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Making Up The Numbers Podcast - Downhill Racing with Matt Walker and Izabela Yankova
Mar 14, 2022
We’re on the cusp of the 2022 DH World Cup Season and there’s much to talk about… And joining George and Jack as co-host for 2022 is Emilie Siegenthaler who retired at the end of the 2021 Season after an illustrious 14 year career including 16 World Cup podiums. Their guests on this episode are 2020 World Cup Champion Matt Walker & 2021 Junior Women’s World Champion & World Cup Champion Izabela Yankova.
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0:01
[Music]
0:14
welcome to the making of the numbers
0:17
podcast
0:18
the making of the numbers podcast is
0:21
sponsored by hope technology jtech
0:24
suspension revolution bike park ride
0:27
southern spain
0:28
schwall on the world's finest
0:31
independent mountain bike magazine
0:34
single track
0:36
hello and welcome to season four of the
0:38
podcast and we've got a bit of a new
0:40
look for 2022. jack's back of course but
0:43
also joining us this season is a woman
0:46
who retired from world cup racing at the
0:47
end of 2021 with 16 world cup podiums
0:51
welcome to the team emily siegenthaler
0:53
hey guys
0:55
nice to have you you really didn't know
0:57
you had you had that many um podiums did
0:59
you
1:00
no i was quite surprised when you said
1:02
but i guess
1:03
when you're racing for 14 years you kind
1:05
of
1:07
i don't know lose track and then when
1:09
you said i was real surprised and yeah
1:12
and how many was it can you remember how
1:14
many sixth place and seven questions it
1:16
was about the same in sixth and the same
1:18
as seven no i rather not i rather not
1:20
trying to remember that
1:22
well we're delighted to have you on
1:24
board um how are you setting into
1:26
retirement
1:28
well
1:28
it's cool to to be on a podcast like
1:30
it's kind of my first time doing this
1:32
type of thing like i've been on your
1:33
postcard before as a guest but i guess
1:36
um
1:37
yeah i manage a good
1:39
a good transition if i'm already a horse
1:41
on a podcast um no jokes aside well i've
1:44
it's it's been great like
1:47
um it's been basically the same as usual
1:49
i've been working a bit more
1:52
um besides but then i'll still like
1:54
train with cam at home and try to ride
1:57
as much as i can i'm just not doing the
2:00
the crazy stupid intervals anymore so
2:02
that's that's a plus
2:04
yeah that's definitely a win not me to
2:06
do it intervals
2:07
good stuff jack i just want to know one
2:10
thing since the end of last season
2:12
you've barely been in the uk i've lost
2:14
count of the number of chips you've had
2:16
how do you get that past sarah
2:18
the problem usually arises when i come
2:20
home george
2:24
we had a team camp at ride southern
2:26
spain last month and i walked in the
2:28
well i came in the house let it settle
2:30
down for a couple of weeks and as i
2:32
mentioned you're going to european
2:34
champs in maribor and honestly rachel's
2:36
reaction it was like i walked in the
2:38
house and pissed on the kids it was just
2:40
like there's no way i would you know
2:42
that she was letting me go how how do
2:44
you get it pasta
2:47
um
2:48
it's working at george
2:51
yeah i mean we you know you know jokes
2:54
apart we
2:55
i kind of
2:57
pieced together
2:58
a winter program for the team
3:01
and
3:02
yeah with lords being in march
3:04
preparation kind of started
3:06
in january so we we took uh
3:10
november and december to just do
3:11
training at home and then
3:13
from january we were
3:15
kind of a camp and then two to three
3:17
weeks at home and then another camp and
3:18
then two to three weeks at home and
3:20
before we knew it was the end of
3:21
february and we've just been away so so
3:23
yeah everyone's in a good good place and
3:25
it's gone well and i'm always just
3:27
surprised by how many teams don't
3:29
kind of do it the way we do but
3:32
yeah
3:33
right well i should mention ride sudden
3:35
spin because um sponsors of the show and
3:37
we had the best time out there uh i
3:39
didn't get too excited about it actually
3:41
because i'd seen loads of stuff online
3:43
that they had lots of enduro tracks but
3:44
i wasn't hundred percent sure about the
3:46
downhill but it was so good i sent you
3:49
some messages we rode the trek test
3:51
track in montreal and the spanish
3:53
national track ottevar
3:55
have you ever heard of them have you
3:56
been to either of them
3:58
i've never been to the other one you
4:00
used to go to malaga a lot yeah back in
4:03
like 2011 to 2014
4:06
yeah um
4:07
so yeah spent a lot of time down there
4:09
in the past cool well yeah definitely
4:11
highly recommend it right let's get into
4:13
it so i'd like to say that we've planned
4:16
to record this episode this week because
4:18
we knew the portuguese national at
4:19
taruka last weekend would basically turn
4:21
into a mini world cup well that would be
4:23
a lie we we just dropped a bit lucky
4:25
really
4:26
eurasic tell us a bit about it
4:29
yeah i mean it's a sick venue like i've
4:32
i go there training a lot of race there
4:34
before um
4:35
the track is is fast and rough is kind
4:38
of exactly what you want for pre-season
4:40
it's to me it's kind of closest thing
4:43
you're going to get to monster now or
4:45
fort william in europe um
4:49
the uplift road is you can do a
4:51
turnaround in like
4:53
under 15 minutes wow if you're on your
4:55
own it's just a triangle basically to
4:58
the roads and then the track comes
4:59
straight down so yeah so yeah it's it's
5:01
a main venue there's some big features
5:03
on it um lots of corners rocks some big
5:06
jumps
5:08
and then obviously this time it was
5:09
great because loads of the teams were
5:11
there there was lots of people to
5:12
measure yourself against at the start of
5:13
the season so so yeah we it was freezing
5:16
that's one thing people probably missed
5:17
from any coverage that there was like
5:20
on sunday morning at the accommodation
5:21
it was minus two like whoa my van was
5:24
literally covered in like a thick frost
5:26
and i don't think it got above six um
5:29
at the top of the track so so it was
5:30
pretty cold but it was dry and uh yeah i
5:33
think i think i think it was a really
5:35
good weekend all round good to be back
5:37
racing
5:39
yeah
5:40
like for me on so many levels like we've
5:42
taken a three-man team to an eight-man
5:44
team or
5:45
it's not just an eight-man team anymore
5:47
obviously we've got anna with us now so
5:49
um
5:49
that was just meant to have the whole
5:51
team together had the gravity school
5:53
with us so we had another five riders
5:54
with us doing that um and then for
5:57
myself like first race in over a year
6:00
where i've not been injured so it was
6:01
just
6:02
so refreshing to just be on a track
6:04
feeling confident and feeling relaxed
6:05
and the speed was coming to me rather
6:07
than me trying to go and find it so so
6:09
yeah just out of a spout smile on my
6:11
first all weekend even when i tried to
6:12
cut my finger off but
6:14
yeah how did you do that i saw you put
6:15
that on instagram yeah just carrying
6:17
more speed than i was expecting to in
6:19
quality just again because i'm feeling
6:21
great again and i was just just kind of
6:23
getting on with it and i wasn't such
6:25
pushing for speed i just kind of had it
6:27
and then found myself between two lines
6:29
because of that and
6:31
just kind of took a wash out and
6:33
my hand must have scraped the floor and
6:35
yeah just sliced my finger open so
6:37
yeah not very nice but
6:40
you did all right right 15 245
6:44
yeah
6:45
race because of this um
6:47
like they tried to send me off to
6:48
hospital but i was like i've cut my
6:50
pinky finger like should we calm down
6:52
you know they had the ambulance ready
6:53
and everything um
6:55
i talked down out of that one and then
6:57
just went back to the pits and had to
6:59
think about it and got it nice and warm
7:00
and was like night lords is only three
7:02
weeks away i feel good but
7:04
not doing my run would have kind of been
7:06
a little bit more mentally damaging than
7:08
the risk of doing it so so yeah just
7:10
took a steady one in finals and uh
7:13
even with a couple of mistakes had a
7:14
better result than expected so so yeah
7:16
feeling great and just enjoying it again
7:18
which is which is meant for me
7:20
positioned in between reece wilson and
7:23
like bruny
7:25
dan slack just the head of head of reese
7:29
am i re-taking the win the guy came
7:31
second you aware of gonzalo bandera
7:34
privateer
7:35
oh yeah god you have known gonzalo for
7:37
yours he's uh gonzalo's the reason or
7:39
one of the main reasons we had a world
7:40
cup and loser two years ago his dad owns
7:42
the hill right okay
7:44
but yeah lovely lad so fast um
7:48
and uh yeah really good result for him
7:50
let's see if he carries that one into
7:51
the wrist
7:52
excellent benoit third laurie's fourth
7:54
and charlie fifth and in the ladies um
7:57
miriam took the win with a time that a
8:00
258 which was under 12 percent off
8:02
america's time which is just
8:05
incredible really in there you know when
8:07
you when you think about it he's a
8:09
fastest rider probably on the planet at
8:10
the minute to be within 12 percent of
8:12
that is incredible
8:14
i went down and watched our juniors yeah
8:16
i was coaching in their quality run on
8:18
the kind of the steepest part
8:20
um at the track the fastest roughest bit
8:23
essentially
8:24
and it was juniors and then straight
8:26
into the women and uh
8:29
the speed miriam came through was was
8:32
ridiculous she was
8:34
yeah it was super impressive to see yeah
8:36
she didn't just look fast she looked so
8:38
in control as well it was uh yeah it's
8:40
impressive
8:41
and valley second tony third and cami
8:44
fourth was um was cami happy with that
8:47
emmy
8:48
yeah she was fairly happy i mean
8:51
to be honest i don't think she went into
8:53
that race with a lot of confidence
8:55
because
8:56
um
8:57
when we're right at home she didn't have
8:59
the greatest feeling and she didn't feel
9:01
that great on the bike
9:03
she didn't have that many
9:05
dh runs and
9:07
yeah so she went to luza before that and
9:09
it got a little bit better
9:11
she found a setup that she's um
9:13
comfortable on
9:15
from last year
9:16
and
9:17
then coming to taruka she was like
9:19
feeling better and better but then
9:20
apparently it was really windy
9:23
and
9:24
yet i got into a head a little bit and
9:26
she didn't want like a crash to have
9:27
like a bad injury before
9:29
lord so i think she told me that she's
9:31
gonna like don't take any risks so i
9:33
think the result considering is
9:36
is very good
9:38
yeah and how are you feeling about it
9:39
when were you jealous of them going
9:41
racing or were you like when you saw
9:43
miriam's time were you like oh thank god
9:45
i don't have to put myself through that
9:47
oh when i saw your time and when i saw
9:49
the video i was like oh god
9:52
like it's the first race like it's a
9:54
portuguese cup and already like getting
9:57
crazy and tiny as well like
10:00
in control but still like pushing hard
10:03
you could see like
10:05
visually not many difference to like
10:07
most of the men so
10:08
now i'm not missing it at all like i'm
10:11
fairly happy watching and enjoying the
10:14
see how these girls push it excellent so
10:17
racing's underwear and the reason
10:18
everyone was in taruka was because the
10:20
world cup season starts early this year
10:23
we've got the first racing lords just a
10:24
few days away now sunday the 27th of
10:27
march
10:28
lords in march is that a smart move the
10:31
the 27 race in which alexander failed to
10:34
sorry 2017 race in which alexander
10:36
failed took the win was reinfected and
10:39
that was at the end of april
10:41
have you
10:42
what do you think of lords in
10:44
march is it a toss-up whether it's gonna
10:47
be
10:48
well i don't know i mean
10:50
i'm i'm not sure do you have any like
10:53
information why it's in march
10:55
no it just seems strange doesn't it with
10:57
all that time between the then and the
10:59
second race why would you put it so
11:01
early
11:02
there must be a reason but i'm i'm not
11:04
sure like we could be lucky we could be
11:07
extremely
11:08
like unlucky and the race could be
11:11
completely like
11:12
disaster but
11:14
i don't know like we had really good
11:16
weather here in switzerland like for the
11:17
past two weeks so they could be
11:19
they could get lucky you know and if it
11:22
rains and if it's muddy
11:24
for everyone
11:26
yeah it might be a really interesting
11:27
race as well because then it might be a
11:29
bit less tight than usual and people
11:31
with like
11:33
like really
11:34
amazing technical skills could like
11:37
pull one out of the bag so i don't know
11:39
i'm not sure
11:40
um it's just that uncertainty isn't it
11:43
of you know not being a level playing
11:45
field for everyone that's the thing you
11:47
want to try and avoid i don't want to
11:48
dis it because the more downhill racing
11:50
we have the better it just seems strange
11:52
that's all having it so early
11:54
when there could even be snow on the
11:56
ground potentially you know
11:58
something to do with the council and a
12:00
lot of the religious things they have
12:01
there maybe we'll maybe we're restricted
12:03
on when we can actually go there
12:06
but the thing is like
12:08
yeah of course we we want that level
12:11
playing field and
12:12
nobody wants to run down that track just
12:14
after it's drizzled because it's
12:16
literally unrideable but
12:18
um
12:19
like we were in valdosol in 2019 in
12:21
august and just before quality it rained
12:24
like
12:25
yeah
12:26
you know it can happen any time of year
12:28
so i've i mean i've just looked at the
12:29
forecast because my wife's coming to
12:31
that one and she's not being too woke up
12:32
for a few years and she just asked me
12:34
what
12:35
what the weather was going to be like
12:36
and i said well it's probably going to
12:37
be [ __ ] and i just looked and the
12:39
weekend before the world cup that
12:40
forecast is up and that forecast looks
12:42
nice
12:43
um
12:44
but who knows like it could do anything
12:46
so like emmy said let's just hope that
12:48
whatever it does if it rains let's just
12:50
get it raining on thursday and just keep
12:52
it wet if it's not the rain then let's
12:54
just keep it dry because there's nothing
12:56
worse than that in between
12:58
um
13:00
you don't know what's going on nobody
13:02
enjoys that so you've both raced there
13:04
before is it is it a track you like and
13:06
i've got you've had pretty good results
13:08
there
13:09
yeah i
13:11
i um
13:13
i think i got one podium and i crashed
13:15
uh after being also pretty good in
13:17
qualifying crashing my finals the last
13:19
one so
13:20
um
13:22
let's attract like the ground is similar
13:23
to my home right like very slippery
13:26
rocks and slippery dirt when it's wet
13:29
um
13:30
yeah i think i
13:32
really enjoy the track it's not like
13:34
it's a little bit of a scary track and
13:35
it was most of the time the first one so
13:39
it's kind of scary to get like
13:41
fast on it because obviously like in the
13:44
mornings every bee practice is kind of
13:46
slippery you know yeah so
13:49
but i think it's a really spectacular
13:50
track to watch and
13:52
i think was one of the better ones for
13:54
sure could it be dark for be practice
13:59
what time do they start i was like
14:01
no i think that the schedule got a
14:03
little bit pushed back right because we
14:05
tried very hard to get it pushed back
14:09
and i guess for people that are not like
14:12
in top practice in the afternoon or
14:14
whatever they need to know more runs and
14:16
they're gonna be
14:17
up there with the funicular that's
14:19
obviously
14:20
slow because it's like
14:22
a really old
14:24
funicular
14:25
so
14:26
uh if you want to catch the first one so
14:28
you'll be there at the top when the
14:30
practice starts it might be
14:33
a little bit dark but it's
14:35
it's only
14:36
in the woods like in the middle and then
14:38
at the top it's like not in the woods so
14:41
i mean yeah it's assuming it's the same
14:43
track obviously there hasn't been a
14:44
world cup there since 2017. is that are
14:47
there any more tracks there or
14:49
um i think i think they're building the
14:52
the whoops
14:53
on the bottom of the truck and it looked
14:55
like the same track yeah at the bottom
14:57
at least
14:58
um i'm not aware of another track that i
15:00
mean the frenchies so they will change
15:03
some stuff i'm pretty sure because
15:05
they're like very motivated people and
15:07
they want to put the best event out
15:09
there so i think they're going to be
15:10
some changes but i don't know i'll be
15:13
surprised if there was big changes
15:15
and the the wall in the wet jack is it
15:18
ridable
15:19
if again it comes down to what kind of
15:21
wet we're talking about if it's that dry
15:23
ground with a bit of bit of rain on it
15:25
then
15:26
yeah you've not really got anything for
15:27
your tires to chew into so i wouldn't
15:30
want to try and ride it like those boys
15:31
out to ride it in 2017. no thank you
15:34
but if it's rained all weekend and you
15:35
got a pair of full spikes on then that
15:37
doesn't become the problem the problem
15:39
then becomes when you get into the lower
15:41
section and you've got full spikes on
15:42
and you're in the rocks and the rocks
15:44
are wet so
15:47
yeah it's uh it'll just
15:49
deal with what we've got rather you than
15:51
me lords 2017 was the first time we saw
15:55
the v1029 did you spot any interesting
15:58
tech out into jack
16:00
i didn't but i was uh navigating
16:04
um 13 or 14 people in anatomy pits and
16:07
killing itself so
16:08
i just about managed to keep my eye on
16:10
my own bike so um
16:13
yeah i didn't i didn't spot anything of
16:15
interest i don't think the new commensal
16:18
are you have you got one yet has cami
16:20
got one
16:21
i'm told the french's all of the french
16:23
teams uh we'll move on to them next week
16:26
in brierd um
16:29
me and dan aren't quite aware of when
16:31
we'll get ours it's just because of
16:33
covid the bikes have been on a shipping
16:36
container for a while and they're just
16:37
now stuck
16:39
um at various phases of the the process
16:42
getting them across from the far east so
16:44
we love the current frame we're on so
16:46
i'm certainly not in any any any rush to
16:48
to switch out to be honest with the
16:50
amount of time we've got to test before
16:52
lords i'd probably now wait and and wait
16:55
until april and
16:56
and even if we did get it so
16:59
no great hurry from our side but for
17:01
everything i'm hearing is good so when
17:02
we do get it i'm excited excellent let's
17:05
have a look at the runners and riders
17:06
for 2022 then given their on home soil
17:09
for round one let's start with the
17:10
frenchies
17:12
in the last episode with dean we we
17:14
talked about how loic's racking up the
17:16
titles but we we didn't make him the
17:18
favorite for 2022. i think dean said
17:20
that if the frenchies all laid down the
17:22
best run then emery's first loris second
17:25
t-ball then like would you guys agree
17:27
with that
17:29
where's collage man everybody everybody
17:33
forgets about benoit i know it's vice
17:35
world champion i mean this is a bit of
17:38
disrespect i think sometimes because
17:39
it's not like having the biggest mouth
17:41
it's like
17:43
and not the biggest social media
17:44
everybody forgets about him but he's so
17:46
consistent
17:47
i'd definitely put him in the top five
17:49
and if not top three like for sure
17:53
yeah i don't know the way he's been
17:55
moment like oh
17:57
i was talking to him at the weekend and
17:59
his his style has changed a little bit
18:01
and i know he's been working on that in
18:03
the winter and
18:05
yeah like
18:07
emmy's dead right like he is going to be
18:09
one to watch this year like you can see
18:11
he's trained like mad he's an absolute
18:13
unit right
18:15
so so yeah
18:17
for sure and he's just so fast third of
18:20
the weekend french national champion
18:22
you've been french national champion for
18:23
two years in a row now
18:25
yeah two years in a row yeah definitely
18:28
yeah i should have put him in i mean
18:30
i agree with emory first because from
18:33
what we've seen it's been pretty
18:34
impressive but i think emery is not as
18:36
consistent
18:38
or he kind of like lost his consistency
18:40
for reason that we know yeah but if you
18:43
get it if it gets it back
18:45
everybody's in trouble jack
18:47
jack cover and sal mukhoff were testing
18:49
at the same time as you out in portugal
18:51
a few weeks back and you sent me a
18:53
message that just said
18:54
he's like a [ __ ] missile down the
18:56
track
18:57
he's kicked the season off with a win
18:59
already i i get the pre-impression amir
19:00
he really means business this season
19:02
though do you
19:04
yeah absolutely i mean
19:06
he just wears his art on his sleeve
19:08
doesn't it and you can see that with the
19:09
way he rides he's
19:11
he's hundred percent all the time and as
19:13
emmy just said if if he if he adds
19:15
consistency to that then
19:17
everybody else is pretty much [ __ ] um
19:19
[Laughter]
19:22
the the one on that team though that is
19:26
for that standout result is is de prella
19:28
because
19:29
the pace that kid's got is just
19:32
terrifying um and it's it's if he can
19:36
you know
19:37
omri's had the consistency before and
19:38
we've seen that and it's probably going
19:40
to be easier for him to bring that back
19:42
the way the propeller is if he can get
19:44
some kind of consistency with that then
19:46
that's going to be two of those guys on
19:47
that team doing it and uh yeah
19:50
that would be crazy yeah i think tuber
19:52
had a flat tire he had a rerun at the
19:54
weekend i think he put on instagram and
19:56
got a flat in it but he was looking fast
19:59
i take it from what you're saying
20:00
quality and everyone saw the crash and
20:03
he still did a 247. um
20:06
so
20:07
yeah not his not his best weekend but
20:10
yeah we all know how quick he is
20:12
let's talk about loris for a sec
20:14
i think we all agreed that this time
20:16
last year he was the the man to be
20:19
he just needs to win a title doesn't he
20:21
a world title or a world cup overall
20:24
do you think and then we could see a
20:26
little period of lori's domination
20:30
oh i think
20:32
i'm really hoping
20:33
that he gets it right this year because
20:36
he's been like winning races for quite a
20:39
long time now in the elites but there's
20:42
always like
20:43
either bad luck or like a little bit too
20:45
much pressure that like brings
20:48
everything down and then he doesn't get
20:50
the end result
20:51
that he deserves
20:52
um
20:54
so
20:55
yeah i'm hoping he can like bring it
20:57
down and
20:58
win
20:59
either or title so yeah that would be
21:02
that would be great for him
21:03
yeah i just wonder if he's he's going to
21:05
end up like a bit like troy like a rider
21:07
at the very very very top of the sport
21:11
who wins multiple world cups but never
21:14
actually and i know troy's still got a
21:17
lot of years ahead of him but hasn't won
21:19
a world cup or
21:20
hasn't won the world top world title
21:23
or the world champs the world cup over
21:24
or all the world champs yet the thing i
21:27
see with loris is like
21:29
you know kind of like what menard said
21:31
to us before like
21:32
he's arguably the most talented guy on
21:34
the circuit
21:36
but
21:38
we're not five to ten years ago where
21:40
there was that standout guy and then you
21:42
saw that domination
21:43
there are five to ten guys where
21:45
somebody could argue that nah nah he's
21:47
better than loris and
21:50
at the moment what we've seen
21:52
from loris is that when it's come down
21:54
to it two years in a row
21:56
he's not managed to see it through
21:58
mentally
21:59
and
22:00
it seems like that's what he needs to
22:02
sort out because he gave it away
22:04
he gave it to like at snowshoe didn't he
22:07
just went there there you go you
22:09
you take that um i'll have another go
22:11
next time it wasn't his ride in the
22:13
laying down it was but that's that's
22:15
what i mean yeah that's what i was
22:17
meaning when i say about him just
22:19
needing to win one and once he wins one
22:22
that that pressure will probably go but
22:24
the thing is we're looking at that the
22:26
wrong way around and we're looking at
22:29
we're saying it like that saying oh
22:30
let's just see if he trips and falls
22:32
over winning one and then the problems
22:34
he's had will go away well
22:36
from my perspective as a coach he needs
22:38
to address the problems see sports
22:40
psychologists i'm sure he does already
22:42
yeah
22:42
get his mindset and everything in the
22:44
right place get all his ducks in a row
22:47
and then it'll then it'll happen or
22:50
could happen
22:51
and then who knows maybe you'll be the
22:53
guy to stop
22:54
but
22:56
there's so many of them now there isn't
22:58
that flaky you know like when we saw
23:00
like do that run at andorra um
23:02
which i can't remember which way around
23:03
it was it was it was when laura stood up
23:05
with pandora and we were like well he's
23:07
won nobody's beating that today and then
23:09
like put that top split down that
23:11
shouldn't have been possible
23:13
so
23:14
it's just yeah there's so many of them
23:16
at the top now it's crazy and like that
23:19
performance in snowshoe was just
23:22
greatness really wasn't it if i'm going
23:24
to win seed in because i want to be the
23:25
last man down the hill
23:27
i'm going to and then i'm going to take
23:29
the win and with it the overall the
23:31
confidence
23:34
why isn't he the favorite this season i
23:36
mean why
23:39
i'd say he is mine
23:42
oh with his track record how would you
23:43
bet against him
23:47
but why
23:48
why is dean and me i agree with dean why
23:50
are we putting him
23:52
forth out of the frenchies
23:56
why are you no
24:01
i think he might be that thing he said
24:02
where afterwards when he said like i can
24:04
do it but i can only do it a couple of
24:06
times a year
24:08
right okay but he's mate he's
24:11
he is the most level headed yeah like he
24:14
came up to me at the bottom we were
24:17
waiting for our shuttle and he was just
24:18
coming up with loris to get him one of
24:19
the trek vans and he came up to me in
24:21
the turnaround and he said man
24:23
i've seen you doing that step down you
24:25
look good man and when anyway he went no
24:29
i'm too scared and he he started walking
24:31
off to his van and i laughed at him and
24:32
i went mate you'll piss it and we had a
24:34
conversation about it and like i said
24:36
i've been there three or four times
24:38
before first time i was told it was on i
24:40
was like what and we had a bit of a chat
24:42
about it but my point is multiple world
24:45
champ two-time world cup overall winner
24:47
he's coming up to me
24:49
fringe top 20 rider at best and telling
24:52
me i look good and he's too scared to do
24:53
the line i'm doing i think he just comes
24:55
across as so level-headed and so chill
24:58
when really
24:59
yeah he he knows he's a boy and he knows
25:01
he can deliver and when it comes down to
25:03
it he does yeah
25:05
well would he
25:07
perhaps i've got it wrong maybe he is
25:09
the favorite maybe we should make him
25:10
the favorite well that's why it's so
25:12
hard because like
25:14
you could say 10 of them are going to
25:15
win it that's why it's so fun now so
25:19
i did have in the script here finally we
25:21
have been working on this weekend
25:24
so cammy let's carry
25:27
question for you at the end of the
25:28
season
25:30
will benoit be the fifth ranked
25:32
frenchman
25:34
i think we'll be better than that yeah
25:37
um but obviously like we said there's so
25:39
many of them and there's like one
25:42
mock-up in france and the world
25:44
championship in france so they all gonna
25:45
be so motivated to like
25:48
train hope
25:49
like off-season
25:51
um
25:52
yeah i don't know i think he
25:55
he can rank a little bit higher but it
25:57
depends on what the others do i think he
25:58
has
25:59
the consistency for himself
26:02
yeah um and if you can add to that like
26:05
he's got he's been second a couple of
26:07
times and i think that start a little
26:09
bit piss him off
26:10
so i think he wants to like try to get
26:13
that number one spot you know yeah
26:16
and
26:17
yeah i don't know
26:18
i don't know about the perella though i
26:21
i think he was gonna after what happened
26:24
last year i think it's gonna like come
26:26
blazing and maybe we'll like get some
26:29
mistakes maybe i don't know i don't know
26:31
if he has like the maturity
26:33
yet to like
26:35
compete with these guys because i see
26:37
like i i get told from cam like how
26:40
benua is like
26:41
insane how
26:43
in a weekend he tests everything like he
26:45
he tries every line even though if he's
26:48
he needs to be 100 sure this line is not
26:50
the fastest one so he tries hundred
26:52
thousand lines hundred thousand
26:53
different ties hundred thousand
26:55
different settings until he's sure
26:58
that he has the best combination of
27:00
everything
27:02
and you can only do that when you like
27:04
are
27:05
the one of the first fittest riders out
27:07
there because i mean
27:08
i couldn't do that many months it would
27:10
kill me you know yeah so yeah it's
27:12
pretty impressive to see
27:14
how it works and stuff
27:17
from the inside
27:18
maybe i'm biased a little bit because of
27:20
that
27:21
because i think he's good nobody gives
27:23
him enough credit no it's you're getting
27:25
an insight that we don't get and that's
27:28
really interesting to see but you're
27:29
dead right as well in what you've just
27:31
said like
27:32
if you know however many years ago or
27:34
five years ago or whatever maybe a
27:36
little bit longer
27:37
it probably wasn't as important to do
27:40
the things that benoit is now doing
27:41
because
27:42
the technology wasn't what it is now and
27:44
various other things so you could just
27:46
rest on your laurels as one of the best
27:48
riders and turn up and just
27:50
it would still work whereas now
27:53
there are so many teams and so many
27:54
riders digging into so many different
27:56
depths of telemetry and bike set open
27:58
tyres and
28:00
working together you know it's simple
28:02
things like the way me and dan work
28:04
together we borrow time off each other
28:05
watching gopros and trying lines
28:07
together and we just borrow time in
28:08
different sections that we wouldn't know
28:10
was there without working together and
28:12
all these teams are doing that and and
28:14
as you just said if benoit has got all
28:16
that focus and all that infrastructure
28:18
around him
28:19
then you add that to a very fit and very
28:21
talented rider and you're going to start
28:22
to see results
28:24
definitely we well i mentioned troy
28:26
before unfortunately he crashed out at
28:28
australian national champs and he'll be
28:30
out for round one
28:32
signing lucas shaw looks like a great
28:33
move by canyon now
28:35
were you surprised he left us in knicker
28:39
i wasn't really surprised because i've
28:41
seen him talking to different people and
28:45
it wasn't really like discreet so i
28:48
wasn't surprised and i know like
28:51
it's not to be honest i don't know if
28:53
he's gonna be listening it's gonna be
28:54
miami again but it's not easy to be in
28:56
the team with great menard it
28:58
has to be challenging
29:00
yeah because he's the man and he's it's
29:03
gonna make you feel like he's the man as
29:04
well because he knows what he's doing
29:06
for so long and when you're a younger
29:08
rider like luca it will be
29:10
it'll be challenging so
29:12
i think it's a great move and i think uh
29:15
he's i see him as a kind of like really
29:18
coachable writer as well so fabian was
29:21
in there from abraham was in there
29:23
helping
29:24
good like really help him as well get to
29:27
the next level because he showed in him
29:29
past that he won qualifying and stuff so
29:31
yeah
29:32
he could
29:33
be like a big surprise which is not
29:36
really should be a surprise but yeah
29:38
there's so many guys out there i'm
29:40
really looking forward to see what he
29:41
can do could mark wallace be a good bet
29:43
if it's wetting lords
29:45
one of the best technical riders yeah
29:48
definitely mark always turns it up once
29:50
it gets slippery and technical so 100
29:53
well if it does rain i imagine some of
29:55
the brits won't be too bothered reece
29:57
wilson danny hart i'm looking at you
29:59
and possibly madison saracens matt
30:01
walker who'll be joining us after these
30:02
messages
30:04
2020 world cup overall champion matt
30:06
walker welcome back to the show how you
30:08
doing
30:09
thanks for having us
30:11
how are you doing
30:12
very good mate yeah um just got back
30:15
from
30:16
portuguese cup had a good well we had a
30:19
week of riding and then did the
30:20
portuguese cup so i had a good week it's
30:22
nice to spend a good chunk of time on
30:24
the dyno bike um before lords and
30:28
yeah positive had a good had a good trip
30:30
enjoying myself had some good weather so
30:33
yeah
30:34
not nothing to complain about well
30:36
before the break we were just chatting
30:38
about lords potentially being wet if you
30:40
could choose would you take a wet or a
30:41
dry race
30:44
uh a dry race
30:49
that's just easier there's less
30:51
less faff
30:52
um i think it's
30:55
it's just nice for everyone to be in the
30:56
drive
30:58
i don't think i perform any better in
31:00
the way or the dry it's just a bit of an
31:01
easy weekend when it's dry so
31:04
yeah
31:05
p8 at the weekend with a couple of
31:06
mistakes good to be back racing oh yeah
31:09
mega really really good um
31:12
it was quite a busy one like as as jack
31:15
will know as
31:16
every man the dog was there so um
31:20
for sure was a little bit nervous like
31:22
going in because i didn't it's kind of
31:23
one of them it's a pre-season race
31:26
and you know everyone's kind of getting
31:28
into it
31:29
and
31:29
[Music]
31:30
potentially people still have things to
31:32
test and things to try and you know
31:34
you're not exactly like as sharp as you
31:36
would be when you when you go racing
31:37
world cup so
31:38
it's just interesting it's kind of the
31:40
first time you really put yourself
31:42
to test and see where you're really at
31:44
so there's a bit of nervousness there
31:46
because i didn't want to
31:47
find myself on sunday afternoon like
31:50
really far back and having a load of
31:52
work to do in two weeks um so yeah i'm
31:56
i'm in the mix i was exactly kind of
31:58
where i needed to be um so yeah i was i
32:01
took it as a as a positive really um
32:04
[Music]
32:05
if i wanted to read into it anymore i
32:06
guess it would have been nice to see
32:07
some split times
32:09
um just to give me a better idea of
32:11
where i was at um kind of before any
32:14
mistakes happened but as
32:17
as
32:18
looking as an overall picture i had a
32:20
really good week riding the bike feels
32:22
good um we definitely made some
32:23
improvements there and i felt like i
32:26
wrote i'm riding well at the minute um
32:28
i'm fit and healthy so
32:30
and i'm really keen like i'm really
32:31
looking forward to getting stuck into
32:32
the world cup season which um
32:34
which is nice to have that kind of
32:36
motivation going in so
32:37
yeah all good
32:40
so my 2021 by no means a disaster
32:42
national champion again seventh at
32:44
worlds
32:45
17th in the overall but no podiums and
32:48
probably not the season you were hoping
32:50
for after winning the overall in 2020.
32:52
no
32:53
no it was um what turned out to be a
32:57
pretty tough season to be honest like
32:59
like you said i i did have some good
33:00
results along the way i was national
33:02
champion again which is always great
33:04
i had a really good weekend there and
33:07
and uh yeah not really the overall
33:09
result i would have wanted and i think
33:11
towards the end of the season i really
33:13
showed quite a lot of promise um
33:15
i think for sure
33:17
the last round in snowshoe was
33:19
a podium ride uh but i just got taken
33:22
out with a puncher and it was really
33:25
really uh kind of bitter and hard to
33:27
swallow i felt like
33:29
going into the season i i hadn't ridden
33:33
as much as i would have liked to or at
33:35
least
33:35
abroad as much as i have done in
33:38
previous seasons and it really showed
33:39
when i got to the first race i actually
33:42
mentally i actually felt really good i
33:44
felt really strong as the strongest had
33:46
ever been physically
33:47
um
33:49
but i just hadn't had the bike time and
33:51
it really showed after that you know
33:53
after the first race i was i think 25th
33:55
at leo gang
33:57
which is not the start i wanted to have
33:58
and then
34:00
i just i just built through the season
34:02
every race i was getting better and
34:04
better
34:05
more time on the bike i guess and
34:09
yeah just kind of trying to pull the
34:10
positives from every race and just uh
34:13
getting better and better as i said
34:14
which which was difficult to do and to
34:16
be honest it's the first time i'm in my
34:18
career i've ever had to do that i've
34:20
always
34:21
if you look over previous years i've
34:22
always started pretty strong
34:24
um always been quite a fast starter and
34:27
then
34:28
through injury or whatever never really
34:30
been able to to put a whole um
34:33
consistent season together apart from
34:35
2020 obviously
34:37
um
34:39
so that season was
34:41
it was
34:42
i feel like
34:43
kind of silly for saying it was like a
34:45
learning year because i don't really
34:46
like using that phrase but it was in a
34:48
lot of ways for me um obviously didn't
34:50
start as i wanted to
34:52
but i didn't lose my head either i think
34:55
if you if you if i was in that situation
34:58
four years ago three four years ago
35:00
it would have really put me on the back
35:02
foot and i probably would have struggled
35:03
to
35:04
kind of raise my game throughout the
35:05
season
35:06
but i feel like um
35:08
i matured quite a lot as i got a bit
35:10
older and i managed to deal with
35:13
really not starting very well i felt
35:15
like i dealt with that quite well and
35:17
although it didn't take you know it took
35:19
a lot of races for it to turn around i
35:20
felt like every race i got better
35:23
um
35:24
so by the end of the season i was quite
35:25
proud of myself for that and i was it
35:27
made me really resilient
35:29
and i think moving forward in my career
35:31
and for future years it's it's it's uh
35:35
never nice to go through that but i
35:37
think it's important and i think it'll
35:38
help me i was gonna say that that that
35:41
17th was was perhaps a bit cruel because
35:44
you mentioned the
35:45
the snowshoe is result
35:48
you seeded fifth and you were on a top
35:50
10 run when when you picked up that
35:51
front flat
35:53
not making excuses because i know you
35:54
don't like to use them but 10th is worth
35:56
100 points that 100 points would have
35:58
put you 10th in the overall rather than
36:00
17th which is a lot more acceptable in
36:02
it
36:03
yeah exactly yeah and i think uh
36:06
salvaging a top 10
36:08
overall from from where i was at round
36:10
one i think would have been a good job
36:11
so yeah a little a little bit
36:13
frustrating but um
36:15
that's how it is that's racing in it
36:18
so
36:19
going to 2020
36:21
breaking it down there were four races
36:23
and if you include qualifying that's
36:25
eight and your worst result was fifth
36:28
which is incredible consistency
36:30
throughout those eight timed runs
36:33
how how do you look back on that overall
36:35
win now sitting here what are we a year
36:37
and a little bit later um
36:40
it seemed easy mate
36:42
to be honest at the time
36:45
i didn't feel like i was doing anything
36:46
different to any other year even looking
36:48
back on it now i wasn't doing anything
36:50
differently
36:52
um i had
36:55
i spent
36:56
the
36:57
however many months we out of the off
36:58
season and most of the year to
37:01
put a lot of work and i moved forward
37:03
quite a lot in a lot of areas and that
37:05
gave me a lot of confidence it was like
37:06
uh
37:08
strong body strong mark
37:10
yeah like i'd done a lot of work and it
37:12
gave me so much confidence um and i had
37:15
ridden the bike a lot you know as well
37:17
like i'd been
37:18
to the alps riding and not only just
37:20
testing but just fun riding
37:22
and um i did a lot of different
37:25
yeah just riding throughout the summer
37:26
and had a good summer enjoying myself
37:27
stayed injury-free and worked really
37:29
hard and then yeah
37:32
just
37:33
rode down the airmate and i was uh i
37:36
didn't feel like i was pushing i wasn't
37:37
didn't feel like i was taking risks it
37:39
was just coming nice and easy and then
37:42
yeah just
37:43
one thing led to another like i remember
37:46
the first round maribor
37:49
i felt good in practice i never really
37:51
liked to do time training like up up
37:53
until this point
37:54
because it always felt like it was a
37:56
little bit soon for me to kind of put a
37:58
full run together or push on
38:01
and if i did ever try i would be like
38:03
quite far back
38:05
and then i'd put extra stress on myself
38:08
and i'd always kind of race better than
38:11
than like a time training run i feel
38:13
like it was at that time it was a
38:14
different mindset
38:16
and
38:17
so i'd kind of stress myself out and
38:19
think i'm so far behind the ball on the
38:20
friday yeah saturday sunday would always
38:24
come back round so up until this point i
38:25
never really liked doing time training
38:27
but i felt being 20 20 the first round i
38:30
felt quite good on the bike
38:32
i felt like um
38:34
yeah i was riding well
38:35
and i wanted to see where i was at so it
38:38
was the first time really that i made
38:40
the conscious effort to stick a full run
38:42
in time training
38:44
and i was right there i think i was
38:45
third third or fourth maybe
38:48
and then from there it was like right
38:50
the pressure's off i know i know i can
38:51
do it i know about the speed
38:54
and that was it i just
38:55
every day
38:57
i just woke up in the morning i had my
38:59
breakfast and i said right it doesn't
39:00
matter what happened yesterday
39:02
we just would just ride downhill again
39:04
and if that's what it was like it was
39:06
just there was no emotion it was just i
39:08
get up
39:09
i'd do my routine do my warm up and just
39:12
ride downhill and it was like
39:14
i don't know it sounds silly saying it
39:16
but it just was coming easy like
39:18
everything's just working yeah
39:20
yeah it's
39:21
soft in the way that when you when you
39:22
don't feel like you're trying that hard
39:24
it's often easier to then just
39:26
let it happen yeah yeah for sure
39:29
yeah as i say no no pressure it was just
39:32
kind of happening and
39:33
when it comes to the later stages in the
39:36
in the championship it
39:38
it um
39:39
i think played in my favor because i
39:42
i'd
39:43
i've said this before but i
39:46
fire it like faster past where i thought
39:48
i was going to be i was hoping for a top
39:50
10
39:51
and all of a sudden i was in the leaders
39:52
jersey
39:53
never expected it i never put any
39:55
pressure on myself to do it so
39:58
like in the last race i think even if
40:01
i'd fallen off or had a puncher or had a
40:03
problem i would have been top five in
40:05
overall which
40:06
if someone said i was gonna be top five
40:08
in the overall start season i would have
40:09
bit their hand off so yeah at that point
40:12
in time
40:13
last round i had nothing to lose i just
40:15
felt like i might as well it's worked
40:17
for the last three times so i might as
40:19
well just ride down the hill again
40:21
and i did and that was it yeah
40:24
yes
40:26
so
40:27
have you been doing anything differently
40:28
this offseason
40:31
compared with the 2020 and 2021 off
40:33
season or is it yeah
40:36
it's hard to say because 2020 was such a
40:37
strange off season anyway it was such a
40:39
long period of time
40:41
um
40:43
but i tend to try and just ramp it up a
40:45
little bit every year and i'll freshen
40:47
it up
40:48
for sure
40:49
from
40:51
pre-season 2021 i've ridden the bike a
40:53
lot more this time yeah sounds like
40:56
three moves
40:57
so i made sure that
41:00
i got out in january and rode i rode and
41:02
ponce de lima and january road there
41:04
again in february yep you did a team
41:07
camp in loser and this little race i
41:09
missed out
41:10
that was another thing i wanted to add
41:12
into my program for this year is doing a
41:14
little race before
41:16
um
41:17
before the big stuff starts like in
41:19
previous years we've always kind of had
41:20
a national or something to go at yeah
41:23
world cups and i missed out on that in
41:24
21 i don't think that really played in
41:26
my favor so yeah no i couldn't agree get
41:29
out and just blow the cobwebs off really
41:31
because
41:32
you know it's like you do loads of
41:34
um like timing and stuff and testing
41:36
them it's not the same the intensity is
41:38
not there yeah the competition's not
41:41
there um
41:43
so it's just good for me to to go under
41:46
the under the clock for real and to be
41:48
honest i really thrived off the fact
41:50
there was loads of boys there i thought
41:52
that was
41:53
it was better for me really
41:57
so yeah i think
41:59
i think i'm for sure in a better place
42:02
than i was 12 months ago even though 12
42:03
months ago i didn't know it
42:05
but um
42:06
yeah looking forward to getting stuck in
42:07
there
42:08
yeah with danny moving on you became
42:10
lead rider last season did you has that
42:12
brought more pressure or have you not
42:14
seen it like that no no i wouldn't say
42:17
any more pressure to be honest um i
42:19
think
42:20
in a lot of ways they could have
42:23
just ran me or ran me and
42:27
another elite rider like you know you
42:29
could
42:30
in 2020 that was just me and danny so
42:33
there was always the option potentially
42:35
to
42:36
keep me on and have another elite rider
42:38
and just do it with two of us again
42:40
um
42:41
but we had a lot of chats about options
42:43
at the end of 2020 with obviously danny
42:45
moving on and
42:47
uh it was as a team we decided it was
42:49
best to to bring some riders on and
42:53
i think it's been a great
42:55
addition to the teams have vero on and
42:57
jordan
43:00
and
43:01
it's good because
43:02
we have a rider in every category which
43:04
is great apart from junior women but
43:07
uh also it actually takes pressure off
43:10
me i feel like i can
43:12
go about my business and do my job
43:16
and we all know i can be at the front
43:19
and the support
43:21
you know the team is made
43:24
in a way that i feel is the best for me
43:27
to perform
43:28
um just in my little bubble you know me
43:30
and my mechanic and and will and the
43:32
support network i have but then also
43:35
with the others on the team it just
43:36
takes as i say it takes the pressure off
43:38
me because
43:39
i don't have that feeling like i'm the
43:42
number one guy i need to have a result
43:44
every week
43:45
we all know i can perform
43:47
there's someone else to deliver if
43:48
needed
43:49
you know we have other people to deliver
43:52
results and there's the spotlight's not
43:55
on me so strong
43:56
yeah which i think always through my
43:58
career
43:59
has kind of been the way
44:01
even as you know as a junior we've
44:03
obviously had good elite riders and then
44:05
as when i went into elite we obviously
44:07
had danny on the team so i was kind of
44:09
like the dark horse in the corner and
44:10
then
44:11
i think
44:13
if i'd just been say a lead rider and it
44:14
was just me on the team or me and
44:16
another
44:17
rider and maybe would have felt a bit
44:19
more pressure to deliver but as it is i
44:20
think it it works quite well nicely cool
44:24
so you mentioned you mentioned jordan um
44:26
he had a fantastic first year as a
44:28
junior
44:30
um
44:30
how much did you help him out
44:34
i think i think quite a lot um
44:37
a lot of things is subconscious like we
44:39
ride together at the races or in testing
44:42
and he and he takes i guess he takes a
44:44
lot from that i can only say from my own
44:47
experience because that's how i learned
44:50
a lot of the time is just by following
44:52
matt and mark beaumont that we had on
44:54
the team at the time
44:56
and just kind of taking things in
44:58
without really knowing it
45:00
um
45:01
but i'd like to think that i'm kind of a
45:03
good example
45:04
i don't
45:06
really shout about a lot of things i i'm
45:08
quite not very controversial i don't say
45:11
you know i don't get myself in trouble
45:13
i feel like i handle myself quite well
45:16
i go about my racing seriously
45:19
and i take my job
45:20
serious you know i train hard and i look
45:22
after myself and
45:24
like to think that jordan takes
45:26
takes a lot from that because i you know
45:28
i did for sure when i was when i was
45:30
that age and um
45:33
and also i think
45:35
he's kind of on the path i was on
45:38
and i think he can see
45:41
i can see myself in him in some ways
45:45
and i think it's good for him to see
45:46
like
45:47
someone
45:49
someone recently that's kind of come
45:50
through that program that he's on and
45:52
that has been on that path and it shows
45:54
that it works
45:56
um
45:57
but yeah i mean he had a fantastic first
45:59
year
46:00
and he's riding really really well it's
46:02
just he does classic junior things and
46:04
that's just how it is it's just
46:06
so you know you can't expect a junior to
46:08
stay on and win every race but um
46:11
yeah he's gonna have a he's gonna have a
46:13
good second year for sure and i think
46:15
it's also good for him to have uh like
46:17
jackson goldstone
46:20
to battle against because i had finn
46:22
and it was never easy every race we went
46:25
to
46:26
like
46:27
it doesn't matter if i rode really well
46:28
or really bad finn would just beat me
46:30
most of the time
46:32
um
46:33
so i think it's good for him to have
46:34
that competition like he is
46:36
i think compared to a lot of people his
46:38
age he was really the class above and
46:41
it's good for him to have like jackson
46:43
to battle with i think when they get to
46:45
elite it'll it'll make them better
46:47
riders in the end so um
46:50
but yeah for sure he's got a bright
46:51
future and he's doing everything pretty
46:54
well at the moment so
46:55
he's nipping at me also sure
46:57
yeah cool um you mentioned vera as well
47:00
um i was really pleased to see how
47:02
sorrison picked up
47:04
um elite woman on a team um
47:06
she had amazing 2019 and then she had a
47:09
big injury in 2020.
47:11
um
47:12
she was fighting through that had some
47:14
bad luck and then she had another big
47:15
crash in snowshoe
47:17
um
47:19
so i've seen that she also had a crash
47:22
into ruka from what i've known yes kami
47:24
picked her up the track but she pushed
47:26
through and she did quite an impressive
47:28
result considering
47:30
how in pain she was um
47:32
how do you think she was looking coming
47:33
into 2022
47:35
really really good to be honest i think
47:37
um
47:39
she she's been running really well and
47:41
she's so strong like really really
47:43
strong and she's in good shape and i
47:45
think she has
47:46
like even from the first time we rode
47:48
with her
47:51
she shows so much promise and so much
47:52
potential like i think honestly she
47:54
could be really really good
47:56
and i think she could you know be
47:58
winning world cups and she showed in
48:00
previous years she finished third in the
48:02
overall and she was there consistently
48:04
and i don't i really don't see why
48:06
there's any reason she can't do that
48:08
again
48:09
um like you said unfortunately she's had
48:11
a couple of crashes and it's really
48:12
knocked her back but
48:14
i know for sure she's been working
48:16
quite hard not only on the physical side
48:19
but the mental side as well and and
48:21
i know she's opened up to me and other
48:23
people on the team about that side and
48:26
forwards tried to support her
48:28
through that and i know she's changed
48:30
trainers this year as well so
48:33
we're all kind of under the same support
48:35
network with the same coach and stuff so
48:38
i think she's been really enjoying it i
48:39
think she's had a really good offseason
48:41
and she's riding really well she looks
48:43
good and strong on the bike it was
48:44
actually a real shame that she had a
48:46
crash into i think um
48:49
would have been good for her to to get a
48:51
good result there i think a lot of the
48:52
time she just needs a little bit of
48:53
confidence
48:55
i feel like she's far better than she
48:58
believes
48:59
which i don't know is a trend
49:01
across women in the sport but i know
49:04
from like my girlfriend rides and she's
49:06
exactly the same she's far better than
49:08
she would let herself believe
49:10
and um
49:11
i see that a little bit in vero as well
49:12
but
49:13
i think when she
49:15
she gets a good result and she and then
49:18
she you know she can see she can do it i
49:19
think
49:20
she'll be she'll be away then and she
49:22
you know she has all the support to
49:25
to take her to that level if um
49:27
and you know everyone believes in her so
49:30
she just needs to believe in herself at
49:31
times
49:33
yeah i think it's really interesting
49:34
what you're saying um
49:36
so harry is her boyfriend as well how is
49:39
harry fitting into the team what's his
49:40
role
49:42
so harry is like an assistant manager
49:44
role really within the team so he just
49:47
um obviously when when vero joined we
49:50
wanted it to be
49:52
well well the team manager wanted it to
49:54
be as seamless as possible and bringing
49:56
harry on
49:58
um but just make that transition from
50:00
from the program they were on before on
50:02
the team they were kind of running
50:03
themselves
50:04
into our team and it just
50:06
it took the pressure off uh
50:10
will and it also just made sure that
50:13
vera got the like the most out of the
50:16
out of the changes she kept obviously
50:18
harry by her side and harry knows her
50:20
better than anybody
50:22
so it's it's easy
50:24
you know it takes time to build
50:25
relationships and when you've got
50:26
someone so close to you
50:28
in the team as well i think that would
50:30
make it a lot easier so
50:33
so harry's harry came on as like an
50:35
assistant manager and he also rode at
50:37
the world cups this year but i think uh
50:41
i they kind of had a chat at the end of
50:43
the year and they decided that
50:45
he's gonna move into more of a like a
50:47
staff role for for this upcoming season
50:50
we felt like collectively
50:52
the best week we kind of had was world
50:54
champs and that was when we had harry on
50:56
the side of the hill
50:58
um
50:59
and it
51:00
that because we kind of will um
51:03
will was on the side of the hill but he
51:04
was trying to do timing and look at
51:07
lines and you know the practice isn't
51:09
that long and just having another set of
51:11
eyes on the hill is
51:13
i think is better and it's it was tough
51:15
for harry because
51:18
he was he was also you know he's trying
51:19
to help vero
51:21
so if there was any like features she
51:22
was struggling with he would kind of try
51:24
and be there but then they're in
51:26
different practices so a lot of time he
51:28
was in a practice
51:29
um
51:31
so then he was trying to ride with me
51:32
but then also he's trying to qualify
51:34
himself
51:35
and look after everybody else so it just
51:38
in the end he ended up kind of taking
51:40
too much on
51:41
so he was happy enough to
51:43
to race some i access races this year
51:45
and do the nationals and
51:47
he really likes events like hardline and
51:50
a few bits like that so he's going to
51:51
focus on that a little bit more and
51:53
he'll be there at the races just up
51:55
track side
51:56
and just another set of eyes on the hill
51:58
and i think um
52:00
he
52:01
he wants to be in that position and i
52:03
feel like as a team we agree that's the
52:05
most productive
52:06
place for him so that's what he'll be
52:08
doing i think everyone's looking forward
52:10
to it so
52:11
yeah good nice i think you're still on
52:14
the same bike for 2022 have you guys
52:16
looked at a high pivot
52:18
no we haven't um
52:21
there is
52:23
some changes with our bike
52:25
there's a few little geometry changes
52:28
and we've got a brake arm on the bike
52:30
now right which is kind of similar
52:33
to i think danny run one in 2019
52:38
um
52:39
the floor in brick yeah yeah
52:42
so
52:43
it's a new newer it's ultimately the
52:46
same that tries to do the same job but
52:48
it's uh just a little bit different
52:50
um
52:52
and yeah there's a few more changes on
52:53
the bike linkage changes and slight
52:55
geometry changes but overall
52:58
it's the same and then
53:00
looking into the future
53:02
i think we're probably in a position now
53:04
where we can start to try to develop the
53:06
bike further i feel like
53:08
everyone collectively we've kind of
53:09
pushed our package as far
53:12
as we can really um
53:14
so who knows in the next couple of years
53:16
it would be nice to see an all-new
53:18
harrison miss but
53:20
let's see what happens
53:23
so coming into 2022 have you set any
53:26
specific goals dreams for yourself
53:28
um
53:30
i still want to win a world cup i
53:32
haven't given up on the idea of winning
53:33
the world
53:34
don't forget that one um
53:37
yeah so
53:39
yeah winner world cup's the biggest one
53:40
i think for me but nice
53:43
also just i feel like
53:45
last season was last season was
53:47
i didn't i felt like i didn't really do
53:49
myself justice yeah i just want to
53:52
kind of prove to everyone that i'm still
53:54
that guy who won the overall in 2020 and
53:56
not to forget about me because uh
53:59
i believe i can i can be right there
54:01
week in week out and i feel like i've
54:03
got the package to do it um i just feel
54:06
like sometimes i go under the radar a
54:08
little bit so
54:09
maybe i should shout and scream a bit
54:10
more
54:12
but um
54:14
yeah just just get another consistent
54:17
season
54:18
and try and be right at the front that's
54:21
that's my aim really be on the podium as
54:22
much as possible in the top 10 when i'm
54:24
not on the podium and just
54:26
yeah yeah we're going for the top really
54:27
mate keep wrecking the points up so lord
54:30
you've done okay there in the past
54:31
second to finn in 2016 and then seeded
54:34
first in 2017 before you flattered at
54:36
the top of the track
54:37
happy to be going back there to kick
54:39
things off at that venue
54:40
yeah really looking forward to it um
54:44
it's been five
54:45
five years crazy and that feels like
54:48
yesterday when i was watching you come
54:49
down to the right you were still a
54:51
junior
54:52
yeah we all went to cairns [ __ ]
54:55
yeah
54:56
five years crazy
54:57
um
54:59
so yeah it feels like a long time but i
55:01
can pretty much remember every turn on
55:02
the track it's weird
55:04
so yeah i am dead keen to go back i
55:06
really enjoyed it i think
55:08
it's uh i don't know whether i'm looking
55:10
back on it and like
55:12
rose tinted glasses or whatever because
55:13
it was like my first world cup years
55:17
but the tracks meant i think the only
55:19
thing
55:21
it would be a bit sketchy is
55:24
if it's kind of in between conditions
55:26
because the rocks are so slippy that
55:27
it's just like the world's lippiest
55:29
rocks for some reason and
55:33
if mud super wet it'll be all right and
55:35
if it's dry it'll be fine but anything
55:37
in between it's like greasy in the
55:39
morning
55:41
horrible this is funny i said exactly
55:43
the same earlier on in the podcast it's
55:44
nice that you agree with me um so you
55:47
wouldn't fought william as a junior in
55:48
2017 seventh in your first elite season
55:51
in 2018 and then seventh again in 2019.
55:54
obviously you'll be excited to see that
55:56
back on the calendar again this season
55:58
yeah first time
56:00
back at fort william since
56:03
quite a lot of success for me so it'd be
56:05
interesting to see
56:07
if it would be real nice to ride in
56:09
front of the home crowd for the first
56:10
time in a little while and um
56:13
it'd be interesting to see if there's
56:14
any kind of noticeable difference with
56:17
the kind of support because also it's
56:19
not only me you know rhys won world
56:21
champs in 2020 and had another good
56:23
season in 21 so
56:25
hopefully there should be some good
56:26
support for the for the british lads um
56:29
so that would be good to see but
56:31
yeah i love racing up for william i
56:33
always have really it's even when i was
56:35
a kid watching it that was that was the
56:37
one race i wanted to do
56:39
and um yeah always excited to go back
56:41
there to be fair like
56:43
people ask me what my favorite track to
56:45
ride is and it's probably not my
56:47
favorite track to ride but
56:49
definitely my favorite race to go to
56:52
yeah
56:53
just the whole atmosphere there's
56:55
unrivaled in my opinion yeah so as far
56:58
as we're aware armory's 4 28 in 2019 was
57:02
the first sub 4 30 time we've seen um is
57:05
that a time you now look at and think
57:08
i wanna i wanna be one of the boys under
57:10
that 430 mark doesn't matter what the
57:12
time is mate as long as i'm at the front
57:14
it doesn't really matter
57:16
um
57:18
but
57:20
yeah i mean it's hard to compare times
57:22
you always
57:23
in the back in mind there's always that
57:25
but different day different conditions
57:27
different
57:28
words i mean yeah too many variables to
57:31
compare but
57:32
yeah i'm sure it'll be fast this year
57:34
and i'm sure the competition will be
57:35
stronger there's
57:37
i would say it's at the front is
57:39
probably more competitive
57:40
than it was then i think there's more
57:42
people that can win it now i think
57:44
there's a bigger
57:46
there's a bigger range of riders that
57:47
can be on the podium every week so it'll
57:49
be interesting
57:51
yeah and then obviously national champs
57:53
is back at glencoe um
57:56
but it's the weekend before snowshoe
57:58
will you guys be going to national
57:59
champs
58:00
i'll be there yeah i feel like
58:03
i should go to be honest um especially
58:05
after winning it last year i feel like
58:07
it's just
58:08
a bit of a cop out if you don't go yeah
58:10
we're too scared about our bikes getting
58:12
lost on the way to america
58:14
oh yeah there is no yeah so
58:17
it's not really
58:19
jack are you jack don't you think
58:21
they're going to move it because they
58:22
move hours
58:23
and they move the french one i hope they
58:25
do because we we won't be going we'll be
58:27
flying to snowshoe thursday to get over
58:29
the jet lag everything's sorted yeah
58:31
because i hope i hope they move it i was
58:33
saying we me and reese will talk about
58:35
this at the weekend
58:37
he was kind of saying the same like
58:40
it's so tight to do it because you would
58:42
be going yeah
58:44
uh he's flying on the monday to be on
58:46
monday for the wednesday yeah doesn't
58:49
add up yeah that's too tight in it
58:52
but then it's national champs i feel
58:53
like
58:54
oh yeah you did right it should be a on
58:56
a weekend when everybody can be there
58:58
absolutely either yeah
59:00
yeah okay and even glencoe is not easy
59:02
like if it was
59:05
and we're in andorra the weekend before
59:08
yeah so we have to drive from andorra
59:11
home
59:12
scotland home fly to america and if it
59:15
was like red or
59:17
somewhere be a bit easier well the
59:19
scottish guys wouldn't agree yeah but
59:20
when when i did
59:22
when i did my
59:24
just 25 minutes away from me
59:26
when i did masters worlds in
59:28
2018 i think we raced on wednesday in
59:32
andorra
59:33
and i was in glencoe on friday evening
59:36
for national champs
59:38
jesus
59:39
and my wife made me have 24 hours at
59:41
home in between that was the real world
59:43
sat count she said you've got to be home
59:44
for 24 hours and i was sat watching the
59:46
clock going right
59:50
i can't i'll send something across over
59:52
the altar
59:53
let's un-stick it from your forehead
59:56
we can't let you go without mentioning
59:58
masters worlds your team manager will
59:59
london brought the the team buster
1:00:02
praloop and then went and won world chat
1:00:04
the world champs jersey i think he
1:00:06
picked you up the following weekend
1:00:08
ahead of elite worlds in valdosta was
1:00:10
the jersey left in a prominent position
1:00:12
on the bus
1:00:13
you know what so about that ray so
1:00:16
can you remember where we were before
1:00:18
actually i can remember it's plenty to
1:00:19
hide i think
1:00:21
yeah we maybe went from lens i feel like
1:00:24
we had a bit of a gap did i go
1:00:27
i can't remember where it was but i was
1:00:28
definitely riding
1:00:30
as
1:00:31
oh no maybe it was lens height i think
1:00:33
you it was the only weekend i i messaged
1:00:36
will and i said are you coming to pralu
1:00:38
and he said when is it and he's and i
1:00:40
told him and he said it's the only
1:00:41
weekend i've got off in like eight weeks
1:00:44
or something so yes i'll come so i think
1:00:46
it was lens or high i think you went
1:00:47
from lenses
1:00:49
all right so anyway wherever we were the
1:00:50
week before
1:00:52
so the truck was staying out we all knew
1:00:53
the truck was doing that we all knew
1:00:54
will was staying out with the truck
1:00:56
and nathan the mechanic
1:00:58
so
1:01:00
we were going through the motions racing
1:01:02
world cup whatever
1:01:04
and i said oh what what are your plans
1:01:05
and will because he hadn't told anybody
1:01:07
that he was going
1:01:08
and uh i said what are your plans like
1:01:10
what are you doing over the next 10 days
1:01:12
or whatever he goes ah
1:01:14
i've booked a little race i said you
1:01:16
know what cause i thought even he races
1:01:18
national champs he's been race national
1:01:19
champs the last 10 years what's he on it
1:01:21
what's he on about
1:01:22
he said yeah but little race in france
1:01:25
france
1:01:29
and then anyway so it wasn't until like
1:01:31
days after that it clocked and i went
1:01:33
back to him i was like you've booked
1:01:35
masters world haven't you and he's like
1:01:36
yeah yeah
1:01:39
see what it's like see if i don't know
1:01:40
whether i'll race it but i'll just go
1:01:43
there anyway so then we didn't hear
1:01:45
anything really because he was riding my
1:01:47
training bike that's how i was going to
1:01:48
ask wasn't you riding your spare bike
1:01:50
yeah he's trying my order
1:02:01
[Music]
1:02:04
be now
1:02:06
i'm gonna be a world champion for the
1:02:08
least amount of time ever
1:02:11
world champion for he said as well i've
1:02:14
gotta go and do a race because otherwise
1:02:16
i'm not gonna race in the stripes
1:02:18
oh yeah because once once it's that's it
1:02:21
it's done so
1:02:23
i don't know that happened to us one
1:02:24
year with euro champs we did euro champs
1:02:26
in poland in like september or october
1:02:29
and then the following year they had it
1:02:31
in march
1:02:32
3 and we were like
1:02:35
what the [ __ ] they took our points away
1:02:38
he went and did this race got all these
1:02:40
points i think i was fourth and then
1:02:42
they took the point to here for the
1:02:43
following season it was like jesus
1:02:45
pointless literally
1:02:47
he's got a nice jersey made up with his
1:02:49
name on it oh i bet he has yeah
1:02:52
he earned that win he caught three or
1:02:54
four people in his seating run and it
1:02:57
was so dusty i don't know how you got
1:02:59
past anybody and then he when he in his
1:03:01
race run he's seen a video of him
1:03:02
watching
1:03:03
racing joel slalom
1:03:05
yeah i have actually yeah
1:03:07
but he in his race funny he got the tape
1:03:10
wrap around his cassette i think and he
1:03:11
couldn't pedal for the last
1:03:13
last quarter of the track or something
1:03:16
so just yeah
1:03:17
they did well to win two win
1:03:20
well look thanks for making the time to
1:03:21
come on the show matt and and best of
1:03:23
luck for the season oh thank you very
1:03:24
much cheers for having me yeah i think
1:03:26
you're gonna smash it this year so
1:03:28
thank you very much god
1:03:30
bless a lot
1:03:31
cheers mate thank you
1:03:33
jack we've got matt reese laurie and
1:03:35
danny who've all won either a title or a
1:03:38
world cup race just behind them are
1:03:40
probably charlie hatton and joe breeden
1:03:42
how far back on those do you think dan
1:03:44
slack is
1:03:46
um
1:03:47
oh honestly he isn't um
1:03:52
yeah he isn't
1:03:53
let's just see if he can
1:03:55
roll
1:03:57
like he was at the end of last season on
1:03:59
confidence and keep going but yeah i
1:04:01
mean
1:04:02
the kid's got pace and talent and
1:04:05
he's just getting faster and faster so
1:04:07
so yeah he isn't behind him at all um
1:04:09
and what we're aiming for what we're
1:04:11
working towards is
1:04:13
he doesn't sit in that follow-up group
1:04:16
that there's kind of a lot of us in
1:04:19
we push him into that that group of that
1:04:22
three to four riders in the gb
1:04:25
system where they're they stand out
1:04:27
they're getting picked for world champs
1:04:28
they're getting top tens they're getting
1:04:30
podiums so that's what we're now working
1:04:32
towards um and and yeah you know
1:04:35
who knows how long it will take but he's
1:04:36
definitely got the talent and
1:04:38
the commitment to do that so excellent
1:04:41
danny no podiums last year but a fifth
1:04:45
um a couple of six
1:04:47
a fifth
1:04:50
that doesn't make sense does it george
1:04:52
is broken
1:05:00
i'm sure danny hart didn't get a podium
1:05:01
last year
1:05:02
hang on i'm gonna look at my phone
1:05:09
because multiple people have said that
1:05:11
to me benoit even said it in the pod
1:05:14
what the danny didn't get a poet yeah he
1:05:16
didn't think danny got a podium and i
1:05:17
didn't think he did either checking
1:05:19
roots around right now
1:05:22
sixth sixth
1:05:23
he was fifth at world champs
1:05:26
ah that might be one of them
1:05:28
yeah your fifth is his fifth at world
1:05:30
champs right
1:05:34
right i'll do that again podium european
1:05:37
champs but just a couple of sixths
1:05:40
i'll do that again
1:05:41
danny hart
1:05:42
no no podiums last year but a couple of
1:05:45
sixth and a seventh and finished ninth
1:05:47
in the overall
1:05:48
will he do better or worse than that in
1:05:50
2022
1:05:54
i think he'll do better i think the
1:05:55
venues will suit him better
1:05:57
yeah also andorra lords
1:06:00
monster hands back
1:06:02
for william yeah i think i think
1:06:05
the venues are suitable
1:06:07
yeah if it rains it might be
1:06:10
right up there
1:06:12
yeah especially and even it doesn't rain
1:06:13
but i mean he he showed
1:06:17
i mean
1:06:18
it's like nothing in time so
1:06:22
i think if i think it would do better i
1:06:25
think as well the
1:06:27
two world titles that he won
1:06:29
were when he was the second year on a
1:06:31
bike i remember from when we'd had him
1:06:33
on the pod and we did an interview with
1:06:34
him because i remember saying do you
1:06:35
think he was coming into second year on
1:06:37
madison i think and i was like do you
1:06:38
think you'll win it
1:06:40
so maybe it just takes him a little bit
1:06:41
of a while to
1:06:42
get his head round a bike
1:06:44
and i believe they've got a high pivot
1:06:46
cube as well that he's riding so
1:06:49
right that might make a difference
1:06:52
laurie was one of the off seasons big
1:06:54
movers during the syndicate
1:06:56
blonde hair chilled approach surfer he
1:06:59
could have been born in santa cruz
1:07:01
how well do you think he'll fit in the
1:07:03
syndicate emily
1:07:05
um i think he's gonna fit in well i mean
1:07:08
um
1:07:08
he's like a natural on the bike and we
1:07:10
people as well so it's not he's not like
1:07:14
i think a hard guy to like get well on
1:07:17
with uh see how he gets on with greg
1:07:20
if you challenge him a little bit
1:07:23
that might be a little bit over the
1:07:24
heart a bit but
1:07:26
i
1:07:26
i he's probably my top five for this
1:07:29
year because i think i personally think
1:07:31
that the santa cruz is a better bike
1:07:33
than the more draker
1:07:35
and
1:07:36
i think he if if he can like maybe not
1:07:40
right at the beginning but i think
1:07:43
coming back value solely will be
1:07:45
it'll be right up there yeah it's a big
1:07:47
move as well not just the bike but he's
1:07:49
been there a while and he's gone to
1:07:51
santa cruz syndicate like
1:07:53
it's arguably
1:07:54
unless you're french it's arguably the
1:07:56
team everybody would want to ride for
1:07:58
yeah um so
1:08:00
i don't mean that in a negative way
1:08:02
towards a french i just mean a few
1:08:03
friends you probably want to ride for
1:08:05
comments on mukhoff but um
1:08:07
like
1:08:08
he's gonna be frothing like
1:08:10
isn't he so i think that extra fire um i
1:08:13
completely agree with emily is
1:08:15
definitely in my top five
1:08:17
and greg aiming to win a world cup at 40
1:08:20
both of you yes or no will he do it i'm
1:08:24
going to say yes because i just want it
1:08:26
to happen that's ridiculous i don't want
1:08:28
it to happen because then i feel like
1:08:30
it's possible for me then
1:08:32
and i have to make a [ __ ] comeback
1:08:33
for somebody or whatever stupid
1:08:36
um
1:08:38
no i think we'll be amazing but i don't
1:08:40
know
1:08:41
uh i'll be even more surprised than i
1:08:44
was last time
1:08:45
you see i never thought for a minute
1:08:46
he'd win loser like at all like
1:08:50
yeah that i knew he'd do well but i
1:08:53
always just thought there'd be somebody
1:08:55
a little bit younger and a little bit
1:08:57
better on the day and he'd you know not
1:08:59
quite get it and he won it convincingly
1:09:01
and almost won again two days later so
1:09:04
so yeah
1:09:06
i'd like to think with eight attempts i
1:09:08
think he will
1:09:09
it would be incredible it really really
1:09:11
would be incredible if he could do it
1:09:14
before it will be more monster now
1:09:16
yeah yeah
1:09:18
intensive strengthened losing niko but
1:09:20
adding dakota and job reading at the end
1:09:23
of the season
1:09:24
who on that team will be the best placed
1:09:26
in the world cup overhaul overall
1:09:29
that's a really difficult question i
1:09:31
read it and like
1:09:32
it's a super exciting team that like i'm
1:09:35
a big fan of dak like
1:09:37
the kids style is just unreal and then
1:09:41
joe is just showing all of us that
1:09:43
he's he's so committed to it all and the
1:09:46
pace he had last year before he hurt
1:09:47
himself
1:09:49
it's an exciting team and uh if those
1:09:51
two start doing well is that going to
1:09:53
push aaron to pull his finger out again
1:09:54
and get back in the mix so i i don't
1:09:57
know i don't even want to answer that
1:09:58
question
1:10:00
i don't know who i
1:10:03
i think aaron i don't know monte10 is
1:10:05
back
1:10:07
like
1:10:08
he could put one up
1:10:09
there for sure like he did in the past
1:10:12
but
1:10:13
i don't know i think maybe joe brendan
1:10:14
will be the better rider on this team
1:10:17
because that thing is the coolest one
1:10:18
[Laughter]
1:10:21
so round one 2018 but lozenge was was
1:10:24
aaron's last world cup win is it now or
1:10:27
never for him is this the season
1:10:31
i honestly don't even think i i mean i i
1:10:33
don't know aaron but
1:10:35
after watching him over the last four
1:10:36
years
1:10:37
i don't even think he's looking at it
1:10:40
like
1:10:40
now or never this is it like last dash
1:10:43
thing i just think he's just quite happy
1:10:45
where he is like
1:10:46
he's he's probably getting paid a
1:10:48
shitload of money um
1:10:51
and he's kind of in a team where he
1:10:53
seems happy and
1:10:56
he's quite always been very content with
1:10:58
himself hasn't he is in the sense of
1:10:59
what we'll be today will be today and
1:11:01
i'll do my best and that will be that
1:11:02
and
1:11:03
yeah i mean yeah we assume that he just
1:11:06
wants to win it but maybe maybe the
1:11:09
desire to win it's you know not not
1:11:11
there maybe it's just he's got other
1:11:13
things going on in his life he's very
1:11:15
happy where he is and he's a world cup
1:11:17
bike racer you know
1:11:19
he's still selling a lot of bikes i
1:11:20
imagine
1:11:22
the impression from him that he kind of
1:11:24
knows going into a weekend or going into
1:11:26
a race day if he's in with a shower and
1:11:28
if he's in with a shout then everybody
1:11:29
else better
1:11:31
better be you know on guard but if he's
1:11:34
not in with a shower he don't seem
1:11:35
bothered like
1:11:37
maybe i'm completely wrong there but
1:11:39
he's not one of them who's going to risk
1:11:40
it
1:11:41
knowing well really i'm probably going
1:11:43
to be about 12th here but i'm gonna i'm
1:11:45
going to go mad anyway
1:11:46
[Laughter]
1:11:48
he's a pretty smart rider like exactly
1:11:51
he
1:11:52
he got injuries in the past which is a
1:11:54
little bit unlucky but
1:11:56
he's a pretty smart writer so i i
1:11:58
completely agree with you
1:12:00
and i think maybe it has to do with his
1:12:02
beliefs or whatever i don't know like
1:12:03
the way you see his life is a bit
1:12:05
different than the other writers and
1:12:07
i think it might seem even more
1:12:08
interesting
1:12:09
yeah i think if he could finish top ten
1:12:12
i think that would be a solid season
1:12:14
it would be based off the last two or
1:12:16
three seasons for sure yeah
1:12:18
so finn isles
1:12:20
is this the year finales wins a world
1:12:21
cup
1:12:22
2017 his final year as a junior he won
1:12:25
six out of the seven races but it just
1:12:27
hasn't happened so far in italy he's 20
1:12:30
22 gonna be his year
1:12:32
yes
1:12:34
i want it to be his year oh it's so
1:12:36
annoying it's probably the guy that
1:12:38
crushes like he his brains out the most
1:12:41
out of everyone and still like
1:12:44
kind of doing a great result after like
1:12:47
crazy smashes he gets
1:12:49
you see him rolling past with a broken
1:12:51
helmet and blah blah blah and it
1:12:53
continues and he's still like kind of
1:12:56
i don't know gets like a top 10 or
1:12:58
something solid even though he's in pain
1:12:59
and
1:13:00
and if everything works out for them or
1:13:02
like even like 50 more than usual i
1:13:05
think you'll be able to win one and
1:13:08
wouldn't be great if you like wins
1:13:09
monsanton or like homework up or
1:13:11
something like that that would be so
1:13:12
good for him
1:13:14
so
1:13:15
it's time to make your predictions for
1:13:17
2022 top five finishes in the men's
1:13:21
he wants to go first
1:13:22
do we have to get in order
1:13:25
surely not
1:13:26
no let's just all right you just picked
1:13:28
five riders
1:13:30
okay i'm gonna need a pen there's too
1:13:33
many of them i've i've wrote i've
1:13:34
written them down so
1:13:36
i never got to it so we've got a huge
1:13:38
whiteboard here um
1:13:40
write some names down
1:13:42
so
1:13:43
amory
1:13:55
laurie greenland
1:13:56
and then i'm not sure between lloyd and
1:13:58
rhys wilson it depends on the weather
1:14:01
if he pisses down every race rhys is
1:14:03
going
1:14:04
rhys is gonna i don't know i i love
1:14:06
reese's style and i really wish he could
1:14:09
like
1:14:10
get the top five i
1:14:11
i like like too but i think rhys is like
1:14:14
the most creative writer
1:14:16
so
1:14:18
i don't know i'm on the verge between
1:14:20
like and reese
1:14:21
okay
1:14:23
i've i scribbled these down when i was
1:14:25
writing it and then i've not written
1:14:26
them on this print out of the script so
1:14:28
i think i had emery
1:14:31
loic
1:14:33
loris
1:14:34
matt walker and t brother prella that
1:14:37
was my
1:14:38
five
1:14:42
hmm
1:14:44
jack's got a calculator out by the looks
1:14:46
of it
1:14:51
there's a bit of a difference between
1:14:53
you what you think is gonna happen and
1:14:55
what you wish for happening i don't know
1:14:58
and it's kind of a mix of both yeah
1:15:00
complete brain freeze i was like
1:15:01
forgetting people
1:15:09
i didn't know reese was top five last
1:15:10
year to be fair yeah yeah because he
1:15:12
probably won snowshoe didn't he yeah
1:15:16
my brain's been 2-4 recently
1:15:19
all right
1:15:21
i just got to pick one more
1:15:25
so
1:15:26
my my definite floor are bruni peer on
1:15:29
laurie
1:15:30
and loris
1:15:33
um
1:15:35
poor that last one's difficult isn't it
1:15:38
so hard
1:15:40
and there's still minars but we didn't
1:15:41
say
1:15:42
yeah
1:15:45
is troy troy out of it by missing one
1:15:47
race
1:15:48
i think so yeah
1:15:50
you gambling there aren't you i mean i
1:15:52
mean if he wins
1:15:54
races
1:15:55
he could make a comeback but i think
1:15:59
the level's so hard people are like so
1:16:01
consistent depending on if it happens
1:16:03
like last year races like leger
1:16:06
um bring everything kind of
1:16:10
together again
1:16:11
yeah
1:16:12
but if that doesn't happen it's pretty
1:16:14
hard without one race because there's
1:16:16
not that many you know and we just said
1:16:18
before danny you know
1:16:20
better than nine
1:16:22
we think we all agreed on that so
1:16:24
yeah i mean honestly like for me like
1:16:26
those four
1:16:28
i'm like yeah
1:16:29
i i'd be struggling to bet against them
1:16:31
but then fill in that last spot there's
1:16:33
any
1:16:34
of like 10 people i could put in there
1:16:37
um
1:16:38
so i'm i'm gonna i'm gonna go benny as
1:16:40
well yeah
1:16:42
i'm gonna go benoit go on boy i know
1:16:44
you'll be listening
1:16:47
on to the women's then valley's the best
1:16:49
rider miriam's the best racer
1:16:52
discuss
1:16:57
somebody said that to me last year and
1:16:58
it stuck with me
1:17:00
well valley is only 20 years old
1:17:04
or something like that yeah so
1:17:07
well she got 21 actually because
1:17:10
i know that
1:17:11
um
1:17:12
so i think it could be right
1:17:15
because miriam is much more experienced
1:17:19
but from what we've seen
1:17:22
last year even the best racer can make a
1:17:25
poor mistake on the last straight
1:17:28
so
1:17:30
i think it's gonna
1:17:31
these two like i think valley is the
1:17:33
best rider for me for sure like i mean
1:17:35
all of what she can do on a bike
1:17:38
i think miriam has a better
1:17:41
like
1:17:42
overall support system
1:17:44
around her
1:17:46
yeah
1:17:47
so that makes the difference sometimes
1:17:50
because valley is trying to create down
1:17:52
now with cecil ravenell being her coach
1:17:55
and like having all these other people
1:17:58
like antoine vidal and all these other
1:18:00
better writers pushing her
1:18:02
and miriam had always other writers as
1:18:05
even there in the team for her almost
1:18:08
you know in a sense of a junior that can
1:18:10
help her do this this isn't that on the
1:18:12
track
1:18:12
and valley was more known
1:18:15
you know yeah so
1:18:17
miriam has the better support system
1:18:19
by far of any racer out there so that
1:18:22
makes a big difference but i think
1:18:24
maybe
1:18:26
like the talent could be the deciding
1:18:29
factor this year
1:18:30
is it between those two for the overall
1:18:33
i think so yeah
1:18:35
i think they're a little bit
1:18:37
over
1:18:39
the other ones
1:18:40
there's a back there's a pack of three
1:18:42
or four riders just behind them
1:18:44
cammy tommy marine and would you put
1:18:47
nina in that group as well oh definitely
1:18:50
yeah definitely yeah
1:18:52
um with nina the only problem is her
1:18:55
health like
1:18:56
she had
1:18:58
problems with concussions and stuff like
1:19:00
that so
1:19:02
if everything goes well and she doesn't
1:19:03
really crash on her head again like she
1:19:05
could build up some confidence and with
1:19:07
being on the syndicate now i think she
1:19:09
could even
1:19:11
close up like being almost a third rider
1:19:14
you know battling with with the others
1:19:16
but
1:19:18
it all depends like if he has a big
1:19:19
crash again like
1:19:21
i don't know
1:19:22
you know she had like pretty bad
1:19:24
symptoms as well when we were together
1:19:26
for new year's eve and stuff so
1:19:28
it's a tricky one but from the potential
1:19:31
for sure
1:19:33
it looks like rachel atherton's gonna be
1:19:35
back between the tape it's nearly three
1:19:37
years since she sustained that horrible
1:19:39
achilles injury in legere
1:19:42
since then she's had a baby and women's
1:19:44
racing has moved on quite a bit what
1:19:46
what does a good season for rachel
1:19:48
atherton look like
1:19:51
um i will tell you more when i'm going
1:19:53
to the editon backpack can i talk
1:19:56
no
1:19:57
i will come back with some scoops now um
1:20:00
i actually texted her multiple times and
1:20:02
she actually replied which is so rachel
1:20:05
but it's pretty surprising that she
1:20:06
replies because sometimes she's just
1:20:07
like
1:20:08
i don't think she looks at her phone too
1:20:10
much um
1:20:12
probably yeah i think i i think i texted
1:20:14
her on this like a
1:20:16
video that she made she looked quick and
1:20:18
i was just like oh
1:20:20
like some eyes or stuff and she's like
1:20:22
i'm just pretending
1:20:24
and i'm like well you're pretending
1:20:25
might land you on a podium again
1:20:27
you know
1:20:28
and yeah i think
1:20:31
with her daughter and stuff she's not
1:20:33
getting the training that she wish
1:20:35
she can get you know because she's like
1:20:37
a training machine and she she was
1:20:40
training so much back then when she was
1:20:42
winning then she feels like she
1:20:44
featuring less it's not gonna happen you
1:20:46
know
1:20:47
so
1:20:48
that's a bit up to her but i think she
1:20:51
if she starts
1:20:53
she'll get the pie for sure
1:20:56
but she won't start if she's not ready
1:20:58
does she have to be back to her 2017
1:21:01
best to challenge valley and miriam
1:21:04
definitely oh yeah
1:21:06
they've almost come up to join where she
1:21:08
was that's kind of how i see it that
1:21:11
lens i'd run in 2016 is still arguably
1:21:13
one of the most impressive runs we've
1:21:15
seen him raising
1:21:16
yeah
1:21:17
and they're now
1:21:18
probably around about there those two
1:21:21
well yeah because that was that was 10
1:21:23
off the men's time wasn't it and then
1:21:25
you i said before miriam was 12 percent
1:21:27
off amory at the weekend so
1:21:31
yeah i think it's fairly depending on
1:21:33
the track though like
1:21:35
i would say lanza hyde has been
1:21:37
i don't know i've never been to jeruko
1:21:39
but it looked to me that maybe lanza had
1:21:40
a bit like physical in a strength sense
1:21:44
so like the
1:21:46
the difference between men and women
1:21:47
will be a bit less
1:21:49
um important than on some of the track
1:21:51
like
1:21:52
i don't know valdisol
1:21:55
which is like so crazy like for your
1:21:57
arms and your legs that strength plays a
1:21:59
bigger role
1:22:01
but um
1:22:03
yeah i think she'll have to like
1:22:05
to challenge for the overall she needs
1:22:06
to
1:22:07
be at her best and to be honest i think
1:22:10
it would be hard for her if nobody gets
1:22:12
injured like to challenge for the
1:22:14
overall but i don't think that's her
1:22:15
goal in a sense
1:22:17
um
1:22:18
i'm just assuming here but i guess she
1:22:21
ended it on a really bad injury and
1:22:23
that's what
1:22:24
maybe motivates her to like close the
1:22:26
circle and end on a positive note
1:22:29
yeah maybe who else do you think we
1:22:31
should be looking out for this season
1:22:34
uh well the usual suspects like
1:22:37
farina whitman all these girls and top
1:22:40
10 is pretty packed with people you know
1:22:43
but um
1:22:45
i've got two
1:22:47
two favorite just blew it it's just new
1:22:50
zealand's
1:22:51
champion
1:22:52
and she had a big crash in snowshoe and
1:22:55
i think she like
1:22:57
she can be she could be like the five
1:23:00
top five writer for sure because of like
1:23:02
a technical skills mila johnson is still
1:23:05
like growing as well we'll see what she
1:23:07
does in the in the in a new team
1:23:10
yeah and
1:23:11
[Music]
1:23:13
there's that young girl it's called
1:23:15
louise ferguson she's actually british
1:23:18
she lives in new zealand and she's been
1:23:20
winning races there over and over and
1:23:22
over
1:23:23
in front of casey brown and all these
1:23:24
girls so i think she
1:23:26
if she raises some more cup she could
1:23:28
also like
1:23:29
be around that pack
1:23:31
from six to ten and i'll be interesting
1:23:33
to see
1:23:35
cool
1:23:36
let's do some predictions there top five
1:23:38
women
1:23:41
i'm biased i'm so biased
1:23:44
she'll be mad at me
1:23:46
[Laughter]
1:23:47
no no
1:23:48
so
1:23:49
i'm going with the heart here number one
1:23:51
valley number two pom-pom
1:23:54
number three cam number four tani and
1:23:56
number five marin
1:23:59
i didn't put me i need to put nina in
1:24:01
there because i think
1:24:05
marine has like
1:24:08
a little bit more experience and i think
1:24:11
she if she plays that smart she could it
1:24:13
would be tight
1:24:14
between three and six and seven it would
1:24:16
be tight but
1:24:18
that's that's the way it is
1:24:20
i i've got exactly the same top five as
1:24:23
you
1:24:24
nice yeah so we agree on something yeah
1:24:27
yeah mine will be the same as well i'm
1:24:30
not going to spoil the party oh actually
1:24:32
no you said valley to win didn't you
1:24:34
yeah yeah sorry no i've got miriam to
1:24:36
win sorry i have the same top five
1:24:37
riders but you might be right
1:24:41
you might be right you know i i'd do the
1:24:44
fantasy thing on pink bike which we
1:24:47
which they've just announced and we've
1:24:49
i've set up a mini league so anybody
1:24:50
listening who wants to join just look
1:24:52
for the making up the numbers
1:24:53
league and join that
1:24:55
but last year every time i picked vale
1:24:58
miriam one and every time i picked
1:25:00
miriam valley once
1:25:02
i didn't pick either of them
1:25:05
and a wild card a wild card prediction
1:25:08
for the
1:25:09
the women's
1:25:10
well i said just blow it i think she's
1:25:11
my wild card for sure
1:25:15
jack yeah i'm gonna back my rider i'm
1:25:18
about to say
1:25:19
we're not looking for anything crazy
1:25:21
obviously it's a it's only her first
1:25:22
year in elite but the results she got on
1:25:25
sunday at taruka right at the back of
1:25:27
that pack
1:25:29
only three seconds behind michaela and
1:25:32
only eight seconds behind vero was just
1:25:35
a huge increase in where she's been over
1:25:37
the winter as we've been working so
1:25:39
yeah the rate she's improving
1:25:41
i'm calling she's she's going to get
1:25:43
some qualifiers in there um
1:25:45
this year so so yeah it's it's really
1:25:47
it's really exciting i'm super excited
1:25:50
so so yeah that's really really cool um
1:25:53
we'll move on to the juniors next and
1:25:55
we'll be chatting with 2021 junior
1:25:58
women's world champion and world cup
1:26:00
champion isabella yankova after these
1:26:02
messages isabella yankova welcome to the
1:26:04
show
1:26:05
is this your uh first podcast hello
1:26:08
hello everyone thank you for having me
1:26:11
and yes this is my first podcast and i'm
1:26:14
a bit nervous but it's okay
1:26:17
well chill we were delighted to have you
1:26:19
on the show
1:26:20
bulgaria isn't a country synonymous with
1:26:22
downhill in fact we think you're the
1:26:24
only bulgarian downhill medalist in the
1:26:27
history of the sport so how did you get
1:26:29
into downhill
1:26:31
um yeah this type of sport is not so
1:26:35
popular in bulgaria
1:26:36
like nowadays it's a bit better than
1:26:38
before
1:26:39
we have more places to ride i remember
1:26:42
myself doing several types of sports
1:26:45
always on a bike or somewhere in the
1:26:47
mountains
1:26:48
i started going out with the local boys
1:26:51
who were riding bmx bikes because
1:26:54
the girly things were too boring for me
1:26:56
i think
1:27:00
we were riding bikes around the town
1:27:02
until the sun goes down or until my
1:27:05
mother called me to go home because it's
1:27:07
time for dinner and you know i just must
1:27:10
go home now yeah
1:27:12
and
1:27:13
then a few years later we became more
1:27:15
interested in multi banking we were
1:27:17
trying to ride our bmx or
1:27:20
normal bikes on the local short trail
1:27:22
that we built but that was very hard
1:27:25
um we were very inspired by all the
1:27:28
athletes around the world and every one
1:27:30
of us was trying to save some money from
1:27:33
their parents for a downhill bike
1:27:36
it was um like a bit too expensive for
1:27:39
our parents to
1:27:41
spend so much money on
1:27:43
on a bike
1:27:45
and a few years later in 2017 i bought
1:27:48
my first downhill bike it was gambler 29
1:27:52
i think
1:27:53
i bought it for like 500 euro and i
1:27:56
asked my father if we could go to one of
1:27:59
the local races
1:28:01
i didn't have any equipment but luckily
1:28:04
my brother was riding a four-wheeler
1:28:07
and i took everything from him i was the
1:28:10
only one girl there and i won the race i
1:28:12
was happy because i beat one or two of
1:28:14
the boys
1:28:16
but it was not enough
1:28:17
because you know
1:28:20
i was just the only one girl there and i
1:28:21
was like i'm first but it doesn't matter
1:28:23
but then i saw that i beat one or two
1:28:25
boys and i was already happy and then in
1:28:29
2018 i started racing in bulgaria there
1:28:32
were a few girls
1:28:33
it was fun doesn't matter that they were
1:28:35
beating me a lot
1:28:38
right so 2018 i'm 2019 you raced the ixs
1:28:42
series and i went and looked at one race
1:28:44
i just picked one race at random it was
1:28:46
winterberg 2019.
1:28:48
you won the open category but your time
1:28:51
would have won the elite category as
1:28:52
well and at this stage you were what 15
1:28:56
yes i was 50 then
1:28:58
but actually that was not a major
1:29:01
surprise for me for my dad because we
1:29:04
saw that i'm a bit faster and the track
1:29:06
was long and physical i was in a good
1:29:09
shape
1:29:10
but the goal
1:29:11
was to give my best and i just gave
1:29:14
everything what i had i was feeling bad
1:29:16
when i was passing them on the track
1:29:19
during the final round but
1:29:21
what i can do i mean yeah i was really
1:29:24
feeling really bad but
1:29:26
so
1:29:27
28 races you've so far 17 first places
1:29:31
seven seconds a third a fourth and two
1:29:34
dnfs the only other person i can think
1:29:36
of with a record like that is valley
1:29:39
how much of a role model is she
1:29:41
yeah valley is a significant role model
1:29:44
for all of us
1:29:46
i just really like her personality her
1:29:48
energy writing style and the fact that
1:29:51
she is always real
1:29:53
i hope to become a bit closer with her
1:29:56
and all the girls
1:29:58
but what she achieved is just incredible
1:30:00
i think that every one of the girls can
1:30:03
be a good example at some point for sure
1:30:06
i admire rachael attitude a lot i don't
1:30:09
know how she's
1:30:11
how it's possible to be that strong it's
1:30:14
crazy
1:30:16
you didn't race at all in 2020 so when
1:30:19
you came into 2021 your first world cup
1:30:22
season it had been nearly two years
1:30:24
since your last race there are a few
1:30:26
people like dean lucas for example who
1:30:29
he talks about on the last episode that
1:30:31
you know he'd done the same but he's an
1:30:33
established world cup rider he knows the
1:30:35
speed
1:30:36
how did you keep yourself focused
1:30:40
um i live in a very small town and if i
1:30:43
have to be honest i've been in the
1:30:45
nature almost every day during covet
1:30:47
situation we have a lot of snow during
1:30:50
the winter here but i brought my
1:30:52
downhill bike quite often when it melted
1:30:55
uh we were not under street control here
1:30:57
and it was possible to do that of course
1:31:00
i was trying to distance myself for a
1:31:03
few months
1:31:05
i was usually training alone on downhill
1:31:07
bike there were not so many people who
1:31:10
were close to the track and it was hard
1:31:12
for them to come here
1:31:14
soon i will have a home gym but during
1:31:17
covid i was trying to keep myself in
1:31:19
good shape with body weights and bands
1:31:22
it was hard to be ready for the season
1:31:24
but
1:31:25
it was not impossible
1:31:28
so you did have a little bit of a slow
1:31:29
start in 2021 um you had a third and a
1:31:32
couple of seconds at the first three
1:31:34
races but then you won world
1:31:36
championships and from that moment you
1:31:38
were unstoppable um
1:31:41
winning the winning the next three world
1:31:43
cups did you feel yourself improving
1:31:45
through the season or was it just the
1:31:47
confidence you got from the world
1:31:49
championships win
1:31:52
one of the most important things for me
1:31:55
was to not rush the things and i just
1:31:58
wanted to see where i am exactly between
1:32:01
all these girls it was my first season
1:32:04
and i didn't want to make big mistakes
1:32:06
or to hurt myself seriously
1:32:08
the point was to have fun to learn from
1:32:11
others
1:32:12
and
1:32:13
just
1:32:14
to like not to enjoy the bike and where
1:32:18
i am now
1:32:20
nice i built a lot of confidence on the
1:32:22
bike during the first races and i had a
1:32:24
good feeling after the race in maribor i
1:32:27
decided to push a bit more and to try to
1:32:30
win all the races by the end of the
1:32:32
season because that was the only way to
1:32:35
win everything
1:32:37
in the overall in the world champ so i
1:32:39
just decided to
1:32:43
do that the world champion one of the
1:32:45
ghosts for sure i was a bit scared on
1:32:47
the track poke my father was like
1:32:50
are you sure that you can go down from
1:32:51
here i was cool
1:32:54
i was quite insecure inside but i said
1:32:57
that don't worry of course i will but i
1:32:59
was really scared to be honest
1:33:02
does your father ride mountain bikes
1:33:04
isabella no no
1:33:06
he doesn't have an understanding for
1:33:08
himself okay he doesn't understand
1:33:10
anything but he's always like talking on
1:33:12
the trap like he will go from here and
1:33:14
from here
1:33:17
you know that
1:33:18
i mean you don't ride bikes you can't
1:33:20
say anything
1:33:24
oh yeah
1:33:25
amazing
1:33:26
on the last one before the final i broke
1:33:28
my back wheel and that was a bit too
1:33:31
stressful because it takes a lot of time
1:33:33
to go down and to change
1:33:35
the will
1:33:37
my father is not a professional mechanic
1:33:39
but he did an extremely great job i
1:33:42
think
1:33:43
my style was straight after i went to
1:33:45
the top i almost missed it but i count
1:33:48
myself down a few seconds after it
1:33:50
because i was
1:33:51
already on the track
1:33:52
and i just had to make the decision to
1:33:56
think about the writing and
1:33:59
just anything else it was just like out
1:34:02
of my mind yeah well your dad must have
1:34:04
done a good job because you won worlds
1:34:06
by 11 seconds with a four minutes 30.
1:34:10
how did you find the long track at
1:34:11
valdasol because it is one of the
1:34:13
hardest tracks on the circuit
1:34:17
yeah 11 seconds was a surprise for sure
1:34:20
i didn't expect that i like harder
1:34:23
tracks doesn't matter that i'm scared
1:34:26
my body and mind were ready for this
1:34:28
track i think
1:34:29
that was why i was training so hard
1:34:32
but thinking positive and putting on
1:34:35
pink glasses is not the best idea for me
1:34:37
to overcome my fear
1:34:39
i just wanted to face this fear and to
1:34:42
deal with it to make the right decision
1:34:45
and action and i just
1:34:47
i just did it
1:34:49
yeah
1:34:50
what is the your favorite track that
1:34:51
you've raised so far
1:34:53
um my favorite track is vaude
1:34:55
for sure
1:34:56
not because i won the race but because
1:34:59
it was hard and i really like it
1:35:02
yeah well it's my favorite as well so
1:35:04
yeah nice one
1:35:07
nice um hi izzy nice to have you on the
1:35:09
podcast
1:35:11
um
1:35:12
so in european champs this year in my
1:35:14
board
1:35:15
uh you actually beat me about five
1:35:17
seconds
1:35:18
and no wait yeah you did a 338 and you
1:35:21
placed fifth in nearly well it was not
1:35:24
my best race but still you smashed me
1:35:28
you're like
1:35:29
three seconds off cami who got third so
1:35:31
do you think that's like
1:35:33
was it your best performance in that
1:35:35
aspect or
1:35:37
last year
1:35:38
i don't think that this was my best
1:35:40
performance i was one idea more
1:35:43
cautious because the world cup was more
1:35:46
important
1:35:47
i'm pretty stoked about result but
1:35:49
camille is way faster than me maybe she
1:35:52
just wanted to have a children and more
1:35:54
training on the track i don't know
1:35:56
i think she just hates maribor
1:35:59
just like me
1:36:03
well um tell us a bit about your off
1:36:05
season because after snowshoe
1:36:07
after you won the overall it looked like
1:36:09
you had a bit of a holiday then
1:36:12
um
1:36:13
yeah i think we all deserve holidays and
1:36:15
i really love them
1:36:17
um i have friends in new york and i was
1:36:20
there for a week
1:36:21
it was it was crazy and new york is
1:36:23
crazy but i prefer mountains i think
1:36:27
than buildings
1:36:29
[Music]
1:36:30
um so what do you do during your
1:36:32
offseason when do you start training
1:36:33
again like
1:36:35
um
1:36:36
tell us a bit about your offseason
1:36:39
um
1:36:40
i was uh talking with the
1:36:44
trainer from specialized because
1:36:46
we just wanted to start as soon as we
1:36:48
can
1:36:49
and
1:36:50
when i go back home when i went back
1:36:53
home i just started to train
1:36:56
my bike was already here
1:36:59
and
1:37:00
yeah it was easy i already have had the
1:37:03
program for the gym and everything so it
1:37:05
was perfect
1:37:07
so you're saying you didn't have a
1:37:08
holiday really you had a one week
1:37:09
holiday and then you started training
1:37:11
again yeah
1:37:13
good maybe i didn't have it
1:37:15
you're like the opposite of me i i have
1:37:17
one week training and then a 51 51-week
1:37:19
holiday
1:37:22
that's versus world champion hey yeah
1:37:25
exactly um isabella tell us a bit about
1:37:27
um
1:37:29
specialize in the
1:37:30
journals program
1:37:32
um tell us a bit more about that
1:37:36
um
1:37:37
at the end of the season i got a few
1:37:39
offers but this one from specialized was
1:37:42
something different i was over the moon
1:37:45
to join the new program of janus
1:37:48
generation specialized it's exactly what
1:37:51
we wanted
1:37:52
and the people are just incredible so
1:37:55
professional so warm
1:37:57
and i still can't believe what happened
1:38:00
now
1:38:01
i have so many opportunities they have a
1:38:03
lot of experience so many great athletes
1:38:06
mentors managers and many more wonderful
1:38:09
people
1:38:10
just like
1:38:11
from the team of
1:38:13
father and daughter traveling for like
1:38:15
17 hours or more with a van sitting on
1:38:18
two chairs under a small beat
1:38:20
to this it's uh it's really crazy for me
1:38:24
yeah but i think you deserve it i mean
1:38:26
you're braining world champion you walk
1:38:28
up championing juniors and
1:38:30
you did sometimes that will place you in
1:38:32
the top 10 overall as a first-year
1:38:35
junior so you need to realize
1:38:37
um people are looking out for that and
1:38:39
want to have to have you on the on the
1:38:42
team you know um what do you think on
1:38:44
the competition for
1:38:46
for this year in the junior category
1:38:49
it's really nice to see more junior
1:38:53
girls racing and joining professional
1:38:55
themes
1:38:56
every year we became more and faster
1:39:00
that's how it must be
1:39:02
i will fight for the top sport of course
1:39:04
but i really hope that we will be a bit
1:39:06
more supportive and friendly to each
1:39:09
other just like a lot of the boys
1:39:12
oh do you think it's a bit different
1:39:14
didn't you have like a big competition
1:39:16
between the junior girls
1:39:18
um
1:39:20
like last year or
1:39:22
yeah last year last year
1:39:24
i don't think that we have
1:39:27
like
1:39:28
that much
1:39:29
competition competition
1:39:31
uh
1:39:32
because
1:39:33
it was not so hard to be in top tree if
1:39:36
i have to be honest
1:39:38
and i was fighting with uh
1:39:41
two or three girls during the
1:39:44
whole season
1:39:45
yeah
1:39:46
so phoebe gail is still gonna be a
1:39:48
junior
1:39:49
right yeah pretty stoked about that and
1:39:52
gracie hemstree is still gonna be a
1:39:54
junior which is a canadian chick but
1:39:56
what do you think about jaina hastings
1:39:58
scott if you heard about
1:40:00
um music girl from new zealand she's
1:40:02
gonna be on pivot factory racing
1:40:03
actually yeah i i saw her i saw her on
1:40:07
instagram i don't know her in person but
1:40:11
i really think that she will be a
1:40:14
good writer like you will support her
1:40:17
a lot she can learn a lot from you
1:40:20
and i really hope that
1:40:23
like we will become very good friends
1:40:26
maybe
1:40:27
and i'm wishing her all the best for the
1:40:31
new season of course
1:40:33
yeah i think it's going to be
1:40:34
interesting that having more than three
1:40:36
girls to fight for the podium you know
1:40:38
for sure and that's gonna push the level
1:40:40
as well
1:40:42
um so in the x-cup you're already racing
1:40:45
um in the early
1:40:47
last year for example
1:40:49
um what do you think like what is your
1:40:52
vision like long term for the sport you
1:40:54
know
1:40:55
um your personal goal but also as a as a
1:40:58
woman in a downhill racing and mountain
1:41:00
bike in general
1:41:02
um
1:41:03
i'm still new in this industry industry
1:41:06
and i have a lot to learn about it
1:41:09
uh but women are here racing and nothing
1:41:12
racing at all just exploded the last few
1:41:15
years especially after kobe
1:41:17
we all see that the level is so high and
1:41:19
for me it's getting harder to compare
1:41:22
with the lead girls right now
1:41:24
i mean you must work as hard as you can
1:41:26
if you want to be in top five or
1:41:29
even in top ten
1:41:31
i like that because one big mistake and
1:41:33
you're out of the game
1:41:36
uh i won't plus one more in junior if
1:41:38
it's possible
1:41:42
i don't think it's possible but i mean
1:41:45
um what do you think um of women in in
1:41:48
downhill racing in general
1:41:50
like
1:41:52
as a new person to the sport
1:41:55
um i saw that so the
1:41:58
girls support each other a lot
1:42:02
and
1:42:03
the community is like
1:42:06
amazing but there are a lot of different
1:42:08
characters and
1:42:11
i don't know i just really like
1:42:13
the feeling around oh
1:42:16
to be around all my idols and to
1:42:19
maybe race against them i really hope so
1:42:22
after
1:42:23
after one year
1:42:25
but
1:42:26
yeah it's it's really crazy just to meet
1:42:29
them in person and to talk with them and
1:42:31
the thing that you did in lindsay high
1:42:34
day was
1:42:35
was crazy because i never imagined that
1:42:38
i will be on one table with uh all my
1:42:41
others and all these girls no it was it
1:42:44
was really crazy and
1:42:46
yeah thank you so much that was that was
1:42:48
the first that was the first time that
1:42:50
happened and hopefully that was not
1:42:53
gonna be the last time so
1:42:55
yeah you guys you guys should do that
1:42:57
more often
1:42:58
even if i'm not there all the time
1:43:00
hope that you will be there
1:43:02
i will be there
1:43:04
yeah um so let's finish with three
1:43:07
things about you
1:43:09
that you know people might not know
1:43:11
about yourself maybe not with to do with
1:43:14
biking but like general stuff about you
1:43:17
um
1:43:19
maybe the people don't know that i broke
1:43:21
my jail before 2021 season and that was
1:43:25
a really hard moment for me
1:43:28
mentally physically so yeah and one good
1:43:32
thing
1:43:33
one of my biggest dream is to learn how
1:43:35
to write a serve
1:43:39
um
1:43:40
you need something there's laurie
1:43:42
greenland then
1:43:43
ah sorry
1:43:45
did you say it's a surf is that what
1:43:47
yeah yeah you need to remember rory
1:43:49
greenland then
1:43:51
is in charge of teaching people to surf
1:43:53
on the mountain bike circuit oh wow
1:43:57
okay thank you thank you the whole
1:43:59
syndicate team in portugal so
1:44:02
put that on your list for this year
1:44:05
okay and one more thing i really like to
1:44:08
read books and
1:44:10
i act like an introvert sometimes
1:44:13
but that's important for my
1:44:14
individuality and
1:44:16
so and
1:44:18
yeah i really like to spend a lot of
1:44:20
time with myself only
1:44:23
excellent nice that's really cool well
1:44:25
thank you very much for coming on the
1:44:26
show isabella and and best of luck for
1:44:28
the season and thank you so much
1:44:32
absolutely i'm sure you're going to be a
1:44:34
regular guest in the future yeah from
1:44:36
everything i've heard there it sounds
1:44:38
like you've got an amazing attitude and
1:44:40
you love the sport and you're training
1:44:42
hard and you've got this new opportunity
1:44:44
with the team so yeah i wish you the
1:44:46
best of luck and we'll see you at the
1:44:47
races
1:44:48
thanks a lot see you soon
1:44:50
bye-bye i can't wait to see your race
1:44:53
bye-bye ciao
1:44:57
let's finish with junior men then 2021
1:44:59
was one hell of a battle between jackson
1:45:01
goldstone and jordan williams between
1:45:03
them they won five of the six world cups
1:45:06
they're both back in 2022 and you can
1:45:08
add into that mix a couple of first-year
1:45:10
riders uh hugo mourinho's on common-sell
1:45:14
mukhoff and
1:45:15
don platt who's on atherton racing will
1:45:17
jackson and jordan have it all the wrong
1:45:19
way again or is it going to be tougher
1:45:20
this season jack
1:45:22
i say i gotta be careful why i say it
1:45:24
because his dad now works for my team so
1:45:26
[Laughter]
1:45:29
yeah i mean shout out to steve by the
1:45:31
way he's a regular podcast listener and
1:45:33
he dropped me a lot of messages yeah
1:45:35
he's driving me down at some point um
1:45:37
but well yeah i mean
1:45:39
those two last year were cut above
1:45:41
weren't they and they had a furious
1:45:44
battle um
1:45:45
and
1:45:46
yeah i mean obviously jackson's gone on
1:45:48
to the syndicate which is a you know a
1:45:50
huge move and a huge opportunity for him
1:45:52
to be with laurie and greg um and and
1:45:54
jordan's stayed with madison and he's
1:45:56
got map there and and will's wealth of
1:45:59
experience so
1:46:00
yeah going to be a good battle between
1:46:02
them too they're both obviously
1:46:03
ridiculously fast and getting kind of
1:46:05
top 20 elite times and then yeah we've
1:46:08
got young hugo and young dom coming in
1:46:10
and probably other riders that we've not
1:46:12
mentioned who are going to be going to
1:46:13
be in the battle as well so the junior
1:46:16
category along with the women's is just
1:46:17
getting more and more exciting every
1:46:19
year and uh yeah it's it's going to be
1:46:21
interesting to see what happens
1:46:23
is that is that young kiwi is still
1:46:25
junior
1:46:27
which one
1:46:29
max
1:46:30
max lab what is it called julia the one
1:46:33
that just won the title as a junior
1:46:36
it won the
1:46:37
jones mcdermott is it that one no oh
1:46:40
lyle
1:46:41
the one that just yeah yeah yeah i think
1:46:45
i'm not sure i think he might be yeah
1:46:47
what did you just but you just won the
1:46:49
the kiwi title and
1:46:52
every
1:46:53
every year there's a kiwi on australian
1:46:55
that comes
1:46:56
and does well yeah yeah so i'm pretty
1:46:59
sure there's going to be the same
1:47:01
hugo
1:47:02
took the win at the weekend i think
1:47:04
jordan won seeding and then hugo won the
1:47:06
race but jordan had a crash
1:47:09
okay and still did the 249.
1:47:11
right okay
1:47:13
so
1:47:14
hugo's time was faster than floor player
1:47:16
jamie edmondson and hugo frick salon i
1:47:18
didn't get juniors yeah
1:47:23
my junior said that to me after the race
1:47:25
i said said to down i said we didn't get
1:47:26
juniors and ben went what does that mean
1:47:29
i said it means you didn't get beat by a
1:47:31
kid like you
1:47:34
wandered off with his tail between his
1:47:36
legs
1:47:37
he's frightening really though isn't it
1:47:39
that first he's not even started his
1:47:41
first year elite season so first year
1:47:43
junior season and and
1:47:45
laying down those times
1:47:47
yeah he's rapid but i mean he's got some
1:47:49
good mentors so yeah jack when do you
1:47:51
head out to lords
1:47:53
so we are home for six days we've just
1:47:55
flown home in the backpack our team
1:47:57
vehicles are down in portugal we just
1:47:58
had our first camp there obviously so we
1:48:01
fly back on sunday morning
1:48:03
and we've got another gravity school and
1:48:05
team camp in portugal with three days at
1:48:07
loser and then um a portugal cup at
1:48:09
padela
1:48:11
and then from there we drive across the
1:48:12
lords on
1:48:14
the tuesday
1:48:15
ready for the big show
1:48:18
we can't uh best of luck to you and the
1:48:20
team we can't finish without asking you
1:48:22
hopes and dreams for 2022.
1:48:26
yeah i mean uh who are you asking you're
1:48:28
asking the team manager the coach or the
1:48:30
athlete i'm going to ask the athlete now
1:48:32
because i know that i know that you the
1:48:34
team
1:48:36
the teams of the team it's like you know
1:48:37
it'll do really well i think but what
1:48:39
about you
1:48:41
yeah i mean a dream of mine has always
1:48:43
been to get a top 10 world cup result
1:48:45
i've been close but i've never quite
1:48:47
done it um
1:48:48
thanks to the work i do with dan and not
1:48:50
being injured anymore i am in the best
1:48:52
shape i've ever been in and riding
1:48:54
faster than it than i ever have
1:48:56
and i'm trying to use my maturity and my
1:48:58
experience to let it come to me rather
1:49:01
than me going after it which is what
1:49:02
i've always done before and probably why
1:49:05
i've always ended up picking up injuries
1:49:07
and crashing and throwing away chunks of
1:49:08
time so yeah i'm just trying to be
1:49:11
patient with myself and just let it
1:49:12
build and yeah if i can take off a top
1:49:14
10 result um before i you know before
1:49:18
the end of the season i'll obviously be
1:49:19
over the moon um but in terms of goals
1:49:22
just
1:49:22
just keep training hard keep racing hard
1:49:25
keep letting it come to me and
1:49:26
and see what happens because i can't
1:49:28
control the other things let's just see
1:49:31
so hypothetical question
1:49:33
if you were given the option
1:49:35
dan slack top 10 world cup overall or
1:49:38
jack reading will a top 10 at a world
1:49:41
cup which would you pick oh top 10 world
1:49:43
cup for me all day
1:49:47
obviously i wouldn't take it off him but
1:49:50
i'm still the athlete like
1:49:53
yeah like i'm never going to do anything
1:49:54
to hinder him but
1:49:56
yeah i'm not going to give him something
1:49:58
that i have wanted
1:50:00
16 years so yeah like until i retire
1:50:03
like obviously i still i'm 100 behind my
1:50:07
own like ambitions and achievements but
1:50:10
the nice thing is with that is because
1:50:12
we're in an individual sport where we're
1:50:14
not on track together
1:50:16
this is something i teach all the guys i
1:50:18
coach you can help each other and if you
1:50:20
work together
1:50:22
you might be seventh and ninth who cares
1:50:24
what order that is way around whereas if
1:50:26
you didn't work together you might be
1:50:27
20th and 25th
1:50:29
like
1:50:30
so yeah if we were doing motocross or
1:50:33
a different sport where you're on track
1:50:34
together
1:50:36
that wouldn't work but with our sport
1:50:37
you cannot directly affect what the
1:50:39
other guy does in their race room so
1:50:42
an emmy what's the schedule looking like
1:50:44
for 22.
1:50:46
you're heading to lords
1:50:48
yeah i'm i'm coming to lourdes um
1:50:50
i picked up a little bit more of a role
1:50:53
in the team that um supposedly because
1:50:56
obviously like i said before in the
1:50:57
podcast uh trina hasting is gonna be on
1:51:01
factory racing so she
1:51:03
um she's gonna need a woman in the team
1:51:07
to balance out the craziness
1:51:10
um
1:51:11
[Music]
1:51:12
being a young a young girl on that team
1:51:14
you know like without somebody like you
1:51:16
there yeah i mean bernard's telecom he
1:51:19
was like uh i think maybe it might be a
1:51:21
little bit too much can you come and try
1:51:23
to like be a mentor like try to help her
1:51:26
out and
1:51:28
i'm gonna make also some content from
1:51:30
the team for some of the sponsors and
1:51:32
stuff
1:51:33
so yeah i'll be in lord and probably
1:51:36
most of the world cups
1:51:38
um
1:51:39
and cam is also really looking forward
1:51:40
because then i can also help her
1:51:42
and yeah so it's gonna be really
1:51:44
exciting
1:51:45
i'll be doing some more traveling than i
1:51:47
thought but i think it's a good it's a
1:51:49
great thing
1:51:50
excellent well thank you for joining us
1:51:52
on the team really enjoyed having you
1:51:54
having a third person on as well yeah
1:51:58
it's been great and that's all we've got
1:52:00
time for for this episode and thanks to
1:52:01
the sponsors of the show hope technology
1:52:04
jtech suspension revolution bike park
1:52:06
ride southern spain schwalbe
1:52:07
singletrackworld.com as always if you're
1:52:10
enjoying the podcast please subscribe so
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1:52:18
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numbers we've got a bit of a break
1:52:22
before the next episode but enjoy the
1:52:24
first world cup everyone we'll be back
1:52:26
in early may
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