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Making Up The Numbers MTB Podcast with Aaron Gwin, Camille Balanche, Joe Breeden & Aaron Dobie
Jul 2, 2021
Race season is in full swing & joining us for this episode of the pod are 5 x Elite Men’s World Cup Champion Intense Factory Racing’s Aaron Gwin, 2020 Elite Women’s World Champion Dorval AM Commencal’s Camille Blanche, 2019 British Champion NS Bikes UR’s Joe Breeden & Sports Physiotherapist Aaron Dobie gives us an update on Jack’s shoulder.
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0:01
[Music]
0:14
welcome
0:15
to the making of the numbers podcast
0:18
the making of the numbers podcast is
0:21
sponsored by hope technology
0:23
jtag suspension revolution bike park
0:26
ride southern spain schwall on the
0:30
world's
0:30
finest independent mountain bike
0:32
magazine
0:34
single track
0:37
hello and welcome to season three
0:39
episode five of the pod
0:41
the season is now in full swing and boy
0:43
do we have an episode lined up for you
0:45
jack i have to say aside from that climb
0:47
on stage three foul faster ews looked
0:49
bloody brilliant
0:50
was it as good as it looked it wasn't
0:54
actually
0:54
i did it two years ago and it was great
0:56
it was one of my favorites and
0:58
this year they just changed things up a
1:00
bit and
1:01
in my opinion like they kind of made
1:04
things a little bit more awkward and
1:05
removed a little bit of flow in some
1:07
spots
1:08
but it's not really i'm not really a
1:10
fair person to ask because stages one
1:12
and two
1:13
i struggled so much to ride them with my
1:16
shoulder injury they were rooty and
1:18
there were there were compressions and
1:19
holes and
1:20
that's exactly especially a trail bike
1:22
what my shoulder doesn't really like at
1:24
the moment
1:25
unexpected movements so those two stages
1:28
were
1:28
if anything like the more downhilly more
1:30
technical uh ones and i couldn't really
1:32
enjoy them so
1:34
yeah i'm a little bit biased but but
1:35
yeah that climb on stage stream
1:38
wow like it was like an xc race on an
1:40
enduro track so
1:42
um i mean did you manage to pedal up it
1:43
because you said you might be
1:44
cyclocrossing it
1:46
i ran up it but i mean i'm on a 34 tooth
1:48
chainring with a 46 tooth cassette and i
1:50
didn't want to snap my chain
1:52
um if i'd you know i've got mates who
1:55
had 50s 52s and they peddled up it but
1:57
i got off and was like i'm going to walk
2:02
and all the comments are guys my athlete
2:04
manager
2:05
they were all on like the hairpin bend
2:07
on it just screaming
2:09
and i i jumped off looked up and saw
2:11
pierre comes like
2:12
oh i can't walk now so i just ran
2:15
like it felt like usain bolt but i was
2:17
probably barely even putting one foot in
2:18
front of the other
2:19
um and they were just screaming in my
2:21
ear and yeah they dragged me up there to
2:23
be fair so
2:24
cool you didn't race did you but how did
2:26
dan get on
2:27
yeah i mean we took dan out because he's
2:30
under 21 and he's never done one so we
2:31
were like
2:32
if he enjoys it and if he's podium in
2:34
it's going to be worth it for the team
2:35
to be going
2:36
yeah so far his take on it is that he
2:39
wants to be a download racers let's just
2:41
say that he came eighth and he came
2:42
sixth i wouldn't say he didn't enjoy it
2:46
but he also
2:46
didn't really like the uphills the lack
2:48
of flow the same kind of stuff that i
2:50
don't really like about them so we're
2:51
going to let's wheel next week
2:52
let's see if it changes his mind cool
2:55
how's the shoulder doing because
2:57
do you think you're going to be able to
2:58
hold on this working legere
3:00
yeah so i mean i've uh i've been
3:02
building strength back into it
3:04
and i've been i rode my download like
3:05
last thursday on the off day
3:07
um just to get a little bit of
3:09
confidence back that was invalid faster
3:11
and then uh here in in um more zine i
3:15
rode on
3:15
on monday on plenty black first run i
3:18
was literally like
3:20
going so slow so i was like is it going
3:22
to hurt if i do a scrub movement
3:23
is it going to hurt in repeated bumps i
3:26
didn't know by the last run
3:27
i've i was felt pretty much like full
3:29
charge and it wasn't bothering me
3:31
can i just can i just ask was that first
3:32
run run when brosnan caught you
3:36
yeah so embarrassing so i i'd seen mick
3:39
hannah at the left
3:40
gone up with mick elliot and luca and
3:42
then just
3:43
tootling down behind him not trying to
3:45
keep up just going with him and ended up
3:46
going into one of the steep ones off the
3:48
plenty
3:48
and then troy and the canyon boys so
3:51
happened to be coming down the same one
3:52
and i was like shouldn't have been there
3:54
like dog legging and like just dribbling
3:56
down and
3:56
it turned out that when i come out the
3:57
bottom the guy had been holding up this
3:59
troy
3:59
so embarrassing i said to him i was like
4:01
i've got a really bad shoulder i swear
4:03
but yeah obviously i didn't care just
4:05
laughed and carried on
4:06
um but instead of me whining on about my
4:09
shoulder because my
4:10
understanding of what's going on with it
4:12
is obviously fairly
4:14
limited um i've been
4:17
getting treatment off my mate aaron who
4:19
is a sports physio
4:20
for the last two weeks he was out in
4:22
baldur and he's actually on the podcast
4:24
and aaron's going to tell you a little
4:26
bit about
4:27
what i'm going through and how he's
4:28
treating it so aaron i'm gonna hand over
4:30
to you and rather than me just whinge
4:31
i'll let you uh
4:32
add some detail yeah um thanks for
4:36
having me on and give me the opportunity
4:37
um to describe kind of your rehab injury
4:40
and
4:41
what we're doing to get yet your best
4:42
for this uh legie dh round
4:45
the body's confusing medicine's
4:47
confusing so i'm always happy to teach
4:49
and uh kind of explain to the listeners
4:51
with similar injuries
4:53
what's going on so they can better under
4:55
better understand uh
4:56
you know their own body yeah um yeah
5:00
so a quick summary for those that don't
5:02
know jack injured his shoulder and
5:03
dislocated her shoulder in a crash
5:05
10 weeks ago while training at home and
5:07
then he re-aggravated it two weeks ago
5:09
on
5:10
it with a big off in leo gang in
5:12
practice
5:14
and so an anatomy a lesson for the
5:16
shoulder so
5:17
uh the shoulder is a ball and socket
5:19
joint and so it's similar to that of a
5:22
golf ball resting on a tee
5:24
so it doesn't have a ton of congruency
5:26
and a ton of stability
5:28
just with like the bony structures of
5:30
the shoulder um
5:32
but in return we get a ton of range of
5:33
motion so we can put our arm overhead we
5:35
can put it behind our back
5:37
we do all sorts of stuff with our
5:38
shoulder when you compare that to the
5:40
hip which is a deep ball and socket
5:42
joint
5:43
we don't get as much of that mobility
5:45
but we get the stability you don't hear
5:47
about people dislocating your
5:48
hips you it's just like it's way harder
5:52
to do
5:53
it does happen though um so the labrum
5:56
which
5:57
which is what i believe jack injured is
5:59
a soft tissue
6:00
lining on top of the socket of the
6:02
shoulder and so it adds a little bit
6:04
more congruency to the shoulder
6:07
and it adds some shock absorption
6:09
ability to the shoulder
6:11
but when the joint gets compressed or
6:13
it's forced to its end ranges
6:15
it can be damaged and that damage
6:18
usually creates a path of instability
6:20
for that ball to slip and to slide out
6:22
of the joint
6:23
um and if you take our golf analogy if
6:26
you think
6:27
of the rim being indented on that tee
6:30
yeah it's as if you put the ball on top
6:33
of the t and it's consistently sliding
6:35
through that groove
6:36
right i say yeah and it's it's pretty
6:39
common injury isn't it i think
6:41
the last podcast we did there was dan's
6:43
done dan wolford done it
6:45
florian nikolai had done it as well is
6:48
it is it the most common injury
6:50
you see um
6:53
acute injury like crash related injury
6:55
i'd have to say broken
6:56
broken collarbone but definitely similar
6:58
forces right like when you come off the
7:00
bike and your
7:01
arms reaching out to grab onto something
7:03
or just to break your fall
7:05
uh the force has to go somewhere so it
7:06
either has to go by slipping the joint
7:08
through its socket or the collarbone
7:10
breaks or something like that
7:12
um like one of the nice things like when
7:14
we assess jack
7:16
he has pain when he puts his arm
7:17
overhead and he has some weakness in the
7:19
back of his shoulder
7:20
um and definitely kind of the most
7:23
important
7:24
piece of the assessment is he has that
7:25
instability and like apprehension in the
7:28
shoulder joint
7:28
yeah but when it comes to biking we
7:30
don't put
7:32
our arms above our head so the pain part
7:35
isn't really there
7:36
um and the instability that he has in
7:39
his shoulder
7:40
isn't in the direction that you see when
7:42
you're riding a bike so when you're
7:43
riding the bike most of the forces are
7:45
coming from the front to the back
7:47
uh anterior to posterior and so that
7:50
that position and those forces aren't
7:52
uh going to put him at risk of a
7:55
dislocation as long as he stays on the
7:57
bike
7:58
that's usually how you can see these
7:59
people that have a cute they have acute
8:02
dislocations and they're able to get
8:04
back on the bike because
8:05
the forces that the shoulders taking
8:07
while on the bike
8:08
aren't testing where that labral tear is
8:11
yeah
8:12
so what what's the how long until jack's
8:16
going to be fully recovered from this
8:20
yeah so so i guess jack's biggest
8:23
issue is that the instability that is
8:26
created from that labral tear has the
8:28
nervous system really like unconfident
8:29
in what the shoulder can do and jack
8:31
even just said there it's like those
8:32
unexpected
8:34
impacts and hits the shoulder doesn't
8:36
know how to
8:37
how to like create the right motor
8:39
program or send the right signal from
8:41
the brain to get the muscles to contract
8:44
so like his brain might send a good
8:45
signal down but then along the way
8:48
that signals going to those muscles
8:49
along the way that signal gets a little
8:51
bit
8:51
fuzzy because there's that apprehension
8:53
and inhibition along the way
8:56
um so that leaves jack with this sense
8:58
that his like right shoulder is
8:59
different than his left shoulder
9:01
um and then in addition certain muscles
9:02
tighten up in the back of his shoulder
9:04
to help create stability because we know
9:06
the shoulder is not creating that
9:07
stability
9:08
and that further compounds the issue
9:11
because now again his
9:12
one shoulder feels different than the
9:13
other um
9:16
so really we're in damage control right
9:18
now especially because it's like
9:19
we're in the race we're in a race block
9:22
right so we're trying to
9:23
we're trying to relax those tight
9:25
muscles uh with like soft tissue
9:27
techniques and
9:28
we've been doing some ims like dry
9:30
needleing
9:31
um and then the key when you ask about
9:34
how long it's going to take it's
9:36
we need to rebuild the brain's
9:38
confidence in the shoulder through like
9:40
good movement and exercise that doesn't
9:43
cause any sort of pain and doesn't cause
9:45
any sort of free aggravation
9:47
um so it's like for as many what steps
9:49
we can take forward if he comes off the
9:51
bike and then re-aggravates it it can be
9:53
like four steps back
9:55
um so it's just trying to stack more of
9:57
those like good movements and positive
9:59
rides that don't cause problems
10:02
and doing less of the coming off the
10:04
bike and and
10:05
and uh re-aggregating it so it is that
10:07
that question is hard to
10:08
hard hard to answer for sure jack do you
10:12
do you think you can go full chat this
10:14
weekend
10:16
yeah i can for sure but as aaron just
10:18
said that the hardest part of it is
10:21
is believing in in your body when when
10:23
you know there's a weakness there and
10:25
then especially
10:26
when a track is littered with features
10:28
and sections that you know is going to
10:30
challenge that exact weakness you've got
10:34
it's it is really difficult to overcome
10:36
that so honestly after walking the track
10:38
like
10:39
i wish we were just racing the old one
10:41
because i know the old one
10:43
it was fast like aaron has said um i can
10:46
just charge
10:47
and instead it's going to be lots of
10:50
different
10:50
sections with roots and slipping mud and
10:52
the bike's going to be booking and
10:54
kangaroo in spots as we're trying to
10:55
learn the lines so
10:57
so yeah i'm going to have to be really
10:58
smart and build confidence
11:00
with my runs and uh dan's obviously
11:03
gonna have to help me with that he's
11:04
gonna have to lead the way
11:06
and if between the two of us by third
11:08
and fourth run
11:09
we can feel like we've got a line down
11:11
the hill where i can trust myself to
11:14
yeah yeah we're good let's let's hit
11:15
these entries and exits and get off the
11:17
brakes and go
11:18
then then then yeah but if the bike is
11:21
slipping and sliding and kangaroo around
11:23
all day then
11:24
then yeah i am going to struggle to to
11:25
trust it and ride properly
11:27
what's the what's the force the big
11:29
thing i think it
11:30
go on aaron sorry yeah the big thing
11:34
the big thing i find is is its
11:36
confidence and one thing we know with
11:38
mountain biking is the more confident
11:39
you go into a section
11:41
if it is those slippery routes the more
11:43
confident you go into that section the
11:45
better your bike performs and the better
11:46
you perform
11:47
so i think my suggestion for you would
11:49
just be to try and like
11:50
if you're gonna do something do it with
11:52
full commitment because it's gonna go
11:54
better
11:54
than if you're trying to as you say
11:56
dribble through a section and you're on
11:58
the brakes and you're
11:59
braking on slippery routes and the
12:00
shoulder's not going to know what to do
12:02
so it's
12:03
it's it's definitely riding confidently
12:05
and that'll be the best chance to get
12:06
the the muscles firing in the way they
12:09
need to and give you the chance to
12:10
create that stability
12:12
so aaron you're out there covering the
12:14
ews on
12:15
a couple of downhill rounds have they
12:18
been keeping the riders been keeping you
12:19
busy
12:20
yeah most definitely so i'm uh this year
12:24
i'm working more as a privateer physio
12:26
last year i was working with
12:27
giant and so um i'm traveling with some
12:30
athletes that i work with and coach
12:32
and then also just spreading the word
12:34
that i'm available for physiotherapy
12:36
treatments
12:38
in the evenings and after practice and
12:40
stuff and yeah i know it's been great
12:42
i've been very busy and kind of
12:44
the word's gotten out quickly and uh
12:46
it's been cool to see a diverse
12:48
range of injuries and being able to help
12:51
many people rather than just like you
12:53
know the three riders
12:54
uh on your team that may not even get
12:57
injured in a week
12:58
so yeah it's been great cool jack what's
13:01
what's the forecast like out there for
13:02
the race
13:04
mixed mixed i mean we're all hoping the
13:06
rain's gonna hold off i think certainly
13:08
friday is the day with the best weather
13:10
forecast
13:11
if you look at a bbc weather forecast it
13:12
now says we might get a little bit of
13:14
rain this evening then not until
13:15
saturday night
13:16
but we're in the mountains in france so
13:20
um but we're all expecting it to just
13:23
keep
13:24
keeping a little bit moist i think so
13:26
yeah that's
13:27
that but i mean just to add to what
13:28
aaron just said there like
13:32
i can go into a session with him so
13:35
tired and restricted on movements in
13:37
certain directions
13:38
and then come out of the session and all
13:42
of a sudden i've got way more range of
13:43
motion and
13:44
and that in itself gives me confidence
13:46
so as a rider at our level
13:48
getting that kind of treatment when
13:49
you're injured is essential because
13:51
that's
13:51
that lifts you up you're like oh yes i
13:54
feel like
13:54
so much better off the back of that and
13:56
i'm now going to be able to push that
13:58
onto the bike so
13:59
yeah i think i've seen our own five
14:01
times now in the last two weeks and
14:03
when i first went in i could barely even
14:05
move my arm around and and now i can
14:07
ride by without thinking about it so
14:09
thanks so yeah cool well thanks for
14:11
coming on the show aaron
14:12
and we best get on with it first up
14:15
we're going to be hearing from the
14:16
legend
14:17
welcome to the show aaron gwynne how's
14:20
it going
14:21
good man thanks for having me oh
14:23
pleasure
14:24
our pleasure indeed um 2020 didn't turn
14:27
out pretty bad for you with a sixth in
14:29
maribor and
14:30
a fourth in loser ending up ninth in the
14:32
overall
14:33
i imagine that's probably not exactly
14:35
what you were looking for coming into
14:36
the season but
14:37
given everything that's going on in the
14:39
world were you happy with it
14:41
um yeah i would say um you know content
14:45
maybe not the happiest but i felt like
14:47
we made a lot of progress
14:49
from the first week in leo gang for
14:51
worlds
14:52
i mean it was a maybe the muddiest race
14:54
i've ever done yeah
14:55
but by the time we got to portugal i
14:58
felt like
14:58
i podium the first race at portugal and
15:01
for the second race at portugal
15:02
i really feel like i was able to win
15:04
that race um
15:05
i just wasn't able to put my race run
15:07
together and we had kind of a late reign
15:09
and a few things that kind of threw
15:10
everything off the rails but
15:13
um yeah i mean overall by the end of
15:15
that
15:16
sort of series of races i felt like i
15:18
was back up to speed and ready to like
15:20
challenge for wins again so
15:21
it was a bummer not to get there sooner
15:23
but i was i was happy by the end of it
15:25
and
15:26
you know excited for this year excellent
15:28
if you look at the number of
15:30
titles greg's won over his career it's
15:32
pretty hard to dispute his position as
15:34
the go
15:35
the the greatest of all time i came to
15:38
this sport pretty late though and
15:40
just as you were kind of getting going
15:41
really and in my mind you are
15:44
without doubt the greatest that i've
15:45
ever seen there's no nice acronym for
15:48
that unfortunately
15:51
but no one else has made me shout as
15:52
many obscenities in pure disbelief at
15:54
what i'm seeing
15:56
we all know the stats five times world
15:58
cup champion only person ever to win
16:00
five races in a season
16:02
how hard is it to manage the expectation
16:06
when your battling injuries when you
16:08
when things just
16:09
maybe aren't going right um it's tough
16:12
for sure i think it's um
16:15
it's part of the sport i think everybody
16:17
this successful has gone through
16:19
you know tough years with injuries and
16:21
stuff so i would say
16:23
yeah i mean the expectations can be
16:25
tough but i think mostly it's just your
16:27
own
16:29
it's tough on you more mentally because
16:31
you know you should be at the front and
16:33
especially when you're racing injured
16:34
and you're getting results that you know
16:36
are just not
16:37
where you would be if you were healthy
16:39
and you know had time to prepare
16:40
correctly
16:41
yeah especially for me those couple
16:43
years because there was a couple world
16:44
cups i did that
16:45
i should have just pulled out and kind
16:47
of called it a day but i i just wanted
16:49
to race so bad i was trying to be there
16:50
in race and i was racing injured and
16:52
and just not getting the results i
16:54
should be getting because i you know
16:55
couldn't hold on to the handlebars or i
16:57
had you know things that were bugging me
16:58
so
16:59
um i mean i've ridden through injuries
17:01
pretty good throughout my whole career
17:02
even when i was winning but not
17:04
not injuries like the last few i've had
17:06
that have really been tough you can't
17:08
just grid it through you know you just
17:09
like physically don't have the strength
17:11
to do things you need to do so
17:13
i'd say that's hard because you end up
17:14
getting results that are you know
17:16
a bummer and not where you should be and
17:18
then you're taking time off and then
17:20
you're
17:20
you know going back and forth and when
17:22
you string that together for
17:24
a year or two um it's tough man like for
17:27
your body to completely heal and like
17:28
rebuild your base of fitness and
17:30
everything and really get strong and
17:31
then
17:32
you know mentally get in the consistency
17:34
you need to like have the confidence and
17:36
everything so
17:37
i'd say that's all a challenge and it's
17:38
just something that that takes time so
17:40
every time you get hurt it just kind of
17:42
keeps setting it back keep setting it
17:43
back so it was frustrating for sure
17:46
you don't really get that many
17:47
opportunities do you to with only being
17:49
six seven eight races a season that's
17:53
once you get out of rhythm you're out of
17:54
rhythm aren't you yeah for sure i mean
17:57
we usually race for
17:58
you know i don't know four or five
18:00
months on a big season
18:03
and the last couple years have been
18:05
short of that so if you get
18:06
you have an injury in the middle of the
18:07
season you miss three races or whatever
18:09
you're only maybe racing three or four
18:10
times a year and then you go back to the
18:12
off season for
18:13
six months and you're hanging out and
18:15
training and all that so
18:17
it is tough you end up doing a lot of a
18:19
lot of training
18:21
for a little amount of racing so it's
18:23
nice to finally
18:24
you know have a year and a half or so
18:27
healthy now
18:28
and start to string them together even
18:29
though we haven't been racing that much
18:30
because of covet
18:31
it's uh it's good just to have the
18:33
consistency and be back at the races
18:36
for sure following on from what george
18:38
just said
18:39
um i started racing world cups in 2010
18:42
and didn't really watch
18:43
too much of it before i was at the
18:45
events and i can
18:46
fully relate to what george just said
18:48
like the things you were doing in
18:50
2011 and 12 was like proper
18:53
head turning stuff and seeing the the
18:55
bar getting raised
18:57
the question i want to ask you is when i
18:59
watched tebow duprel's race run in leo
19:01
game
19:02
um two weeks ago although the room was a
19:05
little scrappy there were a couple of
19:07
moments
19:07
in the run where i i watched and thought
19:10
this kid is trying to raise the bar
19:12
again
19:14
did did you have you watched the race
19:15
back did you see the run and do you kind
19:17
of
19:18
do you see a comparison of kind of the
19:20
things you were doing
19:21
10 years ago to what he's almost did i
19:24
think
19:24
yeah a little bit for sure i think um
19:27
yeah his aggression on the bike
19:29
and how hard he he pushes everywhere
19:32
is pretty impressive to watch i think it
19:35
it definitely comes with an amount of
19:36
risk
19:37
that may or may not be hard to sustain
19:41
every season without having big crashes
19:43
because when you ride the edge that hard
19:45
it's it's really easy to have a big
19:47
crash so
19:48
um but i think that that all out style
19:52
we were talking about it the other day
19:53
and i said out of everybody on the world
19:56
cup circuit if there's one dude that i
19:57
probably wanted to watch his race run
19:59
right now it would be his
20:00
because you know like no matter what
20:02
happens he's gonna be
20:04
hanging it out so that's uh i think
20:07
that's
20:07
awesome man it's fun to watch and um but
20:10
yeah it is tough to maintain that
20:12
intensity
20:13
race after race year after year and all
20:15
the conditions and not
20:17
stack up injuries you know so i think
20:20
he's pretty young too so i think he's
20:21
still finding that balance and i think
20:23
he'll find it but
20:24
um yeah i mean it's it definitely i
20:27
definitely had that pretty hard charging
20:28
style early on but i felt like i did it
20:30
without taking
20:31
a ton of risk i always felt pretty in
20:33
control i've never been one to like push
20:35
beyond my limits
20:36
consistently and uh so yeah but yeah
20:40
it's impressive to watch for sure
20:42
yeah you did always used to look like
20:43
you knew exactly where the line was when
20:45
you were on those runs
20:46
okay um so the sixth last season came in
20:49
the second of a double header race and
20:51
the fourth in the first
20:53
um it's just been announced this week
20:54
that the final round in snowshoe is a
20:56
double header
20:57
do you like that format are you excited
20:59
about that
21:00
yeah for sure i think it's cool i like
21:02
um one of the things i don't like about
21:04
the world cups and maybe for us because
21:06
we have to travel so far to get here
21:08
um you know it's not like we're racing
21:10
in the states or whatever which is a
21:12
couple hour flight like even for this
21:14
race
21:14
we just came you know from from the us a
21:17
couple days ago and it's a
21:19
it's usually a 20 to 30 hour travel day
21:22
to get over here and get settled in door
21:23
to door
21:25
and then you get here and then you like
21:27
you wait around for a day and then you
21:28
do track walk and then
21:30
you you wait around and you practice
21:31
it's like it's just like a week
21:34
of sitting around and waiting and like
21:36
compared to the amount of rotting you do
21:38
by the time you finally do like your
21:40
your three or four minute race run on
21:41
saturday or sunday
21:43
you're just like man that was like so
21:45
much time put in just to do that run so
21:47
when you can kind of get in the zone
21:50
do a race and then the next day you're
21:51
like back into qualifying or practice
21:53
and getting right back to the next race
21:54
i think that's really fun because you
21:56
can
21:57
you know you you're there and you can
21:58
just get a lot done in a shorter amount
22:00
of time and you just
22:01
you're on your bike more and you can
22:02
keep racing and
22:04
um yeah i think it's cool man and i'm
22:06
stoked that they were able to add it
22:08
because i think for the fans and the
22:09
racers it's nice to have an extra round
22:11
to kind of make it up for the one we
22:12
lost in fort william and um
22:15
yeah so i'm stoked they could do a
22:16
double header and to do it in the u.s
22:18
too will be kind of fun what can kind of
22:20
get more racing there for the fans
22:22
yeah for sure i love that race two years
22:24
ago and
22:25
two days ago i'd heard a coveted rumor
22:27
that we were losing snowshoe
22:29
so to then hear the news that actually
22:31
we've got a double header that that's
22:32
great so yeah so we wanted to ask you a
22:35
couple of historical things
22:37
um 2011 and 2012.
22:40
nine world cup wins out of 14 races
22:43
how did it feel to be that dominant and
22:46
what do you think separated from you
22:48
you from the rest at that time
22:51
um i don't know man i think it's hard i
22:54
think i just
22:55
kind of had everything lined up you know
22:57
my fitness was good my bike was good
23:00
um my riding was really coming along
23:02
cause i'd done
23:03
you know that was my whatever it was
23:05
third or fourth year on the circuit
23:07
and i think it was just everything
23:09
coming together i didn't have a lot of
23:10
weaknesses and i was pretty strong
23:12
in a lot of ways and yeah things were
23:15
just clicking and working good and i was
23:17
just kind of clicking them off i think
23:18
honestly
23:19
i should have won more races in that
23:21
time i definitely gave a few of those
23:23
away
23:23
there was one of those seasons um i felt
23:27
i think it was 2011 actually where i
23:29
i was really kicking myself because i
23:30
think i was leading fort william by five
23:32
or six seconds and i crashed at the
23:33
bottom
23:34
and then world cup finals i think was
23:37
actually in
23:38
france and um i rode i went qualifying
23:42
and i rode the finals so
23:44
nervous because i was trying to wrap up
23:46
a title
23:47
it was actually second to the last race
23:48
and i was able to wrap it up a race
23:50
early but i rode like
23:52
really bad i ended up on the podium but
23:54
i remember being kind of upset because i
23:55
had wrapped up a title which was awesome
23:57
but i felt like i gave away a race win
24:00
so that
24:00
that season i was like man i feel like
24:03
very easily could have won all the races
24:05
but
24:06
um i don't know man i guess being an
24:08
athlete and racing as long as i have
24:10
even as a kid
24:11
like you know that you go through tough
24:13
seasons and so when things are really
24:15
clicking and you're winning
24:17
you definitely appreciate a lot because
24:18
it ain't always that easy that's for
24:20
sure
24:21
absolutely i think sorry
24:24
and i wouldn't say that it was easy at
24:27
all that season that season was full of
24:29
all kinds of difficulties and
24:31
things to overcome but i mean easy in
24:34
the sense that like
24:35
the winds keep coming sometimes it's
24:37
like you're doing everything right
24:38
and the winds just are not happening so
24:41
i think when they
24:42
when they are happening and everything
24:43
seems to just kind of fall in your favor
24:45
consistently
24:46
and you're winning like it's a good
24:48
feeling and i definitely appreciate it
24:50
like i said knowing that
24:51
it definitely doesn't always come that
24:52
way
24:54
i think there was at least one of those
24:56
races if i remember rightly
24:58
around 11 and 12 when you started almost
25:00
saving yourself for world
25:02
champs as well like you wrapped up the
25:04
title and so you
25:06
you didn't push yourself the writ the
25:07
week before world champs at the race is
25:09
that right
25:11
i don't know i don't remember it too
25:13
much i remember the world cups always
25:15
being like the most important thing to
25:16
me and always wanting to win those
25:18
things and i think um
25:19
the couple i think both of those years
25:23
possibly at least 2011 i wrapped it up a
25:26
race early and then i think i won the
25:27
final round two because it was kind of
25:29
like
25:29
pressure off at that point there was no
25:31
points on the line like
25:33
you either win it or you don't and so
25:35
those races were kind of fun because
25:36
they were just set up bonus races for me
25:38
but
25:39
um yeah i felt like i always pushed
25:41
pretty hard through the world cups i
25:42
don't remember saving too much for world
25:44
champs
25:46
so at the end of 2019 pink bike listed
25:49
their 20 greatest download restaurants
25:51
of the decade
25:52
you listed first for leo gang 2015
25:54
obviously the the chainless one
25:56
nine for val de sol 2012 with a 7.85
25:59
second win
26:01
and 12 for montana in 2017 the one when
26:04
you came down in the rain
26:06
which one of those means the most to you
26:07
or or is there a different one
26:09
that actually stands out in your mind
26:12
man
26:12
that's hard question again there's a
26:15
different one to me let's see if you
26:16
you're picking out as well there's one
26:18
yeah i
26:20
they're all special for different
26:21
reasons i think
26:23
the chainless one is obviously special
26:26
because it's
26:27
something nobody's ever done before and
26:29
and that's the one that
26:31
like kind of put me into the next level
26:33
like there's a lot of people that i meet
26:34
still these days that don't follow
26:36
mountain biking at all but they've seen
26:38
that video on youtube somehow and like
26:40
when they end up figuring out who i am
26:42
they're always like you're the guy that
26:44
did the chainless run and so it kind of
26:46
like elevated my status beyond
26:49
our sport i guess and so that one is
26:52
is cool i still kind of blown away that
26:54
i was able to make that happen
26:56
um but yeah i mean the valasol one was
26:59
awesome
26:59
for sure the saint anne one was great
27:01
because that one put me back in the
27:03
title hunt
27:03
after my flat a couple weekends before
27:05
when i thought that that title was over
27:08
um and to do it in those conditions was
27:10
great um
27:11
i don't know the first win in south
27:13
africa is definitely a special one
27:14
i remember that one just as well as any
27:17
of them so
27:18
there's so many man it's it's hard to
27:20
say i think they're all
27:21
all pretty cool for their own reasons
27:24
yeah i remember the south africa one
27:25
because it was like
27:26
wow this guy has arrived um and the one
27:29
that stands out in my mind was the
27:31
wyndham win
27:32
was it yeah that's the other one for
27:35
sure and it was just like
27:37
wow so yeah yeah that was but
27:40
that was probably almost the funnest one
27:43
after the race because my parents were
27:45
there
27:45
my grandparents we had like a lot of
27:47
family there friends and to do
27:50
that in front of the home crowd like the
27:52
fans there were
27:53
insane like the photos that we have from
27:55
the finish of that area with people like
27:57
running behind me with chainsaws on the
27:59
track and stuff was like
28:01
one of those uh i don't i don't know man
28:03
i remember that just being a really fun
28:05
night after hanging out with the fans
28:07
and my parents and and the team and
28:09
everybody like
28:10
that definitely sticks out for sure is
28:12
one of my top few
28:13
nice first race of this season in leo
28:17
gang you seeded 18th and finished 22nd
28:20
you said on your instagram that you need
28:22
to be better
28:23
did the offseason go well or do you
28:25
think you've come in a bit behind
28:28
um no offseason went really good i felt
28:30
like i had um
28:32
a really good offseason i i put in a lot
28:34
of work
28:35
um i feel really good fitness-wise
28:37
coming into this year we did a lot of
28:39
testing
28:40
um i felt like we did everything we
28:42
could that race was just tough for me
28:44
and i really struggled
28:45
um kind of in that bottom section of the
28:48
track and it just ended up kind of
28:49
messing up
28:50
my whole run i think and i felt like i
28:53
wrote it decent in finals i just didn't
28:54
really take the risk i needed to
28:56
and and i didn't kind of just get up to
28:59
speed fast enough in those conditions so
29:02
um yeah it was just tricky for me and
29:04
the mud there is just way different like
29:06
i ride mud
29:06
pretty decent and i've won some rain
29:08
races and all that kind of stuff but
29:09
that
29:10
like steep skid rut in the mud
29:14
with roots in the rut and that like slow
29:17
riding where you're not really going
29:18
fast you're just kind of picking your
29:19
way down
29:21
that is just stuff i never really have a
29:23
chance to do and it's um
29:25
i like tracks that are fast and you can
29:27
charge whether they're wet or dry or
29:28
whatever at least you're going fast
29:29
these are like
29:31
you know you're literally almost trials
29:32
biking your way down some sections and
29:34
so that's just uh
29:36
i just struggled at that track really
29:38
see what it came down to
29:39
and you fully fit at the minute yeah
29:42
yeah i feel good
29:43
i felt really good at the end of that
29:44
run actually crossing the finish line i
29:46
was like man
29:48
you know i was wishing i would have
29:49
charged a little bit harder and took
29:50
some more risk and whatever because i
29:52
felt like my uh
29:53
my body is definitely up for it so in
29:56
2019 you didn't start leger after
29:58
injuring yourself in andorra um
30:02
it looks like an amazing track we've
30:04
walked it now it's got fast sections
30:06
steep sections big jumps roots it's kind
30:08
of got everything for us
30:10
are you excited after walking the track
30:12
yeah for sure i think um
30:14
yeah it's an interesting mixture it
30:16
definitely has a little bit of
30:17
everything like you said i think
30:18
a good portion of the track is stuff
30:20
that i love like wide open
30:22
fast like a lot of lines really wide
30:25
and then they've added a bunch of new
30:26
sections it looks like that are more
30:28
like
30:28
kind of that bottom section at leo gang
30:30
like really steep off-camber
30:32
rooty muddy like technical
30:35
sort of drag your breaks down and stuff
30:37
so um
30:38
it's going to be a challenge for sure i
30:40
i think a lot of the track i really like
30:42
and a lot of it is kind of
30:43
the opposite of what i generally like so
30:46
it's
30:46
uh i think everybody's feeling that way
30:48
after walking it though it's if the
30:50
track dries up and it doesn't rain
30:52
anymore which is probably unlikely
30:53
because it
30:54
seems to rain pretty much every day here
30:56
um i think the track would be really
30:58
good but if it rains and it's muddy it's
31:00
it's definitely going to be one of the
31:02
gnarliest
31:02
tracks i think we've really ridden it's
31:05
it's pretty
31:06
yeah i don't know i haven't been here in
31:08
the past like you said but it definitely
31:09
looks like they've made it a lot more
31:11
difficult this year
31:13
yeah i definitely agree with what you
31:14
said like it's
31:16
um if i'd come here at the start of my
31:18
career having just raised a load of uk
31:20
stuff i would have probably walked all
31:21
the technical stuff and gone
31:23
oh yeah this this looks great um i can
31:25
go slow
31:26
my way through the mud but after racing
31:28
world cups for 10 11 years now i
31:30
like yourself i like charging and i walk
31:32
that and i go oh this is going to be so
31:35
difficult to ride fast so
31:36
so yeah it's going to be interesting um
31:39
it's your third season running
31:41
the intense factory racing team do you
31:43
are you feeling at home there and do you
31:45
think it's where you want to
31:46
finish your career yeah i do i think um
31:50
i think we've got a good thing going i
31:52
really enjoy the people that i work with
31:54
um the team is awesome obviously since i
31:57
mean
31:57
i've kind of been working with all these
31:59
guys for quite a while now
32:01
but um with intense too like i really
32:04
enjoy everybody there
32:05
jeff and and jeb and um chris and
32:08
chappie and christy and
32:10
the whole team over there that we work
32:11
with is all a lot of people
32:13
actually knew for a long time before i
32:15
even went to intent so i feel like
32:17
um yeah it's just a good group of people
32:20
and it's exciting to be a part of i
32:21
think intense being such a legendary
32:23
brand and having the history that they
32:25
have in downhill racing
32:26
specifically and their passion for
32:28
downhill racing specifically i think is
32:30
kind of
32:31
probably unmatched by any other brand
32:33
like that's that's their whole
32:35
deal and they're still jeff is like dude
32:37
we're racing over
32:38
over everything you know almost maybe to
32:40
a fault as a business where they're like
32:42
we just want to
32:43
be good at downhill racing and now i
32:45
think
32:46
with how they've been rebuilding the
32:48
brand these last few years and all the
32:50
work they've been doing behind the
32:51
scenes
32:52
all that stuff's kind of starting to pay
32:53
off and um
32:55
it's been a been fun to be a part of it
32:57
and kind of try to bring intense back to
32:59
you know being one of the top few
33:00
premier brands again so
33:02
it hasn't been easy um we've had a lot
33:05
of work to do
33:05
and we've had you know probably less
33:07
resources and we've been spread thin on
33:10
people and stuff just trying to really
33:11
make things happen and be efficient
33:13
these last few years and i think covet
33:14
you know definitely
33:16
made that even more difficult but i
33:19
think we're getting to a point now
33:20
where these next few years can really be
33:23
successful
33:24
in a lot of ways and we've got a lot of
33:25
cool things we're working on as a
33:27
company and
33:28
and as a team and also with the bikes
33:30
that are going to be coming out and
33:31
different things that are really
33:32
exciting
33:33
um so yeah it's all been good and i
33:35
think we still have a ways to go we're
33:36
still
33:37
working on the downhill bike and i think
33:38
we can make more improvement there
33:40
and we're still learning and um yeah
33:42
it's just been cool i think
33:44
we've had to be a bit patient with the
33:46
work we've been doing but i think these
33:48
next few years things are really going
33:49
to start to look
33:51
um pretty cool for the brand so i'm just
33:53
excited to be a part of that
33:54
kind of process nice so as you just said
33:58
it's your second full season on the
34:00
intense
34:00
um 27.9 um
34:03
something you're still modifying by the
34:05
sounds of it
34:07
yeah for sure i think it's um i mean
34:09
it's a new
34:10
new wheel size bike i haven't ridden any
34:12
other brands bike like that so it's been
34:14
something new that we've been learning
34:16
um also learning kind of the vpp
34:18
suspension design and
34:20
all that kind of stuff i haven't you
34:21
know ever ridden that in my career so
34:23
we've been kind of figuring out how to
34:25
get certain things i want out of that
34:27
bike design and
34:28
things that it's strong and kind of
34:29
blend it with you know things that i
34:31
want
34:32
um so yeah it's been a learning process
34:34
and um
34:35
thankfully intense you know jeff's all
34:37
about prototyping and tweaking on stuff
34:39
and working on things and
34:41
um it's taking a little more time than i
34:43
than we hoped i think because of coven
34:45
and just you know all the different
34:46
things we've had going on but
34:48
i think we're getting to a pretty good
34:49
place with the bike and and i really
34:51
feel like
34:52
we've got some some more things that are
34:54
in the works right now that hopefully
34:55
we'll have in the next month or two
34:57
and once we kind of get some of those
34:59
things rolling i think we're going to be
35:00
getting
35:01
really close so it's it's looking good
35:03
we still got some work to do but i'm i'm
35:04
happy with where we're at
35:06
no i just can i just jump in there yeah
35:09
i
35:09
i have to ask what is it that you'll
35:11
look for in a bike
35:12
what are you oh what a question how long
35:16
you got aaron
35:17
yeah i know i was like where do i start
35:19
i can't tell you that no
35:21
long range short chain stairs that used
35:23
to be
35:24
yeah yeah i think now you just want a
35:26
bike that's really well rounded
35:28
um something that's easy to set up you
35:30
know doesn't do anything
35:32
too crazy one way or the other because
35:33
you're usually making
35:35
you know sacrifices if you go nuts and
35:37
in one direction then you're you're
35:39
losing something else so i think for us
35:41
i i like to ride just a really
35:42
well-rounded bike
35:44
um it's easy to dial in with the
35:46
suspension all that kind of stuff and i
35:47
think just getting the frame geometry
35:50
and the kinematics and everything kind
35:52
of to what i like i like a bike that's
35:54
pretty lively and
35:55
pretty fast and um you know something
35:58
that maybe isn't like the
36:00
the most massive bump plowing bike ever
36:03
but something is
36:04
real efficient to ride um but yeah kind
36:07
of trying to find that mix because it's
36:08
tough too the tracks seem like they're
36:10
continually changing
36:11
and you know some seasons you're like
36:13
man i wish i had a bike there's just
36:15
like a
36:15
massive sled that you could bomb through
36:17
everything so then other
36:19
races when things get real tight and
36:20
technical you're like yeah kind of
36:22
you know something different so you
36:24
really just try to
36:25
make a bike like i said that's
36:26
well-rounded kind of all around and that
36:28
is
36:28
universal track to track and doesn't
36:30
have any major weaknesses so
36:32
i think there's there's a variety of
36:34
ways that we try to get there
36:36
but i'd say in a nutshell that's it nice
36:39
any idea when the bikes the daniel
36:41
bite's going to be commercially
36:42
available
36:43
and is it going to be carbon or alloy or
36:45
is that all in the pipeline
36:46
um i don't know exactly when it's going
36:48
to be available i think it'll depend on
36:51
kind of this next version of it that
36:52
we're working on right now and when we
36:54
can get that done
36:55
and and how successful it is um
36:59
once that's done if it's good you know i
37:01
think they definitely have plans to
37:02
to get things rolling as soon as
37:04
possible and i would i would venture to
37:06
say that there will be
37:07
an aluminum and a carbon version
37:09
available
37:10
um in time with potentially the aluminum
37:13
one coming out
37:13
sooner but we'll see cool you've
37:16
probably been there maybe a a resurgence
37:19
of aluminum
37:20
intense frames in the future i'm just
37:22
throwing that out there i don't know if
37:24
i can say that but
37:25
i can either confirm nor deny them
37:29
you've probably been responsible for
37:31
more product development than any other
37:33
rider
37:34
does it ever feel risky working with
37:36
brands that
37:37
aren't as established at a world cup
37:38
level
37:41
um yeah for sure i think there's always
37:43
a risk when you're coming
37:44
in with a brand that's unproven and the
37:46
product hasn't
37:47
you know performed in the past or won
37:50
races or anything i think with
37:51
uh somebody like trp or something for
37:55
example and we've done this with a
37:56
couple brands
37:57
um yt is another one now we're working
38:00
with canada again to try to get them
38:01
back up there and a little bit with
38:04
intense i guess but they're
38:05
i mean beyond proven um but yeah i think
38:09
for me i really enjoy being able to do
38:12
that
38:12
um to be able to take a brand that kind
38:14
of has dreams that
38:16
want to win races and when you know that
38:18
they're committed to it
38:20
that's really what i look for so even
38:21
with trp when we signed on i mean no one
38:23
even
38:24
really heard of trp i think everybody's
38:26
probably had a set of tech dro brakes on
38:28
their
38:28
bmx bike as a kid or something but a lot
38:30
of people don't know that's trp
38:32
and then trying to make the switch into
38:34
kind of high-end mountain bike stuff
38:36
was um was interesting you know but i
38:38
was like hey i'll
38:39
i'll give it a shot so they came out and
38:41
tested with us early on
38:43
and the brakes weren't quite there but i
38:45
could see that they were
38:46
close and i just really liked the vibe
38:49
that i got from the engineers and the
38:50
people that i was talking to i was like
38:52
okay you guys get it like you're
38:54
committed to the cause
38:55
you understand like i have confidence
38:57
that the product will get there
39:00
pretty quick because of the team of
39:01
people that we were working with and
39:03
talking to so i think that's what gave
39:04
me confidence to sign with them
39:07
um and it actually didn't take long we
39:09
ended up winning our first race together
39:11
um i think it was in and lord's
39:14
and so that i think that is what i look
39:17
for is just
39:18
you know maybe it doesn't have to be the
39:20
best product in the whole world to start
39:21
out with but if i've got confidence in
39:23
the team
39:24
working on the product that they're
39:25
gonna give me their all and that they
39:27
have the resources to make it and i feel
39:28
like
39:29
john and i working together john's
39:31
actually sitting right here next to me
39:33
hanging out what if uh you can say hi
39:36
hey joe but if
39:40
if we kind of like i i believe we have
39:42
the feedback between the two of us to
39:44
make a product great so if we
39:46
you know if i feel like the people are
39:47
going to take the feedback serious and
39:48
be efficient at getting
39:50
things turned around pretty quickly for
39:51
us that we can get there
39:53
and then like i said it's just very
39:55
satisfying i guess to take a brand that
39:57
that had dreams to
39:58
to win world cups just as i did when i
40:00
came into the sport and to be able to do
40:02
that for the first time with them and
40:03
the excitement around doing that and
40:06
it's just a really fun you know process
40:08
to be a part of and i remember that with
40:10
yt really clear to remember uh stefan
40:12
one of the engineers
40:13
that became good buddies with over time
40:16
he was like man i had a dream
40:18
that i was like i was at a world cup and
40:20
you were on the podium winning and i was
40:22
next to you and this and that our bike
40:24
was on the podium and
40:25
you know like he had that dream for a
40:27
long time and i remember him telling me
40:29
about that
40:29
before france after he i think was
40:32
actually right after we signed our
40:33
contract and i was like well dude
40:34
i look forward to uh making that happen
40:36
for you and we were able to do it at the
40:38
first world cup
40:39
and he was up on the podium i think at
40:41
one point and the bike was up there and
40:42
he was like
40:43
crying and stuff and it was just like
40:46
such a cool
40:46
experience because i mean he put a lot
40:49
of work into that bike and all that
40:50
stuff too so
40:52
to be a part of things like that are
40:54
kind of memories and experiences that i
40:56
think stick with you for a long time so
40:58
it does come with more risk and um it
41:00
doesn't always work out but
41:02
when it does it's definitely pretty
41:03
special all right when you when you're
41:05
in that position
41:06
that you've just described there with
41:08
with yt are those podium moments
41:10
very different to the ones you had at
41:12
the start of your career where it was
41:14
probably more
41:15
of a personal achievement to be up there
41:17
say for example that south africa win
41:20
does that did it feel very different was
41:21
it more of like oh i'm relieved that
41:23
we've got these guys where we wanted to
41:25
get them
41:26
was it still yeah i'd say it's a little
41:28
bit of both i think um
41:30
everybody that i've really raced for
41:32
honestly has kind of been in that
41:34
position minus maybe specialized they
41:35
had a lot of success before i came in
41:37
with sam
41:38
and some of their other guys um but
41:40
track when i came on the track i don't
41:42
think they had really been
41:44
i don't think they had won a world cup
41:45
in a long time for the male
41:47
class anyways i think tracy had been
41:49
pretty much dominating
41:50
in the women's class but um you know so
41:54
but they're a bigger brand and they've
41:55
won stuff in the past
41:56
and but i think it's always cool because
41:58
you always work with the engineers and
41:59
the teams and
42:00
i really love to be involved in in the
42:02
in the process and
42:04
and with communicating with whoever our
42:06
head sponsor is
42:07
so when you win it always feels like a
42:09
team effort and you're always stoked for
42:11
everybody and it's definitely a good
42:12
feeling when you can go back to the shop
42:14
after the race and
42:15
everybody's just like pumped up and all
42:18
that so i don't know if it's changed too
42:20
much throughout
42:21
my career i think it's always been cool
42:24
because it's always a group effort and
42:26
you're always excited for everybody you
42:27
know they're working
42:29
really hard as well so it's kind of a
42:31
it's always a team win so
42:33
that's something that i i'd be really
42:34
excited if i can do that for intense
42:36
hopefully this year and kind of
42:38
you know bring them back up to the top
42:40
and do that together will
42:42
will be really cool so that's what we're
42:44
that's what we're working on so we'll
42:45
see how it goes
42:46
you you mentioned kendra a few minutes
42:48
ago that you've been working throughout
42:50
the off-season on a new tire i believe
42:53
um tell us a bit about that and will you
42:55
be running it this weekend
42:58
yeah i'm not sure if we'll be running
42:59
that tire it really depends on if it
43:01
rains more or not
43:02
if it if it dries up i think for sure
43:04
i'll be on it because it's
43:05
it's perfect tire for kind of this track
43:07
in the dry
43:09
if it keeps raining a lot you know
43:11
there's a good chance we'll be on
43:13
the grand meadow tire which is basically
43:15
our mud spike tire
43:17
so we will see but yeah that tire has
43:19
been coming along really good
43:20
um it's really filled out the range
43:23
really well
43:23
uh the mud tire we have is awesome and
43:26
that pinner hard pack tire is really
43:28
good in those conditions
43:29
but we really needed a tire that was
43:30
kind of in between especially at the
43:32
world cups a lot of the tracks end up
43:34
kind of being this in between
43:35
condition where you you need a tire that
43:37
can really break well on the steep stuff
43:40
and has a bit more knob on it for you
43:42
know stuff like this when it's a bit
43:43
softer so this tire
43:46
you know and we've been messing with
43:47
some combos sometimes they run a pin
43:49
around the front with the intermediate
43:50
tire in the back or
43:51
you know we run full pinners or full
43:53
intermediates or you know whatever so i
43:55
feel like
43:56
this tire is kind of the perfect you
43:58
know in between tire with what we were
44:00
looking for so now we've got a really
44:02
good all-around
44:03
range of tires for kind of whatever the
44:04
track is uh looking for
44:07
sweet random question i had do you still
44:10
ride with earplugs in and if so
44:12
could you just explain to us a little
44:13
bit about why you do that because i'm
44:15
not aware that any other riders do it
44:17
i might be wrong yeah i don't know it
44:20
was something i tried i i haven't been
44:22
doing it now for
44:24
a while um i hadn't done it years ago
44:28
i i liked how it quieted everything down
44:30
especially at a track like fort william
44:32
or somewhere where you're going so fast
44:33
and there's so much wind noise um
44:36
when you put those things in everything
44:38
gets i mean really quiet
44:40
you don't really hear anything except
44:41
for yourself breathing so it's a bit
44:43
it's a bit of a weird experience when
44:45
you do it um
44:47
but yeah i had kind of tried it for a
44:48
while and and i liked it and i was
44:50
running them for a while
44:51
and then um yeah i don't know i've kind
44:53
of stopped now it's not something i
44:55
really mess with it's tough because you
44:56
kind of got to be committed
44:58
if you're going to do it it's not like
45:01
you know you got to have them all the
45:02
time and they're kind of a pain in the
45:03
butt
45:04
to be practicing with and stuff and you
45:06
don't really want to like practice
45:07
without them and then put them on for
45:08
the race and so it's
45:10
kind of got to be one way or the other
45:11
but yeah they're they're kind of tricky
45:13
and
45:14
and they're also hard because when
45:15
you're off the track and you're riding
45:17
through the pits with earplugs and
45:18
everybody's yelling at you and saying hi
45:20
and you're just they think you're
45:22
completely ignoring them
45:25
you kind of make some people mad because
45:27
you're just like totally oblivious to
45:29
everything that's going on around you
45:30
but
45:31
um yeah right now i'm not running them
45:33
but i have in the past
45:35
we'll finish with a hypothetical
45:36
question win another three world cups
45:39
and take
45:40
another overall so you'd have the most
45:41
world cup wins and
45:43
and six championships or win a world
45:45
championships
45:48
um oh man that's a hard one
45:51
i think either would be incredible but
45:54
i would take the uh the most world cup
45:57
wins in another world cup title
45:59
if i had to pick one because that's uh
46:02
that's three race wins over
46:03
one and um world cup titles i think are
46:07
just
46:08
i don't know i you have to have an
46:10
entire really good season to do that and
46:12
that's uh
46:13
that's kind of what i'm all about but
46:15
obviously
46:16
not winning the world champs yet is very
46:19
high if you were going to ask me
46:20
you know a world champs or a world cup
46:22
win i would say world champs 100
46:24
but um yeah i don't know hopefully we
46:27
can get both and
46:28
they won't have to choose one or the
46:30
other i thought you might say both
46:32
well best of luck for the weekend and
46:34
for the rest of the season and thanks
46:35
for taking the time to come on the show
46:37
really appreciate it appreciate it
46:39
excellent we'll be back after these
46:41
messages
46:42
camille balance welcome back to the
46:44
podcast thank you for making the time
46:46
we uh last spoke with you just after
46:49
your world champs win last season has it
46:51
has it sunk in yet
46:53
yeah i think definitely more than when
46:56
we spoke last time
46:57
um i got to wear the the rainbow jersey
47:00
for like six months now so
47:02
yeah i kind of realized that i have it
47:05
it's mine and that
47:06
i can ride with it so that's really cool
47:10
eighth and seventh in maribor sixth
47:12
twice in loser
47:13
when i spoke with reese a few weeks ago
47:15
he said that it was all
47:16
just a lot to take in after winning
47:18
worlds and he needed to kind of reset a
47:20
bit
47:21
is that how you felt yes definitely it
47:24
was so hard because
47:26
obviously it was so cool to win and then
47:28
i got a lot of attention a lot of
47:31
interview and then same times i couldn't
47:35
rest because the same day we had to go
47:37
to maribor
47:38
and then yeah it was just honestly it
47:40
was too much mentally
47:42
and then also the weather didn't help it
47:44
was
47:45
cold and raining and yeah honestly
47:48
i think physically was kind of okay
47:51
but mentally i was cooked and it was
47:54
really hard and to reset
47:55
and be like okay now it's a world cup
47:57
again and then
47:59
it was like again and again and again
48:00
and then it was like
48:02
back to back wall cap then system then
48:05
back to back world cup and
48:06
yeah it was just too much i never had
48:09
the time to just go
48:10
back home just reset and be like happy
48:13
to go again
48:14
so that's also probably yeah i was a bit
48:17
scared
48:18
racing and i didn't feel so confident
48:21
and i was just like oh
48:23
i want this season to end even though it
48:25
was just the start it felt like
48:27
it was such a long season so yeah i felt
48:29
the same like race for sure
48:32
so tell us a bit about your offseason it
48:34
looked like you and emily were working
48:36
hard in the gym
48:37
but i guess instagram is half the story
48:40
um
48:40
did you guys do anything differently
48:42
this year to normal training-wise
48:44
yeah i will say a couple of saying like
48:47
um
48:48
we both took the same trainer and a new
48:52
one
48:53
uh which was quite different uh training
48:57
was like
48:57
yeah we did a lot of different stuff new
49:00
stuff in the gym and
49:01
off on the bike as well and
49:04
then yeah we do a lot of training camps
49:07
with the team
49:08
and also we had the possibility to to
49:11
ride with the commentary
49:13
engineer and all the staff so they i
49:16
don't know if you heard about it but
49:17
they created
49:18
a truck especially for the commentary
49:21
rider where they tried to put in it
49:24
all the stuff we have at the world cup
49:26
and then we could
49:28
got feedback from and caroline jose and
49:30
like all the stuff and then the
49:32
the engineer were there and we could
49:34
like um yeah
49:35
try to set up the bike as good as we
49:37
killed and uh i think that helped
49:40
a lot too and then yeah we just yeah we
49:44
tried to
49:45
to work out hard like everyone else and
49:48
but really different yeah i think that
49:50
was different and then
49:51
the trainer and otherwise he was pretty
49:54
much the same i would say
49:56
nice so did you find that as world
49:58
champion you've had more commitments
50:00
this winter
50:03
not because i was world champion i would
50:05
say just because
50:07
it was my third i was going to my third
50:10
season and
50:11
that helps a lot to know how the season
50:15
gonna look like
50:15
what i need to work on and i was also
50:19
more ready now that the past year was
50:21
more like oh
50:22
oh getting that experience and just
50:25
focusing on
50:26
yeah just riding my bike and now i feel
50:28
like i know a bit more
50:29
my weakness and my strongness and i try
50:32
to work a lot
50:34
on my technique this winter so
50:37
that was probably the difference and not
50:39
because i'm a world champion i don't
50:41
think it changed anything for my
50:42
training honestly honestly
50:44
nice and did you have to do other things
50:46
during the winter because of
50:48
being the world champion did you have
50:50
other interviews to do or
50:51
were the things keeping you busy away
50:53
from training or
50:54
not no i was it was okay i mean it was
50:57
crazy just after the
50:58
world champ but then it was just maybe
51:01
once
51:02
maybe two weeks or so so it was totally
51:04
okay like it was
51:06
manageable for sure cool cool
51:09
so um it was back to leo game for the
51:11
first world cup of the season
51:13
and for you same result um and your
51:16
first
51:16
world cup win um just how big of an
51:19
achievement
51:19
was that for you honestly a huge like
51:23
yeah like the biggest so far hard
51:25
because
51:27
for sure now winning a world cup was a
51:30
goal of mine but like
51:31
in the future you know like it's like in
51:34
the back of your head and it's like
51:36
the thing that motivates you like to
51:38
train hard but
51:39
i never thought i'm gonna be able to to
51:41
do it now and
51:43
um for sure i felt really confident on
51:46
that track but i also know how fast
51:48
everyone else and everyone is back and
51:50
everyone is
51:51
stronger than last year so yeah i didn't
51:54
i didn't expected that for sure
51:57
nice yeah i was super excited watching
51:59
on the on the screen when you were
52:00
coming down and then just
52:02
your fourth split come up and i was like
52:04
oh my god
52:05
intention it was a really exciting race
52:07
actually um
52:09
you seeded fifth but you were 12 seconds
52:11
back on valley
52:13
seven of those seconds were in the final
52:15
sector
52:16
going into your race run did you feel
52:18
like you could win or was that
52:20
not a goal um it's just like i knew
52:23
i could do better because i went in a
52:26
tree
52:26
in the in the wood in my quality run
52:30
so it was not too bad because like i hit
52:33
the tree with the pad and then it sent
52:35
me
52:35
next to my bike but i didn't crash so i
52:38
could just
52:39
run jump on it so i might not have lost
52:42
like 10 seconds but
52:43
i knew i lost some second there and then
52:46
yeah i just knew i can ride well but
52:48
honestly
52:50
i i didn't look
52:53
like the sector really or at the split i
52:55
just
52:56
try to see where i can win some more
53:00
thicken and focus on myself and
53:03
i wanted to be back on the podium
53:05
because it's always nice but
53:06
um i i wasn't like thinking i could win
53:10
okay so based on well just following on
53:13
from what jack said then
53:15
i think that's the best women's race
53:16
i've ever seen yeah i i
53:18
i think part of it a little bit of it
53:20
was tracy's commentary as well i thought
53:22
tracy was
53:22
amazing yeah it's amazing she knows the
53:25
girls so well and she knows how it feels
53:27
and yeah it was
53:28
yeah i watched i re-watched the whole
53:31
the whole race on
53:32
on redbull tv and it was really cool to
53:34
hear so
53:35
valley comes into that final sector and
53:38
she's up
53:39
it's a local track despite a young age
53:41
she's probably done more laps on it than
53:43
anyone
53:44
are you thinking that's it she's got it
53:47
oh yeah not because she didn't i don't
53:50
think it's because she knows the track
53:51
so well it's just because honestly she's
53:53
so talented and so fast
53:56
and yeah i knew i knew she can beat me
53:58
easily on that track
54:00
um and i thought at that point where she
54:04
crashed like
54:05
she would have made it to the bottom
54:06
because it was the last corner
54:08
so i was like yeah he's tristic on
54:11
airport like four i don't remember and
54:12
then
54:13
yeah she crashed i was like oh no way
54:16
and
54:16
yeah like just after she crashed
54:20
honestly i thought yeah that seat is
54:22
good and then i realized
54:23
oh but she went up pretty fast
54:29
actually because you can still make it
54:31
and then yeah
54:32
for a second um it was okay
54:35
that was gonna be my next question
54:36
because i've always wondered like
54:38
it's one of those awkward ones isn't it
54:40
you know like you're sat in the hot seat
54:42
but the rider crashes
54:44
and when they're up it's a bit it's a
54:46
bit like how do you react because
54:47
you know yeah he cries hard and yeah
54:54
oh yeah yeah yeah but also you don't
54:56
really
54:58
it's like your emotion you don't really
54:59
control them and you're just sitting and
55:01
then you search
55:03
and then sometimes you just realize oh
55:05
like maybe i'll
55:06
i win so you happy not happy for her for
55:09
sure but you're still happy for you
55:11
for sure i mean it's normal but then at
55:13
the end i mean i
55:14
have huge respect for everyone
55:16
especially for her and
55:17
it will be totally okay if she she beats
55:20
me that day
55:21
so 90 of this sport is in your head
55:25
do you feel now that you've won two big
55:27
races that you're a genuine contender
55:31
um yeah i hope so but
55:35
uh yeah i don't know it it was a leo
55:38
gang it's a
55:39
truck that suits me for sure like i love
55:42
it
55:42
and um i think on the similar track
55:45
maybe like
55:46
here in leisure also look like it could
55:49
be for me
55:49
then i think i can do well but winning
55:52
is something
55:53
really hard and yeah it's also up to the
55:56
other so
55:58
yeah i for sure i am i'm in a
56:02
good mood and i'm in a really confident
56:04
at the moment that i can help
56:06
you at the end you also still have to
56:08
ride fast your bike and even though
56:11
in your head if you're ready doesn't
56:13
mean that you're going to be the fastest
56:14
out there
56:15
down the hill but at the moment it's
56:17
like crazy for me it's just
56:18
everything that happens to me is just
56:20
amazing and
56:22
i'm really glad um yeah it's like that
56:24
at the moment
56:26
nice so you won the first world cup of
56:29
the season
56:30
monica was third benoit was fifth in the
56:33
men's
56:34
then benoit went on to win the first
56:37
french cup last weekend
56:39
with baptist third for the second season
56:42
in a row your team is probably
56:44
out performing all expectations
56:47
tell us a bit about life on the
56:49
doorvault am common cell team
56:51
and what are you guys doing right to
56:53
make this so good
56:55
um i think
56:59
a big part of it is because we take
57:02
also the rider before that they are
57:04
performing and then
57:06
we don't have a huge budget so we we
57:08
can't just take the best one already and
57:10
then
57:11
i think taking the riders from the
57:13
beginning
57:14
and then don't pushing any pressure on
57:17
them or like not much pressure because
57:19
you
57:20
we don't expect like the rider to to be
57:23
on the podium every weekend because
57:25
we should yeah normally we are like a
57:27
little team and
57:28
um so i think that's that's helping a
57:31
lot because
57:32
the atmosphere and the team is just so
57:34
cool we're like a family and
57:36
i'll say also because of like the team
57:39
how is made like with two men elite the
57:42
same level
57:43
and with two girls they lit almost the
57:46
same level and the junior
57:47
is already really fast we are like
57:49
really pushing each other but everything
57:51
in a good way
57:52
yeah and i will also say that maybe
57:56
jova liam it's a bit more focused
57:59
um on the rider's side maybe to make our
58:02
life
58:03
better with like how the pit is built
58:05
and
58:06
putting a lot of budget for the training
58:08
camp maybe rather than
58:10
some other team were like putting the
58:12
budget for the marketing or like the
58:14
image of the team
58:16
so it's a shame we are not doing videos
58:19
and stuff like that
58:20
which i think it's cool and it's always
58:22
good but then on the other side
58:25
we're using that money for us really
58:27
like to help us performing and be better
58:29
so
58:30
i also think that that's why
58:34
we are doing so well at the moment and
58:36
it's always
58:37
easier when you are the underdog to
58:40
perform than to be
58:41
like this should be the best team and
58:44
always under pressure
58:45
and expecting from from anyone so i
58:47
guess it's also
58:49
easier to be the underdog yeah for sure
58:52
for sure
58:53
so based on the first world cup the new
58:56
prototype common cell supreme that the
58:58
mukhoff
58:59
team and angel are using looks like it
59:01
goes very well
59:03
um any ideas when you'll get your hands
59:05
on one
59:06
yeah i think it's planned that we have
59:08
it in february next year
59:10
and even though it will come
59:14
earlier no one's in the team wants to
59:16
ride it before because
59:18
we just spent so much time testing the
59:20
bike this winter and we have a
59:22
really good setup at the moment and
59:25
nobody on the team wants to change in
59:27
the middle of season which
59:29
yeah i also understand absolutely
59:32
i think you've probably the only team
59:34
that's ever had two elite women that i
59:36
can remember which is
59:37
absolutely fantastic to see tell us a
59:40
bit about the women's field this season
59:42
because it's shaping up to be the most
59:43
exciting season we've ever had
59:46
yeah it's amazing like it's crazy if you
59:48
ask me now
59:50
who can win a world cup tc i i'm gonna
59:53
have to tell you like 10 names because
59:56
there's so many good girls at the moment
59:58
and it's stepping up and
1:00:00
it's just crazy to see that even last
1:00:02
year nina could win
1:00:04
come now in the front and for sure
1:00:08
valley now and yeah veronica with magnus
1:00:10
back
1:00:11
and emily is back from injury and just
1:00:14
even no
1:00:14
now even new riders coming in so
1:00:18
yeah it's just crazy like the field is
1:00:21
it's really
1:00:22
it's really huge and i think it's so
1:00:24
cool to see that
1:00:26
the podium is changing also it's not
1:00:28
always the same
1:00:29
like yeah i feel like three years ago or
1:00:32
four years ago
1:00:33
you're like you had rachel at titan who
1:00:36
was like dominated and then maybe
1:00:39
for one or two races someone else was
1:00:41
winning
1:00:42
but now i feel like yeah like 10 people
1:00:45
can win which
1:00:46
it's it's sick yeah it's really
1:00:48
interesting and do you feel that
1:00:50
the standard of competition is pushing
1:00:52
you on and making you a better rider
1:00:56
um i'm right now i think they could do
1:00:59
better for us
1:01:00
honestly like imagine if they will
1:01:03
change like the qualification for the
1:01:05
top 20 girls or
1:01:07
even better training time that will be
1:01:11
even better but um yeah i don't know
1:01:14
like i just think everyone tries to be
1:01:17
better and the level is just getting
1:01:19
better and the technique as well and the
1:01:21
bike so
1:01:22
now i feel like we are more able to ride
1:01:24
the same track as the man
1:01:27
and uh yeah we are fine with pretty much
1:01:29
all the old big jump and stuff now so
1:01:32
it's really cool it's cool you were
1:01:33
seventh last time out in lingerie
1:01:36
i imagine you've walked the track today
1:01:38
are you excited for the weekend
1:01:40
oh yeah a lot i mean it's pretty
1:01:43
different from
1:01:44
from two years ago and it's small
1:01:48
steeper more slippery you know
1:01:52
like open um we're gonna see a lot
1:01:54
different line and the
1:01:55
and the track gonna change so much
1:01:58
during the week so
1:01:59
um i'm really excited to see
1:02:02
yeah how it's gonna look like for for
1:02:04
the finals and
1:02:06
right now it looks amazing it's been
1:02:07
raining tonight again
1:02:09
and uh yeah i think it's gonna be wet
1:02:12
for sure but um
1:02:13
it looks it's so cool to have a new
1:02:15
truck and uh it looks
1:02:17
wide open pretty fast huge gems so
1:02:20
yeah i'm loving it excellent it's just
1:02:23
been announced this week that the final
1:02:24
round in snowshoe will be a double
1:02:26
header
1:02:27
did you you like the double header
1:02:28
format
1:02:30
um honestly i didn't liked it last year
1:02:33
because it was
1:02:34
too much the same at the same time but
1:02:36
this year they put today a rest day in
1:02:38
between which i think is really good
1:02:41
and um anyway i think it's really good
1:02:44
to have more runs i we should be able to
1:02:46
do like
1:02:46
at least 12 world cup in a year from my
1:02:49
side because
1:02:50
with just four or five rounds like if
1:02:52
you do one mistake
1:02:54
yeah you don't have any chance for the
1:02:56
for the overall and then it's really
1:02:57
hard you like
1:02:58
you have to perform every races and i
1:03:01
feel like if we have more races you
1:03:04
you have more chance to have a track who
1:03:06
suits you and you have more chance to do
1:03:08
well and
1:03:09
more chance to be represented for the
1:03:11
sponsor and and so so i think
1:03:13
um it's just really good they they try
1:03:15
to to do more round and i'm
1:03:18
going to snowshoe in the us which is a
1:03:20
big trip
1:03:22
make it's a bit cooler to stay a bit
1:03:24
longer
1:03:25
so yeah this season i think it's good to
1:03:28
have a double
1:03:29
a double eater and it's not sure cool
1:03:31
and what are the aims for the rest of
1:03:32
the season
1:03:33
now you've won one just just the same
1:03:36
really having fun on my bike
1:03:38
trying to ride as fast as possible
1:03:40
staying healthy and yeah
1:03:42
just hope he's gonna stay stay on the
1:03:45
same wave then now
1:03:47
cool well i know the rest of the field
1:03:48
are going to push you but if you can
1:03:50
keep
1:03:53
if you can keep riding like you are i
1:03:55
think there's there's more winds on the
1:03:56
horizon
1:03:57
best of luck for the season and and
1:03:59
thanks for making the time to come on
1:04:00
the pod
1:04:01
thank you very much thanks we'll be back
1:04:04
with job reading
1:04:04
after these messages job reading welcome
1:04:08
back to the podcast
1:04:09
first question i'll chat with the big
1:04:11
bad wolf was probably the loosest
1:04:13
interview we've done since season one
1:04:15
you were teammates with you're sorry i
1:04:18
can imagine
1:04:19
you were teammates with dan last season
1:04:21
what's your favorite big bad wolf story
1:04:26
there's so many yeah that's a very
1:04:28
difficult question
1:04:30
uh i mean it's hard to remember any
1:04:33
specifically because there are so many
1:04:34
it's just like a
1:04:35
regular occasion on a on a trip with dan
1:04:38
but um
1:04:39
i don't know he uh he well sorry he's
1:04:42
dead
1:04:43
funny like so entertaining all you need
1:04:46
is you know
1:04:46
him with everybody else and uh he'll
1:04:49
make it a hell of a time whether it's a
1:04:50
meal or
1:04:51
a ride or whatever but uh he does
1:04:55
also flip pretty quickly so like if if
1:04:57
the weight uh
1:04:58
for example the other night the uh
1:04:59
waiter came with uh
1:05:01
with the receipt for the for the meal
1:05:04
and uh
1:05:04
dan uh well wolfy left his card on the
1:05:07
table to try and pay for it
1:05:08
oh well to pay for it when the waiter
1:05:10
comes over and wolfie was obviously
1:05:12
chatting as he always does
1:05:13
and once he's chatting the waiters pick
1:05:15
this guy off
1:05:16
card up off the table and try to pay for
1:05:19
it with the with the scanner
1:05:20
and when wolfie finds out he's trying to
1:05:22
scan his car he's like whoa whoa whoa
1:05:24
what are you doing mate like
1:05:25
you can't just pick up my card and pay
1:05:26
for it so uh like you can switch pretty
1:05:29
quickly to a
1:05:30
real calm wolf to like oh god this is
1:05:33
the worst thing you just get pretty
1:05:34
angry i woke him up the other morning
1:05:36
oh i saw that yeah lily um
1:05:39
it was like almost 10 in the morning
1:05:41
like get up down
1:05:42
um so we snuck in there woke him up
1:05:46
your instagram's been hacked because
1:05:47
that's like his most precious thing in
1:05:48
the world and
1:05:50
uh yeah it didn't land well yeah no he
1:05:53
can uh he can definitely switch and it's
1:05:55
quite funny to play with it but you
1:05:57
gotta be careful too because uh we were
1:05:58
just the right side of the line
1:06:00
anymore and it would have gone by killed
1:06:04
so your last appearance on the pod was
1:06:07
at the start of 2020.
1:06:08
since then we've had the shortened 2020
1:06:10
season and you got 32nd and 29th in
1:06:13
maribor and
1:06:14
31st and 10th in lucer talk us through
1:06:16
the 2020 season we were you happy with
1:06:19
that
1:06:20
um seems like a long time ago now
1:06:24
uh um it was okay yes
1:06:27
it wasn't like oh yeah i was really
1:06:29
happy and it wasn't i was really
1:06:30
disappointed it was
1:06:31
a good season um but i
1:06:34
yeah i was definitely struggling a
1:06:35
little bit to ride uh
1:06:37
with commitment um i was always just a
1:06:40
bit too on the side of
1:06:41
caution and uh yeah safety before like
1:06:44
going for the win if that makes sense um
1:06:46
so it was yeah it was an okay yeah it
1:06:48
was definitely some really really great
1:06:50
experiences
1:06:51
um and it's first year with the ur team
1:06:54
and
1:06:54
getting to know everybody learning all
1:06:56
the new products on you
1:06:57
sponsors was really really good and huge
1:07:00
lessons learned
1:07:01
um but i felt much more comfortable
1:07:03
coming to this year and i feel
1:07:04
a completely different mindset as well
1:07:06
so yeah last year was good but it was
1:07:08
it was difficult for sure cool
1:07:13
so you're one of the writers that seems
1:07:14
to be making progress every season 2019
1:07:16
you had that first place qualifier in
1:07:18
val de sol
1:07:19
as we just mentioned you finished 2020
1:07:20
with a 10th of the second race and loser
1:07:23
do you feel like it's all moving in the
1:07:25
right direction
1:07:26
yes for sure for sure uh nothing you
1:07:29
know
1:07:30
goes perfectly as you want it to and and
1:07:33
that's just part of the game we all know
1:07:34
that
1:07:35
um but like the general trajectory to
1:07:37
where i want to go i'm
1:07:38
very happy with and i'm still young i'm
1:07:40
very happy with the progress so far so
1:07:42
yeah
1:07:42
i literally i can't complain at all for
1:07:45
sure
1:07:45
one thing we wondered about was if matt
1:07:48
walker's success last season had given
1:07:50
you confidence
1:07:51
you finished second term at world champs
1:07:53
as a junior and now he's winning the
1:07:54
world cup overall
1:07:55
does that make you think well if he's
1:07:57
doing it i can be up there as well
1:08:00
uh yeah it for sure helps i know we've
1:08:02
come from uh
1:08:04
well we grew up racing i said that many
1:08:06
times on podcasts before but
1:08:08
i grew up racing directly against him my
1:08:11
whole sort of uh
1:08:12
juvenile youth junior career um
1:08:15
and we were always very close he always
1:08:17
had the edge on me um
1:08:19
but then to see that he's we've kind of
1:08:21
had the same trajectory like we've done
1:08:23
the same event same races
1:08:25
etc and then to see him you know make it
1:08:28
all the way to the top
1:08:29
is for sure like uh inspiring and
1:08:33
and does bet into me more that you know
1:08:35
there's no reason why i can't as well
1:08:38
because i've seen it all i've seen well
1:08:40
obviously i don't see what he does
1:08:41
exactly behind the scenes but i've
1:08:43
been very there with him following uh
1:08:45
that path to the top so it's been cool
1:08:47
to experience that
1:08:49
and yeah it just makes it all possible
1:08:51
doesn't it yeah i remember when
1:08:53
you you guys were in juniors and jack
1:08:55
tennyson was his team mate and i think
1:08:56
kind of matt
1:08:57
beat him by a couple of seconds every
1:08:59
race
1:09:00
and then obviously jack's now quit the
1:09:03
downhill he's doing an amazing job as
1:09:05
the social media
1:09:06
manager for yt mob fantastic
1:09:08
photographer but i do wonder sometimes
1:09:10
if he thinks
1:09:11
i was coming second to matt
1:09:14
every week two seconds behind or
1:09:16
whatever if i was still only two seconds
1:09:18
behind
1:09:19
matt now i'd be a top 10 rider yeah
1:09:23
yeah that's pretty true it's it's always
1:09:26
difficult
1:09:27
particularly for jack because he was
1:09:28
directly teammates with man
1:09:30
uh no matter how good he is if he's
1:09:32
still just get beaten
1:09:34
um beaten week in week out it does knock
1:09:36
you down
1:09:37
um and i was similar i was never on the
1:09:39
same team as matt
1:09:40
but we were like you know every race i
1:09:43
was putting everything in everything in
1:09:45
getting so close like i won a few but
1:09:47
majority of the time he was on top and
1:09:49
it does beat you down but for me it just
1:09:52
motivated me to keep working to keep
1:09:54
chasing like getting to the top
1:09:55
and i think that's what's helped us both
1:09:57
get to where we are now because
1:09:59
neither of us could just turn up to a
1:10:00
british national race and win
1:10:02
comfortably
1:10:03
we had to like go and give it everything
1:10:06
and then leave the race
1:10:07
do everything we could training
1:10:08
preparation wise for the next one so i
1:10:10
think it's
1:10:10
you know pushed us both massively and
1:10:14
clearly like we've both not given up and
1:10:16
we've kept fighting and that's been one
1:10:17
of the most difficult things but
1:10:19
it is why we uh why we're we're here now
1:10:22
today
1:10:22
cool we saw lots of images of you eugene
1:10:25
and charlie training with millway in the
1:10:27
offseason
1:10:28
how hard does he push you and who's
1:10:30
doing the best numbers at the moment
1:10:33
um yeah we've had a really really good
1:10:35
winter actually
1:10:36
it's great training as a group like that
1:10:38
because we all push each other on we all
1:10:40
want the best for each other
1:10:42
but we're super competitive too so when
1:10:45
somebody does a certain number everybody
1:10:46
wants to beat it and we like
1:10:47
push each other on um so it's great
1:10:50
who's doing the best numbers like uh you
1:10:52
can't say we're all different body
1:10:54
weights we're all
1:10:55
have our like preferred exercise etc but
1:10:59
uh we all push each other on massively
1:11:01
it's really really good
1:11:03
and have you spoken to g do you know
1:11:06
i haven't spoken to him personally now
1:11:09
well we hope she's um she's on the mend
1:11:12
and doing well
1:11:14
you stayed with the ur team in the
1:11:15
offseason but the team changed bike
1:11:17
sponsor from polygon to ns
1:11:20
tell us a bit about the new bike and how
1:11:22
are you getting on with it
1:11:24
yeah so we we made the change from
1:11:25
polygon to ns um
1:11:28
it's a completely different bike very
1:11:31
different characteristics but
1:11:32
it was it was nice you know i pulled it
1:11:34
out of the box and it worked straight
1:11:36
away and it was
1:11:37
competitive straight away the only thing
1:11:39
i've changed is i've put a
1:11:41
mullet 27.5 rear end onto a 29 front end
1:11:44
but it's a standard front end
1:11:46
understanding rear end just the two
1:11:47
joined together
1:11:48
that's literally the only change i've
1:11:50
made um to the frame so it's like
1:11:52
super nice to be able to do that and be
1:11:54
comfortable straight away
1:11:56
last year there was a definitely a lot
1:11:57
more work to get to that point
1:11:59
um and i think you know as far as the ns
1:12:01
fuzz the dyna biker race is
1:12:04
it's quite a simple design it's basic
1:12:05
but it just does it really really well
1:12:08
and i'm really enjoying it and feel very
1:12:09
comfortable in it sizing geometry like
1:12:12
again was perfect um so i haven't had to
1:12:15
play with any of that
1:12:16
um so yeah it's really really good come
1:12:17
on what size you want
1:12:19
i'm on a large they do they do a small
1:12:21
medium and large
1:12:22
but uh they it comes with headset cups
1:12:25
so you can make it
1:12:26
eight mil or further forward or eight
1:12:27
mil further back in the in the headstock
1:12:30
so their way they just have three sizes
1:12:32
and then you adjust it to whether
1:12:33
you want it so for me it's 480 or 472
1:12:38
and i think it goes down to like 460
1:12:40
somewhere just from the same size
1:12:42
in terms of reach anyway so that's
1:12:44
perfect cool both you and jack are on sr
1:12:46
suntor suspension
1:12:48
how close in performance is what you're
1:12:50
both riding to the kind of traditional
1:12:52
big two of fox and rockshox do you think
1:12:56
um yeah me well you've been on them for
1:12:59
a while now
1:13:00
how many years uh yeah started on it in
1:13:03
2019.
1:13:05
so same as me end of 2018. yeah didn't
1:13:07
you come on at 2020.
1:13:09
last year oh yeah 2020's tourists
1:13:11
yesterday so i've had three in you guys
1:13:12
yeah
1:13:13
this is your second my third yeah yeah
1:13:15
so the performance is
1:13:17
uh is quite different to the new fox but
1:13:20
uh not in a negative way they just
1:13:21
perform like slightly differently i know
1:13:23
that the new fox
1:13:25
tends to ramp up really firm like almost
1:13:28
immediately
1:13:29
whereas uh the fork i run at the minute
1:13:31
i have a little more travel
1:13:33
get through a little more travel before
1:13:34
it starts to ramp up like the fox um
1:13:36
like i i really like it works really
1:13:38
well for me um
1:13:40
but you know it's hard to tell when when
1:13:42
you're doing back-to-back tests from
1:13:43
different products
1:13:44
it's very hard to tell the exact
1:13:46
differences but no i'm more than happy
1:13:48
and it's uh
1:13:49
it's all good sweet
1:13:54
you're on a team with mick and tracy
1:13:55
again this season how much help is
1:13:57
having too
1:13:58
vastly experienced pros around you week
1:14:01
in week out
1:14:02
yeah it's one of the things i'm most
1:14:04
excited about when joining your team
1:14:06
um last year like as we all know they've
1:14:09
been
1:14:10
i think this is mixed 20th pro season um
1:14:14
not sure exactly for trey's but not far
1:14:16
off that and they've both been at the
1:14:17
top for so long
1:14:19
so just being able to live with them
1:14:21
train with them race for them
1:14:23
learn how they do everything learn how
1:14:25
like
1:14:26
they approach weekend they approach a
1:14:28
race run their training is
1:14:29
it's massive lessons like day and day
1:14:32
and i'm so thankful for the opportunity
1:14:34
to get to learn from them
1:14:35
um you know mick for example he's he's
1:14:38
super smart with his racing
1:14:40
just some of the lines and uh
1:14:43
things he he spots they
1:14:46
really they're so simple but nobody
1:14:48
spots them just like taking off the size
1:14:50
of jumps or missing a hole here or
1:14:52
making it straight he's very simple but
1:14:55
it's like
1:14:56
he's just very very smart he spots
1:14:58
things that other people don't and
1:15:00
you know we always share all our
1:15:02
information together with lines we talk
1:15:04
about everything and
1:15:05
um to see his uh his view on that
1:15:08
is really really really uh interesting
1:15:12
and yeah learn a lot from it yeah he's a
1:15:14
really calm really honest guy name
1:15:16
so good to follow just carries i've said
1:15:19
this before on the quality just carries
1:15:20
momentum so well
1:15:22
and carries speed so yeah absolutely
1:15:24
lucky to have that that's for sure
1:15:26
so leo again first world cup of the
1:15:28
season you had a great top split with
1:15:30
fourth and i believe you left the
1:15:32
motorway around 15th i think
1:15:34
and then at the bottom 30th i know you
1:15:37
were disappointed
1:15:39
talk us through the run yeah absolutely
1:15:41
um
1:15:42
like coming from schlamming the test
1:15:44
session like the week before
1:15:46
where i won that i knew the pace was
1:15:48
good and i felt comfortable i was happy
1:15:51
so like i think it's the first ever year
1:15:53
i've come into leogang where i think
1:15:55
if somebody's gonna win why not me and i
1:15:58
i've never
1:15:59
ever come into a season with that
1:16:00
mindset um so that's like a
1:16:03
it's a really nice feeling and one i've
1:16:05
never experienced before but
1:16:06
that in itself helps massively with
1:16:08
confidence for the week
1:16:10
um as we all know it's a very
1:16:11
challenging week weatherwise track wise
1:16:14
but for my racer itself like the top was
1:16:16
all good i let myself push
1:16:19
you know push the limits push my comfort
1:16:21
zone which is a huge achievement because
1:16:23
i do struggle to do that sometimes
1:16:25
and then really happy that you know
1:16:27
fourth the top split
1:16:29
and then yeah i think it was 14th and
1:16:31
16th
1:16:32
the splits after that and then
1:16:34
unfortunately finishing the 13th 30th at
1:16:37
the bottom
1:16:38
definitely wasn't uh what i was wanting
1:16:40
but again loads of lessons learned like
1:16:42
i just didn't write the words well i
1:16:45
made too many mistakes
1:16:46
um under committed i wasn't i sort of
1:16:49
trying to rush it
1:16:51
but not committing and i just rode
1:16:53
really badly to be honest and
1:16:55
uh like yeah i regret it but it's
1:16:57
lessons learned like i should have
1:16:59
stayed a bit more patient
1:17:00
and committed to doing the the small
1:17:04
things well
1:17:04
when said i was just a bit too rushed a
1:17:06
bit too unsettled my body position was
1:17:08
bad
1:17:09
and it just yeah just wasn't a good run
1:17:11
through the woods but
1:17:12
i think with that race all you need to
1:17:14
do was smash the words like
1:17:16
if you look at rhys wilson's splits i
1:17:17
think he was like
1:17:20
all his flits were in the 20s 20s 20s
1:17:22
and then he gets the words and when he
1:17:24
comes out
1:17:25
into the finish he was fourth at the end
1:17:27
of the race i think
1:17:28
yeah so it's like at that race all you
1:17:31
need to do is write the words really
1:17:32
well
1:17:33
and unfortunately that's the one thing i
1:17:34
didn't ride well so
1:17:36
yeah lessons learned but i know the
1:17:37
speed's there and this just fires me up
1:17:40
even more for
1:17:40
for the next ones yep nice so you then
1:17:43
went on to crank works innsbruck and
1:17:45
unfortunately had a crash
1:17:46
there um i watched your run looked like
1:17:48
you were on really good pace until you
1:17:50
did go down
1:17:51
and you were only nine seconds back on
1:17:53
loris's winning time
1:17:54
um how did you feel after that event did
1:17:57
you feel like
1:17:58
you had renewed confidence because you
1:18:00
knew you were flying or have you took
1:18:02
another hit
1:18:02
from crashing talk us through the
1:18:04
feeling leaving crank works
1:18:06
yeah again um super disappointed to
1:18:09
crash out of that race but you know
1:18:12
i was actually quite happy after the run
1:18:15
because i'd let
1:18:16
myself push nice i like i had the
1:18:19
confidence to commit and i knew i was
1:18:22
racing for the win instead of just
1:18:24
racing to finish
1:18:26
somewhere in the field you know yeah and
1:18:28
it's a very different mindset and you
1:18:29
can't
1:18:30
anyway in my experience you can't just
1:18:33
race for the win like you have to
1:18:34
believe you actually can and i'm
1:18:36
definitely in that place a minute so
1:18:37
like i was super happy
1:18:40
to be uh allowing myself to push that
1:18:42
hard
1:18:43
um and it was a simple mistake near the
1:18:45
bottom where i just lost the front
1:18:48
i just missed a catch of a rut and lost
1:18:51
the front
1:18:52
i know exactly what happened um and i
1:18:55
was trying to change gear at the same
1:18:56
time so it was all just
1:18:58
too much going on but to be honest i was
1:19:00
happy i was at the end i was obviously
1:19:02
like again really annoyed because um
1:19:04
it's like oh
1:19:05
come on i'm so close when's it gonna
1:19:07
actually all come together
1:19:09
but i just know i gotta stay patient i
1:19:13
gotta
1:19:13
keep doing what i'm doing um and like
1:19:16
again one of the other biggest things is
1:19:18
to win you have to accept that you might
1:19:21
fail
1:19:22
like in order to allow yourself to win
1:19:24
you have to accept that
1:19:26
you might crash you might fail but yeah
1:19:28
i think
1:19:30
realizing that and uh committing to the
1:19:32
win like that is like
1:19:34
the hardest thing to do so i was happy
1:19:35
with my mindset with my riding
1:19:37
and again it was just like one small
1:19:38
mistake that took me out of contention
1:19:40
then
1:19:41
i think you would fully support that
1:19:43
like a lot of listeners
1:19:45
may have listened to that and thought
1:19:47
what's he talking about if you're racing
1:19:49
call your
1:19:49
course you're racing to do your best but
1:19:52
it's not the case like
1:19:54
as joe said like you need to you will
1:19:56
ride based on the mentality you have
1:19:58
at the event and if you're at the event
1:20:02
fully believing in the way you're riding
1:20:05
and you can as let's use what joe says
1:20:07
as an as an example you can win the race
1:20:10
then you're going to go out and attack
1:20:12
and you have to allow yourself to do
1:20:14
that you can't ride defensive or
1:20:16
safe conservatively anywhere you need to
1:20:19
be full
1:20:19
charge and there's a big difference
1:20:21
between doing that
1:20:22
and going yeah yeah i'm gonna i'm gonna
1:20:25
just ride
1:20:25
really nice and get everything really
1:20:28
good well i'm sorry mate somebody's just
1:20:29
gonna take 0.3.4.5 and that's just gonna
1:20:33
and all of a sudden you might be five
1:20:34
six seconds back by the bottom and then
1:20:36
also adding to it what we heard aaron
1:20:38
quinn say earlier when he was a you know
1:20:41
consistently at the top
1:20:42
he said he never really felt like he was
1:20:44
kind of taking huge
1:20:46
risks like we've seen clearly de prella
1:20:47
doing and i think that is because
1:20:50
at the time aaron fully believed in his
1:20:52
own ability
1:20:53
so he just rode like that all the time
1:20:55
so
1:20:56
yeah i fully agree with what joe's just
1:20:57
said if he wants to win these races yeah
1:21:00
well they keep chancing your apples
1:21:01
because you'll just get better and
1:21:02
better and better at riding
1:21:03
at that speed yeah i perf um perfectly
1:21:06
agree with what jack just said and
1:21:08
and to me like in the last couple years
1:21:11
when i've raced
1:21:11
nationals i know when i turn that like
1:21:14
national champs
1:21:15
national rounds i know i can win i know
1:21:17
i have a good chance of winning
1:21:18
and there's like this extra adrenaline
1:21:20
extra motivation to push for every tenth
1:21:23
um because if so you might know like a
1:21:26
tenth could separate
1:21:27
first and second it could be you winning
1:21:29
or finishing second
1:21:30
whereas you know say a world cup in
1:21:32
previous years when
1:21:34
every 10th might mean our 30th or 31st
1:21:37
it's like well
1:21:38
it doesn't really matter yeah so it's
1:21:40
like you get this massive
1:21:42
extra load of adrenaline and um ability
1:21:44
to just
1:21:45
want to commit to every single tenant so
1:21:48
it's a weird switch
1:21:49
um and i'm so like pleased to sort of be
1:21:51
in this in this place
1:21:53
yeah yeah it's exciting when i i counted
1:21:56
when you were down on in
1:21:58
in innsbruck you were down it took say
1:22:00
five seconds out of your being on the
1:22:02
floor and getting back up i'd say
1:22:04
and then you've lost your momentum and
1:22:06
everything so you would have been up
1:22:07
there you would have been
1:22:08
pushing loris's time i think yeah i'd
1:22:12
like to think so i think
1:22:14
i was happy with the pace i know it's
1:22:15
definitely up there who knows what could
1:22:17
have been or this and that but
1:22:19
um i'm just happy to be riding in this
1:22:22
place
1:22:23
and hopefully you know keep working and
1:22:25
hopefully sooner rather than later it
1:22:27
will all come together
1:22:28
cool well before we get into this week
1:22:30
let's talk world enduro for a minute
1:22:32
because you had to go invalid faster
1:22:33
didn't you yeah 56
1:22:36
say
1:22:40
56 overall how did you find it
1:22:43
um please be honest
1:22:47
yes it's not an ngo podcast specifically
1:22:50
so i can say as i want
1:22:55
to start with it's an amazing venue uh
1:22:58
lovely place to be lovely tracks to ride
1:23:01
but i wouldn't say lovely tracks to race
1:23:04
i i was told going into it it was very
1:23:07
much a downhill based
1:23:09
enduro that it was very um the tracks
1:23:11
were very like much like downhill tracks
1:23:13
and there wasn't much padding etc
1:23:15
but unfortunately it definitely wasn't
1:23:17
quite like that um
1:23:19
there was mint sections but separated by
1:23:23
some pretty nasty pedals and uphill fire
1:23:26
sprints and yeah like i definitely
1:23:29
struggled uh like i just turned up with
1:23:33
to be honest very little if any
1:23:35
preparation
1:23:36
you know if you look at how we prepare
1:23:38
for world cups we spend
1:23:39
months testing the down on the downer
1:23:42
bike going against the clock on the down
1:23:43
a bike riding different tracks
1:23:45
and all i done on my drawbike was
1:23:47
literally just
1:23:48
trying for daniel to do a few like long
1:23:50
rides and chill on the daniels so it was
1:23:53
quite weird coming in uh
1:23:57
and yeah like i give it everything i had
1:23:59
for the first round and
1:24:01
in the 50s and it's really like
1:24:04
to be honest i felt like i went in and
1:24:06
did a barge job
1:24:07
like i don't like going into something
1:24:09
without fully preparing and giving
1:24:11
everything and i yeah i mean it was a
1:24:14
cool experience but it's definitely hard
1:24:16
work and i don't believe
1:24:18
after doing that i know i can't just
1:24:20
turn up to a world injury without any
1:24:21
rep and expect to do really well
1:24:23
then boys at the top are so gnarly so
1:24:26
fit
1:24:27
technically advanced and yeah i
1:24:30
don't think you can expect to just walk
1:24:32
in anymore and be
1:24:33
fighting at the top with them boys so
1:24:35
yeah great experience but
1:24:38
it's hard to balance that and down and i
1:24:39
think i'll definitely focus on my daniel
1:24:42
you won't be staying out for the tweel
1:24:43
then no
1:24:45
i was considering it and again everybody
1:24:47
keeps telling me on the twitter's like
1:24:48
the really downhill one i'm like i've
1:24:49
heard this so many times before
1:24:51
maybe yeah they've told me that i don't
1:24:53
think i'm going a little yeah
1:24:55
i'll be the judge so are you racing
1:24:57
hamster the first national
1:25:00
i won't be now you're gonna do champs
1:25:03
the week after
1:25:04
yeah exactly so travel now i think i've
1:25:06
done maybe six or seven
1:25:09
weeks racing on the trot now so yeah go
1:25:11
home it'd be nice to have one week
1:25:13
one weekend off and then it's national
1:25:15
champs followed by rebel hardline a few
1:25:17
days later so
1:25:18
it's pretty non-stop still so i'd like a
1:25:20
a week away at home off
1:25:22
from racing nice so on to this week then
1:25:25
uh we've walked
1:25:26
the track you liking the look of it yeah
1:25:28
it looks proper
1:25:29
it looks serious like walking it then it
1:25:32
was super slick
1:25:33
not a lot of grip at all but um proper
1:25:36
like i wouldn't say gnarly because it's
1:25:39
not like valdesar marley it's just like
1:25:41
super wide super loamy and i think it's
1:25:44
going to change massively there'll be
1:25:45
some creative lines
1:25:47
um yeah it's just like seems like a
1:25:49
proper world cup to me
1:25:50
what do you think jay yeah i would fully
1:25:53
agree
1:25:54
and i was asked about it earlier after
1:25:56
walking it at the bottom and
1:25:57
i think if i was sat here fully fit and
1:25:59
not worrying about falling off my bike
1:26:00
on my shoulder i would be just
1:26:02
so excited but i i'm just kind of yeah
1:26:05
convincing myself that i can steal my
1:26:07
bike and not have sure yeah and it's as
1:26:09
joe just said
1:26:10
steep slippery so yeah i'm going to use
1:26:13
dan in the morning send him out front
1:26:15
and follow him down and get up just see
1:26:17
if i can avoid the
1:26:19
find and avoid the dodgy roots and nasty
1:26:21
bits and i
1:26:22
i hope it stays dry and once we've
1:26:24
ridden in some lines i think it's going
1:26:26
to be unreal
1:26:27
so yeah overall i'm excited i just need
1:26:30
to tell the part of my brain that's why
1:26:31
i know exactly how you feel
1:26:33
it's definitely not the most predictable
1:26:34
track and it's gonna be changing every
1:26:36
run conditions are gonna be changing
1:26:38
every run
1:26:39
so like yeah there's a lot of variables
1:26:41
at play
1:26:42
and that always makes it more
1:26:43
nerve-wracking and less consistent
1:26:45
that feeds into my next question what's
1:26:47
your plan for the week uh
1:26:51
plan for the week execute my process as
1:26:54
well as possible
1:26:55
as i'm sure you hear a lot of but uh
1:26:59
it's not to get too hooked up on the
1:27:02
results or
1:27:03
or anything but to just focus on doing
1:27:05
like the best i can
1:27:06
in every single thing from from spinning
1:27:09
recovering
1:27:10
preparing etc enjoying the weekend and
1:27:13
taking it day by day
1:27:14
like yeah i'm gonna go there and give it
1:27:17
everything
1:27:18
um for sure but yeah let's just not get
1:27:21
too hooked up on anything else
1:27:23
no no um so maybe i'll
1:27:27
well i will ask you this question the
1:27:29
first part you might dodge
1:27:31
hopes for this weekend and hopes for the
1:27:33
season
1:27:34
yeah thank you yeah now of course like
1:27:38
we
1:27:39
everybody has these thoughts of where
1:27:40
they want to be where they think they
1:27:42
should be
1:27:42
etc um for me like a top ten would be
1:27:47
great i'd be super happy yeah the top 20
1:27:50
i'd still leave happy
1:27:51
uh anything outside of that i mean
1:27:55
it's not where i want to be that's for
1:27:56
sure but yeah
1:27:58
like i'm always learning i'm always
1:28:01
pushing as long as i'm
1:28:02
you know committing as a rider
1:28:05
uh i don't want to be riding cautious
1:28:07
anymore like real safety that's what
1:28:09
really frustrates me
1:28:10
so as long as i i'm in this zone and i'm
1:28:12
committing
1:28:14
for the win shall i say um then that
1:28:17
would be
1:28:17
a good week for me and i would really
1:28:19
like to think that would end me up
1:28:21
you know somewhere around top 10 top 20
1:28:23
top top 10 would be amazing and talk 20
1:28:26
i'd still be happy so like
1:28:28
who knows who knows let's just go and
1:28:30
give it give it everything
1:28:31
exactly last question if i remember
1:28:34
correctly you were both schoolboy
1:28:35
footballers with professional clubs
1:28:38
i presume you both watched the match
1:28:39
last night can england win the euros
1:28:42
not if he plays the team he started no
1:28:45
all right
1:28:45
if he starts greelish and gets food and
1:28:47
involved
1:28:48
and harry kane actually starts playing
1:28:50
football
1:28:52
maybe they've got a chance because the
1:28:53
defense and the goalkeeper are unreal
1:28:55
that's my
1:28:56
take on it it was a boring game because
1:28:58
of the plays he had
1:28:59
on the pitch what do you think
1:29:01
unfortunately i can't add to that
1:29:03
whatsoever
1:29:04
watch it soon as well i mean oh of
1:29:07
course
1:29:07
i'm just not english now yeah of course
1:29:10
i always forget that sorry yeah
1:29:12
this one just stopped me actually well
1:29:15
nice one
1:29:16
well nice one and best of luck for this
1:29:18
weekend and for the rest of the season
1:29:20
thanks for coming on the pod
1:29:22
um that's all we've got time for this
1:29:25
week
1:29:25
best of luck to you and dan jack are you
1:29:27
excited for it
1:29:29
oh for sure apprehensive going into
1:29:32
first run as i've explained but
1:29:34
i i know from many many years of
1:29:36
experience that i just need to
1:29:38
get the first run out of the way and
1:29:39
then i'll be into it and i'll be loving
1:29:41
it so
1:29:41
yeah excellent we'll have a good one
1:29:43
thanks to the sponsors of the show hope
1:29:45
technology
1:29:45
jtech suspension revolution bike park
1:29:48
ride sudden spain schwalbe and
1:29:50
singletrackworld.com
1:29:51
if you're enjoying the podcast please
1:29:53
subscribe so you don't miss an episode
1:29:54
and if you've got a sec please drop us a
1:29:56
review alternatively please give us a
1:29:58
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1:29:59
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1:30:01
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1:30:03
thanks very much for listening we'll be
1:30:04
back soon
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