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In 2018, Amaury Pierron won 3 World Cups in a row & clinched the 2018 World Cup Overall title. In 2019 he won another 3 but dramatically lost out on the overall on the final run of the final race of the season. In the last 2 years he’s sustained some big injuries but battled his way back on to the podium at the final World Cup of the 2021 season. He doesn’t do many interviews, so this is a very special episode with the man who, when he’s on, is the fastest Downhill rider on the planet…
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0:02
[Music]
0:09
[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
he goes by many names maurice moma amari
0:40
and maori we'll get to the pronunciation
0:43
in a minute but when he's on he's the
0:45
fastest downhill rider on the planet his
0:47
wild flat out style has pushed the sport
0:49
to a new level and won in many fans
0:51
including myself
0:53
he's my favorite rider to watch so i'm
0:55
most excited about this episode welcome
0:56
to the show amari peron
1:01
yo thank you very much
1:04
so the good pronunciation the real
1:06
french pronunciation is amuri
1:09
that was my first question
1:17
george is spending too much time in
1:19
yorkshire i'm not sure if you'll be able
1:20
to do that one so i've put two
1:21
pronunciations forward right and neither
1:24
of them are anywhere near
1:36
so i was about to say we've never met
1:39
but we have met and i'll come on to that
1:41
a little bit later
1:43
i don't really know you though so i
1:45
randomly dropped you a message on
1:47
instagram a few weeks ago
1:49
and i know jack was pissing himself when
1:51
i shared it with him so i'll read it out
1:52
it said
1:53
he said dude i'm trying to get a couple
1:55
of podcasts done before the year is out
1:57
we've had tebow and miriam on the show
1:59
this season and i'd love to round it out
2:01
by having my favorite rider come on the
2:03
show so i've messaged loick
2:05
but he hasn't come back to me would you
2:07
fancy coming on the show instead
2:10
so tomorrow the moral of the story is
2:12
that the top riders do actually read
2:15
their dms and sometimes taking the
2:17
pisses is better than making a formal
2:19
approach
2:22
no for sure but
2:24
don't worry like in the in the winter
2:26
like there is no gm so
2:31
you're there like hunting
2:34
you're hunting for people who message
2:36
yeah
2:37
as well
2:39
yelling
2:41
sorry
2:42
so so where in the world are you right
2:44
now amari
2:45
yeah i'm actually currently in portugal
2:49
for for testing with the team so we
2:51
already did three days in puente de lima
2:54
and now we losers so yeah three more
2:57
days to go
2:59
and yeah ride is on the menu
3:02
nice well yeah that's cool because we're
3:05
just out on our first team camp and
3:06
we've just arrived in losers today so um
3:09
yeah we're all on track together so come
3:12
and sell domination how has it gone at
3:14
ponte delima the last three days has it
3:16
been good it's been super good like the
3:20
weather was really good so you know just
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the sun good temperature so
3:25
it's nice to you know to ride with like
3:28
not be freezing like the
3:30
bike works well when it's for sure
3:32
so and even with the body it's better so
3:35
yeah so you're like
3:37
have your lights got out there
3:40
i think this is an electricity problem
3:43
welcome to portugal
3:48
you need to put some more money in the
3:50
meter there we go it's back up
3:52
[Laughter]
3:54
so dude have you done much bike riding
3:56
since the end of the season or have you
3:58
taken some time off over the winter
4:00
what's the last
4:02
three months look like for you
4:04
yeah right after
4:05
after the season of the snowshoe
4:09
my friend decided to to go in california
4:12
california for some holidays and i was
4:15
like [ __ ] what should i do and finally
4:18
decide to go with them
4:19
and it was so good so we just ride like
4:22
models there you know it's like kind of
4:24
famous california from motor ride and it
4:27
was insane trucks were sick
4:29
most energy like give us like good
4:31
accommodation and bring bring us the
4:34
motor so that was really sick yeah good
4:37
fun like good parties good motor just
4:40
good vibes so it was sick and then i
4:43
came back in france and
4:46
and did
4:47
two
4:48
underremote races so that was sick as
4:51
well
4:51
like
4:52
like kind of little deal with um with a
4:55
with a shop bonton
4:57
and they give his motto bring me to the
5:00
races with them so that was really
5:02
really good uh
5:04
good experience
5:06
and yeah i think my early days is
5:08
like
5:09
you know doing
5:11
two wheels as well different two wheels
5:13
but uh
5:15
i
5:16
like to to spend times on the model and
5:19
yeah just different activities i just
5:20
discovered golf as well
5:32
how did you do in the uh in the enduro's
5:35
tomorrow
5:38
how did you do in the races
5:39
uh
5:42
the first place
5:45
was uh super tough because it's like
5:48
all day long you know like more than
5:51
like a period like roughly
5:54
200 kilometers a day
5:56
long yeah and yeah
5:59
it was like nearly um but the second
6:02
races it was pretty good like i ended up
6:05
uh second like it was a national race
6:07
but i was in the amateur you know
6:09
but uh ended up soon so i was like [ __ ]
6:11
yes
6:14
so you're you're the middle of three bro
6:16
brothers baptiste is older antoine's
6:18
younger
6:19
was baptiste responsible for getting you
6:21
all into this crazy world of downhill
6:27
um
6:28
so sorry i didn't get this one
6:30
so um you've got two two brothers
6:33
younger brother and an older brother and
6:35
was baptiste responsible for um getting
6:38
you all interested in in racing downhill
6:42
yeah for sure he was like uh
6:44
you know it's a grand there's a big
6:46
brother so firstly i i just decided i
6:50
didn't want to do the same as him so i
6:53
started like football
6:56
and i tried ski as well but
6:59
finally
7:01
like do o'neill was i came to see him
7:03
like on few races and i saw like the
7:06
atmosphere
7:07
it was so much fun like everybody
7:10
relaxed just having fun
7:12
on the bike off the bike so they was
7:14
like [ __ ] what is this world
7:17
and that's how i i came to it because it
7:20
was like really good atmosphere and when
7:22
i tried the adrenaline of the
7:24
of the dhoni bike was insane so yeah i
7:27
finally have followed
7:31
so this podcast is about racing
7:34
and you're a racer aren't you
7:37
if i look on your instagram there's not
7:39
many videos of you doing on a jump bike
7:42
or doing huge whips or roosting turns
7:45
it's just racing isn't it flat out kind
7:48
of top to bottom is that what you love
7:51
yeah for sure like racing is uh
7:54
is the best feeling for me like
7:57
you know worker pressing brings to you
7:59
like
8:00
like
8:01
massive feelings like you know you can
8:04
never find something like that
8:06
on
8:07
any other race at work you're pressing i
8:09
mean like the stress
8:12
everybody is looking for you sponsor
8:14
friends and just fans
8:16
and
8:17
it means something you know you you can
8:20
feel it and
8:21
and you just like
8:23
when i'm on my bike
8:25
on a race i just want to be the fastest
8:27
and
8:29
if you can give you
8:31
your best this is the best feeling
8:34
when you do like you know
8:36
a mistake so you you don't feel good or
8:39
something is like [ __ ]
8:41
i miss it
8:44
yeah
8:45
it's hard when you can do the run you
8:48
want is like insane just like so good so
8:51
yeah i love racing and i i would love to
8:54
to be good on rips and dirt jumps but
8:56
i'm not so
8:58
i'm sorry that
9:00
well i started preparing for this
9:02
episode by having a look at your early
9:04
results on roots and rain and your first
9:06
race was in 2011
9:09
and loris won that one and he also won
9:11
the next four times you lined up
9:13
together in the start yeah
9:15
was he the man to beat when you were a
9:16
little grom when you were a little kid
9:19
yeah for sure when i started bikes i was
9:22
like uh
9:23
it was like totally new world for me and
9:27
uh
9:28
loris looks like he was already in the
9:30
game
9:31
because he was doing everything and i
9:33
was like whoa who is this gay
9:36
and
9:37
yeah for sure
9:39
it was like a
9:41
big inspiration
9:43
and
9:45
yeah emote i think he motivated me
9:48
like to
9:49
to start you know training like
9:52
physically
9:53
and
9:55
yeah
9:56
it just pushed me like
9:58
to go further in
10:00
everything i do and it's kind of the
10:02
same with uh like we we
10:05
we
10:06
we don't have been in the same category
10:09
but he was like so good and he was a
10:12
good a good french you know being at the
10:14
top like he was always smiling
10:17
yeah and still have a good mentality
10:20
and it's been
10:21
as well big inspiration
10:24
so
10:25
yeah these two
10:27
and i can i can say as well like there
10:29
is a lot of people i could like talk
10:31
like a lot with a lot of people
10:34
inspiration
10:35
with morgancha as well you know
10:38
she won world championship in
10:41
2012 i think in lego yeah and she was
10:45
super nice with me like always give me
10:48
uh good advice
10:50
and as well uh
10:51
guillaume coven because he was like
10:53
not so good at the beginning but getting
10:56
good like top 20 in some races i was
10:58
like okay do it so i can't do it
11:01
so yeah a lot of people come to my mind
11:03
and but these four for sure like they've
11:05
been a good god
11:07
nice
11:09
so
11:10
moving to 2013 your first junior year of
11:13
racing world cups
11:14
you were a solid top 10 rider
11:17
and then 2014 you took your first world
11:20
cup win as a junior in leo gang
11:22
how much did that race win mean to you
11:25
if i it'd be like kind of a
11:28
rollercoaster cause
11:31
so i won
11:32
it was insane like uh
11:35
i was just with like the federation the
11:37
french federation like brings like
11:39
two mechanics to the french junior team
11:43
so that was really nice from the
11:44
federation because no it's like not the
11:46
same beauty at any time so it's a bit
11:48
sad to
11:50
to to have this situation but i was
11:52
lucky to have a better situation
11:55
so maybe the federation for sure help
11:57
help me to to be where i am today
11:59
because without them i maybe couldn't be
12:02
here you know
12:04
um
12:05
yeah so it was like really like a little
12:07
team with not so much budget so
12:11
winning in front of like the the juniors
12:13
from the big team i was like [ __ ] yeah
12:15
we were in front of the the big truck
12:18
team you know like [ __ ] yeah
12:22
that was insane but uh
12:25
after that like uh you know like laurie
12:27
started a crash
12:29
and uh
12:31
so luka
12:32
came last and like was
12:37
like
12:38
you have to pass lorries or something
12:40
like that so you lose sometimes you know
12:41
so
12:42
that was a bit like
12:44
not a real reason
12:47
so that's a tough junior category you
12:50
luca and loris yeah for sure
12:53
okay so moving forward uh 2015
12:57
first year in elite
12:58
17th at your first world cup in lords
13:01
14th in lenza hyde
13:03
12th in valdosol so improving as you
13:06
went and then 13th at world champs in
13:08
andorra that's a really solid first
13:11
season and elite results wise it looked
13:14
like you've you've found your feet
13:15
pretty quickly did it feel like that did
13:18
you feel comfortable as an elite at the
13:20
start
13:22
uh
13:23
yeah you know the main goal
13:25
coming to the elite category when you
13:29
like a junior
13:31
for me i was not a really good junior i
13:34
think otherwise just like you know i had
13:36
some luck on some races but i was not
13:38
consistent and everything so
13:40
my main goal was to
13:43
to be qualified for the final at each
13:45
race and that's what i did so
13:48
i think maybe just for him because i
13:51
broke my crank at the quality but all
13:54
all the other races i was qualified for
13:57
the final so that was the main goal and
13:59
i was just happy to do to do that
14:02
so the final was just bonus and i was
14:05
just okay i send it
14:09
nice
14:11
i was really happy but uh the research
14:13
was really really nice for me
14:14
cool and then that season you also um
14:18
finished the season winning the under 21
14:20
category at the uws in insa ahead of
14:23
adrian daly were you enjoying enduro at
14:25
that time or was it just like an extra
14:28
is it just a bit of fun it was totally
14:31
an extra you know
14:32
i like to discover new things and
14:35
i never like really
14:38
i don't even know if i already did like
14:40
an underwear race but
14:42
it was like for sure a good experience
14:45
yeah it's good you know
14:47
it's easy to talk about sports like blah
14:49
blah blah but if you never like tried
14:51
you you're not able to talk about it
14:54
properly so yeah it was a really good
14:56
experience to to know how hard it is and
14:59
like [ __ ] during the weekend like
15:02
pedaling it's like
15:04
super like so much like to to do on the
15:07
bike and to be consistent on all
15:10
stages it's really tough for the body
15:13
mentally it's like crazy so it's been a
15:15
good experience to me
15:17
but i'm not ready to to turn into the
15:20
underworld
15:22
to be fair i did that enduro and sir and
15:25
that was one of the good ones that was
15:27
there was yeah yeah it was a good day
15:29
yeah cool
15:30
yeah
15:31
after enter i did as well finally
15:36
and i was not the same
15:46
yeah
15:47
so you say you like new experiences and
15:50
you do a few cycle across races too i
15:52
remember on one of them i think you
15:55
shared your heart rate and it didn't
15:56
drop below like 180 or something for a
15:59
full hour
16:00
we've already said that you're a racer
16:01
but do you really enjoy that
16:05
when i was in
16:07
in california with my friends we we
16:09
talked about oh yeah
16:11
we maybe should try to do some cycle
16:14
clothes
16:16
like okay let's do it when we come back
16:18
to from california we do some some cycle
16:21
cross so
16:22
i did like maybe
16:24
two
16:26
like two trainings on the
16:28
on the striker class and then the race
16:30
so it was like terrible but
16:33
have you got the have you got the
16:34
dismount sorted you know when you have
16:37
to do that you don't just throw your
16:39
that thing where you you kind of you
16:41
throw your leg over while you're still
16:42
moving and then you jump off so you
16:44
don't actually stop can you do that yeah
16:47
i i do it like off the bike
16:50
was crazy
16:52
because when i conquered this station i
16:55
was like okay
16:59
and my friend like passed me
17:01
jumping on the bike
17:06
looking at him
17:07
like someone crashed in front of me and
17:08
i was running into him crashing through
17:10
him like
17:12
i was doing your workout fit for a
17:14
couple weeks ago and i couldn't even get
17:16
off the [ __ ] um assault bike i almost
17:19
cut my leg off on the
17:21
back of the seat so no if i was
17:23
absolutely [ __ ] and i was trying to
17:25
get off a cyclocross bike in the mud
17:27
then
17:27
no i'd probably land on my face
17:30
you don't fancy a bit of cyclocross this
17:32
winter then jack ah i don't think
17:34
there's enough money in the world to get
17:35
me doing that sport like
17:37
i've tried a lot of sports like i'm
17:39
where he said and this is a lot of
17:41
sports that i love but
17:44
um
17:47
max heart rate in the cold and the wet
17:51
no doesn't appeal to me at all fair play
17:53
to the people who do it because it looks
17:54
so hard
17:56
cool well let's take a quick let's take
17:58
a quick break there we'll be back with
17:59
more after these messages so moving to
18:02
2016 first race of the season in lords
18:04
and your first podium
18:06
from there um we went to cairns and you
18:08
had a horrible crash and you broke both
18:11
wrists and i remember actually being at
18:12
that race and my my girlfriend at the
18:14
time wife now was with me and i remember
18:17
her coming and saying to me i've just
18:19
seen a lad with with two pots on
18:22
and i was like yes peer on he he got his
18:24
first podium last week and he's just
18:26
[ __ ] himself um
18:28
so that feels like yesterday was five
18:30
years ago um so you went from ecstasy on
18:33
the podium to to agony in a couple of
18:36
weeks um and that kind that crash um it
18:39
wrote off the rest of the season for you
18:40
a little bit tell us how big of a
18:43
setback was that crash when you did your
18:46
wrist
18:48
yeah it was like
18:50
kind of always when we you enjoy
18:52
yourself it's like kind of terrible
18:55
scenario because especially after that
18:57
like that was my best result ever being
19:00
on the podium
19:01
so i was super excited to to see
19:04
what could i do on the next
19:06
races and
19:08
second practice run
19:10
like you know i wanna i wanna just be
19:12
good on my bike so
19:14
i was
19:15
just trying to
19:17
to do like the good lines fast and it
19:20
was like stupid stupid uh the
19:23
stupid idea and i crashed into the first
19:25
world garden it was i don't know if you
19:27
remember but i was super sleepy it was
19:29
so scary oh my god and as a stupid
19:32
question i was like no [ __ ] way so
19:36
it's been really hard it's always hard
19:38
like to to come back from injury but um
19:41
as well it's always a really good lesson
19:44
so you you can always like learn
19:46
something from from it
19:48
so
19:49
yeah i always like to learn from
19:51
injuries so it's it's you always learn
19:54
more from injuries and winning but
19:57
it's been hard like you're always far
19:59
from the thing you love
20:01
and
20:02
yeah
20:03
you looks like
20:05
you you are nothing you know just like
20:06
you're at home looking the other girl is
20:09
riding and you you're on the sofa
20:12
yeah yeah
20:13
okay so we then move into 2017
20:18
second place in the season ending race
20:20
in valdezol and then ninth at world
20:22
champs in cairns
20:24
do you feel that's when things
20:26
just
20:27
clicked for you and and you found the
20:29
pace you needed to ride out was that a
20:31
defining moment
20:34
i
20:35
i did like few i always i like
20:39
some good sectors like
20:41
junior just some good points at some
20:43
races and
20:45
and val di solei at this race i had a
20:48
really good like um
20:50
time training
20:52
then a good qualifying and i was like
20:55
[ __ ] what should i do and i remember
20:58
luke i i saw luik and he told me
21:00
dude just do what you did and have fun
21:04
just go and have fun and i was like okay
21:07
let's go
21:09
and yeah you know just
21:11
when you really admire admire
21:14
someone and he tell you something
21:17
you just you know it directly go through
21:19
your heart on your mind and
21:22
and the magic can happen like that and
21:24
this second place gave me a lot of
21:26
confidence and
21:29
and i did my best like in
21:32
it was in uh in cairns so it was 10
21:36
place it was super good for me because
21:37
the track was like super hard like
21:39
didn't shoot me at uh uh at all yeah so
21:43
i was happy with that but i knew i had
21:45
to work for sure on like this kind of
21:47
track
21:48
and this was like for sure a click in my
21:50
mind and
21:53
after that
21:55
yeah i changed some stuff
21:57
yeah for sure and i think that the
21:59
advice lloyd gave you we have talked
22:01
about this before but
22:02
it's exactly the advice i gave dan in
22:04
maribor after he had that good qualifier
22:06
last season because i had been in that
22:08
situation before
22:10
of a good qualifier or knowing i've had
22:13
good pace and i've not had somebody to
22:15
help me and i felt like i needed to
22:16
raise the bar or do something crazy
22:19
and i think a rider at any level who is
22:21
racing
22:23
can easily get
22:24
drawn into that they can have a good
22:26
quality and then go oh [ __ ] i now have
22:29
to do something wild and that's not true
22:31
like
22:32
there's a reason you've had a good
22:34
qualifying just keep doing the same
22:37
thing
22:37
and have fun and you will ride well and
22:39
like it's really not like a secret code
22:42
it's just if it's if
22:44
it's working then enjoy it
22:46
tell you what boys if i do ever have a
22:48
good quali i know what to do
22:59
so i've told this story a few times
23:01
before i think i've told it on the pod
23:04
but early 2018
23:06
i was stood at revolution bike park um
23:08
chatting to job reading and i asked him
23:10
who he thought who he thought would win
23:12
the world cup overall
23:14
um
23:15
and uh he said i'm a repair on
23:18
and i remember driving home and telling
23:20
my teammate binzi and he was like am i
23:22
who
23:23
and
23:24
i it does always stuck with me because
23:26
yes you've got that second at valdisov
23:28
but to come out and take the overall
23:30
that was a big jump you were promoted to
23:33
the full common sol team at the start of
23:35
2018 was was that big psychologically
23:37
for you
23:39
yeah for sure like
23:41
coming to the to the big common style
23:44
team was like for sure like something
23:46
really
23:48
helped me cause everything was like
23:50
professional and i i was just a young
23:53
kid like
23:55
coming to the professional world and it
23:58
opened my mind on so much stuff and i
24:00
was like
24:01
okay maybe i i know
24:04
why i was not able to do
24:07
good on
24:08
every race
24:10
so
24:11
because you know we
24:12
we test a lot we we spend a lot of time
24:15
on the back so
24:17
it's it's just like more easy to be
24:20
consistent when you are in a good
24:21
condition like mentally physically and
24:24
technically with the team so yeah
24:26
it helped me a lot for sure and at the
24:28
same time so
24:30
i've been kind of professional so i
24:32
stopped um
24:33
working or studying so that was my first
24:36
year like
24:37
doing just bike and okay
24:40
all of this stuff make it happen for
24:42
sure because it's funny i remember
24:43
having exactly the same conversation
24:45
with people that winter because
24:47
obviously i knew who you were because i
24:49
was seeing you at the races and seeing
24:51
the crazy speed you had um and i
24:55
remember talking to people and saying
24:56
hey
24:57
there's something going to happen here
24:58
and they're like who who because they
25:01
weren't
25:02
fully in the picture and i think part of
25:04
that is
25:05
i think it's changed now but certainly
25:07
maybe three four five years ago the
25:08
french riders didn't get
25:11
as much press and as much media coverage
25:13
as say some of the american writers
25:15
though and i think you yourself and like
25:18
and loris have changed that so people
25:20
are more aware but um i remember you put
25:22
a post on marie at the start of 20 at
25:25
the start of that season 2018 you were
25:27
in the gym with
25:29
um remy and uh miriam
25:32
yeah you put a post on saying something
25:34
like [ __ ] these guys like train like
25:37
[ __ ] these guys animals
25:40
was it a big difference for you with the
25:42
training you had been doing on the
25:44
smaller teams compared with what you
25:46
then started doing to prepare for 2018
25:51
like i i told you uh quickly before you
25:54
know like when so i always trading
25:57
before or was working so
26:00
just that stopping working and studying
26:03
like gave me a lot of time and when you
26:05
have a lot of time you can like
26:07
increase your
26:08
your recovery and do a better training
26:11
like you know a good quality training so
26:13
yeah so that's been a really good point
26:16
i think to me
26:17
and then with the team for sure i never
26:19
like did like uh you know team camp like
26:21
we do now
26:23
so just spending that
26:25
that much time on the back i never did
26:27
it before
26:28
and
26:29
yeah you know when you spend that time
26:31
on the bike you
26:33
you know it you you know each reaction
26:35
on each talent on each like everything
26:37
so yeah i feel like
26:39
all of that like uh
26:41
was the was the key for me did it did it
26:44
help riding with remy every day and the
26:46
reason i asked that is that i there was
26:48
a video i i saw of you guys
26:51
i went and found it the other day and
26:53
it's only on facebook and it's from the
26:55
first of february 2019 at a place called
26:58
le grand com
26:59
is that right have i pronounced that
27:01
right yeah yeah yeah and it's it's like
27:03
a
27:03
four-minute track and it's so wild
27:06
you're both just going super fast and
27:08
hitting these massive gaps
27:10
but that's remy
27:12
to a t really
27:14
yeah
27:15
for sure like having remy and evan chibo
27:20
and even pom pom like
27:22
like every people involved in the team
27:25
have a have a place in in a success you
27:28
know and
27:29
and remy for sure
27:31
was a good a good part of my success
27:33
because we
27:34
we so we share runs together we could
27:37
like analyze like start from each other
27:40
you know and doing training when we do
27:43
some
27:44
some lap timing you know we can just
27:46
analyze the time and it was like a mini
27:49
race you know
27:50
you you want to be first even if it's
27:52
not a race so
27:54
we we just increased like that i think
27:57
so 2018 first race of the season
27:59
portuguese national and loser and you
28:02
put five seconds into matt walker in
28:04
second place
28:05
the first world cup was was in croatia
28:07
and did you get a flat there
28:11
yeah yeah the flat so there was
28:15
nice
28:16
it blows my mind yeah you know
28:21
it blows my my mind that i can remember
28:23
that but i can't remember what time i
28:25
need to leave to take my daughter to
28:26
gymnastics but i can remember that in
28:28
2018 in in in um croatia um emery got a
28:33
slap
28:36
that was terrible for me you know first
28:38
worker plays with the team yeah
28:41
and you have a flat like what the [ __ ]
28:43
like yeah
28:46
yeah
28:47
you still finished nah
28:50
no
28:51
no no no
28:52
where did you finish
28:56
what did you call i thought i was uh
28:59
maybe
29:00
i i remember i had the number 16 in
29:05
foreign yeah yeah okay
29:08
well
29:09
after that you went on to fort william
29:11
and you took your first world cup win
29:13
and then you won the next two in leo
29:15
gang and valdisol so you properly
29:17
arrived
29:18
talk us through those few weeks because
29:21
we've seen it happen a few times when
29:22
riders win one and then they win again
29:25
uh happened with danny in 2016.
29:27
[Music]
29:28
did it just give you a wave of
29:29
confidence that you were riding or talk
29:31
us through it
29:33
i think it started like uh in crusher
29:36
you know everything started crashing
29:37
because i was like uh
29:42
seven in in quality and this show me
29:45
that the
29:46
the work paid off you know because it
29:47
was a track i didn't like
29:50
and i was good on it and that was the
29:52
first time
29:53
i was the good on the track i didn't
29:55
like so
29:56
so i was super happy and
29:59
i've been third and
30:01
till the third split before my flat
30:04
so that's what it showed me that that i
30:06
could have the speed like to be a podium
30:09
contender like on on each race
30:11
yeah
30:12
and
30:14
coming to 4am ended up tense
30:16
on the quality
30:18
with a like bad run and then i was like
30:20
[ __ ]
30:21
i really can't be on the podium
30:24
i will just go for it tomorrow
30:27
and i had a a pretty good run
30:30
and
30:30
got the win so that was just insane like
30:34
what the [ __ ] because you you you want
30:37
to go for a podium and you go to win and
30:39
he's like
30:41
in your mind like you're like what the
30:43
[ __ ] i remember at the good good party
30:45
in foreign yeah yeah celebrate this and
30:50
and then like
30:51
it was not a confidence for me because i
30:54
was like
30:55
you know like you want to work up
30:57
and you can feel
31:00
like everybody is looking for you i was
31:03
like
31:04
they just want to hide me you know
31:09
it's been like i remember it was like
31:11
kind of kind of far like to to stay in
31:14
myself
31:15
and
31:17
that was a key
31:18
to to
31:20
to keep you know my
31:21
my my energy my mood and everything
31:24
and
31:25
i had a good quality so that gave me
31:27
confidence again and got that win
31:30
was insane as well in front of aaron
31:33
green
31:34
who always won
31:36
in leogang i was like yeah
31:40
and yeah
31:41
and then yeah the confidence came
31:44
from that one
31:46
and
31:47
and then yeah when the ball is rolling
31:49
you just keep it rolling and
31:52
things happen
31:54
well second second at the next round in
31:56
andorra and at the top of the show i
31:58
said we'd met before and we have
32:01
because i was out in andorra to race
32:03
masters worlds the week after and so we
32:06
came out and watched the world cup and
32:08
we we ended up in a bar together after
32:10
you got your second and loris had won so
32:13
let me just share my screen here hang on
32:15
let me just see if you have any
32:16
recollection of this
32:19
oh brilliant
32:22
i'm afraid
32:30
i had to take a 17-year break from
32:32
exercise here to to to look like that
32:36
that's commitment george
32:39
i'll put that photo on instagram for
32:41
everyone who's uh who's listening at
32:43
making up the numbers racing
32:45
yeah that's a cracker that is this is a
32:48
good one
32:50
so you were happy with that on second in
32:52
andorra i thought you're gonna say well
32:54
you're happy with that photo
32:56
nobody's having that one
33:01
i'm really happy with that photos that's
33:03
sick
33:05
and yeah the second place was
33:10
was
33:11
hard because i wanna
33:13
i wanna you know be part of the history
33:16
and the
33:18
four
33:19
four wins
33:20
was a
33:23
it was already made you know like uh
33:25
after the first win yeah
33:27
but uh i'm still uh
33:30
uh yeah so it's been a bit hard but uh
33:35
i did a good run so i can't complain and
33:39
larry's my friend won so it was a good
33:41
race
33:42
and we had a good party so yeah
33:45
it was a good race nice
33:47
so after the second place in andorra you
33:50
were well ahead in the series with just
33:52
two rounds to go in monster and you had
33:55
a huge crash in the rock garden and your
33:57
last training run and you still managed
33:59
to go ahead and finish fourth
34:02
how hard was it to get up the mountain
34:04
that day and do your restroom were you
34:06
really sure
34:08
it was
34:10
honestly like one of the i don't even
34:12
know how i did it because it i was so
34:15
bad my my body was so like
34:18
everywhere
34:19
so
34:20
just straight from from my crash i came
34:22
to an ice bars
34:25
i had to take some some pills you know
34:27
it was like a load like a load pills
34:29
because we checked with doctors and
34:31
everything
34:33
but
34:34
yeah you know it was just all like and
34:36
during warm up i was like [ __ ] it was so
34:39
painful
34:40
and i can remember like the first
34:42
strokes to the start gate i was like
34:45
okay it's gonna be a long long one yeah
34:48
and then you know with the adrenaline
34:50
and everything like the pain like
34:53
disappear
34:55
but when i cross the finish line i was
34:58
like
35:00
the the engine is off dude
35:03
and yeah like just no more energy like
35:06
crazy so
35:08
that's insane oh
35:10
or your mind can can make things happen
35:13
like
35:14
yeah i don't know you know i was playing
35:16
the overall my brain knew it
35:19
and
35:20
if
35:21
it was not if i was not in this position
35:23
for sure i was not able to race
35:26
so mine was like
35:29
was my yeah i don't know
35:31
my motor this day like every day i think
35:34
but it's crazy how strong the mind can
35:36
be definitely
35:38
that yeah did you enjoy
35:41
the end of the season when you were
35:42
having to race for the series rather
35:45
than having to just race for the race
35:47
win did you enjoy that process or did
35:49
you find it quite stressful because
35:51
we've we've had all the riders say to us
35:53
on the pod that
35:54
they
35:55
you know found it
35:57
difficult or stressful
36:00
how was your experience
36:02
i
36:03
i think i was like
36:05
uh looking for
36:08
ways wins uh
36:10
so since uh 4 am
36:13
until
36:15
monsanton cosmon centen i knew i could
36:18
grab the overalls so
36:20
at this race
36:22
i started like feeling the pressure and
36:25
yeah
36:26
but not that much to be honest
36:28
it was
36:30
i think i was lucky to have like some
36:32
points to to play with you know
36:34
because uh it was possible to grab the
36:37
overall one race before the end so that
36:39
was i think way easier than
36:42
if it's the last race you know yes
36:46
i was not in the
36:48
in the
36:49
in the hardest uh position i think
36:52
okay and the fourth place in monster
36:54
hand did that did you win the title that
36:56
day
36:57
yeah yeah it was uh i grabbed enough
36:59
point to
37:01
yeah to win titles so okay so then we
37:03
went to la bress the very muddy race
37:06
that uh martin mayes came and uh
37:09
schooled us all with his enduro skills
37:11
and uh and he won the race um you were
37:14
in contention if i remember correctly um
37:18
and had a crash in the finish field
37:20
five years there was no
37:23
no no
37:24
i remember watching in the finish
37:26
because i i'd had a tough season but i
37:28
had a good race and i ended up coming
37:30
21st um and i was freezing cold just in
37:33
my jersey and my body armor but i was
37:35
like i'm watching the rest because i
37:36
want to know if i'm going to hold on for
37:37
a top 20. and
37:40
i i like martin he's a great guy i know
37:42
him he's
37:43
lovely chat but i did not want an endura
37:45
guy to win a downhill world cup so you
37:47
were coming down and we were going come
37:50
on
37:50
come on and then you chucked it in the
37:53
field with like two corners to go and we
37:55
were like
37:56
oh
37:57
okay
37:58
um so yeah i remember i remember that
38:00
well um was that pretty frustrating
38:03
[ __ ] yes like it was like you know you
38:06
pass like everything all the words like
38:08
all the mud parts then you come to the
38:11
last three corners flat corners and you
38:14
you you just win everything so he's like
38:19
why
38:20
proper samuel moment jesus okay so um
38:25
2018 i think was one of the years those
38:28
years where ryder raises his level um
38:31
probably the biggest jump
38:33
since gwynne in maybe 2011. um we talked
38:36
to greg about it and he said that riders
38:39
they used to ride fast in sections but
38:41
now riders are just going fast 100
38:44
of the way down were you conscious of
38:47
that at the time that that you kind of
38:49
raised the bar a little bit or
38:51
was that not in your mind
38:53
um
38:54
i think it depends uh
38:57
on on the races you are but uh for sure
39:01
like these days
39:03
29 2018 was maybe a little bit like this
39:05
for sure like you can play with some
39:07
sections
39:08
but no pretty sure you need to be like
39:12
100 100 percent like on each sector of
39:14
the track
39:16
yeah and i think that's where all the
39:17
other things that you talked about
39:19
before the team camps the pre-season
39:21
timing testing having your line guys at
39:24
the world cups become so important
39:25
because if you're a team that doesn't
39:27
have that you might be losing half a
39:29
second to a second and every minute and
39:32
on a four-minute track that's
39:34
maybe ten ten places so
39:37
it's very important um 2019 early season
39:40
we were all racing out in loser where
39:42
we're sitting now um this our last
39:44
normal season in fact so it was like a
39:46
proper pre-season uh it was a decent
39:49
field at the race there was danny g remy
39:52
i was seventh and i was happy with my
39:54
result and uh you won and i'm sure is
39:57
the did you win with a crash is that
39:59
correct yeah yeah
40:01
yeah yeah
40:03
that was crazy
40:05
yeah i remember that
40:06
yeah
40:07
so i'm not gonna go through all the
40:09
races but you won again in fort william
40:11
which means you're you're still
40:12
undefeated there since 2018.
40:16
did you say before you you didn't like
40:18
for william
40:24
uh
40:25
if
40:26
before
40:28
winning four year i never ended foreign
40:31
yeah yeah that's that's easy like i
40:34
always had like a yeah or a crush i
40:37
never end the forum before 2018 where i
40:40
won so
40:42
that's that's a cool story
40:44
and is it your favorite is it your
40:45
favorite track now
40:50
uh it's the
40:53
the only track where
40:54
i went twice so
40:57
so i like it i like it because it's not
41:00
the same feeling as the other tracks you
41:02
know it's like totally different ground
41:05
and different grip
41:08
and just super long so
41:11
it's like
41:12
kind of kind of more easy for me because
41:15
i can just like
41:18
be more safe
41:20
as we spoke uh
41:22
before
41:23
maybe four years is one of the race
41:26
where we could you you can um
41:29
play with some sectors you know
41:32
uh
41:34
yeah i like for william for for that i
41:37
think i think you might have the fastest
41:38
time ever down there
41:40
that
41:40
428.5
41:42
can you think of any one who's been
41:44
faster jack since they moved the start i
41:46
i don't know if that's the only is that
41:48
the only sub 430 i was going to say i
41:50
don't know if
41:51
did greg
41:53
did greg win
41:55
before armory in 2017 yeah i think so i
41:58
don't know if he went under 430 or not
42:00
but i don't think it
42:02
wasn't it wasn't faster than the 28.5 no
42:05
i think that's the fastest time ever
42:07
down there recorded
42:10
so that's that's pretty cool almost
42:12
almost clicked away though
42:15
so yeah that's that's the bit i was
42:16
going to come on to next good recorder
42:19
the moment everyone remembers the final
42:22
jump coming into the arena and you
42:23
nearly went over the bars
42:25
it probably wouldn't have mattered
42:26
because i think you were going that fast
42:28
your momentum would have carried you
42:29
over the line but how close were you to
42:31
to crash in there
42:34
it was terrible i was like you know i
42:37
just learned from the previous jump yeah
42:39
and i was pedaling and was looking to
42:42
the screen you know to see if it was red
42:45
or or green yeah and i thought it was
42:47
green but then when i refocused on
42:49
myself i was on the on the leap
42:55
so it's not good
42:58
and yeah
43:00
honestly
43:02
i was pretty sure to crash
43:04
but i don't know my body was like
43:06
you know super stiff like ravenness yeah
43:09
yeah
43:10
and
43:11
yeah i don't know but uh i stand on my
43:14
bike and
43:15
and pass the line so so that was insane
43:19
so legere 2019
43:21
was that the best run you've ever done
43:23
french crowd bastille day flat out
43:25
two-wheel drifting all the way down
43:29
yeah it was like
43:31
it was one of the best for sure but the
43:33
atmosphere was insane in legend and
43:36
yeah the french quote
43:38
when you are french
43:40
you know it was like
43:44
it was just insane and and i just came
43:47
for it and the feeling was
43:49
insane and when i crossed the finish
43:51
line
43:52
you know winning when you already won
43:54
the
43:54
qualifying
43:56
is like
43:56
when it's green at the bottom
43:58
you know you did it so yeah
44:01
it was insane and all my friends came to
44:03
to cheer me and
44:06
yeah it was a beautiful day
44:08
cool so i wanted to ask you a bit about
44:10
your style on the bike because i went
44:12
back and watched those two runs the fort
44:15
william one and the legere one this week
44:17
and it just reminded me how low you keep
44:19
your head the position you ride in is
44:22
like equivalent to my sp if i was speed
44:24
tucking for the line
44:26
how do you do a four full four minute
44:28
run in that position is it something
44:30
you've worked on or have you always
44:32
ridden like that
44:34
i i think i always been like that
44:36
because i never work on my position uh
44:39
just on my foot position like in the in
44:41
the turns you know like special french
44:44
flat grass turn
44:47
but on my top position i don't know it's
44:49
like natural for me
44:52
but yeah that's why maybe my legs are a
44:55
bit big
44:57
not low
44:59
but yeah it's cool
45:01
it's very good position yeah let let's
45:03
talk a bit about training because we've
45:05
had tebow on the show a few times now
45:07
and in one of our chats he said you just
45:09
outwork everyone when when everyone else
45:12
is spent you're still on the hill doing
45:14
runs is that something you you do
45:17
consciously try to outwork everyone
45:22
i just like
45:24
try to make the the most of my time you
45:27
know
45:29
so
45:30
i don't like that much
45:32
when i'm at home
45:34
so when i come to team comp
45:37
i like to
45:39
do the things well so when i'm
45:42
start like testing something
45:44
i want to finish it you know and if i
45:46
need to do one or two more runs
45:49
i want to to do it to to test something
45:52
else the next day so
45:54
it happens that maybe i finish later but
45:58
not much not that much that than the
46:00
others
46:01
do you do a lot of testing do you try a
46:03
lot of things
46:08
the last few years uh
46:11
we had a lot of
46:13
stuff to test like
46:14
because
46:15
we had new partners you know and uh
46:19
we developed the new bike
46:21
so yeah it's been like a really
46:23
really demanding uh
46:25
off seasons by testing
46:27
because you know mentally it's like
46:28
really hard like you know it demands you
46:31
a lot of focus uh so
46:34
so i think that's why donald is really
46:36
it's so hard because your focus needs to
46:37
be like at 100 percent but it's like
46:40
it's crazy it's like so demanding your
46:42
energy like
46:43
it's like grabbed so much energy
46:46
so
46:48
yeah we test a lot for sure
46:51
and but this year is like more easy so
46:54
that's cool we can be more focused on
46:57
ourselves just like doing
46:59
laps on labs but we always test some
47:02
stuff
47:03
so
47:04
you you said you don't ride much away
47:06
from kind of team camp
47:08
you're absolutely ripped do you enjoy
47:10
the gym
47:16
not that much
47:19
yeah i find something new at the moment
47:21
uh
47:23
it's uh
47:24
skittering you know
47:26
yeah
47:27
so it's so cool it's like when it's cold
47:30
instead of
47:31
doing world bikes you know you take you
47:34
your big jacket
47:36
and you go up the air with those keys
47:37
and then you do some rants it's like
47:39
insane it's and ski it's pretty good i
47:41
think for the legs so yeah omer you're
47:44
one of the guys who i'm like always
47:45
cheering for the guitar and i'm getting
47:48
a little bit concerned because so far
47:49
you've told me your winter is consisting
47:51
of golf and ski thorium
47:55
come on man we got to sell this out
47:57
right
47:58
i don't know
48:02
i'm just [ __ ] with you
48:05
no no for me
48:07
i i need like the i need to have my
48:09
balance i can i cannot live just by
48:12
working yeah i need to have the fun like
48:15
to keep the balance you know
48:17
so
48:19
you know
48:20
good is good it's good for the
48:22
controller because golf is one of those
48:24
sports where if you try too hard
48:26
you [ __ ] it that ball's going
48:28
somewhere it shouldn't be going
48:29
but at the moment i'm like that i tried
48:31
to rod and i forgot i
48:36
yeah yeah you know
48:38
just doing different things and
48:41
yeah it you know give air to your mind
48:44
and it's cool
48:46
i think it's really interesting at least
48:47
for me like to to do other stuff so
48:51
that's why i do i do what i love moto
48:54
like road bike underwear bike domineel
48:58
golf now ski
49:01
and i tried cyclocross you know
49:04
i try everything and yeah i don't know
49:07
nice
49:08
okay so switching focus back to 2019. uh
49:11
bronze medal at worlds amon sedan and
49:14
then snowshoe the finale we all know
49:17
what happened
49:18
danny's run flipped the title between
49:20
you and like
49:22
did
49:22
did you think you'd win it at any stage
49:24
during that run
49:26
that was
49:28
the biggest mistake of my life to think
49:32
i could uh
49:33
grab the overall during that one because
49:35
it was just perfectly
49:37
in the middle of his run it was like
49:39
just uh
49:40
between me and lauric at the speed so i
49:42
was like
49:43
my god it's happening
49:46
but then coming the last to split
49:50
oh no no no it's not good
49:53
hold on slow down and yeah if
49:56
he just won so i lose overall but yeah
50:00
thinking about
50:02
i thought about it about winning but
50:06
it was bad to me
50:08
and
50:09
yeah it was really hard
50:12
but
50:13
he was ah [ __ ] this season was insane i
50:17
remember i won three races luik won
50:19
three races he was like
50:22
it never happens like [ __ ]
50:25
normally when you win three races you
50:26
win the world
50:28
this should be a rule
50:30
yeah
50:32
that was my next question for sure
50:34
um
50:35
so yeah
50:36
do you
50:39
how did you look back on that season now
50:42
i i sense you you know frustration
50:45
obviously
50:46
um
50:47
do you look back on something in
50:48
particular and think [ __ ] if i just done
50:51
that then or or not really
50:55
yeah for sure
50:57
you know
50:58
so
50:59
now
51:01
by looking back i'm i'm like
51:04
super pulled and happy to to ended up
51:06
second that year it was like pretty good
51:09
year like
51:10
insane but in the same time
51:12
i learned a lot from that yeah because
51:14
uh
51:16
after 2018 season you know all the media
51:18
during the winter came blah blah blah
51:20
where are you feeling for 2019 you know
51:23
massive pressure from the outside
51:26
and the inside you know is the sponsors
51:29
and uh
51:31
i [ __ ] up in the first race and
51:34
so it [ __ ] up my season
51:36
but uh some stuff like that you know
51:39
no i know that
51:41
qualifying is like
51:44
so important because 40 points
51:46
it's qualifying
51:48
so yeah
51:50
i i learned so much from this and
51:54
yeah you know you you cannot change the
51:56
past so
51:57
but you can change the future there you
51:59
go
52:00
i have to say your results column is
52:03
just win or bust if you go back to the
52:06
start of 2019 so three seasons there's
52:09
only one double digit finishing there
52:11
the the tenth at the first racing
52:13
snowshoe last year the rest are all
52:16
single digits or dns or dnf
52:20
2020 went a bit pear-shaped as we say
52:22
over here
52:23
9th of august you crashed at the french
52:25
national outdoors in your race run
52:28
23rd of august french national champs
52:31
another crash but this time not so lucky
52:33
you dislocated your finger broken
52:35
collarbone broken back
52:37
as we just said you as i've just said
52:39
your results are often widow bust do you
52:41
ever fear for your own safety do you get
52:43
scared riding that fast
52:46
i i don't
52:49
i'm not scared because
52:54
when i write fast that's
52:56
what i love so i'm not fair about it
53:01
but
53:03
i need to take the time to to reflect on
53:06
on some stuff and
53:07
i'm i sometimes like forget to
53:11
to take the time to to think about like
53:14
what's uh
53:15
what's happened in my life what's
53:17
happened in life in general and
53:20
for example
53:21
those crashes was like
53:24
it was
53:25
i was not able to to avoid them because
53:30
after
53:31
i i i could avoid them but my mind you
53:34
know i wanna i wanna win
53:37
too much yeah after that 2019 season my
53:41
i was so
53:43
you know so motivated to win
53:46
and the covet came
53:48
and stopped my dream so i was like
53:51
what the [ __ ]
53:53
i trained
53:55
so hard that winter
53:57
and i waited just
54:00
the worker prices
54:02
and then kovitz stopped everything
54:05
and we got some races um
54:08
further in the year like in the summer
54:10
and that's why i enjoy myself but during
54:13
that time you know
54:16
i need
54:18
to
54:20
because my mind was ready to
54:24
to go to the roar on the world cup
54:28
but
54:29
it was really hard for me i remember
54:30
when i had to call like you know the
54:32
first one is cancelled i was just okay i
54:35
cried i was like no way it's impossible
54:37
it was like ah terrible
54:40
like yeah
54:41
so
54:43
you you know it's like
54:44
you you waiting for something so hard
54:48
yeah and it did happen just
54:50
by a click yeah so it was a big
54:53
deception for me and so i
54:56
i needed to
54:57
to cut from training and
55:00
i needed to to be
55:02
far from this world so
55:05
i had a
55:07
big cut and then coming back to the
55:10
races i was just not ready because
55:12
i didn't spend times on my dhoni bike i
55:14
was not fit ready and the worst was
55:17
mentally i was absolutely not ready
55:19
and
55:20
i wanna
55:21
still winning but i was not ready so
55:25
that's why i had those crash and um
55:28
and yeah [ __ ] up how how hard was the
55:31
broken back to come to come back from
55:35
uh honestly it's been
55:38
it's been good like my back was uh
55:42
was good i had a
55:46
uh on my bike
55:49
my shoulder was a bit
55:51
tougher
55:52
but
55:53
it's hard sometimes it's easy and you
55:56
just need to
55:57
to work out of
55:59
yeah
56:00
and
56:00
then
56:03
2021 season
56:07
come back
56:08
leo gong so
56:10
go to podium
56:12
so that was really good uh
56:24
because that was what i was going to ask
56:25
so i'm killing man keep going
56:29
[Music]
56:33
he's the perfect guest yeah i was like
56:39
sorry
56:41
i know so
56:42
yeah just coming to
56:46
to leon after missing
56:48
like
56:49
one year of world cup uh secret was like
56:52
okay so you know you're in the unknown
56:54
so we're just gonna take it easy to see
56:56
how it goes and had a good
57:00
good time training
57:03
stupid question quality so not good
57:05
quality and
57:07
a good final who put me in third
57:10
position
57:11
so that was a really good surprise for
57:13
me and
57:16
and yeah
57:17
it was it was a good surprise but i was
57:20
not happy with my run
57:22
because i knew it was not the
57:26
the one
57:27
i'm used to to do
57:30
so
57:31
i want to go to national races
57:34
to to keep improving you know with my
57:36
mental
57:37
mental focus and everything
57:40
and i had that question
57:42
but this one like
57:44
i felt super good during my run like
57:47
it's been like
57:48
the first time i felt that good
57:50
uh
57:52
you know
57:54
like from the
57:56
um before my crashes yeah so i it's
57:58
super good i was soapy
58:01
and
58:03
i don't know why i just stupid
58:05
no it's never stupid but i had a little
58:08
crush and with
58:09
big
58:11
big impact in in my kidney
58:14
and my liver yeah so that was not a joke
58:18
and
58:20
i was a bit scary about it because you
58:22
know it's not like a bone when you know
58:24
what it is
58:25
yeah so
58:26
you know it's inside it's like
58:30
you're scared you know
58:31
so a doctor like was was super bad like
58:35
i spent
58:36
one week in the hospital
58:38
and each morning they came to my room
58:43
and they told me
58:45
memory
58:47
you do sports right
58:49
i'm sorry but you you need to stop
58:51
sports like for six months i was like
58:53
i'm sorry
58:55
yeah it was horrible each day doctors
58:58
came to the room and said that so i was
59:00
like no way like
59:02
and i just kept dreaming about like um
59:07
uh i dreamed about like uh
59:10
about world champs because
59:12
for me it was impossible to wait six
59:14
months like you know another season is
59:16
[ __ ] so it was impossible to me
59:19
and i don't know i think i just like
59:22
believe it
59:23
and
59:24
just
59:25
do the right things like
59:27
i i try to enjoy other things in life
59:30
i had good opportunity
59:32
to meet people to to do great things
59:36
and i was just happy with my life doing
59:39
like eating well drinking well
59:42
only doing good stuff and
59:45
and the doctor were like
59:48
there are no wars when they they saw the
59:51
the scans after one month already
59:54
after six weeks
59:56
and after six weeks they told me
59:58
maybe you could have the chance to to be
1:00:01
a at world champs in two weeks but we
1:00:03
need to do another scans
1:00:06
so i
1:00:07
i'd start training two weeks before
1:00:10
workshops
1:00:11
after six weeks off and
1:00:14
so it was only road bike
1:00:17
and gym allowed
1:00:20
but
1:00:21
it just uh
1:00:24
like the week before the weekend before
1:00:27
the world champs
1:00:28
i keep my own ear bike it's a secret
1:00:31
don't tell the clothes
1:00:35
because i i wanna
1:00:37
be not
1:00:38
yeah
1:00:39
not too bad you know
1:00:41
because i called the french
1:00:44
the french
1:00:45
trainer and you call me if you want to
1:00:47
go i i keep you space you know
1:00:51
so i tried it was okay
1:00:55
so i did the scan on the monday
1:00:58
on the tuesday
1:01:00
the doctor called me and you tell me
1:01:02
it looks good
1:01:04
but we never
1:01:05
had before a
1:01:08
a recovery that fast usually it's six
1:01:11
months and we are only two months
1:01:14
so it looks good
1:01:15
but technically we don't know if there
1:01:18
is an impact or it will react
1:01:20
yeah so it told me for me
1:01:25
i i want to let you go to let you race
1:01:29
but if i need to sign something for the
1:01:31
uci or something i i won't
1:01:35
i was like okay thank you very much
1:01:39
and so
1:01:41
we had some discussions with the team
1:01:44
uh
1:01:45
with some other doctors
1:01:47
and i finally decided to
1:01:49
trace like take it easy
1:01:52
and
1:01:54
just you know to take some some marks on
1:01:57
the bike
1:01:58
to have maybe an opportunity to to do
1:02:00
good under the races and
1:02:03
so it's been really stressful valdisol
1:02:06
when you come back is not a good race to
1:02:07
come back
1:02:09
it's like why it was nearly a valley is
1:02:12
nearly but when you come back from
1:02:13
injury like without riding and proper
1:02:16
training it's really hard
1:02:18
so yeah it's been a big big mission but
1:02:22
uh
1:02:24
i'm happy and proud
1:02:26
to have done that even if the result was
1:02:28
not there it was a good good mission
1:02:31
cool so let's take an another quick
1:02:34
break there we'll be back with the final
1:02:36
section of the show after these messages
1:02:38
okay so before the break um you came you
1:02:41
said you came back for world
1:02:42
championships and
1:02:44
you know i think i remember hearing you
1:02:46
say in an interview or somewhere that
1:02:47
your arms felt like spaghetti on the
1:02:49
track um
1:02:51
were you ready for the race really or or
1:02:53
was it just kind of desperation to
1:02:56
to race
1:02:58
for sure
1:03:01
i think i was not ready because uh
1:03:03
when you
1:03:04
you are stopped uh
1:03:06
like for six weeks
1:03:08
you lose a lot of muscle because i was
1:03:10
not allowed to do anything so
1:03:14
one of the hardest packs on the circuit
1:03:15
as well physically
1:03:17
and one of the hardest most physical
1:03:19
tracks on the surface yeah yeah for sure
1:03:22
for sure
1:03:23
so
1:03:24
yeah
1:03:26
i was not um
1:03:27
waiting for all for a result but
1:03:31
to be honest i i started to to feel good
1:03:34
like uh
1:03:35
on race day and maybe
1:03:38
you know
1:03:39
i want to do a race when so i came back
1:03:42
from injury and i i had a mechanical and
1:03:45
was not able to see where i could stand
1:03:48
and i was like what the [ __ ]
1:03:51
what did i do today
1:03:57
it's been another like you know
1:04:00
big uh
1:04:01
you know i don't know what to say like
1:04:03
but a big it in my head
1:04:05
it's just like for sure yeah yeah just
1:04:07
mentally hard like to be in that
1:04:09
position
1:04:10
but uh yeah that may make me
1:04:14
made me a angry for yeah so moving then
1:04:18
you qualified second in lanzard finished
1:04:20
fourth with three frenchies in front of
1:04:23
you so almost at all french podium um
1:04:27
why why do you think
1:04:29
france is so strong in downhill at the
1:04:32
moment i have my theories
1:04:34
what is what do you think
1:04:39
i think we are
1:04:42
we are just stupid
1:04:48
that's not my theory just to say no no
1:04:51
no
1:04:55
oh this is my favorite interview by a
1:04:57
mile that's brilliant
1:05:00
let me explain let me explain
1:05:03
sorry
1:05:04
go on
1:05:06
it's like when you
1:05:09
people in life uh
1:05:11
need like uh diverticement you know
1:05:13
like they they like to do that that that
1:05:16
see people drink beer
1:05:18
go out you know go to the cinema and do
1:05:20
do stuff like normal people do
1:05:23
yeah
1:05:24
and um
1:05:26
and to be
1:05:28
at the top i think of something in
1:05:32
whatever
1:05:34
sports you do
1:05:35
you need like uh
1:05:38
to give you your life to dedicate your
1:05:40
life to it
1:05:41
so that's why i say we are stupid
1:05:44
because we
1:05:45
we have
1:05:47
at least
1:05:48
i don't know the other to be honest but
1:05:50
at least for for my side like i dedicate
1:05:52
my life to donald you know
1:05:55
yeah i like having
1:05:57
fun but
1:05:58
you know
1:05:59
all my life is around here
1:06:02
i have like a lot of fun
1:06:04
around my circle of daniel but
1:06:07
everything is like related to donald
1:06:10
okay so and i really like it you know uh
1:06:13
i will never change that
1:06:15
but um
1:06:17
but uh without joke i think luik um
1:06:21
was uh
1:06:23
was the leader of the french train
1:06:25
because uh
1:06:27
he was doing good
1:06:29
and he
1:06:30
made us dreaming and
1:06:33
then i started to do good so
1:06:35
rory's for sure was like [ __ ] i need to
1:06:38
do it
1:06:39
then tebow my teammate
1:06:41
we were training together
1:06:43
he
1:06:44
you know we work together we do the same
1:06:46
stuff
1:06:47
you knew we could do it as well
1:06:50
so
1:06:51
i think it's just like yeah
1:06:54
we we have maybe a mentality
1:06:57
and we all
1:06:59
know us together
1:07:01
pretty well i think
1:07:02
so if one can do it why not me
1:07:07
yeah i think um looking in from the
1:07:10
outside
1:07:11
my theory
1:07:13
is to do with what you've just talked
1:07:15
about and
1:07:17
looking i mean i've been on the world
1:07:18
cup circuit now since 2010 so it's a
1:07:20
long time and i've seen lots of
1:07:22
different um
1:07:24
ways riders from different countries
1:07:26
interact with each other and
1:07:28
from the outside watching you french
1:07:30
guys like it's like you're all a bunch
1:07:33
of best mates who are
1:07:34
racing world cups like when you're all
1:07:37
on the podium together it's like there's
1:07:39
so much
1:07:40
camaraderie and like happiness for each
1:07:42
other and
1:07:44
i just think that helps you guys
1:07:47
be the best you can be because you're
1:07:48
learning from each other and almost
1:07:50
helping each other like you just said
1:07:51
about you and tebow when you're you're
1:07:53
testing and
1:07:54
i don't see that happening as much from
1:07:56
the other nations so
1:07:59
you know hearing you say that kind of
1:08:01
ties in with with what i see and why i
1:08:03
think it works so well no no you i think
1:08:06
you're you're true
1:08:07
it's like a really good relationship
1:08:10
between all of us
1:08:12
and
1:08:12
it's just a good advice when we go
1:08:14
racing it's like
1:08:16
it's not early days but it's like the
1:08:18
best part of our job like the bad part
1:08:21
like training our training and then when
1:08:23
we go to the racing it's like okay we're
1:08:25
here for fun we're gonna fight you know
1:08:27
but it it's what we what we like
1:08:30
so we are happy to do it and when
1:08:33
we don't see
1:08:35
see us
1:08:36
too much you know so the only times we
1:08:38
can see it it's at the races
1:08:40
so
1:08:41
we appreciate us a lot so we we like to
1:08:45
spend
1:08:46
to spend time together and even more
1:08:49
when
1:08:49
it's on the podium
1:08:52
yeah it's cool man it's cool for younger
1:08:54
athletes to see that as well
1:08:56
okay so moving to snowshoe at the end of
1:08:58
the season uh you were 10th in the first
1:09:00
race and then wrapped up the season um
1:09:03
fourth
1:09:04
it must have felt good to finish the
1:09:06
year with a podium after the
1:09:08
frustrations of the last two years
1:09:11
yeah yeah yeah for sure it was
1:09:13
it was really good like to to end up on
1:09:15
a good note and
1:09:17
to end of the season lc so
1:09:21
yeah it's you know i was happy to end up
1:09:24
that season to close that chapter
1:09:27
and now i'm opening a new chapter and
1:09:31
i'm just like super stocked uh
1:09:34
with with my life with what i'm doing
1:09:37
with the people around me
1:09:39
so
1:09:40
yeah i'm
1:09:42
i'm just enjoying the process working
1:09:44
with the team working with my trainer
1:09:46
and just just
1:09:48
i i don't want to say i i can't wait
1:09:52
for the realities but i'm excited uh two
1:09:54
good races and
1:09:57
to be
1:09:58
to be healthy fit
1:09:59
and just well prepared yeah yeah i'm
1:10:03
excited obviously the season didn't end
1:10:06
how the team would have liked with both
1:10:08
tevo and miriam losing their their
1:10:10
grasps on the title how was the mood in
1:10:12
the camp afterwards did did you
1:10:13
celebrate that podium
1:10:18
it was hard it was like a really
1:10:21
tough end of the season for the team
1:10:24
for sure like
1:10:25
they came
1:10:28
being leader and
1:10:31
yeah lost the overall on the last one so
1:10:34
it's been really hard for for the team
1:10:37
and
1:10:38
yeah for
1:10:39
you know it's normal to
1:10:42
to the team to to be uh sad about it
1:10:45
because it was like
1:10:46
just
1:10:48
we never can say stupid but kind of
1:10:50
stupid you know like little mistakes can
1:10:52
be
1:10:53
can have a massive um
1:10:56
massive impact on on the season on the
1:10:59
team she's like team you know
1:11:02
i know
1:11:04
i don't have the world but uh yeah
1:11:07
yeah
1:11:09
you know yeah
1:11:10
but
1:11:11
so
1:11:12
for sure it was not the
1:11:14
the
1:11:15
the best mood after that race
1:11:18
but
1:11:21
for me
1:11:23
i was just focused on me and uh
1:11:27
yeah
1:11:27
and yeah i was happy and proud of what
1:11:30
i'd achieved
1:11:31
cool well let's talk about tebow a
1:11:33
little bit because he showed last year
1:11:35
that he's a title contender now does
1:11:37
that change the team dynamics at all
1:11:41
[Music]
1:11:43
we
1:11:47
i don't know
1:11:50
if we we know that
1:11:53
for she can win the title and
1:11:57
and no
1:11:59
all the team know it for sure and
1:12:01
[Music]
1:12:02
we just i think we will work
1:12:05
harder
1:12:07
to put
1:12:08
the horses in the front
1:12:10
yeah
1:12:11
and
1:12:12
yeah
1:12:13
don't really change we
1:12:15
we just try to to be
1:12:17
more professional on
1:12:20
a new side of the races
1:12:23
we just tried to find some new new
1:12:25
solutions to be
1:12:27
just more professional yeah
1:12:30
and
1:12:31
to try the best
1:12:34
conditions on the race don't end we just
1:12:36
uh
1:12:38
we just go
1:12:41
to
1:12:42
kickstart
1:12:44
yes
1:12:45
so
1:12:46
there was a question i wanted to ask you
1:12:48
and you just called them horses then
1:12:51
and you're referring to the bikes yes
1:12:54
and i remember you talking is that just
1:12:57
generally what you call bikes or is that
1:12:59
what
1:13:00
when i got on the high pivot supreme i
1:13:02
heard an interview with you just after
1:13:05
that first year when you brought the
1:13:06
high pivot in and i remember you saying
1:13:09
um
1:13:10
it was like riding a horse or something
1:13:12
like that
1:13:13
and is that a comment on the high pivot
1:13:15
supreme light the way because when i got
1:13:18
on it i was like
1:13:19
this thing pushes you forward when you
1:13:21
land it's like riding a horse it gallops
1:13:23
away from you is that a comment on that
1:13:26
or is that just generally what you call
1:13:27
the bikes
1:13:31
he's just being french
1:13:35
yeah no i don't know i just called uh
1:13:38
call that or sees cause yeah he's like
1:13:41
it's a motorizer also it's everything
1:13:44
everything powerful the bike is like a
1:13:47
real machine a powerful machine so
1:13:50
cool so tebow's back on the bike now
1:13:53
you're at team cafe in a minute
1:13:56
yeah yeah he came on the donate back
1:13:58
into the last team camp and uh
1:14:01
and did you
1:14:03
provide on on here is already fast so
1:14:08
watch out guys
1:14:11
and house
1:14:21
[Music]
1:14:24
how about miriam how's how's miriam
1:14:26
feeling about next season
1:14:28
well me
1:14:30
it's if you know it's hard like to
1:14:35
to
1:14:37
to see how people feel about this season
1:14:39
we
1:14:41
we don't really
1:14:42
talk about it because it's like kind of
1:14:44
i don't know
1:14:45
we don't really share like this kind of
1:14:48
feeling okay and it's hard to talk about
1:14:50
these feelings but uh what i can
1:14:53
tell you
1:14:55
it's like she riding super well
1:14:59
like
1:15:00
i'm really impressed like each year is
1:15:02
like what the [ __ ] it's a girl
1:15:05
it's a girl just pass in front of me
1:15:07
when i look at something it's like it's
1:15:08
crazy it's like really impressing
1:15:10
yeah so
1:15:12
um i guess congratulations are in order
1:15:14
for your 2021 season um despite your
1:15:17
injuries missed two rounds uh you still
1:15:20
finished sixth in the overall um which
1:15:22
is really good and you've said how
1:15:23
excited you are for 2022 you're sticking
1:15:26
with common cell mukhoff again um
1:15:29
and as we've heard you guys are a super
1:15:31
close team um and you all work really
1:15:34
you know together which is which is sick
1:15:36
um after your 2018 and 2019 seasons
1:15:41
you must have had some offers from from
1:15:44
teams have you ever been tempted to
1:15:45
leave
1:15:48
um
1:15:48
[Music]
1:15:50
i i will i don't really i like uh team
1:15:53
offers
1:15:54
uh
1:15:55
and i don't really
1:15:58
add the
1:16:00
the the
1:16:02
the needed to to leave you know like i
1:16:04
feel good uh there is a really good
1:16:07
dynamics
1:16:09
between the team and common sales brand
1:16:11
oh yeah yeah so the team is like really
1:16:16
really motivated more than ever like to
1:16:19
to to to give us the best um the best
1:16:22
possibilities for several goals yeah so
1:16:26
i think it's a really good team uh so
1:16:29
yeah
1:16:30
no no need
1:16:31
no need to change now
1:16:33
yeah and
1:16:35
yeah when you feel good i think you you
1:16:37
can go fast cool
1:16:39
let's finish with a bit about the bike
1:16:41
park whose idea was that and and how's
1:16:44
it going
1:16:46
my brother like did
1:16:49
my big brother bartles did everything
1:16:50
like she
1:16:52
the id came
1:16:53
because he liked to stay uh at home and
1:16:57
don't like to move to ride in italy
1:16:59
spain portugal yeah so
1:17:02
you
1:17:03
before like everybody
1:17:05
uh
1:17:06
went to summer or sunraimo was
1:17:09
the test track yeah so it was like okay
1:17:12
i want to do the new summer you know
1:17:14
destroy track
1:17:15
and and then people will come
1:17:18
on all bike park
1:17:20
so
1:17:22
so it's a good idea
1:17:24
there's a lot of local riders who come
1:17:27
and some
1:17:29
not locals came already
1:17:31
i think bernard care
1:17:33
came yeah dan has been as well dan has
1:17:35
been surrounded yeah
1:17:38
windmasters
1:17:39
and we're waiting for you now there you
1:17:41
go
1:17:42
i'm
1:17:46
it's really good like she he did a good
1:17:49
work
1:17:51
and uh yeah he still improves the bike
1:17:53
park uh
1:17:55
bigger and bigger so that's cool well
1:17:58
great stuff thanks for coming on the
1:18:00
show and if you can uh intro me to loic
1:18:03
that would be much appreciated
1:18:04
[Music]
1:18:09
all the best for 2022 the english riders
1:18:12
will be a bit pissed at me for saying
1:18:14
this but i i hope you can get that 3p in
1:18:16
in fort william
1:18:19
thank you very much
1:18:21
thanks to the sponsors of the show hope
1:18:23
technology jtech suspension revolution
1:18:25
bike park ride southern spain schwalbe
1:18:27
singletrackworld.com
1:18:29
as always if you're enjoying the podcast
1:18:31
please subscribe so you don't miss an
1:18:32
episode and if you've got a sec please
1:18:34
drop us a review alternatively please
1:18:36
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up the numbers racing or facebook.com
1:18:40
making up the numbers
1:18:42
i'm trying to get one more episode done
1:18:43
but i'm not sure how likely that is so
1:18:45
this episode might be the last one of
1:18:47
season three
1:18:48
if it is thanks very much to you all for
1:18:50
listening the numbers have gone through
1:18:52
the roof again this year and i imagine
1:18:54
the sponsors will be very happy we'll be
1:18:55
back soon
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