels were a big
33:22
thing too because
33:24
you can definitely feel a difference and
33:27
it was cool to
33:28
actually feel it because it was maybe
33:30
four years so that didn't ride like
33:32
hello rims so i was like oh this is soft
33:35
this is weird but yeah
33:37
it's cool really cool to have the
33:39
opportunity to see
33:41
everything and be able to choose so i
33:43
was a happy test rider
33:46
nice well i was i was going to ask you
33:48
how long
33:49
it took you to get the session set up
33:51
and what the process was but it sounds
33:53
like you just did a load of
33:56
puzzling in the winter and then until
33:57
you got to the world cup you weren't
33:58
really sure and it was the world cup
34:00
that confirmed things is that right
34:02
it's right and it's still going like i
34:04
don't think it's a
34:07
it's a rolling ball like uh it should
34:09
keep yeah keep going and keep trying
34:11
stuff um but so far like
34:14
four-wheel setup like you ride at home
34:16
on the slow track and you feel like this
34:18
is the one and then you go to any
34:20
walk-up track and this is way too soft
34:23
oh this is you know like everything
34:25
change um
34:26
so there's nothing else than riding
34:28
walk-up tracks world cup base and
34:31
that's where you really test so
34:34
it's good to have like great winter but
34:36
as long as you didn't race like you
34:38
don't really know your setup and so far
34:40
we still you know trying to find fine
34:44
tune stuff and that's why i like really
34:46
because if you're stuck with the same
34:48
bike all year and be like oh it feels
34:50
nice like it's getting boring
34:54
which keeps you sharp are you using um
34:57
data acquisition technology as well or
34:59
are you just riding off feel on time um
35:01
so basically um i haven't ever until
35:06
last weekend i put it on just to have
35:09
data of what i feel of what really
35:12
is going on and
35:13
we've done we have a new shock i don't
35:16
know if you guys saw like it's a black
35:18
box thing whatever
35:19
i can't really feel like any
35:21
um
35:23
bottom out
35:24
like
35:25
if i am bottoming out i have no clue so
35:28
when we actually put the data on i was
35:30
like ah we go deep you know and
35:33
it's cool to see that because other than
35:35
that i can probably tell you what's
35:37
going on on the bike but
35:40
you you can get away with data but it's
35:43
the right way to go and the sport you
35:45
get is getting so much like
35:48
more
35:49
detailed and fast that i think you need
35:52
to go that way and um
35:54
want to go that way and we're going to
35:56
try to
35:57
be part of that elite you know we can
36:01
test and have data and stuff like that
36:03
so yeah i'm excited for the next chapter
36:07
nice
36:08
so final question from this section how
36:10
much do you wish miss what winding
36:12
giordio
36:16
actually jody and i like had a really
36:18
good relationship like
36:20
we were talking about random stuff and i
36:22
was showing up to the pit
36:24
just to talk with him like nothing was
36:27
wrong on the bike or just have a chat
36:28
and
36:29
say oh it feels like that i don't want
36:32
to change anything but you know it feels
36:34
a bit weird there's like yeah
36:36
you're good i have a good room like it
36:38
was more like a a friend in the
36:41
psychologist than a really crazy
36:43
fine-tuned thing so
36:45
i definitely miss him but i see him
36:48
around so it's fine
36:50
we'll be talking 2021 after these
36:52
messages on to 2021
36:54
how have you fitted into the trek team i
36:57
think they're a pretty tight bunch and
36:58
it's pretty common knowledge that rhys
37:00
was on his way out until he won worlds
37:03
so it's quite a kind of unusual scenario
37:06
um yeah especially with kobe like you
37:10
can't really notice it when you're like
37:12
a fan but normally we
37:15
during winter we have like uh team camps
37:18
and we see everyone and you meet new
37:20
people and then you get used to it and
37:22
then you show up to a world cup while
37:24
knowing everyone and it wasn't the case
37:26
like i basically was by myself with my
37:29
mechanic all winter and show up to the
37:31
first race without knowing anyone
37:34
so it was definitely a little bit weird
37:37
and
37:38
we get to know each other more and more
37:40
every week and the more time i spend
37:43
with them the more fun i have and the
37:44
more comfortable i am and
37:47
so far it's really good and i think even
37:49
reese's
37:50
is really mature about everything is
37:53
he's really smart and i think he knows
37:55
like how to separate things and he's
37:58
just a good guy a good let's say a good
38:01
friend now so
38:03
yeah it was we talked about it like yeah
38:05
he knows it was not the best thing to
38:08
happen but
38:09
he we make we yeah we make it work so so
38:12
far so good
38:14
excellent the season didn't start
38:16
particularly well you're flattered in
38:17
leo going are you running any inserts
38:20
and if not are you tempted to
38:24
um
38:25
uh
38:26
remembering back in the day when inserts
38:29
were not on the market yet um we had
38:32
this twist uh wheels and we were having
38:34
like flats sometimes so we had to run
38:37
like a custom made thing
38:39
and then after that we
38:41
changed sponsors and i'd never run
38:44
insert so i'm not used to those i've
38:48
don't run them
38:49
and
38:50
so far it's all good but yeah leo gang
38:53
was a tough one um
38:55
i had a crush in quality
38:57
and i was a little bit hurt on my uh
39:01
ankle so same i didn't know if i could
39:03
actually ride fast or not and then we
39:06
put new tires on and
39:08
they just didn't hold on like i did four
39:11
four corners and it blew up it wasn't my
39:14
fault it wasn't anybody's fault like
39:16
sometimes it happens and
39:18
yeah it was a
39:20
bad day without being a bad day like
39:22
it's a mechanical you can't do anything
39:24
and you just move forward like
39:27
don't hold any grudge in
39:29
it is what it is
39:31
you see the third at legere and
39:33
consequently kind of came down in the
39:34
worst of the weather
39:36
i saw an interview with you in which you
39:38
said you had fun in that run did you
39:40
really enjoy the run or was it just when
39:41
you got to the bottom you didn't really
39:43
know what else to say
39:45
no i swear like our spot is so gnarly
39:47
like i was
39:49
kind of scared like all week to ride
39:51
that track on wet conditions like it was
39:54
really gnarly uh normally like in the
39:56
season we get two naughty tracks and
39:59
then the rest is like you can write it
40:01
down fast without being scared but
40:03
legend wasn't like it was pretty gnarly
40:06
like rudy technical fast like everything
40:09
and when the rain came i was like oh boy
40:11
i'm not ready for that like
40:14
and i still managed to have
40:16
a let's say a good run i didn't crash i
40:18
had fun i swear like when everything
40:21
goes to plan let's say
40:23
on your run like you don't crash you
40:25
rear some corners and you stay alive i
40:28
was stoked like
40:29
uh our sport was cool at the moment like
40:32
i had fun so no no i had really good fun
40:35
but because i didn't crash if you crash
40:37
it's like yeah it's raining
40:40
unlucky but yeah no so far fun
40:44
so coming into mario bar you you're way
40:46
back in the overall how much pressure
40:49
was on you to get to get a result
40:53
i say a lot
40:54
on myself from my part like
40:57
you are coming into a new team as
41:00
trying to get good results and obviously
41:03
you feel like you need to
41:06
give them a little bit and
41:09
i was way back i had two bad races i was
41:11
like
41:13
let's just
41:14
let's go now um i
41:17
wanted to have a good race without same
41:19
without crashing and
41:21
i did a good race
41:23
so i was really like it's the word like
41:26
i was relieved and now i can just be
41:29
myself again just like
41:31
trying to have fun ride fast and don't
41:34
think too much but before that it was
41:36
more like
41:38
i have a good results like suit because
41:40
that doesn't feel nice like the the
41:42
situation wasn't nice for me or anyone
41:44
so
41:45
it was good to have like uh confirmed
41:49
good results and then now we can just
41:51
move on and have a good rest of the
41:53
season yeah so when a guest confirms for
41:56
the pod i always ask a few of my friends
41:59
if they've got any questions and my
42:01
friend sean asked me to ask you when was
42:03
the last time you rode a trail and
42:05
thought nobody in the world could ride
42:06
that faster and i responded he'll
42:08
probably say sunday the 15th of august
42:10
in mario bar roughly around 3 p.m
42:13
but he followed that up by asking if you
42:15
knew on track that that it was the
42:18
fastest run you'd see it first and you
42:20
went three seconds quicker in your race
42:22
run did you kind of know it was the
42:23
winning run
42:25
um
42:26
so
42:28
let's say maribor there's like a
42:31
a section down the bottom i don't know
42:33
why i really don't they like the first
42:36
time i won there uh some french
42:40
signal guy i don't know he's called like
42:42
the guy on this on the track like
42:45
marshall yeah
42:47
and
42:48
i heard them saying
42:50
good you go you go like in french like
42:52
you up like you're good and i was like
42:55
nice that feels good and then actually
42:58
my restaurant at the same spot i heard a
43:01
woman say something again and i was like
43:04
okay just don't blow it like
43:06
stay on the track and
43:08
but yeah it felt nice because
43:11
i knew i had like a little edge down the
43:13
bottom i have no idea why um
43:15
i was faster on the last split where
43:18
there was nothing like it was a jump and
43:20
then tarmac and
43:24
as long as i was going there like with a
43:26
little bit of you know
43:27
[Music]
43:28
margin i knew i could do it and when i
43:31
crossed the finish line it's so green i
43:33
was like
43:36
but yeah it would be cool to have like a
43:39
someone that just tells you but it's not
43:41
common yet and maybe it's
43:44
it will be in a couple years but we'll
43:46
see how the sport evolves
43:49
bluetooth helmets with someone talking
43:51
to you the whole way down each split it
43:53
won't be long it won't be long
43:54
[Music]
43:56
i don't know
43:57
exactly
44:00
yeah crazy yeah little for sure okay so
44:04
after winning both maribel world cups i
44:05
think we've mentioned that
44:07
um and then you'd won european champs
44:09
the week before you won the world cups
44:11
last year um you doubt you're
44:13
undoubtedly the the king of maribor
44:16
what is it about that track that you
44:18
love
44:18
do you have an idea of why you're so
44:20
fast there um
44:23
let's say
44:24
i
44:26
ride
44:27
when it's like medium fast speed and no
44:30
nothing really like super tight
44:33
or technical i feel good like i want to
44:36
ride fast i don't know why it's whenever
44:39
there's a trail it's straight or a bit
44:42
fast like i want to push and go even
44:44
faster
44:45
and
44:46
i guess the track is
44:48
good for me just because there's nothing
44:50
that stalls you there's no
44:53
you know like there's a flow that i like
44:56
um you've always got flow there for sure
44:58
yeah and same with like the bike i think
45:01
you can
45:02
get away with a lot of things you can
45:04
ride the bike stiff because it's short
45:06
you can ride
45:07
the bike
45:08
you
45:09
whatever you can get away with
45:11
everything really and
45:13
we fine-tuned the bike to feel comfy on
45:16
the last day and even the week before
45:18
because obviously it was a good run
45:20
and
45:20
yeah there's something about there that
45:23
i like
45:24
short and fast
45:27
i'm guessing you're not a huge fan of
45:28
the enduro world series events that
45:29
you've done before then
45:32
if you're a lovely flow
45:35
yeah
45:37
i've done one in the first year ever
45:39
that ews was happening it was in
45:42
apertures and you were going up with
45:44
chairlift and actually it was sick like
45:47
i had a lot of fun there but then
45:48
pedaling up and then
45:50
finale i did it twice was horrible
45:54
like just pedaling in off
45:57
yeah it was tough
45:58
but i would like to get better at it at
46:00
it like i think
46:02
now you need to be really technical and
46:05
be good on your bike everywhere so i
46:07
need to step up my game on the slow
46:10
technical stuff
46:13
i don't know if you've listened to the
46:15
previous episode of the show um but greg
46:17
mentioned your effortless style and he
46:19
compared um your riding to some
46:23
to like a professional
46:24
pianist who can play the piano perfectly
46:28
um
46:29
so that was quite a nice compliment i
46:30
think um is that something you
46:32
consciously work on your riding style or
46:34
does you feel your riding style just
46:36
comes naturally
46:38
i think
46:40
it's a tough one like i'm
46:43
i'm really lazy like i'm lazy on the
46:46
bike i'm lazy on everything i do i try
46:49
to do it the
46:50
most perfect
46:52
possible to get away with pedaling
46:55
with
46:56
trying hard like so everything i do like
46:59
when it's rough i try to skim stuff i
47:01
try to avoid rocks i'm like where can i
47:04
put my wheels to just keep rolling and
47:06
not
47:07
slow down and
47:09
to me it comes from laziness just
47:10
because you know it's easier around and
47:13
cares than just take it and be tired
47:16
you're like a modern day bryceland then
47:18
[Music]
47:19
i wish bryson was like way more talented
47:22
it was insane like he had it's crazy
47:25
yeah immense
47:27
yeah so far like learning how to ride
47:29
your bike
47:31
uh let's say flawless and just
47:34
get
47:35
yeah smooth
47:37
is my goal every time just because
47:39
that's the way i am
47:41
so i miss that and
47:43
you try to do it on sunday but it's
47:46
tough like it's the track is gnarly the
47:49
people are gnarly and
47:51
it's
47:52
crazy it's a great sport
47:54
it is man
47:56
so
47:56
worlds then um you and laurie were the
47:59
names on everybody's lips um i had
48:02
picked you for it but laurie was the
48:03
second guy i was thinking you know you
48:05
could definitely win win the worlds
48:06
there um you seeded first
48:09
for the second year in a row and then
48:12
ended up fourth um how are you feeling
48:14
this week
48:16
um
48:17
so same like we
48:19
talk about like how
48:21
i grew up and i try to take boxes and
48:25
make everything right and then
48:27
whatever happens like you'd be happy
48:30
um i did
48:32
everything i needed to i thought and
48:35
looking back i probably would have done
48:36
it differently but
48:39
um it was different than maribor like
48:41
the truck was so gnarly and then you
48:43
were coming up into the last section
48:46
pretty tired and i would have
48:49
done it differently where i set up my
48:51
bike
48:52
to feel comfortable until then and then
48:54
the bottom part was just like a bottom
48:57
part like just cruise down and
49:00
it didn't work um so i would have
49:02
changed that if i can go back in
49:06
in the past but
49:07
so far like it was a great weekend like
49:09
it was rough i didn't crash i didn't
49:12
you know
49:13
got scared on track i felt confident and
49:16
i just wanted to have a decent good run
49:19
because that's obviously
49:21
worlds and you can crash and be even
49:24
more like disappointed so i
49:28
it wasn't a firing run like
49:31
i'm midway down
49:33
but it was a decent good one so i
49:36
guess i'm happy like i didn't want to be
49:40
fourth i wanted to obviously try to win
49:42
but
49:43
it's it's like that so moving forward i
49:46
just
49:47
have experience now and you need to
49:50
actually go for it all the way down and
49:52
take risk all the way down you can't
49:54
just
49:55
just sure i was just about to ask you
49:57
we've had a couple of people on the
49:58
podcast recently who greg been one of
50:00
them um who have said that that the way
50:03
the sport is now compared with maybe i
50:06
don't know six seven years ago
50:08
you have to be pushing from gate
50:10
to finish and and that is a typical
50:12
world champs kind of attitude we saw it
50:14
from dak naught and um lori angel
50:18
big crashes obviously pushing their
50:20
limits
50:21
do you feel like you it sounds like you
50:23
feel like you left some time on the hill
50:24
um
50:26
do you feel like you kind of thought i'm
50:28
riding real well i can win this leaving
50:30
some time on the hill or was it was it
50:32
just one of those things
50:33
um so i was warming up and we were
50:36
watching
50:37
laurie's
50:38
run and i've heard he crashed so i was
50:40
like okay
50:42
okay
50:42
that's good
50:44
sorry laurie like i was like he's
50:46
definitely on my list to win like
50:48
confident that people would crash also
50:51
and
50:52
i was like feeling
50:54
good about like just having a decent
50:57
good run would not be enough but would
50:59
be good
51:00
and
51:01
i definitely
51:03
would have maybe done it differently
51:05
just on the bike like i set up the bike
51:08
so it was insane until it was dead and
51:11
it was
51:12
pretty hard to ride um so that was my
51:14
fault like rebound wise it was tough to
51:17
set up your bike because the top was
51:19
really fast and rough and like
51:21
choppy but
51:22
big hits and the bomb was just like
51:25
trying to manage your speed your speed
51:27
and you know like a bit more technical
51:30
and slow
51:31
so rebound was not
51:33
fully perfect on the bottom part and i
51:35
lost time
51:37
but so far like it was
51:40
crazy like the race
51:42
racing is insane and when you look at
51:44
everyone who's been fast this week
51:47
we all can take like uh not a medal but
51:51
it's
51:52
yeah it was crazy
51:54
yeah sorry to push you on that but it's
51:55
just really interesting what you said so
51:57
i just wanted to get as much info as i
51:58
could for me there because it's it's
52:00
super interesting um okay so one thing
52:02
we did want to ask worlds works a little
52:04
differently to the world cups you've got
52:06
that little practice day between
52:07
qualifying and finals um
52:10
how did you play that did you learn
52:11
anything in that middle day or was it
52:12
kind of just
52:14
stay alive and get to race there
52:16
um so i was talking with
52:19
guyton riffen after the race and
52:22
he was on the side watching because he
52:24
couldn't race um
52:26
anyone's telling me
52:27
you're the most disappointing uh
52:30
thing ever happening this weekend like i
52:33
saw you on track the first day i was
52:34
like what the hell like
52:36
you won fire and then from the first day
52:39
you kept going slower and
52:41
it definitely failed like that and
52:44
i feel like someday you just feel
52:46
confident because you don't know how
52:48
fast you can go so every time you go out
52:51
you get a little
52:53
sketchy
52:54
and
52:55
you find limits everywhere and in that
52:57
extra day doesn't help because you you
53:01
everywhere a bit too fast and now you're
53:03
scared so you're like
53:05
um yeah and the track also was rougher
53:08
and rougher and we were tired so i don't
53:11
think that extra they helped at all like
53:13
uh i think for
53:15
maybe
53:17
people who doesn't
53:18
[Music]
53:19
write much but then we do so
53:21
we don't
53:22
yeah that's for sure yeah yeah it's
53:25
funny like after what you've just said
53:26
there i found for a number of years
53:29
being british i'd go to fort william and
53:31
i'd do some testing and then i'd do the
53:32
national before the world cup and then
53:34
sometimes if the national didn't go as
53:36
well as i wanted it to or if it went
53:38
well and i was like oh this is going to
53:39
be a good world cup i'd go back again
53:41
so by the time i do the world cup i've
53:43
been there four times before the race
53:45
and you get stuck at the wrong speed
53:48
because like you said earlier there is
53:50
nothing like world cup pace it's like a
53:52
switch and if you've just got stuck at
53:53
the wrong speed
53:55
it can be really difficult to get out of
53:56
that so i can relate to what you're
53:57
saying um my last question for you um
54:01
greg said some very very nice things
54:03
about you last week um he's just won
54:05
world championships again
54:08
what have you got to say about greg wrap
54:10
him up in a nutshell
54:12
um
54:12
so one week in value so
54:15
um we had obviously a lot of like videos
54:18
coming from like the french team like
54:20
everyone like the whatsapp group was
54:22
like you know
54:26
and he was a step faster than everyone
54:29
like he was
54:31
doing jumps i was like
54:33
wow
54:33
[Music]
54:34
even not tired i would be like i'm good
54:37
like uh yeah i was
54:39
impressed and i was telling people about
54:42
it like i was telling him i was telling
54:44
rob because rob was there like the for
54:46
the race rob
54:47
the owner creator of santa cruz and
54:51
he just knows like what to do when to do
54:54
it and
54:56
he's young in his head so i don't feel
54:59
like he has anything to lose compared to
55:01
us like he's part of
55:04
the
55:04
best writer
55:06
right now even after being like whatever
55:09
years old
55:10
and
55:12
it's crazy to see so
55:14
i think once you fine tune
55:16
your setup your writing style like
55:18
obviously he knows the bike he knows how
55:20
to ride it it's
55:21
a sonic cruise is basically great me now
55:23
you know
55:24
it's
55:25
and it just can focus on lines and speed
55:29
and
55:30
that's what you want actually on like uh
55:33
world championship like once you
55:36
saw everything out you just focus on
55:39
speed in lines and i think benoit was
55:42
the same when you look back like he's
55:44
been on the bike for
55:46
i don't know let's say two years it's
55:48
pretty much the same
55:49
it didn't change like at least what i
55:52
saw like he has the same
55:53
front tire same back tire
55:56
that he had in maribor like he he knows
55:58
the setup like he rides all the time and
56:01
greg was the same for the past like
56:03
three years he's been
56:05
detailing stuff not changing a lot
56:08
and i think
56:09
they
56:11
did it good so
56:13
impressive
56:14
and
56:16
obviously looking forward to maybe one
56:18
day trying to be like him um
56:21
kind of
56:22
have fun
56:24
good life and win stuff
56:26
and just enjoy it so it looks unreal
56:29
from
56:30
our
56:31
perspective
56:32
yeah i think it's really cool that sorry
56:34
george just yeah the way you top guys in
56:37
this sport talk about each other i just
56:39
think it's so cool i i i'm convinced
56:43
it's kind of a greg thing but also like
56:45
loic like over the years he's so
56:47
friendly and like
56:49
i just hope the sport never loses the
56:51
respect you kind of talk five to ten
56:53
lads most of you anyway all have for
56:55
each other and it's just it's just meant
56:57
to see like the the happiness you guys
56:59
have for each other at the bottom when
57:01
somebody just beat you but you're still
57:04
genuinely you know happy for their run
57:06
so so yeah it's meant to see so nice one
57:08
keep it going
57:09
one last question on worlds you seeded
57:12
first last year didn't win you seeded
57:14
first this year i know it's seeding it's
57:16
not really really seeded will you be
57:18
going as hard in seeding next year
57:21
um
57:23
that's the thing with me like uh sitting
57:25
is no pressure
57:27
you can just have fun
57:29
write whatever you like and take your
57:31
time and
57:32
i'm good at taking my time and
57:35
for some reason i see
57:37
first so
57:38
and i just don't know if the others like
57:40
uh taking
57:42
their time and they just don't want to
57:43
show the speed because
57:45
probably some would uh but i enjoy it i
57:48
enjoy running fast on sitting and
57:50
it doesn't really
57:52
matters anyway because it's just no it's
57:54
not even sitting now
57:57
so
57:57
uh yeah i'll try next year again but
58:00
probably
58:01
on the better results on sunday i hope
58:04
so you're back to me during finals i
58:06
know a lot from there
58:09
so back to back to business this weekend
58:12
chasing down the overall you're
58:13
currently sitting fourth on 316 points
58:16
greg's in third on 3 30. troy in second
58:19
on 353 and tebow's way ahead on 590.
58:22
with the last round being a double
58:24
header there's still 750 points to play
58:26
for are you confident you can pull it
58:28
back or is tebow too far ahead
58:32
um
58:33
it basically needs to just be out of one
58:36
race um
58:38
so i don't
58:39
think it's same and
58:41
i don't really think about points like
58:44
we just we're in linda right right now
58:46
you just want to focus on trying to be
58:48
fast here and then same in snowshoe and
58:51
take like every race as a race and we'll
58:55
see but so far like i would never expect
58:58
to be top four
59:00
right now like
59:01
uh
59:03
no results besides winning so
59:05
it's crazy to be part of that and i'm
59:07
just
59:08
relieved and happy to be there so
59:11
we're gonna have to
59:12
get points and ride fast but not
59:15
thinking of catching chibo just you see
59:19
so you've not had your best results in
59:21
lenses hide i think you've just only
59:23
podium once there but it's quite similar
59:25
bike parky to kind of leo gang
59:28
is but you've done really well there is
59:29
there something about lenses hide oh
59:33
so lens ride is a tricky one um the
59:36
first year we ever been here uh it was
59:39
supposed to be a brand new track it was
59:41
supposed to be insane and we came in
59:43
like every corner they had no support no
59:47
everything was dead like it was a four
59:49
years old track
59:51
not been reshaped and i was like no
59:54
that's not good and um
59:56
so the flow is actually not there like
59:59
the first split there is no flow it's
1:00:01
like tight awkward
1:00:03
it's hard to get like a good rhythm and
1:00:06
it's a tough one because you have to
1:00:08
pedal at one point and then you get
1:00:10
tired and i don't know uh there's
1:00:12
something about lindsey right i'm not
1:00:14
super
1:00:15
happy about and
1:00:17
world's
1:00:18
i don't know when was i i ended up like
1:00:20
fourth again with maybe 0.5 back with a
1:00:24
mistake and i was like
1:00:26
my friends were there they're like come
1:00:28
on where did you do that
1:00:31
yeah
1:00:32
i'm not sure about lindsay right like
1:00:34
it's just the support in those corners i
1:00:37
don't feel it's fun to ride so
1:00:40
i'm not super keen on it but we're gonna
1:00:42
have a go this year and trying to feel
1:00:45
good and confident so we'll see
1:00:47
excellent are you excited for snowshoe
1:00:49
and the double header
1:00:51
nope
1:00:53
snowshoe is a difficult one like it's
1:00:56
you have so many change of rhythm like
1:00:57
you start super pinned then it's kind of
1:01:00
flat and then it's rocky and then you
1:01:02
pedal and
1:01:04
it's like shiny and i feel like a double
1:01:06
header here there like would be
1:01:08
not so good really like uh i have to be
1:01:11
honest um
1:01:12
but happy to go back to another country
1:01:14
really like it was
1:01:16
a long time ago that we didn't fly to
1:01:18
somewhere
1:01:19
and yeah looking forward to obviously
1:01:21
have a race but yeah it's not true
1:01:23
inside are not my favorite kind of
1:01:25
tracks but whatever we give it a go and
1:01:28
have fun
1:01:30
cool well i think yeah i think you'll do
1:01:31
pretty well once you get racing it will
1:01:33
it'll all disappear look thanks very
1:01:36
much for taking the time to come on the
1:01:37
podcast loris and
1:01:39
you know you say this you don't you try
1:01:41
to avoid doing them i think you've been
1:01:42
excellent today great value really
1:01:44
really really interesting insight so so
1:01:46
thank you very much for making the time
1:01:47
and best of luck for this weekend and
1:01:49
for the rest of the season
1:01:51
yeah thank you i like to talk so i don't
1:01:53
know if it's a good thing or not but
1:01:55
yeah thank you for having me and yeah
1:01:57
looking forward
1:01:58
now really good one of my favorite
1:02:00
interviews and thanks for your honesty
1:02:02
as well as some difficult things for you
1:02:03
to talk about there so nice one that was
1:02:05
middle jack can anyone else win it or is
1:02:08
it t-bus title now
1:02:11
yeah i mean
1:02:12
for sure like as lori said
1:02:14
he's just gonna lose one round and
1:02:17
there's three left we're only midway
1:02:18
through the season so anything can
1:02:20
happen um
1:02:22
in our sport and
1:02:23
you know it's all up for grabs um
1:02:26
so yeah
1:02:28
i mean it'd be nice to see a comment
1:02:29
i'll take the overall obviously for us
1:02:31
so let's hope everything plays the game
1:02:33
and he just keeps it tidy and keeps
1:02:35
himself in that top five and be nice to
1:02:37
see him win the overall but yeah it's
1:02:39
definitely still still all up for grabs
1:02:40
in my opinion do you think he can do
1:02:42
that do you think riders can just say
1:02:44
i'm gonna do a top five top ten run yeah
1:02:49
i you can because like
1:02:53
they know that speed so well it it and
1:02:55
then you've got time practice and
1:02:57
quality
1:02:58
i think is it gwinnie who said it to us
1:03:01
that like it's it's almost like not a
1:03:03
nice position to be in when you're just
1:03:06
racing
1:03:07
just for the overall because you're
1:03:09
just taking five ten percent back and
1:03:11
you can do that all day like you can do
1:03:13
that over and over and over again
1:03:15
um
1:03:16
so
1:03:17
yeah for sure you'll be able to do it
1:03:19
that way but um
1:03:21
yeah i think if he still says it up at
1:03:23
the first round and snowshoe he'll
1:03:25
definitely like he'll push for the win
1:03:27
in the second round because as quick
1:03:28
said says
1:03:30
nobody likes racing just to be safe we
1:03:31
like racing because we like racing so
1:03:33
yeah
1:03:34
so yeah
1:03:35
we discussed this fantastic record in
1:03:37
lenses hiding last week's show
1:03:39
you wouldn't bet against me now this
1:03:41
weekend now would
1:03:43
no for sure yeah i mean
1:03:46
he's riding so well like as i've said
1:03:49
everything we've seen of him trackside
1:03:50
and videos like he just looks so
1:03:52
composed and
1:03:54
yeah i mean i definitely wouldn't be
1:03:55
against him this weekend for sure let's
1:03:57
just see if he's refocused in time
1:04:00
and valley
1:04:02
2019 lends a hide
1:04:04
that was the race when she as a junior
1:04:07
did the fastest time yeah
1:04:10
i'm gonna nail me colours to the mass i
1:04:12
think she's gonna win this weekend well
1:04:14
it's that's gotta give us some
1:04:15
confidence doesn't it
1:04:17
the speed is there everybody knows that
1:04:19
she knows that um she's just got a kind
1:04:22
of i almost wonder if like because of
1:04:24
the bad luck like if
1:04:26
in maribor she kind of didn't push
1:04:30
as hard as she obviously could have done
1:04:32
because she's so sick of crashing and
1:04:34
then she's crashed last week and like
1:04:36
it must be a difficult position for her
1:04:38
to be in like
1:04:39
she probably feels like she's just
1:04:40
flogging a dead horse like if she
1:04:42
doesn't push she don't win and if she
1:04:43
pushes she crashes and
1:04:45
yeah she just i reckon she just needs
1:04:47
one good one under a belt and then and
1:04:48
then she'll be she'll be away she's
1:04:50
probably learning so much though you
1:04:52
know when she won all every weekend
1:04:54
pretty much in junior
1:04:56
there's not a lot of you don't learn as
1:04:58
many lessons when you're winning do you
1:05:00
know and that's the thing our sport is
1:05:01
so mental so like as we've said she's
1:05:03
clearly a great writer but now as you
1:05:06
just said she is going to be learning
1:05:07
all those mental challenges that are
1:05:09
going to be there for an hour week in
1:05:10
week out of
1:05:12
um
1:05:13
you know i
1:05:14
like i can give you a prime example but
1:05:16
i've walked the track today with dan and
1:05:18
i'm i'm walking it looking for the lines
1:05:20
that i'll hopefully be able to ride in
1:05:21
the morning i've got no idea if i'll be
1:05:23
able to because of my hand
1:05:25
and then i'm
1:05:26
walking it looking at lines for damn
1:05:28
saying right you need to be here mate
1:05:30
you know what i'm saying for me like
1:05:31
that's you know
1:05:33
and then i've come back had some physio
1:05:35
and
1:05:36
kind of got the green light i was a
1:05:38
little bit worried that he was going to
1:05:39
get all of it and be like no if you ride
1:05:41
you're going to make this worse whereas
1:05:42
it's kind of the opposite we're hoping
1:05:44
nothing's broken
1:05:46
and
1:05:46
it just you know it's had some treatment
1:05:49
it's responded well to it so now i'm
1:05:50
sitting here going
1:05:52
[ __ ]
1:05:53
after walking the track i'm gonna have
1:05:55
to go up there and ride and you've got
1:05:57
to get your head in that space
1:05:59
um and it is a difficult thing to do and
1:06:01
and
1:06:02
yeah as a rider there's there's a
1:06:04
different challenge at every event um
1:06:06
and everyone will have different ones
1:06:08
and they change throughout the season so
1:06:10
yeah as you've just said to summarize as
1:06:12
a junior it was pretty easy for one that
1:06:13
she won all the time whereas now
1:06:16
she's gonna be in the mix with all these
1:06:18
women and there's going to be a new
1:06:18
challenge for every time
1:06:20
and for you is there a bit less pressure
1:06:23
now you've got down on the team
1:06:25
no because as everybody says there's
1:06:27
never any more pressure than what you
1:06:28
put on yourself so
1:06:31
not really i mean it is nice for the
1:06:33
team but i don't see
1:06:35
i compartmentalize so my racing isn't
1:06:39
if that's my racing i'm an athlete and
1:06:42
what i do is that the team
1:06:44
and my role as team manager and team
1:06:46
owner is completely separate so yeah
1:06:49
for that part it's awesome that dan's
1:06:51
doing well and it's it's great and it's
1:06:54
meant for the team but that's a
1:06:55
completely separate thing to to what i
1:06:57
want to achieve as an athlete so so now
1:06:59
personally i'm you know in a massively
1:07:01
massively um frustrating time at the
1:07:03
moment um
1:07:05
kind of coming out of my shoulder injury
1:07:06
now physios are
1:07:08
happy with that it's gonna take a full
1:07:09
winter to get me back to full strength
1:07:11
but on the bike it's not bothering me
1:07:14
i've had a few crashes on it and it's
1:07:15
not
1:07:16
even
1:07:17
you know
1:07:18
yeah they're bothered by a fall so
1:07:20
that's good but then this hand triggers
1:07:22
off and it's like
1:07:24
oh my god for [ __ ] sake just leave me
1:07:26
alone so um so yeah my kind of plan this
1:07:29
weekend is to just get through it and if
1:07:32
i start riding and i feel it's going to
1:07:34
make it worse when
1:07:35
you know going out this weekend i won't
1:07:37
carry on i'll wait for for snowshoe
1:07:40
because yeah that's kind of 33 of the
1:07:42
season but
1:07:44
you know whatever i do
1:07:45
will still be obviously like making sure
1:07:47
we give down the best support we can and
1:07:49
uh
1:07:50
and you know helping him carry on with
1:07:51
the good good form he's got so
1:07:54
and who's mechanicing for you this
1:07:55
weekend are you doing your own yeah
1:07:58
unfortunately we are um shout out to
1:08:00
ellie you know he's worked so hard in
1:08:02
maribor for us but switzerland have a
1:08:04
rule that if you're coming straight from
1:08:06
the uk which we did
1:08:09
um you're not allowed in the country
1:08:12
if you're not double jabbed
1:08:14
so
1:08:17
whether i could have brought him over
1:08:18
spent a day in france got him a pcr test
1:08:20
and then driven him across the border
1:08:22
from france with a french pcr test
1:08:25
honestly we i don't even know what the
1:08:27
response would have been at the border
1:08:29
and we just didn't want to chance it um
1:08:31
it turned out typical we got to the
1:08:33
swiss border and they said alone sold as
1:08:35
a road tone wave designer didn't look at
1:08:36
our passports or our covet tests so
1:08:40
yeah a little bit frustrating that kind
1:08:42
of we had to leave him and then when it
1:08:43
came to the
1:08:44
the part where we were worried that was
1:08:46
typical um it's all scare mongering
1:08:48
nothing actually happened um but i mean
1:08:50
it's one event the bikes are prepped
1:08:52
before we left we've got spares we're
1:08:54
both good mechanics um so we've got
1:08:57
assassins here with various people who
1:08:59
can help us so you know we've got
1:09:01
everything we need it would be nice to
1:09:02
have it with us but we'll be fine and as
1:09:04
you mentioned what today how's it
1:09:06
looking
1:09:07
yeah i mean they've done what they can
1:09:08
with it um it's kind of
1:09:11
a track where you go bike park a bit and
1:09:13
then they'll put a little bit of tech in
1:09:15
in the woods and then you're back into a
1:09:16
bike part bit and then so it's as as
1:09:18
laurie said it is quite difficult i
1:09:20
guess to feel
1:09:21
a consistent flow down the whole track
1:09:23
mario ball is the same kind of track the
1:09:25
whole way down about the souls the same
1:09:26
kind of track the whole way down whereas
1:09:28
this isn't so
1:09:29
um
1:09:31
yeah
1:09:31
you know one reason i really do want to
1:09:33
be on the bike and feeling good is so i
1:09:35
can help dan like i've raced here many
1:09:36
times before but my best result here um
1:09:39
so it would be nice to
1:09:41
you know to to ride and you know
1:09:44
obviously be able to help him there's
1:09:45
quite a few line choices this year
1:09:47
they've tipped it really wide um so
1:09:50
yeah it's gonna be interesting it's
1:09:51
always kind of a good a good one to be
1:09:52
out the chair lift goes right up the
1:09:54
track so we can watch when we're on the
1:09:56
lift so that's good um the crowd is
1:09:58
usually pretty good so cool and now it's
1:10:00
down is he still buzzing
1:10:02
um
1:10:03
i mean as as as his coach um i
1:10:07
encouraged him to kind of forget about
1:10:09
the success
1:10:10
forgets the wrong word uh refocus after
1:10:13
the success in maribor two days after we
1:10:15
got home i said go home and enjoy it
1:10:17
with your parents for an evening and um
1:10:19
you know i haven't you know have a
1:10:20
celebration with your friends but
1:10:22
you know you need to snap out of it
1:10:24
straight away we've got lens hide in 10
1:10:25
days and
1:10:27
you know he as much as anyone he doesn't
1:10:30
want it to be a flash in the pan so
1:10:32
um he refocused over a week ago and he's
1:10:34
been training like hell um
1:10:36
you know in the gym and on his gravel
1:10:38
bike and his trail bike and a little bit
1:10:40
of downhill he's riding just
1:10:42
effortlessly and fast and just riding
1:10:45
like he you know like i've tried to
1:10:46
encourage him since since the problems
1:10:48
he's had earlier in the year just just
1:10:50
go out and ride um
1:10:52
so that's the plan tomorrow he's walked
1:10:54
the track he knows what lines he wants
1:10:55
to do and he's going to go out and have
1:10:57
fun and get into it and uh what more can
1:11:00
you do
1:11:00
cool well best of luck to you birth
1:11:02
we'll catch up at some point before
1:11:04
snowshoe
1:11:05
that's all we've got time for in this
1:11:07
episode thanks to the sponsors of the
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