Up next in 10
As the mud dries on the 2020 DH Season George & Jack catch up with 2020 UCI DH World Cup Champion, Madison Saracen’s Matt Walker & after recently announcing her retirement, play 20 questions with the 2019 UCI DH World Cup Champion, Polygon UR’s Tracey Hannah
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0:06
[Music]
0:18
welcome
0:19
to the making of the numbers podcast
0:22
[Music]
0:26
the making of the numbers podcast is
0:28
sponsored by hope technology
0:30
revolution bike park on the world's
0:32
finest independent mountain bike
0:35
magazine
0:36
single track
0:42
hello everyone the dust has settled or
0:45
should that be the mud has dried on the
0:46
2020 downhill season
0:48
and we're back once again in the podcast
0:50
game jack a really successful season for
0:53
you
0:53
for you and dan you must be delighted
0:55
with how it all turned out yeah it was
0:58
good i mean
0:59
we waited obviously a long time and it
1:01
was super frustrating to have kind of
1:03
spent the year training not really
1:05
knowing if we were going to go racing so
1:06
when we did go it was it was great and
1:09
dan obviously lived up to any
1:11
expectations and more
1:12
um not many people know this but he
1:14
broke his wrist
1:16
in the summer and we kept it dead quiet
1:18
because i didn't want british cycling
1:19
dropping him from the team
1:21
for world champs i knew he was going to
1:23
be right but you just don't know how
1:24
they kind of make these selections so
1:26
not many people know that he had about
1:28
10 weeks off the bike maybe a little bit
1:30
less
1:30
eight weeks um so crank works was kind
1:33
of like
1:34
is it is he still in the game because he
1:36
was going real fast but you never know
1:37
how someone's going to deal with an
1:38
injury so
1:39
when he came second at crank works we
1:41
were like right this is on um
1:43
and then that weathering leo gang just
1:45
suited him down to the ground
1:47
um so when he took silva that was unreal
1:49
and uh
1:50
yeah fifth overall in the world cup
1:51
series was good it's a shame
1:53
he front punctured on in the last round
1:56
and if he hadn't done all he needed to
1:57
do was come eighth
1:59
to come third in the overall so
2:01
obviously
2:02
these things happen it's racing but that
2:03
that was disappointing for him
2:05
um but yeah he's had a killer season and
2:07
he's his qualifying and raise time
2:09
sure that he can he can come up to elite
2:11
next year and do well so
2:12
you know we're going to keep him on the
2:13
team i can tell everybody that now and
2:15
we're going to keep looking after him
2:16
and helping with that season
2:18
in 2021 um my racing was quite
2:22
frustrating i had a huge crash in
2:24
maribor on the first day and sprained my
2:25
left ankle
2:26
um and yeah just after all that training
2:30
and all that prep and then you have to
2:31
do every race with an injury is uh
2:34
this is annoying um the only race i
2:36
really felt like i could ride properly
2:38
was the last one um and i came 23rd so
2:42
that was decent
2:43
um so yeah good result yeah damage
2:45
limitation 34 the
2:47
34th i think in the overall isn't isn't
2:49
bad it's respectable so
2:51
yeah it was uh all things said it was a
2:53
good season for us
2:54
excellent i see you started training for
2:56
2021 already
2:58
you're keeping dan on is is is that the
3:01
team is that it all sorted again
3:03
yeah i mean i'm definitely not training
3:05
yet just
3:06
the uh there's not a lot to do is that
3:08
we covered so i'm just kind of keeping
3:10
busy and uh
3:11
doing a bit of this and a bit of that
3:12
but as i was just saying i'm just
3:14
enjoying a bit of down time to be honest
3:15
that trip
3:16
tied me out so yeah just a bit of this
3:18
and a bit of that and
3:20
i feel like getting back into the train
3:21
at some point in the next couple of
3:22
weeks um
3:23
who knows when but no it's still putting
3:25
everything together for next year
3:26
um we've got some exciting stuff coming
3:28
i won't uh
3:29
won't spoil the surprises all i can
3:31
really tell you is that dan is staying
3:33
with us so
3:33
um but yeah we're stepping up and it's
3:36
going to get better again for us
3:37
cool well first off on the show we are
3:40
delighted to welcome back
3:41
the 2020 uci downhill world cup champion
3:45
madison sarasota's matt walker how good
3:47
does that sound matt
3:49
uh bloody good mate yeah yeah
3:53
did you have a dream living the dream
3:55
still
3:56
can we how are you doing yes but
4:00
on yeah really good but um
4:03
pretty relaxed couple of weeks just
4:05
doing a bit of bike riding
4:06
like jack was saying there's not much
4:07
else you can do really so
4:09
a trail ride in um yeah just
4:12
trying to celebrate as much as i can
4:14
really with the measures we're under at
4:16
the minute
4:17
yeah we kind of had the same frustration
4:19
and that dan had over she
4:20
won these medals and done real well and
4:23
would have loved to throw a party and
4:24
get
4:24
his family and my family and everyone
4:26
involved together i'm sure you guys are
4:28
the same
4:28
and it's so frustrating that we can't do
4:30
that yeah it is and like for me
4:32
um i think it's really important to do
4:35
something like that because
4:37
i think if you don't if you don't get
4:39
the balance right then
4:41
i don't want to look back when i'm older
4:43
and say oh
4:44
that was a really good year i probably
4:46
should have made more of that yeah
4:48
you know want to celebrate and and kind
4:51
of live it like
4:52
you know milk it for what it's worth
4:53
kind of thing
4:55
you know it gives you the motivation to
4:58
do it again then yeah definitely you
4:59
need to let your hair down don't you you
5:01
know
5:01
absolutely yeah to knock some of the
5:03
stress off but let me just start by
5:05
saying that
5:06
getting in touch with top athletes can
5:08
be a bit tricky and try to pin them down
5:10
for a podcast even more so
5:12
we only started planning this pod
5:14
yesterday morning and
5:16
i dropped you a note just asking if you
5:18
fancy coming on
5:19
you responded with within like two
5:21
minutes i think it was
5:22
tidy just let me know what day time
5:24
suits you
5:25
so first question has it sunk in yet
5:27
that you're the the world cup champion
5:30
um i don't think it will for a while
5:33
and especially because of like we're
5:35
saying all these measures and stuff you
5:37
can't see everyone
5:38
it was like a crash back down to earth
5:40
when i got home
5:41
back in normal life but um to be honest
5:44
i don't think it has fully sunk in yet
5:46
but um
5:48
it feels good and quite a lot of people
5:50
want to talk to me now
5:54
excuse me and just fyi you could
5:56
probably be a bit more of a diva now if
5:58
you'd like to be
6:00
you can ignore our emails and stuff now
6:03
so
6:03
in our kind of pre-world champ show jack
6:06
actually picked you as an outsider for
6:08
worlds
6:08
you've been talking to your dad i think
6:10
if i remember it he said you were as
6:11
hungry as ever
6:13
how did you cope with the lockdown
6:15
pretty well to be honest
6:16
um i think
6:20
pretty well when all the races got
6:23
cancelled to start with i was pretty
6:24
disappointed obviously as a lot of
6:26
i swear um but pretty quickly i decided
6:29
to
6:30
kind of use my time as wisely as i could
6:32
and being young and
6:35
uh kind of trying to get fitter and
6:38
stronger and you know i'm racing
6:40
against people who are quite a lot older
6:42
and bigger and stronger than me so
6:45
i try to use the time as wisely as
6:46
possible um
6:48
i thought it was a good opportunity to
6:51
really put some work in
6:52
so i think generally like over an off
6:55
season
6:56
you get 10 or 12 weeks of decent working
6:59
um like quality work so we had a lot
7:03
more than that this time obviously so it
7:04
was like
7:04
nearly three or four off seasons if you
7:07
kind of planned it right
7:09
so i was doing blocks of three weeks on
7:11
and then i'd have
7:12
a week off three weeks on a week off
7:15
well let's say
7:16
like an easier week not a week
7:17
completely off but um
7:19
we've been focusing not working really
7:21
hard yeah is that like focusing on
7:23
strength training or
7:24
or a mixture no i'm still a mixture like
7:27
i managed to
7:28
get hold of some gym equipment and at my
7:30
mrs house we had like a little
7:33
out they live on a farm so they'd load
7:36
about buildings and we just cleared one
7:37
of them i put a squat rack in
7:39
carpeted it put mirrors on the wall got
7:41
some free weights in you know like made
7:43
a proper
7:44
setup or as good as we could for the
7:47
for the conditions we had kind of thing
7:49
so um
7:51
yeah so i had like a proper gym so i
7:52
could keep training as
7:55
as normal pretty much with my strength
7:57
and conditioning and stuff
7:58
um luckily i can ride from my house um
8:01
so the first couple of weeks of me
8:02
couldn't really do anything but exercise
8:04
i could still ride like pretty mellow
8:07
trails just from my house so that was
8:08
good just
8:09
get out and road bike stuff really but
8:12
for me it was huge because i felt like i
8:14
was gaining a lot of confidence from the
8:15
work i was doing and
8:17
i could see on social media and stuff
8:18
there was people potentially
8:20
taking their foot off the gas which was
8:22
huge for me because i knew that i was
8:24
just
8:24
kept the graft on yeah and as a
8:28
professional athlete that's what you've
8:29
got to do you can't
8:30
exactly yeah that'd take a holiday like
8:33
you've got to take advantage for what it
8:34
is and
8:35
you showed that that you made that work
8:37
so yeah well the job description doesn't
8:39
change overnight does it
8:40
no no i mean we didn't hear a lot from
8:43
you
8:44
in that kind of lockdown covering period
8:46
you're not
8:47
kind of really busy on the social media
8:51
so how hungry were you to go racing a
8:53
lot of people were there talking but you
8:54
kind of just kept yourself to yourself
8:57
yeah i was um yeah like i said
9:00
when the races first got cancelled i
9:02
felt like i was in a pretty good spot
9:04
and i was hungry to go racing anyway and
9:06
then after all that extra work i've been
9:08
doing and
9:10
to be honest like i had a bit of a rough
9:12
second half the year last year so
9:14
it was good for me to have that time um
9:17
and how i felt riding locally in the
9:20
summer
9:21
during the lockdown it was the you know
9:25
towards the end i was riding the best
9:27
i've ever ridden and i
9:29
could feel that it was just i didn't
9:30
really
9:32
particularly need like a time to tell me
9:34
that just
9:35
the feeling you get when you're riding
9:36
well yeah so i got a lot of confidence
9:39
from that as well so
9:41
i was super hungry to go racing i'd seen
9:43
obviously the french cups there's a lot
9:44
of people going out and doing them
9:47
um i wasn't
9:50
wasn't particularly bothered whether
9:52
whether like whether i should go and do
9:54
them or not
9:55
and it didn't really bother me that
9:57
people were going and racing
9:59
i've raced for a lot of years now so i
10:00
didn't feel like i needed
10:02
yeah warm up races before you know you
10:04
get into worlds where did the decision
10:05
come from
10:07
not to race before the world champs
10:11
uh just my i guess my quite intimate
10:14
small support network so me
10:17
my performance coach phil dixon and will
10:20
london team manager
10:21
yeah we just there was an option of
10:24
course for me to go and race some races
10:25
i
10:26
know danny went out and did i think he
10:27
did the up to as one
10:29
no the one after one after i let us out
10:32
was it
10:32
yeah yeah because i did afterwards and
10:34
he wasn't there i was the only brit
10:35
there he was ah
10:37
i think he did then um so there was an
10:40
option for me to go and do that it was
10:41
an option for me
10:42
to do another one maybe
10:46
uh meta bf i think that one of the last
10:48
ones yeah
10:49
um but in the end like the covert
10:52
situation was going up and down and to
10:54
be honest we had a really good window
10:55
from like
10:57
end of june july august that was pretty
10:59
good when most people were out
11:01
in the alps yep and then french cups
11:03
going on that was quite a good
11:04
opportunity to do some races and i
11:06
didn't really feel like
11:07
at that point in july there was going to
11:10
be world cups straight after so i didn't
11:12
race them
11:14
and then i was looking for some maybe
11:16
meta bf which was like the last one
11:18
before
11:19
uh world champs it was a couple of weeks
11:20
before maybe or a few weeks before
11:22
i was gonna go and do that one but then
11:25
just took over the situation it got
11:26
quite a bit tighter
11:29
um and we just didn't think it was worth
11:31
it and there was a couple of people that
11:32
had gone to these races and
11:34
tested positive so we just didn't think
11:36
it was worth it really
11:38
no no that's fair that's fair so
11:40
obviously
11:42
the coveted situation brought a lot of
11:44
uncertainty the lock down and then we
11:45
were going into a super short season
11:47
later in the year
11:49
whether was the fact that it was a short
11:51
season and later in the year with the
11:53
opportunity for
11:54
the opportunity but the potential for
11:56
damper wetter conditions
11:57
was it all kind of starting to feel good
12:00
to you going into the races
12:03
um yes and no like it was difficult
12:06
because i'd not done
12:08
a race yet yeah so i was just hoping
12:12
that i'd put all this work in and i was
12:14
just hoping it was going to pay off
12:16
yeah because i had no kind of apart from
12:20
obviously numbers in the gym is one
12:23
thing but
12:24
racing your bike and race results are a
12:26
completely different thing and i didn't
12:27
have that
12:28
that was the only thing that was
12:29
uncertain like i was saying to
12:31
family and friends before i went away
12:33
like
12:34
every you know there's no stone left
12:37
unturned apart
12:38
from a race run like a time race run
12:40
everything's in place to go and
12:42
do my best um so that was it really
12:47
yeah so you knew you're in a good place
12:49
but there's no telling until the beeps
12:51
go i guess is that no that's it exactly
12:53
and i was just hoping as you say that
12:55
because it's short and compact i was
12:56
hoping that when
12:58
i hit the ground i hit the ground
12:59
running kind of thing and i was on a
13:00
roll
13:01
yeah i could just keep the good results
13:03
going because uh
13:06
it's difficult when you're not where you
13:08
want to be and it's
13:09
really really hard to turn it around in
13:11
a normal season
13:13
when when the races are spaced out
13:15
nicely yeah
13:16
when they're super compact it's uh
13:19
definitely more of a challenge
13:21
following on from something george said
13:23
before um
13:25
about uk about me picking you as a or
13:28
whatever for world champs
13:29
and you coming out strong at the start
13:31
of the season you've done that
13:33
a number as well three times now you've
13:35
at the start of the races
13:37
you've you've been like a red-hot iron
13:39
and you've beat down at nationals the
13:41
two years before
13:43
this year you've obviously come out and
13:44
won the world cups um
13:47
i've i've known you since you were was
13:49
it were you 14 or 15 when you came on
13:51
that trip with us
13:52
to spain yeah so i've kind of seen how
13:56
serious you've been
13:56
about you racing over that time my
13:59
question is
14:01
how do you think you do get such a good
14:03
start
14:04
to a race season because that's three in
14:06
a row
14:08
um it's difficult to answer like
14:13
i think um
14:16
i properly invested myself in the winter
14:18
and i take a lot of confidence from that
14:20
yeah so i think that's a big thing and
14:24
i don't know i just i'm really just
14:27
naturally like
14:28
really competitive and i just get a lot
14:30
of motivation and i think that time off
14:32
helps me because i can actually
14:34
put some proper work in and um yeah i
14:37
gain a lot from that really
14:38
probably more it's difficult isn't it
14:41
but i would like to say i
14:43
gained more from that and from the
14:44
process should we say then
14:46
yeah then race results themselves let me
14:48
ask you a
14:49
question which might kind of help you
14:51
out you know help you answer it
14:53
you just mentioned before that last year
14:56
you felt yourself go off the boil a
14:57
little bit or whatever you want to call
14:58
it
14:59
yeah season if you remember we were sat
15:01
i think it was last year we were sat in
15:03
that chairlift in innsbruck
15:05
that was last season yeah last year yeah
15:06
yeah so we were sat in that lift
15:08
the week after leo gang and you said to
15:10
me
15:11
i i just want to i want to go home and i
15:14
want to get back in the gym and i want
15:15
to get training because you'd
15:16
you'd not done as well as you'd felt
15:19
um and then you didn't spin it back
15:22
around
15:23
for the second half of the season yeah
15:24
why is it you think you find it harder
15:26
to turn a season on its head rather than
15:28
come out of the blocks
15:29
running i think that makes sense um it's
15:32
difficult last year was
15:34
like you said i started really well i
15:36
won the national the ixs and then podium
15:38
at world cup
15:39
and for me i think what happened was
15:43
i gained huge confidence from that and
15:45
took a lot from the results
15:47
and um obviously i was like kind of
15:48
riding this wave
15:50
and then i
15:54
was overconfident in my riding and
15:56
that's the mistake that i made i felt
15:59
well i'm riding the best i've ever
16:01
ridden i'm invincible now
16:02
yeah okay and it just doesn't work like
16:04
that yeah and that was a quite a tough
16:07
uh pill to swallow and like
16:09
quite quite a hard lesson to learn so
16:12
the difference this year is i came out
16:15
of the blocks
16:16
good again but i knew this time
16:19
right keep a lid on it because it can go
16:22
wrong at any time
16:23
and that's the nature of the game so
16:25
just be aware and i remember like
16:27
telling myself after every race
16:29
okay that was a good race like but put
16:32
that away now
16:32
and go again for tomorrow from the start
16:35
yeah
16:36
and um yeah i just nice keep a lid on it
16:39
keep my emotions separate to uh my bike
16:43
riding head
16:44
and um it paid off so i think that's
16:46
where
16:47
the consistency definitely come from
16:48
this year yeah for sure
16:50
kind of getting rat like um
16:54
caught up in the hype and the that like
16:57
riding this wave you know
16:58
i although that's for sure what i was
17:01
doing i was just
17:02
on form and just um just plugging away
17:05
every race yeah and that just supports
17:07
the the concept that
17:09
you learn so much more from the things
17:11
you do wrong oh totally
17:13
you do wrong like i've had that before
17:15
with with things where yeah you take
17:18
take loads from your mistakes and and
17:20
what you just said there every time i
17:21
saw you when we were away
17:23
obviously i know you saw it super well
17:25
from all the years yeah yeah
17:26
you were just so serious every time i
17:28
saw you and i was obviously buzzing
17:30
because you just got this result
17:31
well done matt well done you'd be like i
17:32
could tell you we're just like
17:37
and i was like after the world cup
17:41
well after that uh final race and loser
17:43
will said like
17:45
since the minute i got on the truck i
17:47
didn't miss a beat and he said the last
17:49
week and lose him i was just like
17:50
not there like closed over just so
17:53
focused on the job and it's
17:55
so good can i just say jack my wife
17:58
would dispute that what you
18:00
said apparently i do loads of stuff
18:01
wrong and i never learn it
18:05
so one of the bits of feedback we've had
18:08
about this podcast is that people
18:10
don't like the stats and we've tried to
18:12
cut back on them but sometimes they're
18:14
just too good to ignore so
18:15
mario ball race one qualified third
18:18
finished fourth
18:20
mario ball race two qualified fifth
18:22
finished third
18:23
looser race one qualified second
18:25
finished second
18:26
loosers two qualified third finished
18:28
third so that's eight races because
18:30
that's what the qualifiers are nowadays
18:33
never off the podium tell us a bit about
18:36
how you
18:37
achieve that consistency
18:40
um there's no secret this is what i've
18:44
learned
18:45
please looking into successful people in
18:47
the past there might be a secret but
18:49
there isn't
18:50
listeners are just waiting for you to
18:52
tell them what the secret is
18:54
yeah there's no secret to it but um
18:58
i don't know it's just a lot of hard
19:00
work over the years and like belief but
19:02
to be honest it's really is strange
19:04
because
19:05
i'm spitting all this stuff but i don't
19:08
really feel like i've done anything
19:09
different to the past like when i'm
19:11
riding down the air i don't
19:12
feel like i'm riding you know i don't
19:15
hit a section or
19:16
or a few corners and go that's the best
19:18
i've ever done it
19:20
like it doesn't feel much different it's
19:22
just you're fitter you're stronger you
19:24
can deal with it better so you can go
19:25
faster
19:26
and when when you say you go faster it's
19:29
like
19:30
point two point three savage trading a
19:33
couple of corners yeah just average
19:34
speed is just
19:35
a tiny bit faster and you're just more
19:38
intense all the way down
19:39
and yeah in a form four four and a half
19:41
minute track it makes such a difference
19:43
so
19:44
what percentage are you riding at those
19:46
eight eight runs there
19:48
how close to the edge are you um
19:51
somewhat different to others like
19:53
generally in a qualifying run i try and
19:54
tell myself right
19:56
just get a solid one down here it
19:58
doesn't
20:00
although most people take like well
20:01
everyone takes like a race these days
20:03
it's always just a qualifying run just
20:06
get downhill
20:07
and get some solid get you know the
20:10
races tomorrow get yourself in a solid
20:11
place for that
20:12
yeah so that's kind of always how i've
20:14
approached it um
20:16
but when you're actually riding you're
20:17
going pretty much as hard as you can i
20:18
would say um
20:20
[Music]
20:22
by not not 100 because i've kind of
20:25
ridden like that in the past it hasn't
20:26
really paid off
20:28
um it's difficult i think
20:31
to be that consistent i don't think i'm
20:33
fully
20:35
riding out my skin yeah and i don't
20:38
think for me that's
20:40
i mean i've kind of proved this year
20:42
that
20:43
it's not something i need to do or
20:44
something that i
20:48
gets me the best results i think it's
20:51
just a trust
20:52
in my ability and my fitness that if i
20:55
can just
20:55
ride down and i get to the bottom and i
20:57
can turn around and say
20:59
right i'm happy with how i rode today
21:01
then my result will be there
21:02
yeah that's kind of how it's been since
21:05
i've been youth
21:07
by last year but um
21:11
yeah i don't know you go you go pretty
21:13
hard but
21:14
um some sections i don't know it's
21:17
different
21:18
i try and split that down as well so
21:20
like
21:21
in the sections i'm comfortable in right
21:23
you go flat out as hard as you can
21:25
because you're comfortable in those
21:26
sections you feel there's less risk
21:28
let's go proper
21:29
like the sprint at the bottom of loser
21:32
or things like that
21:33
there's low risk you just go as hard as
21:34
you can you don't go 90
21:36
yeah but then there's other sections
21:38
where you think right i'm not quite so
21:40
comfortable
21:41
the bike maybe doesn't feel quite as
21:44
good in these sections
21:46
so we'll go ninety percent in those bits
21:48
or 85 percent of them bits
21:50
yeah just it's just a balance i think
21:53
people need to
21:54
sorry george the other thing people need
21:55
to understand as well is
21:58
when we're racing it's not like enduro
22:00
where you may have walked it or you may
22:02
have ridden it once and then you're just
22:03
kind of chancing your apples down the
22:04
course yeah we've
22:06
we've probably walked it two or three
22:08
times before that finals run
22:10
we've visualized it god knows how many
22:12
times we've practiced it
22:14
over 10 times and it's not an erratic
22:18
hurl yourself down the track you know
22:20
where your gear changes are you know
22:22
where your breaking points are it's all
22:23
about like matt said keeping average
22:25
speed high
22:26
entering exiting sections with good
22:28
fluidity so that all the way down the
22:30
course you're just
22:32
moving towards a finish how you've
22:33
practiced and how you've planned
22:35
i made the mistake in loser for race
22:38
three
22:39
i did my qualifying and
22:42
it's the it was the first day i couldn't
22:44
feel my ankle when i warmed up
22:46
so i come down smooth quality through to
22:49
finals and i said to my mechanic
22:50
we're going tomorrow like i'm not in
22:52
pain anymore when i'm
22:54
warm i'm gonna i'm gonna wind it on and
22:56
i hadn't been pushing out the whole time
22:58
we were away until that point and i just
23:00
did exactly what matt
23:02
the opposite to what matt just said i
23:03
rode like an idiot from start to finish
23:05
i didn't hit
23:06
any of the lines i practiced i didn't
23:09
focus on breaking points
23:10
i just went as hard as i could and it
23:13
was a
23:14
it was a hundred percent effort and it
23:16
was 41st
23:18
two days later i turned my brain back on
23:21
and had a run that i felt like i could
23:22
have done 10 times over and i came 23rd
23:25
yeah it's um you know it's it's not just
23:28
chancing your apples it's
23:30
doing what you've practiced and what
23:31
you've prepared for yeah it's calculated
23:33
aggression with that as well
23:34
so at what point did you kind of think
23:37
this could be on
23:39
the title it was it after laurice's flat
23:41
in race three
23:42
yeah really yeah um but to be honest
23:46
at that point it was it was so late in
23:49
the championship
23:50
and i thought i've well exceeded
23:53
everything i could have possibly
23:54
hoped for this year so if i come first
23:57
or fifth
23:58
it doesn't really make any odds to me
24:00
but that's what i thought
24:02
and then i crossed the line on sunday
24:03
and i thought nah i'm bloody glad i
24:05
would this day
24:08
i was gonna say you didn't look like
24:09
that that's what you were thinking when
24:10
you crossed the line
24:12
no no well i guess that feeds nicely
24:15
into what was just about to ask you
24:16
what kind of pressure were you feeling
24:18
coming into that final race
24:20
not an awful lot to be honest like yeah
24:22
um
24:23
quite a few people have asked me that
24:24
like it must have been pretty difficult
24:26
to do
24:28
to do what you did with the you know the
24:29
leaders jersey on and the extra pressure
24:31
and stuff
24:32
but there's been points in
24:36
in everyone's career where you have
24:38
doubts
24:39
and you know i've i've certainly thought
24:41
to myself in the past
24:43
i wonder if i'll ever get to where i
24:44
want like at all
24:46
yeah and there's there's going to be a
24:48
lot of people
24:49
who race mountain bikes for years you
24:52
know 10
24:53
15 years and they never get the
24:55
opportunity so
24:56
yeah over at that point to even just to
25:00
wear it i was um
25:01
over the moon so i'm still holding out
25:04
hope
25:07
that might lend you his judge that's the
25:09
closest i'm ever gonna get
25:11
me two pound me too
25:15
so yeah i mean i was just grateful to
25:17
have got to that point really
25:19
um and i knew what
25:22
what i was doing was working and i was
25:25
riding well and i didn't need to change
25:26
anything just because i got another
25:28
layer on yeah too right did uh did that
25:31
calmness
25:32
follow up through all the way from you
25:35
know you
25:36
when you left the pits to go up and warm
25:37
up at the top and threw your warm up at
25:39
the top and then
25:40
all the way to the gate did you did you
25:42
hold that calmness all the way or did it
25:43
any point did you go
25:45
oh no i really want this um yeah there
25:48
was always a little bit of that and then
25:49
when the re
25:50
when the rain started that was another
25:53
spanner in the works
25:54
yeah and you could i was sat at the top
25:56
under the umbrella and i thought well
25:59
of anyone i'm in the best position here
26:01
because
26:03
they obviously i've got the most points
26:06
yeah so they're chasing a starting point
26:11
and i'm like i'm young and i've got
26:14
plenty more opportunities
26:16
yeah um well it depends how long greg
26:18
goes on for
26:20
yeah that's why um and i knew how hungry
26:23
they would be for it
26:24
so for for um
26:28
like for it to start raining they've
26:30
really got to pull over
26:32
at the bag and the pressure's on there
26:33
so i i was sat at the top kind of
26:35
looking around
26:37
almost just watching people's heads roll
26:40
off
26:42
and um yeah it was quite good it was
26:45
just another little thing just to spice
26:47
it up but i didn't mind at all like
26:48
as i said the pressure wasn't on me so
26:51
oh i didn't feel like the pressure was
26:52
on me so
26:53
yeah and i didn't know at the time like
26:56
you and
26:56
my mechanic did actually ask me about
27:01
uh five minutes because i do a little i
27:03
spend like 10 minutes just running
27:04
around my dino bike
27:05
it was about five minutes before that so
27:07
about 10 15 minutes before my run he
27:09
said
27:10
do you want to know how loris has got on
27:12
because he'd already set off
27:15
and i was tempted yeah i thought no i'm
27:18
all right i'm just gonna go i'll go out
27:19
the gate and i'll just
27:21
go as hard as i can i'd rather not be
27:22
thinking about
27:24
getting to the bottom faster than anyone
27:25
else i'll just do my own thing and
27:28
obviously because it was quite slippy at
27:30
that point yeah um
27:31
we had a couple of messages up from will
27:33
who was in the finisher in his
27:34
hall the only information he gave me was
27:37
um it looks
27:40
it looks like the track is running a bit
27:42
slower
27:44
just set off and feel the grip for
27:46
yourself and just try and get into it
27:47
that's all it gave me
27:49
but he did tell me after danny came down
27:51
and said
27:52
it's like a [ __ ] ice rink
27:55
that's not what you want to hear and he
27:57
said uh i can't tell him that
27:59
no no i didn't dave um no you don't want
28:02
to hear that
28:03
yeah so that was it but um impression
28:07
three years with him you nailed that
28:09
[Laughter]
28:15
so how grateful were you that the races
28:17
were double headers
28:18
and between round three when you took
28:20
the leader's jersey in round four
28:22
you just had a night's sleep rather than
28:24
potentially four weeks
28:27
yeah it was a bit of sweet because it
28:29
would have been nice to come home and
28:31
say
28:31
we got it we've got the jersey um
28:36
but you can do that now right i can do
28:38
that now yeah so it's all right
28:41
maybe it would have been a bit different
28:42
if i didn't win the overall i've got
28:45
this jersey but
28:46
i did keep it so we'll just put it in
28:47
the back of the wardrobe yeah
28:50
um yeah it was it was probably good in
28:53
some ways because i didn't overthink it
28:55
didn't have time to overthink it
28:56
just gone with the job as i had been in
29:00
a couple of weeks and were you a fan of
29:02
the double headers would you like to see
29:04
them
29:04
again yeah i would like to see them
29:06
again not all the time but
29:08
yeah it does add a l a different element
29:11
because
29:12
you can see it with some of the younger
29:13
riders well especially
29:15
for sure if we had double headers in the
29:17
past i would have been the same
29:19
you see at the start of week they are
29:21
really strong and then they
29:23
start to go back especially on like a
29:26
loser's
29:26
pretty physical track or one of the most
29:28
physical tracks we've ridden so
29:31
um it's definitely a different element
29:33
to it
29:34
so yeah i'd like to see the venues that
29:36
obviously can cater for it quite well
29:38
like maribor was quite good because it
29:39
was a little bit shorter the track
29:42
and the sections were short and there
29:44
was a few of them so i think that worked
29:45
quite well
29:46
yeah um but like someone like fort
29:49
william you wouldn't really be able to
29:50
do it
29:51
no no um so i think it'd be nice to do a
29:54
mix maybe one or two a year just to mix
29:56
it up
29:56
i don't think it'd be too much to ask
29:58
because
30:00
um i can't imagine it's too much more
30:03
expensive
30:04
you know or it's probably more cost
30:06
effective to run a double header than
30:07
run two separate races oh definitely 100
30:09
percent yeah and especially if they
30:11
start getting crowds back they'll make a
30:12
killing because they've got it
30:14
yeah they charge us again and then
30:17
yeah and half the price money i
30:20
yeah well you're actually here we go
30:22
then we weren't even going to ask this
30:23
but
30:25
as someone yeah as someone who is
30:28
affected at
30:29
every round this year people might not
30:31
know this but our entry fees would
30:33
double this year because we were erasing
30:35
two rounds which you might think
30:36
all right fine but then they split the
30:39
prize money in half
30:41
so go matt how did you feel yeah i don't
30:44
i don't really understand it to be
30:46
honest but um
30:48
we can't change it can we so quickly how
30:51
much was it
30:52
because i'm not sure if the uci elite
30:53
teams pay or do they
30:55
the entry fees yeah 160 for the double
30:59
so 80 80 euros per race right
31:02
and then juniors were half that which
31:04
was that was good that was impressive
31:06
tests oh i spent over a grand of the
31:09
team's budget on covered test this year
31:11
in maribor they were literally just
31:12
making money out of us for the sake of
31:13
it like
31:14
we had to have one before we arrived
31:18
so turn up on monday with a negative
31:20
test to get around another one on
31:21
tuesday yeah and then on the tuesday it
31:23
was 153 euros
31:25
per person for another test like
31:29
why like yeah i know you're negative the
31:32
day before
31:34
yeah yeah i know it's bonkers
31:37
on that you you mentioned fort william a
31:40
few minutes ago and last time we talked
31:41
which was
31:42
season one episode five for anybody who
31:44
hasn't listened to that episode
31:46
we talked about that huge crash you had
31:47
in fort william at the national
31:49
and i might be dreaming but i think
31:51
you've just mentioned referenced it a
31:53
little bit earlier as well
31:54
did i hear somewhere in the last few
31:56
weeks that that crash taught you a lot
31:58
and you're thinking about that is that
32:00
the bit you were talking about a few
32:01
minutes ago where
32:02
you got carried away is that was it that
32:04
crash
32:06
yeah totally yeah yeah and you learned
32:08
so much from that
32:10
yeah definitely like i was saying before
32:13
that was jet that was
32:14
purely just over confidence just riding
32:17
just slightly when my brain turned off
32:21
a bit too much and just ride in with too
32:24
much confidence and that's
32:26
that's yes just
32:29
a key thing really from this from last
32:32
year to this year is that
32:34
i've learned that um over confidence is
32:38
is as negative as uh like under
32:41
confidence you know not having
32:42
confidence
32:43
at all um it's the outcome is the same
32:47
yeah you've got to be sat in that
32:48
comfortable bracket haven't you that big
32:50
crash i had in maribor this year when i
32:52
injured myself like it was the opposite
32:54
i came into the top woods
32:56
not committed enough and ended up a
32:58
little too back seat as we went off that
33:00
foot that fly off onto the roots
33:02
and my back wheel my back wheel just
33:04
smashed me up the ass
33:05
and because i wasn't fully committed the
33:07
front end dived
33:09
and just had a huge one whereas if i'd
33:11
just been riding normally
33:13
they wouldn't hit me and i would have
33:14
maybe had a small wobble but yeah you've
33:16
got to be
33:17
yeah not under confident not
33:19
overconfident you're gonna be sat
33:20
exactly where you need yeah the way that
33:22
i see it
33:22
is like you know like people talk about
33:25
this flow
33:26
flow state that you're in when you're
33:28
riding when you're racing
33:30
but i think it also kind of it
33:32
definitely um
33:34
is relevant when you're just practicing
33:35
and riding your bike
33:37
it's almost like you know when you just
33:38
walk up the stairs or walk down the
33:40
stairs you don't need to think about it
33:41
you just do it
33:43
your body just knows how to do it so
33:45
that is kind of what i've been trying to
33:47
apply
33:48
to not only my race runs but all weekend
33:51
like not getting stressed if you make a
33:52
mistake in practice because
33:54
let's face it we're all human everyone
33:56
makes mistakes
33:58
so you just get on with it but
34:01
obviously like like yourself jack the
34:03
only
34:04
one of the only reasons or a big
34:06
contributing factor
34:08
in getting us as high up in elite sport
34:12
as we are
34:13
is because our brain can is so good at
34:20
seeing stuff and making our body react
34:22
to what we see
34:24
like because your brain is so fast at
34:25
doing that that's what allows you to
34:27
ride your bike as fast as you can
34:28
100 if you just let your brain do it and
34:31
take emotion out of it
34:32
yeah then you'll perform much better
34:35
yeah
34:36
so that's why it's completely fine
34:40
but what i find is like you said if you
34:42
come in and you're thinking
34:44
oh i need to get this right or or i feel
34:46
a bit nervous here right
34:47
back and then you don't write as well as
34:49
you could yeah if you
34:50
if there's no emotion and you just like
34:52
a downloading machine
34:54
on your bike properly you turn properly
34:57
you look where you're meant to be
34:58
looking
34:59
and everything just kind of flows a lot
35:00
easier so
35:02
that was a big thing for me because last
35:03
year i was really suffering
35:05
like mentally after the crash struggling
35:08
to
35:08
even little things like i'd be looking
35:10
at the front wheel because i'm not
35:12
confident enough to
35:13
look up and let the brakes off and then
35:17
because i'm looking down i'm looking at
35:19
everything on the floor because i think
35:21
everything is a threat to me yeah you
35:23
know all the roots all the rocks left
35:24
there
35:25
it's like a threat to me so oh i know
35:27
that i'll feel it
35:28
avoid and that's just the mental state
35:32
that you're in when you
35:34
when you have a have an injury like that
35:36
and it's just um
35:37
apart from the injuries healing i've
35:40
never had it where
35:42
mentally you're not quite there again
35:44
after you crash
35:45
yeah it's the first kind of um
35:47
experience i've had of that
35:49
and um i guess the last time i spoke to
35:52
george on the podcast i was kind of
35:54
i was going through the motions with
35:55
that yeah
35:57
and yeah time's the biggest healer just
36:01
just go over it really in the end and
36:03
with a little outside help
36:05
juniors you had a real battle with finn
36:08
and he got
36:08
the better of you on well most of the
36:10
time actually in juniors
36:12
but coming in with all that expectation
36:14
it kind of hasn't really happened for
36:15
him in early
36:17
and you've jumped ahead did you did you
36:19
think you'd eventually get past him
36:21
uh yeah yeah
36:25
that's what you're working for in it i
36:26
mean you get in front of everyone
36:28
yeah just another number yeah have you
36:31
have you
36:32
how you were chasing finn then has there
36:35
been a rider in elite that you've been
36:36
trying to is it
36:37
like are you no not really i think since
36:40
i've got to elite i've kind of focused
36:42
on myself a lot more
36:43
yeah there's too many guys that can win
36:46
that can challenge
36:47
like in junior if i rode well there's
36:50
only one guy that could beat me
36:52
but now if i if i ride okay
36:55
there's going to be 10 guys that can
36:56
beat me or 15 guys or whatever
36:58
you know it's it's a totally different
37:02
ball game you can't
37:03
focus on a couple of guys and focus on
37:06
what lines they're riding
37:07
and what lines do i need to be doing
37:09
because they're doing it there's
37:12
there's too many options so you just got
37:13
to think about yourself
37:15
which one is a quite a change but i
37:18
think it's
37:18
better why do you think some spiders
37:20
kind of struggle to make the step
37:22
up because tebow the prelate he seemed
37:25
to fade a little bit towards the end of
37:26
this season which is obviously
37:28
first year elite and like you talked
37:29
about before probably a lack of strength
37:31
but you must have been impressed with
37:33
like how quickly he's adapted to the
37:34
elites
37:36
yeah it's really impressive um i mean i
37:40
on the face of it it's the same yeah the
37:43
more you get into it
37:44
there's a lot of things that change um
37:47
so to move from junior to elite and
37:51
be on the podium is pretty impressive
37:54
i'm not sure
37:56
i think did finn do it in his first year
37:58
or podium yeah i think he had a fourth
38:00
to the um andorra i mean there's not
38:03
many that do it
38:04
no um and he was consistent like maribor
38:07
yeah you could argue it was the same
38:10
track so maybe it's not
38:11
yeah as credible but
38:15
i don't think so i think he's done a
38:16
bloody good job to be honest 100
38:18
but you know moving on from that having
38:21
come through as a junior taking junior
38:22
world championships
38:24
do you think the separate junior series
38:26
is a help
38:27
or do you think it hinders in terms of
38:29
stepping up into the elites
38:31
no i think it's good i think it's a good
38:33
thing i think because
38:35
also it gets
38:38
the media attention on younger riders
38:41
and it gives
38:42
an opportunity for younger riders to get
38:43
on elite teams as well before they go to
38:46
elite
38:47
which i think is really important like
38:48
obviously probably
38:50
your age danny's age i think you just
38:53
went
38:54
from a junior from when you were 16 or
38:56
17 just went straight into the elite and
38:58
you had to qualify in the top 80 to even
39:00
race so
39:01
definitely um i think that's pretty
39:04
difficult i think having a junior
39:06
category is a good step
39:07
i think it would be now in particular if
39:09
you look at how much the sports moved on
39:11
we've talked about it before about how
39:13
much um gwyn moved the sport on with you
39:15
know with the physicalness
39:17
it is boys against men and
39:21
worses you know it would be very
39:23
difficult for more than a handful of
39:25
junior riders to make it to qualify any
39:27
world cup i think
39:29
yeah you're right you're right yeah and
39:31
it's strangular sport because
39:33
and that this is something that i think
39:34
is an issue at the moment
39:37
with you've got juniors like yourself
39:40
and tebow and finn who
39:42
super talented you've had the junior
39:44
results you know you can come into the
39:46
elites and
39:47
compete straight away but henry curry is
39:49
an example i've used a few times in a
39:51
few different scenarios where you've got
39:52
a junior there who
39:55
has had junior podium results but
39:58
not super consistent didn't win anything
40:00
but he's a big talent
40:02
and he could do well in the sport and
40:04
could make a career and a living out of
40:05
the sport
40:06
however he comes into elite with only 60
40:08
spots and there aren't enough
40:10
teams to provide 60s places for riders
40:14
he's on a team but in his first year he
40:18
kind of didn't qualify
40:19
much and that can kind of leave some of
40:21
these juniors
40:22
without that kind of stepping stone of a
40:24
couple of years just to find their feet
40:26
certainly and you can see them drifting
40:28
away and i personally think
40:29
they either need to have like an
40:33
extended
40:33
junior category where they maybe get
40:35
three years but riders like you
40:38
and tebow could do two years and say i'm
40:40
ready i want to go too
40:42
yeah yeah it's difficult as well because
40:45
at that age
40:46
at that time in your life your
40:50
your mates at home are making money yeah
40:52
and
40:53
if you want to make it to world cups
40:56
it's a balance between
40:57
right i probably need to train and run a
41:00
bike more than i need to work
41:02
but then i need to work to get to the
41:04
races you know if you don't have support
41:06
so what do you do i mean the easy easy
41:09
way out is to just not do it anymore
41:11
yeah too right and that's where i think
41:13
the uci and other people need to step up
41:16
like
41:16
like my team is a small team but we do
41:19
what we can
41:21
to help people as in riders yeah i'd
41:24
love to help
41:25
more riders than i do but the fact of
41:27
the matter is the uci
41:28
make it so expensive that and
41:32
by expensive i'm talking about pit space
41:33
if i was to give riders support at races
41:35
i would need more room
41:37
now there is more room there but they
41:39
don't let us use it unless you pay for
41:41
it
41:41
now my team can't afford that so that's
41:43
potentially one of the main things
41:45
standing in the way of me taking an
41:47
extra two young riders
41:49
to world events and not being able to
41:52
and it's just why not like we're not
41:56
doing it out the back of a van like
41:57
gypsies we've got a proper tent we've
41:59
got all the banners we've got
42:00
you know the tools and mechanics yeah
42:02
and it's such a shame that
42:03
the kind of smaller teams aren't
42:05
supported and promoted by the uci to
42:07
help
42:08
riders come through it seems like
42:10
there's
42:11
nowadays you there's a huge divide
42:15
like people are saying there's less and
42:16
less privateers well we saw this year
42:19
usually there's i don't know 120 men at
42:22
a race
42:23
trying to qualify and now there was 80
42:25
or 81 oh yeah there's not many at all
42:27
and
42:28
those riders are not missing from the
42:30
top 40 or the top 50.
42:32
not particularly they're missing from
42:35
70th place to
42:37
90th 100th or 110 that's where the
42:40
riders are missing it's just
42:42
it seems like nowadays you have all the
42:45
top riders on the top teams
42:47
and then like a few local guys that is
42:50
their local track and they want to do a
42:51
world cup and they've
42:52
got the points and they're doing it yeah
42:54
um there doesn't really seem to be
42:56
like a kind of privateer scene as much
42:58
anymore
42:59
and i don't know whether that's a good
43:01
thing or a bad thing i can kind of see
43:02
both sides
43:04
like i saw eddie put a thing on well
43:07
probably a month ago now
43:08
and i'm gonna dig at the uci about it
43:11
and you will know a lot more than me
43:13
about it
43:14
um of course but
43:17
i can kind of see both sides like if you
43:19
look at f1 or
43:20
i know that's really at the pinnacle but
43:24
um mo gp even
43:27
world super bikes or any motorsport like
43:30
that you don't have any privateers
43:32
really in paddock no um
43:35
but mountain biking is a different sport
43:37
100 and
43:38
the thing i think is that people isn't
43:40
it than buying a 40 50 grand motorbike
43:42
or 120 grand car or whatever
43:45
yeah i i think it's this it's the end
43:48
well god we could talk about this for
43:49
hours but
43:50
one of the things that's wrong is the
43:51
entry into a world cup
43:53
like it's i think it's too easy
43:57
for people in certain countries to get
43:58
points people always complain that
44:00
there's no uci
44:01
races in the uk well i've said this
44:03
before there was no point in sai payton
44:05
paying the uci
44:08
three grand or whatever it was to make a
44:09
national series a uci race
44:11
because you had to finish top 15 to get
44:14
one uci point
44:16
it doesn't matter because those places
44:17
are going to be filled by riders like us
44:19
we already have 300 uci points yeah yeah
44:22
yeah yeah
44:22
we don't need them so but then you've
44:25
got races in
44:26
let's use brazil as an example where
44:29
these guys can get these uci points and
44:32
come to a world cup with 150 uci points
44:35
but they can't ride the track so they're
44:37
in group a practice with us where
44:39
a and b is supposed to be separate so
44:41
the slower riders who are chanting their
44:43
apples or getting into it or
44:44
however you want to call it yeah yeah
44:46
from you and minar and myself
44:48
but they've got 150 points so they're in
44:50
group a going around a b
44:51
line and cutting across the landing of a
44:53
drop i see yeah
44:55
it doesn't that aspect doesn't make
44:56
sense and then what i was initially
44:58
going to say was
44:59
i understand that they need to keep the
45:02
sport professional and i completely
45:04
agree with that
45:05
but instead of cutting out privateers
45:09
and
45:10
younger riders and strangulating it by
45:11
making it smaller why not introduce
45:13
requirements
45:15
you're not you're not coming in the pits
45:17
with a scruffy
45:18
scrapped out vehicle so you're not
45:20
coming in you need to
45:22
you know you need to have an easy up you
45:24
need to have a banner
45:26
and you need to be respectable like it
45:28
it would be way better in my opinion to
45:30
encourage these small teams and help
45:32
them to
45:32
to look the part even if they're not
45:35
necessarily the part and they're just
45:36
learning and helping riders
45:38
rather than just come out all together
45:40
i'm interested to see how you're going
45:41
to get this back on script here
45:43
jack now
45:51
[Laughter]
45:52
[Music]
45:58
is that the next question yeah literally
46:00
yeah next
46:01
yeah you are on a mall this year is that
46:03
crazy on
46:04
yeah um yeah i am i've been since um
46:09
well since the winter start of the
46:10
winter pretty much
46:12
um basically
46:15
i've ridden the 29er since i think
46:18
about july or august time 2017.
46:22
wow so quite a long time and pretty much
46:25
since they were
46:26
since they were about really um and
46:29
sarason were
46:30
pretty good they built a bike from
46:32
scratch they didn't kind of
46:35
wedge some big wheels in a 650 frame or
46:38
anything they did a proper job from
46:39
scratch
46:40
redesigned the bike to make it work um
46:43
and i wrote it yeah for well i'm rode
46:47
the evolutions of that for the next
46:50
three years which um
46:52
was really good but at the end of last
46:54
year
46:55
i kind of come to the point where i just
46:58
needed something different i needed a
46:59
change
47:00
i think it was my mindset as well at the
47:02
time
47:04
i just needed something fresh some new
47:06
just to spice it up and
47:08
and just for something for me to focus
47:11
on apart from
47:13
myself really you know just try and get
47:15
me back in the swing of things a little
47:16
bit and um
47:17
it was it was just a healthy it's just
47:18
healthy change so
47:20
um up until that point i'd never we did
47:23
have the option the year before danny
47:25
rode the mullet the year before
47:27
um but i was never really
47:31
interested in trying it i felt i was
47:33
confident and
47:34
on the 29 i didn't really need to change
47:36
anything i knew i was riding well
47:38
i knew it was going to work for me so
47:41
that was fine
47:42
i was happy with that and then obviously
47:44
in back in 2019 things changed a little
47:46
bit
47:47
um for me and as i said before i felt
47:50
like i needed a bit of a change so i
47:51
jumped on it and
47:52
felt really good on it to be honest um
47:56
i was thinking potentially it might roll
47:58
a bit slower but
47:59
i didn't notice that at all i just
48:02
felt straight away like um i could ride
48:06
it more aggressively
48:08
like i could turn it when i wanted to
48:09
turn it and i could be more playful
48:12
um kind and it kind of reminded me of
48:16
how i used to ride as a youth and a
48:18
junior like in the uk like quite
48:21
quite aggressively and
48:24
yeah like i'd have like quite an
48:25
aggressive stance on the bike and like
48:27
attack
48:27
my way down the track and on 29 it i
48:30
found
48:32
i kind of had to dampen that a little
48:33
bit because that's not really
48:36
how well to get the most out of 29 i
48:38
didn't feel that's how
48:39
yeah i should ride it i felt like on a
48:42
29 you kind of just sit in the middle of
48:44
the wheels
48:45
and it's so super stable and the wheels
48:47
just move either side of you
48:49
and they just plow through stuff you
48:51
don't and you need to like
48:52
set up the corners a little bit more or
48:55
whatever
48:56
um it's just a slightly different way of
48:58
riding when i come back
49:00
to um to the mullet setup i thought
49:05
you know i clicked with it i thought it
49:07
was it was nice i could
49:08
especially in the uk because that's
49:10
where i was testing it to start with
49:12
obviously and the tracks are relatively
49:14
well they're quite a lot slower than
49:15
abroad and tighter and stuff and it felt
49:17
really good so
49:18
it was positive straight away and then i
49:20
took it to ponte de lima
49:22
where i'd done a lot of testing before
49:24
and i got i went faster than i did
49:26
the previous year on the 29er so that
49:29
was enough for me by that point
49:30
to be honest i think without even the
49:33
timing in ponte lima i would have
49:35
written the mullet anyway i think
49:36
generally that's the way it's kind of
49:38
going unless you're a
49:40
taller rider yeah
49:43
so i was happy with it and i i was i was
49:45
glad that i
49:46
um took the option to try it and made
49:50
the change when i did really because
49:52
maybe i would have been kicking myself
49:53
if i was still on a 29 and now and
49:55
you know if i if i'd made the discovery
49:59
oh actually this is this is better for
50:00
me if i'd realize that now i
50:03
maybe would be feeling like it was one
50:04
year too late yeah
50:06
so has yours arrived yet um
50:09
no we we've got some some on the way
50:12
from common cell before the end of the
50:13
year so
50:14
as soon as we're allowed to go and do
50:16
some uplift somewhere we'll get out and
50:18
and uh get tested on those i mean dan's
50:20
only a [ __ ] he's five foot seven so
50:22
he'll definitely be
50:23
uh riding the bullet he got on fine with
50:26
the 29er but obviously they get some ass
50:28
buzzing and uh
50:30
even even myself like as matt says like
50:33
if you're riding real smooth and real
50:35
nice and you're nice and relaxed you'll
50:36
maintain that good position on the bike
50:38
where you're not kind of
50:40
rocking around yeah but if you get a
50:42
little messy or if you get a little
50:44
rushed or make a mistake or whatever
50:46
um dog then
50:49
then yeah you'll buzz your ass or or
50:52
you'll yeah
50:52
feel like you get hung up or something
50:54
so i think
50:56
i've done a little bit of testing on the
50:58
mullets
50:59
without changing the geometry of the
51:00
bikes and even with the that
51:02
i've been able to tell they can they
51:03
turn better you can kind of be a bit
51:05
messier and get away with it so
51:07
i think it will suit me for sure yeah i
51:10
have to ask about the danny thing
51:11
because i
51:12
i think you and him are pretty good
51:13
mates aren't you yeah really good yeah
51:15
we're close yeah
51:17
firstly do you have any idea why madison
51:19
would release
51:20
that news when they did and secondly
51:23
kind of how did you deal with it
51:26
um from the first point not really
51:29
um it's not it's not anything really to
51:32
do with me so
51:34
i try and stay out of it as much as
51:37
possible
51:37
and the second point did it affect me
51:42
not really like there was quite a lot of
51:43
tension at times
51:45
in the pits and this is not this is not
51:48
unusual
51:49
it happens in a lot of a lot of teams
51:51
you know different times
51:53
um but
51:57
me and danny um
52:00
we work on kind of separate programs
52:02
anyway he likes to go and do his own
52:03
thing
52:04
like you've probably seen at races he's
52:06
he's up there and he's one of the first
52:07
men
52:08
down the hill in the morning and things
52:09
like that he you know he
52:12
he's not going to be waiting for me to
52:14
go and practice with he's on his own
52:16
program and
52:17
likewise i'm the same with him obviously
52:19
we share information and
52:20
lines and stuff i can we can openly talk
52:23
to each other about that kind of thing
52:25
but
52:26
um whatever he's
52:30
whatever whatever is going on in his
52:32
corner between him and
52:34
madison is not it's not my problem so i
52:37
stay out of it as much as i can and keep
52:39
on my own program
52:40
yeah and that's it so i mean for me to
52:43
get involved it's only gonna
52:45
um take away from me at the end of the
52:47
day so
52:48
well yeah sorry george just one second i
52:51
think that
52:52
is just kind of highlights even more
52:55
how well you've done this year
52:59
so the fact that you've raced out of a
53:01
pit where there is going to be that
53:02
tension
53:03
obviously it helps that you and danny
53:05
personally actually get on so yeah yeah
53:07
totally yeah leave it alone but but
53:09
still the fact that you're racing out of
53:10
a pit where
53:11
i mean i was in maribor when that news
53:13
got dropped and i was like what are they
53:15
doing
53:16
couldn't believe that that was dropped
53:18
when it was before the first race so
53:20
so yeah a fair player for keeping your
53:22
head and uh and staying focused through
53:24
all that sorry george
53:25
you know i was going to say basically
53:26
exactly the same thing it's obviously
53:28
you've done really well to manage it you
53:30
know it's a
53:32
difficult situation just another hurdle
53:33
really yeah this is it mate this is life
53:36
it's
53:37
you go for difficult times and you just
53:39
get on with it don't you that's
53:40
it's not i'd say it's not unusual
53:44
though she is with different teams it's
53:45
not yeah it's
53:47
just how it is it's just the industry
53:48
we're in i'm sure
53:50
there's a lot of lads your age wouldn't
53:52
wouldn't deal with it as well so
53:53
yeah fair play on to next season then
53:56
you're going to be the lead rider on the
53:57
team
53:58
are you feeling any more pressure with
54:00
that no
54:02
not really i think it's really nice this
54:04
is kind of the position i've
54:05
always dreamt of being in so to put
54:08
loads of pressure on myself would
54:10
would not be a good thing um
54:13
i think if i was not doing as well as i
54:17
had been or have been and then i was
54:19
made lead rider
54:21
i'd maybe feel like almost a bit guilty
54:23
or
54:24
that i'm not fully deserving of a lead
54:26
ride and a team yet but because i
54:28
i've been doing putting the one balls on
54:31
the lead rider
54:34
but as i've been doing as well as i have
54:36
um
54:38
i'm quite happy to take on that role i
54:39
feel like i'm ready
54:41
to take on that role in the team and
54:44
look after the younger
54:45
younger riders if i can and put them in
54:47
there in the right direction
54:48
or as well as alongside will and
54:52
the coach dixie are you is there any
54:54
more commitments of you
54:57
from from what you've got to do now
54:59
you've now you've won the world cup
55:01
no not really just a few more podcast
55:04
interviews smiling and waving and uh
55:13
all right um it i mean it could be
55:15
argued that you weren't on a lot of
55:17
people's radar
55:18
for 2020 i mean i obviously picked you
55:20
as as one of the guys i was fancying for
55:22
doing well this year
55:23
do you feel like you're going to be like
55:25
generally more of a marked man now
55:27
going into next year obviously hopefully
55:29
hopefully
55:30
i feel like i've been under the radar
55:32
for a long time now
55:34
and um i've kind of showed people what i
55:37
can do on a
55:38
yeah quite a few different occasions now
55:41
so hopefully they've got the message
55:45
i'm not going anywhere 100 well i mean a
55:48
lot of people look at greg's
55:50
podium record of 80 and then he's just
55:53
amazingly added an extra win on to his
55:56
goat tally to take him i think to 22. um
56:00
in as you said earlier with the amount
56:02
of riders that are in the mix for a win
56:04
nowadays that's
56:05
you know a high water mark to reach
56:07
again
56:08
do you set yourself targets to aim for
56:11
things like that
56:11
is that something um not i think
56:15
not in the long run not not in the long
56:17
term not really now
56:18
um now i've got one overall it'd be nice
56:22
to have another one
56:23
um big thing for me is yes i've won the
56:26
overall
56:26
i've got one race yet yeah so that's a
56:29
huge thing for me is
56:30
going moving it into the future is like
56:33
take a workout win next year
56:35
yeah um and obviously world champs i've
56:38
not done that as an elite so
56:39
yeah there's still plenty of things i
56:42
you know i can achieve
56:43
yeah if you achieve it once
56:47
achieve it twice yeah definitely i mean
56:50
not gonna sit here and blow too much
56:51
smoke up your ass but um
56:54
i kind of look at the circuit now and
56:57
out of the riders that are around coming
57:00
through
57:00
i see you as one of the guys who who can
57:04
take over that kind of mantle from minar
57:07
i mean
57:08
whether you could say likes doing it i'm
57:10
not sure he's kind of there sometimes
57:12
and
57:12
not others but yeah i i gambled on you
57:15
on the sunday and i i said to the lads i
57:17
was like
57:18
he's gonna do it and you did um and i'd
57:20
gamble again and say that in 10 years
57:22
time you'll
57:23
potentially still be
57:31
um so a couple of new riders on the team
57:34
next season
57:34
um veronica and then young jordan
57:37
williams who dan tells me is
57:38
uh is going to be a a rider to watch in
57:41
the future
57:42
yeah for sure you're pretty excited to
57:44
be mentoring
57:46
yeah it'll be good it'll be good whether
57:49
i'll take on a
57:50
a mental role it's not really in my
57:53
interest to be honest like yeah
57:55
i'm still super young and i've got money
57:56
how old are you huh
57:58
how old are you now 21 21 yeah jesus
58:00
yeah i mean you can help him but you're
58:02
not exactly uh over the hill i assume
58:06
i'm still driving it i'm still climbing
58:07
it so um
58:10
yeah i mean hopefully well i mean when i
58:13
was on the team at his age i had
58:15
uh mark beaumont and simmons to kind of
58:18
learn a lot from so hopefully if i can
58:20
kind of pass on
58:21
a few lessons that they taught they
58:24
taught me and i can
58:25
i can teach him because going to world
58:27
cups is like you say
58:28
like you've had with dan this year is
58:30
quite a learning curve for them so um
58:33
but yeah i mean it along you know as
58:35
well as me
58:36
london has been on on the circuit for
58:39
for a lot of years and he knows the
58:42
drill
58:43
pretty well so um he's in he's in safe
58:45
hands whether i was there or not to be
58:46
honest
58:49
sorry yeah yeah first year i think we do
58:52
have to congratulate will as well
58:53
because
58:54
i mean when did you join the team were
58:56
you 13
58:58
yeah it would have been january 2014 so
59:01
i was
59:02
is that youth first year youth yeah
59:06
so you've done about you did one year of
59:07
dino racing not on madison
59:09
yeah exactly so you've been under will's
59:12
um leadership mentor whatever you want
59:15
to call it
59:16
since that age and he must be absolutely
59:19
thrilled
59:20
to see what you've now brought home for
59:22
the team so
59:23
yeah i think so i think he's he's like a
59:25
proud father
59:26
yeah i see you guys at the races and
59:29
obviously with me mentoring dan and
59:31
um i've obviously watched will kind of
59:33
helping you
59:34
over the years and yeah i have learned
59:36
things from the way he is around you
59:38
guys so yeah yeah
59:39
later no he's done a he's done a stellar
59:42
job like i
59:44
um i'll you know i wouldn't have
59:48
know it well nothing really i wouldn't
59:50
have anything of my
59:51
accolades without without his support
59:53
and
59:55
yeah i mean top credit to him he's done
59:57
a he's done a really really good job and
59:59
he manages the team absolutely perfectly
1:00:01
runs he runs a tight ship and
1:00:04
everything's exactly how it should be so
1:00:06
um i'm really proud to ride with it
1:00:09
you know ride for him and on the team
1:00:11
yeah okay
1:00:13
continue i mean i've been there a long
1:00:14
time and
1:00:16
i don't want to move so yeah nice um
1:00:18
credit to him and like just the
1:00:20
support network that i've got at the
1:00:22
moment is perfect and um
1:00:24
yeah to be lead rider on the team is is
1:00:27
a is a nice thing and i think it's
1:00:29
really good for well it's really nice
1:00:30
for
1:00:30
all the staff at madison to see that as
1:00:32
well yeah not only will but
1:00:35
dom and kelly at madison and all the
1:00:38
staff behind the scenes they've kind of
1:00:40
been following me from you know when i
1:00:42
was a kid so
1:00:44
it's nice nice for them to see that uh
1:00:47
progression and that growth from
1:00:49
being a young kid all the way to where i
1:00:51
am where i am now so
1:00:53
yeah it's really nice for the you know
1:00:54
the whole madison family
1:00:56
and i can only see things going to like
1:00:58
the next strength next year harry beloy
1:01:00
coming in with you guys
1:01:01
obviously harry still races world cups
1:01:03
for anyone who doesn't know how he is
1:01:04
and uh
1:01:05
he's coming in to kind of do a bit of
1:01:07
racing i think but also help you guys on
1:01:09
track
1:01:10
is that right yeah he's gonna he's gonna
1:01:12
come and kind of be like
1:01:13
from what i understand like a bit of an
1:01:15
assistant manager with will
1:01:18
um obviously he's with veronica so yeah
1:01:21
he kind of knows how what she needs and
1:01:23
what she
1:01:24
how she likes to go about her race
1:01:26
weekend and you know what she needs from
1:01:27
will and
1:01:28
from harry so harry bev be able to kind
1:01:31
of look over her
1:01:32
and help her out
1:01:35
a lot and also yeah like be on the track
1:01:38
and
1:01:38
even obviously you'll be in a practice
1:01:41
with me but it's just another set of
1:01:42
eyes on the track so if i miss a line
1:01:45
uh there's a will to look at it and
1:01:47
hurry potentially to ride it
1:01:50
um and then he can he can let me know if
1:01:53
it's good or not and then it's just an
1:01:55
extra set of eyes and it's nice to have
1:01:56
someone on the track as well that you
1:01:57
can talk to because
1:02:00
sometimes when i'm talking to will about
1:02:02
lines and stuff because he's not
1:02:03
actually riding it
1:02:04
there's always that barrier because he
1:02:06
doesn't know how it feels
1:02:08
yeah um which is to be honest has never
1:02:11
been a problem but it's just
1:02:12
a little bit different sometimes but you
1:02:14
know
1:02:15
when you can speak to another rider
1:02:17
that's actually experienced what you're
1:02:18
experiencing it's
1:02:20
maybe a bit easier to have a
1:02:21
conversation at times so it'll be
1:02:23
interesting but i think it'll be a nice
1:02:25
little addition to have harry in that
1:02:27
position you know for the team so
1:02:29
i spoke to him a little bit and he's
1:02:30
well they're both really looking forward
1:02:32
to joining the team and looking forward
1:02:33
to next year so
1:02:34
um yeah i'm looking forward to it should
1:02:37
be
1:02:37
should be good fun matt simmons still
1:02:39
joining you guys because it was he was
1:02:41
gonna this year wasn't he obviously
1:02:42
yeah he was going to this year yeah but
1:02:44
then obviously we had to take a really
1:02:46
small team out
1:02:47
yeah um just to keep the bubble as small
1:02:49
and compact as possible really
1:02:52
um so i don't know i don't know whether
1:02:55
harry will kind of fill that role
1:02:56
yep for matt or what
1:02:59
what will play out there um so let's see
1:03:02
but
1:03:03
um you just have to see in the future
1:03:05
but i i
1:03:06
i'm not sure on that one so
1:03:09
are you back in full training yet are
1:03:11
you no not yet i've um
1:03:14
i'm gonna start first week of december i
1:03:15
think um
1:03:18
me too yeah i didn't know when i'm going
1:03:20
to do that the
1:03:21
world cup champion just said first week
1:03:23
december
1:03:24
that's what i'll do i'll text that in a
1:03:27
minute dan first of december
1:03:30
that's it that's it i think um for me
1:03:33
it's really important to get a good
1:03:34
balance now like
1:03:36
see well i see people as much as i can
1:03:39
celebrate as much as i can
1:03:41
um yeah and just keep one eye on next
1:03:45
year but
1:03:46
i'm gonna start um yeah start training
1:03:49
in december and then
1:03:50
i think i'll spend a week or 10 days of
1:03:53
training here and then
1:03:54
uh go to south africa again for a
1:03:56
training camp oh nice
1:03:57
i've got to ask you um obviously i know
1:04:00
your dad real well he
1:04:01
supports my team with uh with rock
1:04:03
guards
1:04:04
yeah has he come back down to earth yet
1:04:07
uh he's still pissed i think
1:04:11
i bet he's good he wasn't there is he ah
1:04:14
they are gutted
1:04:15
yeah absolutely gutted um they'll be
1:04:18
coming to every single one next year i
1:04:20
bet yeah if they can
1:04:21
just um yeah well my mom even more so
1:04:24
because she okay
1:04:26
she didn't go to maribor the previous
1:04:28
year right and my dad was there
1:04:30
like on a loud holiday she's not
1:04:32
sleeping again
1:04:33
so mum hasn't seen anything now i
1:04:35
remember
1:04:37
seeing them greet you when you won
1:04:39
national champs at glencoe
1:04:41
yeah exactly and then i saw how ecstatic
1:04:43
they were then
1:04:44
so i can only imagine like oh no i know
1:04:47
well my mom still
1:04:49
now goes around to my nan's house and
1:04:50
watches the races back
1:04:53
like however many weeks later so um she
1:04:56
said the other day oh
1:04:57
you've got to watch it again it's so
1:04:58
good i think that's
1:05:00
they're just super proud and it's really
1:05:02
cool to be able to like give that to
1:05:03
your family
1:05:04
yeah and that's what a lot of people may
1:05:06
not realize is that it
1:05:07
of course it's your achievement but
1:05:10
behind you are all these people who have
1:05:11
invested years of
1:05:13
support and time and whatever and it's
1:05:15
yeah yeah so nice that you guys have now
1:05:17
achieved that and
1:05:19
yeah they must be buzzing oh yeah
1:05:22
absolutely
1:05:22
it's great that's great thanks for
1:05:24
making the time to come on the show
1:05:26
today and you know best of luck for next
1:05:27
season i think that
1:05:28
that first win is only just around the
1:05:30
corner yeah hopefully yeah that's the
1:05:33
plan thanks very much to interview about
1:05:34
three people won't be george but this is
1:05:36
just going to be a matt walker episode
1:05:37
because we've talked for that long
1:05:38
that's
1:05:39
done easy 20 minute segments now at an
1:05:42
hour
1:05:44
that's good i don't mind thanks guys
1:05:48
we'll be back after these messages
1:05:55
welcome back to part two of the show if
1:05:57
matt walker's just getting going
1:05:58
our second guest is a lady at the
1:06:00
opposite end of her career
1:06:02
just a few weeks ago tracy hannah
1:06:04
announced her retirement from the sport
1:06:06
she's retiring as the 11-time australian
1:06:08
national downhill champion
1:06:10
2019 uci world cup champion and 2006
1:06:14
junior world champion
1:06:15
welcome to the show tracy not a bad haul
1:06:17
that
1:06:18
yeah thank you for having me well tell
1:06:21
us a little bit about where in the world
1:06:23
you are right now
1:06:25
um sir i am in a hotel room in brisbane
1:06:29
queensland australia i've been in here
1:06:32
for
1:06:33
13 days which feels like forever
1:06:37
and i'm getting out tomorrow which is
1:06:40
amazing excited to go home oh my gosh
1:06:43
just excited to
1:06:45
breathe some fresh air get some vitamin
1:06:47
d back on my
1:06:48
skin and i'm not an inside person at
1:06:52
all so well you should live here we
1:06:54
won't get any hurt in india until like
1:06:56
april no no that's
1:07:00
not meant to be i'm not meant to be an
1:07:02
inside person
1:07:04
and how many people i mean europe as
1:07:06
hell
1:07:07
how many podcasts have you recorded
1:07:09
whilst you've been in in lockdown
1:07:11
not too many but it has been about four
1:07:14
hours worth
1:07:15
right so considering how long i've been
1:07:18
in lockdown it's not
1:07:19
too bad yeah but surprising the more
1:07:22
like um hermited you are the more you
1:07:25
want to be
1:07:27
quiet and hermit it's kind of i don't
1:07:29
think it's good for social
1:07:32
social interaction so like because you
1:07:34
get
1:07:35
you kind of get a worse yeah you don't
1:07:38
get more
1:07:39
social you get less social so yeah the
1:07:42
podcasts have been
1:07:43
good well i knew you'd done some because
1:07:46
jack said
1:07:47
she's recorded a couple so i thought
1:07:49
we'd try and do something a little bit
1:07:50
different
1:07:51
um rather than asking you the same
1:07:53
questions because i thought you might
1:07:54
have been asked
1:07:54
the same questions a few times have you
1:07:57
ever seen definitely
1:07:58
a tv program called inside the actors
1:08:00
studio
1:08:02
no it basically it's this dude james
1:08:05
lipton and he interviews famous actors
1:08:07
so i think they've done like 270
1:08:08
episodes or something like that
1:08:10
and he always ends with this
1:08:11
questionnaire which is based on some of
1:08:13
the dude's questions but
1:08:14
it's a long time since i've watched it
1:08:16
but we've created our own version of
1:08:17
that and we've we've got 20 questions
1:08:19
for you
1:08:20
there are only two or three words each
1:08:22
which is a bit risky because this whole
1:08:23
thing could be done in 10 minutes
1:08:25
but hopefully not hopefully we'll spark
1:08:29
some stories so jack
1:08:30
do you want to kick us off yeah i'll
1:08:32
kick us off so
1:08:33
tracy first question uh favorite track
1:08:36
from your race career uh favorite track
1:08:39
in my race career is
1:08:42
half gel remember that track really
1:08:45
yeah i loved that track so
1:08:48
much straight out the start gate into
1:08:51
three
1:08:52
huge doubles and then there was just so
1:08:55
much variety
1:08:56
no pedaling it worked like whether it
1:08:59
was wet or dry
1:09:00
it's a track that was fast and worked
1:09:02
and
1:09:04
you're pretty much challenged like the
1:09:05
whole way down even i'm just like
1:09:07
imagining
1:09:08
even the final rock garden like four
1:09:10
minutes into your run was so challenging
1:09:13
and
1:09:14
yeah i don't know that was just my
1:09:16
all-time favorite track and i was
1:09:18
devastated when we stopped racing there
1:09:21
yeah it was really good we went twice
1:09:23
did we
1:09:24
i think we went we had world champs
1:09:27
there
1:09:28
yeah uh okay yeah that was yeah yeah
1:09:30
yeah and that was the year that
1:09:32
i'm pretty sure that was here that do
1:09:34
you remember josh bryson like over
1:09:35
jumped that wooden thing
1:09:37
smashed his ankle up there how was that
1:09:39
it was happier wasn't it yeah
1:09:41
yes exactly and um yeah that track was
1:09:45
just
1:09:45
perfect it had it had jumps
1:09:48
rock gardens it had high speed corners
1:09:51
it had
1:09:52
natural stuff it had big fast grassy
1:09:55
turns
1:09:56
yeah it literally had everything it was
1:09:59
amazing
1:09:59
it's that bike breaker road gap as well
1:10:02
isn't there
1:10:03
yes yes the natural gap in the
1:10:07
that was like between two rock gardens i
1:10:09
think and i just remember like when you
1:10:11
were racing
1:10:12
there was a i don't know what it was
1:10:15
it's like a byo
1:10:17
jazz band they would be in there like
1:10:20
playing their piano
1:10:21
and um drums and you'd just hear the
1:10:24
band as you went past and you always
1:10:25
smoke
1:10:26
not smoked excuse me mel
1:10:32
rock the rock gardens i don't know it's
1:10:35
just like
1:10:37
when you get to norway it's such a
1:10:38
perfect place quiet
1:10:40
feels like no one's on the road no one's
1:10:46
and it's just like these guys are wild
1:10:49
it just gets wild when there's a sport
1:10:52
so
1:10:52
but yeah that track is if i could go
1:10:55
back there just to ride outward it's
1:10:57
amazing
1:10:58
fair play good okay so next one least
1:11:00
favorite track
1:11:03
ooh that's all i knew you're going to
1:11:05
say that i i thought you're going to say
1:11:06
that
1:11:07
for your favorite but i knew you were
1:11:08
going to save all the selfie at least
1:11:11
despise voters i think it's because
1:11:13
valdasol
1:11:14
is the ultimate european
1:11:18
matched track like if there was a track
1:11:21
on the whole circuit that i could say
1:11:23
matched like southern hemisphere writers
1:11:27
the least and european writers the most
1:11:30
it would be about a soul
1:11:31
yeah and it's i don't really know what
1:11:35
it is about it
1:11:36
we just have absolutely nothing like
1:11:39
that
1:11:39
in our part of the world and when i
1:11:41
write it
1:11:42
no matter how good i'm feeling or what
1:11:45
kind of season i'm having
1:11:47
um i've just never never been
1:11:51
never had the result there like i've had
1:11:53
the confidence and i felt good but it's
1:11:55
just
1:11:55
i just think it just it's just an
1:11:57
extremely hard track
1:11:59
if you're from outside of the world
1:12:02
have you ever spent any time kind of
1:12:04
like what riders like danny do have you
1:12:06
ever
1:12:08
earlier in your career did you ever go
1:12:09
and like camp out at venues like that
1:12:11
that you used to struggle with and try
1:12:12
and get into them or
1:12:13
did you just leave um only the venues
1:12:15
that it was um
1:12:17
feasible like only the venues that it
1:12:19
was
1:12:20
kind of possible to hang out at being
1:12:23
from australia it kind of makes it hard
1:12:25
farther solves one of the harder ones
1:12:27
because that one you really have to plan
1:12:28
for and go to in in between the season
1:12:32
it was fine to like go to fort william
1:12:35
or go somewhere like andorra but when
1:12:38
you save out of seoul
1:12:39
it's extremely hard to get there even in
1:12:43
europe so it's even
1:12:45
it's like a bit of a logistical night
1:12:49
yeah fair play okay um question three
1:12:53
who would you say is your greatest rival
1:12:55
in your career
1:12:58
um rachel atherton for sure
1:13:01
i think that she's the hardest
1:13:04
worker
1:13:08
i would almost say women in men's field
1:13:10
but definitely in the women's field like
1:13:11
the hardest worker the most determined
1:13:14
the most competitive um
1:13:17
yeah like i feel like she's one rider
1:13:20
that
1:13:21
she really does live and breathe
1:13:23
mountain bikes like
1:13:24
she grew up in mountain bikes she lives
1:13:27
in mountain bikes her brothers have
1:13:29
like they have a bike park they
1:13:32
like live in kind of the perfect spot
1:13:34
for mountain biking so i think that
1:13:37
there's not really anyone else that
1:13:40
lives and breathes mountain biking as
1:13:43
much as her and it's just made her a
1:13:46
machine
1:13:48
what was it like racing her in that um
1:13:50
undefeated season you know
1:13:52
it spanned two seasons really didn't it
1:13:54
yeah yeah
1:13:56
i mean it's like
1:14:00
sometimes we would get together as a
1:14:02
group of girls and be like can we just
1:14:03
pretend that that's rachel and we're
1:14:05
having our own race over here like
1:14:07
good job you you won today i mean yeah
1:14:10
rachel come first but we would be like
1:14:12
technically like let's say you got first
1:14:14
because everyone would get second and
1:14:16
keep swapping
1:14:17
like you won today that's amazing i mean
1:14:22
you can't really be disappointed when
1:14:24
she's beating you because she's just
1:14:25
an animal yeah yeah fair enough
1:14:29
who's been your best mate while you've
1:14:31
been racing and
1:14:32
i guess you're gonna say mick but yeah
1:14:35
i've seen you said that but he's my
1:14:36
sibling do you have siblings
1:14:38
yeah yeah when you said me i was gonna
1:14:41
be like
1:14:42
that guy hasn't got siblings in um
1:14:48
my best part um my best friend on the
1:14:51
circuit is definitely emma
1:14:52
emily emily siegenteller um we've been
1:14:56
super close and
1:14:58
through the ups and downs she's kind of
1:15:00
someone that i've always been able to
1:15:02
talk to
1:15:03
and be honest with and she's being
1:15:04
honest with me and like
1:15:06
it's good to like have the team and and
1:15:10
um you know have michael and the guys in
1:15:12
that
1:15:13
but it's a whole different level when
1:15:15
you have like the mental
1:15:17
of a girl like our psyche is just
1:15:20
different
1:15:21
and um so me and emily have been super
1:15:24
close
1:15:24
and yeah she would be one of my closest
1:15:27
friends on the circuit and
1:15:28
in general for sure nice yeah she's a
1:15:31
lovely girl
1:15:32
yeah amazing so what would you say your
1:15:35
biggest
1:15:35
strength has been in your career
1:15:39
um i think i probably have a pretty good
1:15:43
mental strength um i'm pretty resilient
1:15:46
and i can move on from things pretty
1:15:49
fast
1:15:50
i'd say that if i did have one
1:15:53
particular strength
1:15:55
in racing it would be my mental strength
1:15:57
and um
1:15:59
generally i'm pretty mentally tough and
1:16:00
i think that everything that i went
1:16:02
through as a racer has made me even more
1:16:04
resilient so
1:16:05
yeah definitely i would probably say
1:16:07
mental how hard a hit was it
1:16:09
not winning the world champs in kent
1:16:11
obviously i was i was there and i saw
1:16:13
how
1:16:14
much you you and mick both wanted it how
1:16:16
hard yeah
1:16:17
it was um devastating yeah it was like
1:16:22
yeah it took a while to get over i had a
1:16:24
pretty rough year the year after that i
1:16:26
i felt like i did train for that for
1:16:30
a good few years i trained for that
1:16:32
specific race and i was the fastest on
1:16:34
the weekend and the fastest on the day
1:16:35
and just to crash out it's it's like
1:16:40
devastating but um yeah so getting over
1:16:43
it was pretty hard but
1:16:45
i guess that just kind of went on to
1:16:49
build my mental strength even stronger
1:16:51
it's been through a lot mentally but
1:16:54
yeah it was devastating for sure
1:16:56
i just remember this moment after the um
1:17:00
the race had happened the podium had
1:17:03
happened and you know how they have that
1:17:04
like
1:17:05
little tent behind the um podium
1:17:08
yeah me and michael were sitting like in
1:17:11
these two seats
1:17:13
soaked in champagne crowd outside it was
1:17:16
empty
1:17:17
and we're just sitting there didn't say
1:17:19
a word to each other like holding our
1:17:20
medals
1:17:21
yeah and nothing had to be said it was
1:17:24
just like we're just
1:17:25
devastated because he got second yeah i
1:17:28
got third
1:17:30
and i think moving on from that race is
1:17:33
probably one of the
1:17:34
the hardest things that i've had to do
1:17:37
yeah fair play but you did it in 2019
1:17:39
obviously you
1:17:40
uh next question
1:17:43
is greatest achievement movement
1:17:47
yeah i mean definitely the 2019 world
1:17:50
cup overall is
1:17:51
my greatest achievement and
1:17:54
um the hardest thing i've ever had to do
1:17:57
the hardest
1:17:58
season that i've ever been through and
1:18:02
the hardest um thing i've worked for
1:18:05
and the hardest thing to balance yeah
1:18:07
but definitely my greatest achievement
1:18:09
for sure
1:18:11
what was the what was the hardest you
1:18:13
said you used the word hardest there a
1:18:14
lot what was the kind of toughest thing
1:18:16
about it was it
1:18:17
fearing losing it was it somebody else
1:18:21
chasing you was it
1:18:23
what what was the um the hardest thing
1:18:26
about it was actually balancing the
1:18:29
the result it was balancing um between
1:18:32
pushing
1:18:33
to win a race or accepting
1:18:36
being second third or fourth to keep the
1:18:39
points
1:18:40
to keep the jersey so it went from like
1:18:43
racing at the beginning of the year i
1:18:45
was racing to win
1:18:47
to racing to keep the jersey and that's
1:18:49
like a whole different
1:18:50
style of racing and mentally balancing
1:18:53
that and
1:18:55
like accepting each race when you just
1:18:58
every race you seeing someone else on
1:19:00
the top step someone else beating you
1:19:02
and you know why you're doing it and you
1:19:04
know why you're giving that to them
1:19:06
but it's devastating every single race
1:19:09
giving that up
1:19:11
for hopefully the jersey at the end of
1:19:13
the season
1:19:14
yeah i mean having watched from outside
1:19:18
you i can't think you'd ever
1:19:22
rest and not rest to win
1:19:25
yeah and um 2019 was a year where i
1:19:28
actually thought about it because i
1:19:29
never think about it i'm like i don't
1:19:31
care i mean i love winning and
1:19:35
2019 was the year that i was serious it
1:19:37
got serious and i had to
1:19:40
it wasn't just me i had my team manager
1:19:42
helping me like
1:19:43
well like every race we made a plan like
1:19:46
okay this race you can ride
1:19:49
you know 95 and you'll get i
1:19:52
i really have to plan each race
1:19:54
meticulously
1:19:56
to hold on to that jersey all season
1:19:58
because one crash and it was gone
1:20:00
yeah definitely did did the plan work
1:20:04
what you and cusco's planned in snowshoe
1:20:06
did it work out exactly did you did you
1:20:08
finish fifth on that race
1:20:10
yeah i finished fifth i mean was that
1:20:11
the player goes to finish in the top
1:20:13
five
1:20:14
oh sorry and i wasn't aim the goal
1:20:17
sorry the i had to finish sixth
1:20:20
or better nice and my goal
1:20:23
was top five and i got fifth there we go
1:20:26
job done
1:20:28
but yeah every race worked out how he
1:20:30
planned but sometimes it was so
1:20:31
disappointing
1:20:33
like for example there's um lenses hide
1:20:36
it was like it was kind of we got to
1:20:38
that race and i was like yes
1:20:40
like i feel good i qualified by a few
1:20:42
seconds i had some time out my sleeve
1:20:45
and the track suited me super well woke
1:20:48
up race morning
1:20:49
pouring rain and i was like damn it
1:20:52
you don't have to go back to this safe
1:20:55
it's not that i'm
1:20:56
riding safe i'm just not riding on the
1:20:59
to the point where i could crash
1:21:01
yeah and especially in wet weather
1:21:04
just to be careful so absolutely okay
1:21:07
so um biggest regret in your career
1:21:12
um hmm that's a hard question
1:21:16
that's an um question biggest regret
1:21:23
i don't i don't like that word
1:21:27
yeah i guess i have disappointments but
1:21:29
i've never um
1:21:31
my regret would have been if i didn't
1:21:33
learn from disappointments and mistakes
1:21:35
but i've never
1:21:37
i've never regretted anything that i've
1:21:39
done or anything that's happened to me
1:21:41
because i've always made sure that i
1:21:42
made the most of
1:21:44
where you are the failure or the
1:21:46
disappointment of the regret
1:21:48
so even if i had a regret it's done
1:21:50
something to benefit me in the long run
1:21:52
yeah answer that's fair yeah
1:21:56
favorite memory um favorite memory well
1:22:00
oh gosh i think it
1:22:03
sounds really funny but um when
1:22:06
we're in snowshoe my brother's two boys
1:22:10
came
1:22:10
to watch and my mom my sister like
1:22:12
everybody came over
1:22:14
and um but my brother's two boys were
1:22:16
there yeah
1:22:17
and they they were 10 and 11 at the time
1:22:20
and we lost one of them
1:22:22
like not lost they're very very
1:22:24
independent boys
1:22:26
and we're like do you remember snowshoe
1:22:29
like it was just a chair lift
1:22:31
yeah it was like a chair left above the
1:22:33
track and you could see the track the
1:22:34
whole way
1:22:35
and the track was super gnarly and
1:22:38
we kept like being at the pits like has
1:22:40
anybody seen rowdy rowdy his name is of
1:22:43
all names
1:22:44
and then i was on the team i was on this
1:22:48
chair left
1:22:49
just like going up for another practice
1:22:51
run next minute i just hear rowdy
1:22:53
screaming
1:22:54
tracy tracy hey hey and he's literally
1:22:58
halfway down the track walking the track
1:23:00
on his own
1:23:01
10 years old and we had no idea where he
1:23:04
was
1:23:04
and he's just screaming at me from the
1:23:06
track and i don't know why
1:23:07
that's one of my favorite memories from
1:23:10
from the whole season
1:23:12
because no one knew where he was we
1:23:14
thought he was just chilling near the
1:23:15
pits
1:23:16
and he was on the freaking track
1:23:24
so is that me now yeah yeah so
1:23:28
next question um what would you say was
1:23:30
your best
1:23:31
run in your career your best race run
1:23:34
hmm best race room i would say
1:23:38
um do you remember that year in fort
1:23:40
william i think it was 2017
1:23:44
yeah it like the woods was impossible to
1:23:48
ride it was wet it was catastrophic
1:23:52
yeah um like some of the girls got taken
1:23:56
out
1:23:57
rachel got taken out she dislocated her
1:23:59
shoulder i think tiny couldn't raise
1:24:02
and um i was like
1:24:05
we all have to go up at 6am to have our
1:24:08
race run because it was so windy i think
1:24:10
that was that week
1:24:11
weekend anyway because i wasn't getting
1:24:15
through the woods nobody was and
1:24:17
couscous said to me
1:24:20
all you have to do is get through the
1:24:22
woods it doesn't matter if you literally
1:24:24
like
1:24:24
scoot your bike through but anyone who
1:24:27
gets
1:24:28
through the wards is going to have a
1:24:29
good chance of winning
1:24:31
so i started my race run like the track
1:24:34
of the supernova is so
1:24:35
wet and then got to the woods like
1:24:37
scooted through the woods
1:24:40
got out of the woods did that mini road
1:24:42
gap
1:24:43
then you go into the next woods before
1:24:44
the huge road gap
1:24:46
yeah i went through that woods lost a
1:24:48
foot
1:24:49
like had lost a foot peddled through the
1:24:53
mud for that road gap
1:24:54
flat landed on the road for the road gap
1:24:58
printed the bottom section went through
1:25:00
the finish line
1:25:01
and i won by 11 seconds nice that
1:25:05
track and that day in that those
1:25:08
conditions
1:25:09
that had to be my most insane run for
1:25:12
sure
1:25:12
like incredible yeah those words were
1:25:14
just almost unrighteous
1:25:17
like they were literally unrideable you
1:25:20
had to have
1:25:21
girls were off their bike men on ran
1:25:24
beside obama i remember yeah
1:25:26
like literally insane
1:25:29
yeah my game plan for finals was just
1:25:32
stay on
1:25:33
and i didn't even oh yeah right i mean
1:25:35
that was the goal for leo gang as well
1:25:37
so yeah
1:25:38
well yeah how many world cups have you
1:25:40
won tracey i didn't put it in the intro
1:25:42
five five
1:25:45
yeah and next question is
1:25:48
best run that you've seen another rider
1:25:51
do
1:25:51
what sticks in your memory
1:26:00
that's a hard one
1:26:03
i'll have to think about that one oh i
1:26:05
know i know i know i know
1:26:07
cool when remy therian won andorra oh
1:26:10
yeah
1:26:11
yeah yeah yeah
1:26:14
i don't know if there was one person at
1:26:16
the bottom i
1:26:18
did not hear anything at the bottom
1:26:21
and i don't think anyone was breathing
1:26:22
watching his run on the tv screen the
1:26:24
whole time
1:26:25
yeah that [ __ ] coming into the bottom
1:26:28
section when he
1:26:28
took that line no one else did yeah and
1:26:31
he's still doing stuff like that it
1:26:32
still makes me
1:26:34
like lose my breath a little bit because
1:26:36
it's so insane
1:26:37
i've got goosebumps here thinking about
1:26:39
it exactly exactly
1:26:41
it's like and now when you watch him
1:26:45
right it's still
1:26:45
you feel that memory of that run knowing
1:26:48
that he's just
1:26:50
one of the most amazing riders i've ever
1:26:52
been god yeah
1:26:55
crazy crazy run yeah
1:27:00
okay biggest crash you've had
1:27:05
er easy i uh crashed in 2012
1:27:09
valdez air the steepest ski resort in
1:27:12
france
1:27:13
and snapped my femur
1:27:17
yeah we'll move on from that one
1:27:20
the next uh question i tumbled a few
1:27:23
times i think
1:27:24
the next question was worst injury was
1:27:26
that fame of the worst injury
1:27:28
yeah yeah yeah how long did it take
1:27:32
how long did it take you to get back on
1:27:34
the bike uh i
1:27:36
think i don't think it i
1:27:39
did take that long i had like three or
1:27:41
four months maybe
1:27:43
and then i was right i raced six months
1:27:46
later i had my first race
1:27:48
okay yeah it's not a nice one that one
1:27:52
okay uh what would you say the biggest
1:27:54
feature is that you've ridden on a track
1:27:55
that's like psyched you out the most i
1:27:57
think i know the answer to this one
1:28:01
yeah what's your answer well
1:28:04
i wouldn't want to lead you but i would
1:28:06
i would say that drop at the bottom of
1:28:07
leo gang this year i mean i didn't ride
1:28:09
it but
1:28:10
yes okay the red bull jump right yeah
1:28:13
like there's two wow that red bull jump
1:28:16
was actually okay with the run-in but
1:28:19
with the conditions it was awful but
1:28:21
the worst feature and you'll definitely
1:28:25
agree
1:28:25
ever ever
1:28:39
i know i strapped my ankles with the
1:28:41
most rigid tape i could buy at the shop
1:28:44
strapped both my ankles couldn't move
1:28:45
them like strapped them like that
1:28:47
couldn't move them for my race run so
1:28:50
that i didn't snap an ankle either
1:28:52
wow yeah yeah it was dumb
1:28:56
like stupid yeah high speed to a flat
1:28:59
landing
1:29:00
house like so yeah turning yeah
1:29:04
turning off camera like the only way i
1:29:07
could do it is i had to follow michael
1:29:08
in a few times because
1:29:11
you couldn't just watch it and see where
1:29:13
people were going wrong or right you
1:29:15
actually have to know the feeling of
1:29:17
what it felt like riding
1:29:18
into it and why you got like kicked
1:29:21
sideways why you landed with
1:29:23
and yeah yeah absolutely
1:29:27
no you didn't crash at any point no i
1:29:29
never crash on big features because i
1:29:32
always
1:29:32
make sure i know analyze them first
1:29:36
yesterday like most of the crashes i
1:29:38
have tend to be on sort of stupid it's
1:29:39
never stupid
1:29:41
yeah exactly the things you like don't
1:29:44
think about
1:29:44
no because i i think a lot like a lot
1:29:47
lower level than you guys but if you're
1:29:49
thinking about i
1:29:50
very rarely crash on a big feature
1:29:51
because you think about it and you know
1:29:53
exactly how you you're going to do it
1:29:56
once when you stop concentrating or
1:29:57
you're not expecting to crash and even
1:29:59
if you do crash on the big feature
1:30:01
you're thinking i might crash here i'll
1:30:04
prepare for it so i think the worst ones
1:30:06
are when you're not prepared
1:30:08
oh a hundred percent yeah a hundred
1:30:12
percent and
1:30:12
that's sad because people like break
1:30:14
their wrist or their arm and i get
1:30:15
messages like
1:30:17
i'm so scared now that i've broken a
1:30:19
bone and it's like
1:30:20
yeah but how'd you do it something's
1:30:22
stupid
1:30:24
it's like you kind of just gotta deal
1:30:27
with it i think
1:30:27
such as life random question next
1:30:31
favorite bike you've had over the years
1:30:35
favorite bag
1:30:39
i mean i love my bike now but we spent a
1:30:42
lot
1:30:43
we did spend like a fair few years
1:30:45
developing the polygon
1:30:46
but um i think my favorite bike was
1:30:50
like i had this hand-me-down from
1:30:53
michael when he was sponsored by haro
1:30:54
so it was a haro frame and dad kind of
1:30:58
engineered it to fit these little
1:30:59
24-inch wheels
1:31:01
tiny little handlebars and stuff and
1:31:03
that was my first
1:31:04
downhill bike and yeah and i love that
1:31:08
thing i took it
1:31:09
on my first trips overseas and
1:31:11
everything and i got teased because it
1:31:13
looked like
1:31:14
dodgy but that was my favorite bike
1:31:18
okay um your favorite thing about racing
1:31:23
like um i love the
1:31:26
um feeling of
1:31:30
being competitive competing um
1:31:33
analyzing yeah like figuring out what
1:31:36
went wrong what went right how to train
1:31:38
for it in the next offseason
1:31:41
uh i guess i just in one word the
1:31:44
challenge of racing
1:31:45
like if you love winning and you love
1:31:47
getting good results in
1:31:49
yeah then you love the challenge of
1:31:51
racing so
1:31:52
i've always loved that next question
1:31:56
least favorite thing about racing
1:32:00
i'm not being able to eat for three days
1:32:02
leading up to a race
1:32:04
really it's not bad nah um i
1:32:09
i hate when i can't answer
1:32:13
why i've done
1:32:17
a result that i've done that i that i've
1:32:20
expected more for myself i hate when i
1:32:22
expect more from myself
1:32:23
and it's unexplainable yeah okay i like
1:32:26
to be i would always have an
1:32:27
answer for everything that happens and
1:32:32
when i get down the hill had a good run
1:32:35
my result isn't where i think it should
1:32:37
be you'd totally understand jack as i
1:32:39
know we're so similar in this regard
1:32:42
um that frustrates the hell out of me i
1:32:46
hate it i i absolutely need to know the
1:32:49
answer for everything
1:32:50
yeah definitely definitely my my least
1:32:53
favorite thing
1:32:54
is that little time period between
1:32:59
like warming up
1:33:02
and well there's two actually there's
1:33:04
the time period after your last practice
1:33:06
session before you start warming up
1:33:08
and then after the warm-up before i'm
1:33:12
walking to the gate that's interesting
1:33:17
yeah i don't like hate it i just like i
1:33:19
just want to
1:33:20
be getting on with it i'm like ready and
1:33:23
it's like
1:33:24
oh come on let's go let's go you know
1:33:26
that the nerves will disappear
1:33:28
as soon as you've got you've set off
1:33:32
as soon as i'm in the game fine it's
1:33:34
just yeah me i have a routine from like
1:33:37
an hour before my race starts so
1:33:39
everything is on a time even the time
1:33:42
that before i'm in the gate is on a time
1:33:44
so i feel fine
1:33:46
nice it's it's the time between practice
1:33:49
and starting my
1:33:50
race routine that sucks yeah
1:33:54
it's awful oh man nervous
1:33:57
they're hard favorite curse word that
1:34:00
you use
1:34:02
like all the time yeah this is this is
1:34:05
you know i said that about the interview
1:34:08
yeah yeah yeah it's fine yeah we put a
1:34:10
warning on the start
1:34:11
okay so um i have a my brother-in-law is
1:34:15
like
1:34:16
i call him my best friend my sister's
1:34:18
husband we like get along super well
1:34:20
anyway
1:34:21
whenever he does something wrong or
1:34:24
whenever something goes wrong or when it
1:34:26
whenever we're trying to say
1:34:27
like it's real [ __ ] we'll say [ __ ]
1:34:30
sake and that's my favorite ever
1:34:32
backpack even his friends
1:34:35
like for his box party made him this
1:34:38
t-shirt with his face on it and the meme
1:34:40
said [ __ ] sake
1:34:41
no that's how good it is
1:34:45
if i have a party at my house and i know
1:34:47
he's coming over i wear that shirt
1:34:49
because it's just so funny
1:34:50
that's the that's the one question that
1:34:52
i've kept from you know what i said at
1:34:54
the start about the inside the actor's
1:34:55
studio that's
1:34:56
oh yeah i kept i was like it's a random
1:34:59
one but i quite like it
1:35:01
yeah it's no it is good i mean i swear
1:35:03
way too much my parents
1:35:06
i mean my dad swears if he drops like a
1:35:08
tool on his toe or something
1:35:10
but my parents don't swear at all
1:35:13
um this industry and cairns is so broken
1:35:16
swearing is like the language yeah
1:35:20
yeah but my brother doesn't swear no i'm
1:35:22
sorry
1:35:23
about to say yeah i swear loads and
1:35:26
obviously i hang around and make a lot
1:35:27
of the races
1:35:28
he doesn't he doesn't say i know
1:35:32
it makes me really aware of it and if he
1:35:34
listens it's
1:35:35
really weird isn't it but like i'll be
1:35:37
on the chair with him and especially if
1:35:38
we're just in a run or something i'm
1:35:39
like [ __ ] this was
1:35:45
it's like it's really really impressive
1:35:48
that he doesn't swear
1:35:50
like he and which like his
1:35:54
explanation for swear words and big
1:35:56
words is good he's like
1:35:58
what do i say when i'm really angry if i
1:36:00
just use swear words all the time
1:36:02
so when he is really angry
1:36:06
he swears and it makes my heart skip a
1:36:09
beat when i hear him say because i know
1:36:11
oh he's mad it's a big word that's a big
1:36:14
word
1:36:15
like when he finishes a run how was it
1:36:19
[ __ ] [ __ ] like oh gosh
1:36:22
this he he's small he's terrible
1:36:26
yeah he doesn't swear and he said it's
1:36:29
because he needs words to use when he's
1:36:31
actually angry which makes complete
1:36:33
sense
1:36:34
yeah yeah it definitely makes me mean
1:36:37
more aware of how much oh in me i've got
1:36:39
and then after a weekend with him i'm
1:36:41
like swearing way less
1:36:43
it's so yeah i mean it's good morally
1:36:46
it's good
1:36:46
it's funny okay so question 18
1:36:50
thing you'll miss
1:36:53
um definitely the atmosphere i'm sure
1:36:57
um and i really love
1:37:01
riding i really love the tracks i love
1:37:04
like the short amount of time that you
1:37:05
have to get up to speed
1:37:09
like definitely the challenge of racing
1:37:12
ole miss
1:37:13
[Music]
1:37:14
in the world cup circuit for sure i'll
1:37:16
miss that section
1:37:19
yeah and being the best the best as well
1:37:22
at something
1:37:22
you know you are one of the best in the
1:37:24
world at what you
1:37:26
do and it must be quite hard to make
1:37:29
that decision to give that up
1:37:32
yeah i mean i'm a very forward thinker
1:37:34
so i tried to
1:37:36
expect to work hard to be the best in
1:37:40
anything i do so i never thought of that
1:37:42
but um
1:37:44
yeah that will be hard but i also
1:37:49
yeah i i guess i achieved the goals that
1:37:52
i wanted to achieve and a lot of
1:37:54
racing for me is um proving to myself
1:37:57
that i could work hard train hard do
1:38:00
the job so in the sense that being the
1:38:03
best being the best is what everyone
1:38:04
else sees and
1:38:06
i'm just proud of what i did and what i
1:38:08
saw so i won't
1:38:11
it won't really matter to me leaving
1:38:13
that part so
1:38:15
and that's such an important outlook
1:38:16
otherwise you'll as you say you'll
1:38:18
potentially never be happy because if
1:38:19
you only care about what other people
1:38:20
think then
1:38:22
whereas yeah you've got to be satisfied
1:38:24
with what you've achieved so
1:38:26
i couldn't agree more um the thing you
1:38:28
won't miss
1:38:33
i don't know if i'm allowed to say this
1:38:35
but i'm going to spell it out
1:38:41
the uci
1:38:51
no no no no um politics the politics i
1:38:54
i i the politics
1:38:57
and the um i don't know i noticed it
1:39:01
more this year like
1:39:03
more this year i i could have been
1:39:05
because i did well in the overall the
1:39:07
year before i got more involved in
1:39:09
like group chats and what people are
1:39:13
talking about
1:39:14
and so many decisions
1:39:17
from a writer's perspective are made
1:39:19
without most of the writers even knowing
1:39:21
that they're being made
1:39:23
yeah so um yeah i don't know in that
1:39:26
regard it's kind of like a
1:39:29
status sport like this guy makes the
1:39:32
decision for all of these writers but
1:39:34
none of these writers know that that
1:39:35
decision is being made
1:39:37
on behalf of them so that pissed me off
1:39:40
yeah it's the same in maribor when they
1:39:42
said they were going to open
1:39:45
george won't even know this but
1:39:46
obviously we had two two races in
1:39:48
maribor with two slightly different
1:39:49
tracks
1:39:50
and on the wednesday we were all oh i
1:39:53
certainly
1:39:54
was under the impression that track one
1:39:57
was going to be open for the whole day
1:39:58
we'd practice track one we'd have time
1:40:00
practice on track one
1:40:02
and then track two wouldn't be open
1:40:03
until saturday for a three hour practice
1:40:06
and then we find out after track walk
1:40:09
that track two was going to be open on
1:40:12
wednesday as well
1:40:14
but you've got junctions on a track
1:40:16
where
1:40:17
people are going to be flying in that
1:40:19
crazy triple that was on track too
1:40:21
that was it you would be coming in on to
1:40:24
the landing of there when someone could
1:40:26
potentially
1:40:27
and they said they would control it with
1:40:28
the yellow flags and
1:40:30
every single apparently not every single
1:40:33
rider
1:40:34
95 of the riders went you were
1:40:37
yeah um our point is
1:40:41
there was a small whatsapp group that
1:40:43
only
1:40:44
rider from each i think elite team is
1:40:47
allowed in
1:40:48
so there's not even riders from normal
1:40:49
mountain bike teams in there no there's
1:40:51
got to be like
1:40:52
maximum 15 maybe 20 riders in the group
1:40:56
and how many riders are at a race
1:40:58
exactly and they say
1:40:59
writers as right as that and like i got
1:41:02
asked to vote on something
1:41:04
oh sorry forgot to add you to the group
1:41:09
and it's like so so really it's you and
1:41:12
you
1:41:13
discuss what you and you want and on
1:41:15
behalf of all the writers you take it to
1:41:17
the uci
1:41:18
and that's what which doesn't bother me
1:41:21
like
1:41:21
yeah the decisions are hard to be made
1:41:24
but like
1:41:26
it's i i don't like all the people
1:41:29
i really don't like the politics of it
1:41:31
and can i just say jack you guys don't
1:41:34
stop for yellow flags anyway do you
1:41:37
we try what's the point
1:41:41
the only time nah man every race every
1:41:44
race is like
1:41:45
a different style of flagging and you
1:41:48
just
1:41:48
kind of got away from what i remember is
1:41:50
they're giving the flags
1:41:52
and obviously huge respect to all the
1:41:54
people who marshall we flow for the
1:41:56
yellow flag
1:41:57
yeah of course but half the time like
1:42:00
you're not even sure if it's there
1:42:02
like no i know if i had a flag because
1:42:04
i'm a racer
1:42:05
if there was a yellow flag i would have
1:42:07
the flag really far out into the track
1:42:09
and i would be saying slow down
1:42:11
and if i had a red flag blocking the
1:42:14
course
1:42:14
yeah half the time you're like did i
1:42:17
seem good
1:42:18
yeah yes yes exactly half the time it's
1:42:21
the writers saying hey slow down slow
1:42:23
down
1:42:24
meanwhile you look behind what's their
1:42:25
flag oh yeah there he is up in the bush
1:42:28
having a smoke yeah i had to do it again
1:42:30
oh like that one track where they
1:42:32
were um they were waving the red flag
1:42:36
and we figured out that they were waving
1:42:38
the red flag because there was a
1:42:39
dangerous
1:42:40
section ahead yeah we were like
1:42:43
what oh yeah okay so just because it's a
1:42:46
rock garden it looks scary to you you
1:42:48
don't wave your red flag for that that's
1:42:51
just for crashes carnage is super
1:43:00
because like a girl had crashed and she
1:43:02
had a big one bike was tangled up in the
1:43:04
catchment
1:43:05
and she was like stuck and i was just
1:43:08
trackside just watching for dan and
1:43:10
stuff
1:43:10
and uh yeah marshall barely even got the
1:43:13
flag out we had to scream up to get a
1:43:15
flag out and then i had to like dive
1:43:17
across the track
1:43:18
and they stand in the park they don't
1:43:20
realize like yeah if you wave the flag
1:43:23
there that guy's gonna
1:43:24
stop about 500 meters later yeah
1:43:27
it's like trying to explain to them that
1:43:28
if you stop the flag there they're it's
1:43:30
too far gone if if
1:43:32
they're not going to stop on this deep
1:43:33
section so yeah yeah we go through the
1:43:35
yellow flags we're sure because yellow
1:43:37
i mean slow down right i know that from
1:43:40
racing
1:43:40
from racing here in the uk all the
1:43:43
usually all the other categories all
1:43:45
you know we're going a lot slower than
1:43:46
you guys so everybody slows down and
1:43:48
then it'll just be
1:43:49
you'll just hear on the radio and i'll
1:43:51
pick a random name
1:43:52
yeah charlie hatton's just gone through
1:43:54
the yellow flags
1:43:55
and it's like oh nice just ignored them
1:43:58
all the way down
1:44:01
red is important yellow yellow i mean
1:44:05
that yellow is just caution and charlie
1:44:07
probably yeah
1:44:08
because she just looks like yeah exactly
1:44:10
you're just
1:44:11
going around someone who's like dragging
1:44:13
themselves off
1:44:14
the track yeah and i agree the politics
1:44:17
in the downhill
1:44:18
needs to change yeah like that that
1:44:21
it's not to say that it's like why i
1:44:24
retired but is that
1:44:25
that is something i won't miss for sure
1:44:29
last question of the 20 and it just says
1:44:32
the future
1:44:33
what you up to what can you tell us so
1:44:36
uh at the moment i'm studying a
1:44:39
certificate in
1:44:40
fitness and in the new year i'm gonna
1:44:43
do some i have to do like my coaching
1:44:47
accreditation for mountain biking so
1:44:49
that means i'll have like the fitness
1:44:51
side
1:44:52
the fitness nutrition side and mountain
1:44:55
bike accreditation and
1:44:57
eventually in the future future i want
1:44:59
to be able to coach
1:45:00
riders nice better like up and comers
1:45:04
but next year i will be
1:45:05
having fun racing as many festivals that
1:45:09
happen
1:45:10
going to all the crank works trying to
1:45:12
spend time with fans like
1:45:15
for the last nine years i've said no to
1:45:17
most
1:45:18
um opportunities because i've been so
1:45:21
focused on just racing world cups like i
1:45:24
didn't do any extra disciplines like
1:45:25
crank works
1:45:27
and i never went to festivals i was
1:45:30
always like no i have to stay home and
1:45:32
train
1:45:32
so yeah now i don't really have any
1:45:35
serious
1:45:36
training commitments um i'm ready to
1:45:39
ride my bike some more pretty much yes
1:45:42
there's two questions from the inside
1:45:44
the actors studio thing that i've got
1:45:46
stuck at the bottom of the page here
1:45:47
that i didn't include in the 20 and
1:45:49
the first one is what professional other
1:45:51
than your own would you like to attempt
1:45:53
would you like to have a go at um it
1:45:56
sounds really ridiculous
1:45:58
and i don't know if it would ever happen
1:45:59
but i've always kind of had my mind on
1:46:02
like long distance running only because
1:46:06
of the mental side
1:46:08
um i'm not a runner and it would take a
1:46:11
lot of work
1:46:12
but apparently women when they're over
1:46:14
40 are super mentally strong
1:46:16
so i'm going in the right direction and
1:46:19
what
1:46:19
it's for after i'm 40. and what what
1:46:22
profession would you not like to do um
1:46:26
anything to do with
1:46:27
customer service and sales yeah retail
1:46:31
i don't like dealing with people not
1:46:33
fair
1:46:34
unless it's like in the sporting
1:46:37
industry
1:46:38
and exercise industry like i think i
1:46:40
would really love working with people
1:46:41
who want to exercise and who are
1:46:43
motivated but
1:46:45
someone buying food from hospitality
1:46:48
that's the one hospitality industry
1:46:50
not for me so i did that
1:46:54
that's those questions done there's one
1:46:55
last thing i did want to ask you about
1:46:57
and that's just the current state of
1:46:58
women's downhill at world cup level
1:47:00
it's in a great place right now isn't it
1:47:03
yeah it's not in a great place it's
1:47:05
still disappointing the lack of support
1:47:07
that women get and
1:47:08
i was only just speaking about this
1:47:10
other day
1:47:12
we get a lot of like it's hard to know
1:47:15
when you're not a woman
1:47:16
in this position but we get a lot of
1:47:19
yeah but if you were in the men's
1:47:23
if if you were a man racing if you were
1:47:26
this and that like as if to say yeah but
1:47:29
if you were
1:47:29
in the men's you wouldn't have got a top
1:47:31
five if you were in the men's unit got a
1:47:33
podium
1:47:34
if you're in the men's you wouldn't have
1:47:35
been able to qualify and i just want to
1:47:37
say like we trained
1:47:38
just as hard we race exactly the same
1:47:41
tracks
1:47:42
and we are damn close to the man for
1:47:44
being women and i have worked like
1:47:46
last nine years in the gym every
1:47:48
offseason to even get strong enough to
1:47:50
ride those tracks so
1:47:53
women's mountain biking is good in the
1:47:55
sense that
1:47:56
it's competitive but it still doesn't
1:47:58
get the support that it deserves i don't
1:47:59
believe
1:48:00
so what i actually meant was the depth
1:48:03
of the field is very good
1:48:04
and the very next show that we're the
1:48:07
very next show we're doing
1:48:09
i think is with um emily and a couple of
1:48:12
other riders
1:48:13
about the state of women's downhill
1:48:15
about exactly the things that you've
1:48:17
just talked about them
1:48:19
so kind of aware of that you're all
1:48:22
right
1:48:22
um but the depth of the field
1:48:25
um amazing getting better every year and
1:48:28
um i think
1:48:30
the crazy thing is that you'll see a
1:48:31
writer like say
1:48:33
four years ago marin was there next
1:48:36
minute like
1:48:37
she's goes home works for 12 seasons
1:48:40
comes back like damn
1:48:42
she's fast staying with nina monica like
1:48:44
i don't know
1:48:45
it's just it's it's the same with any
1:48:48
writer as well as you would know
1:48:49
with dan and that like put the writer on
1:48:53
the circuit
1:48:54
you know put them against writers that
1:48:56
are fast make them realize
1:48:58
yeah there's a bit more work to do give
1:48:59
them two off seasons come back and then
1:49:01
they're flying through
1:49:04
it's very very good now you're on the
1:49:06
sidelines for the world cups
1:49:07
who's your favorite new female rider
1:49:10
that you're going to be cheering for
1:49:11
i'd say new you know what i mean so my
1:49:15
favorite writer that i'll be cheering
1:49:16
for yeah but one of the new general
1:49:19
obviously rachel had been their ages
1:49:21
emily's been there a long time
1:49:22
are there kind of handful of circles um
1:49:26
probably i mean i really
1:49:29
love watching marine ride i think she
1:49:31
has a really
1:49:32
nice style and i don't know why but
1:49:35
there's just something that clicks in
1:49:37
her head when the timer starts and she
1:49:38
just
1:49:40
turns into a machine but also
1:49:43
um wedmin veronica wedman
1:49:46
i'm excited to see her excel like she's
1:49:50
she's the kind of writer that's like
1:49:53
not conservative but she's
1:49:57
she's not she's not tiny and marin
1:50:00
and and nina or or monica and there is
1:50:04
in the sense that she's not like just
1:50:06
like all our balls out but
1:50:08
her consistency and her writing style
1:50:11
just gets her down the hill super fast
1:50:14
and
1:50:15
she's a smooth rider i think she can do
1:50:18
really well as well
1:50:20
reminds me a bit of man yes yeah
1:50:24
yeah definitely menon never looked out
1:50:27
of control
1:50:28
never looked like out of her comfort
1:50:30
zone but was so fast
1:50:32
yeah following them from what you just
1:50:33
said tracy before
1:50:35
um obviously joshua said we've got this
1:50:39
podcast coming up so a question that's
1:50:40
just come to my mind
1:50:43
looking in from where i am it
1:50:46
maybe you'll agree it looks like a lot
1:50:48
of the teams that have women
1:50:50
they bolt the women on and i don't mean
1:50:53
that in an offensive way i mean it in a
1:50:54
way that
1:50:56
like it's wrong like the focus isn't on
1:50:59
the woman the woman is just adding a
1:51:01
program like if you ever saw let's say
1:51:02
syndicate take a female rider you know
1:51:05
that most people would say
1:51:07
ah they take enough of the points for
1:51:09
the overall yeah
1:51:11
now yes you think it like hang on do you
1:51:14
think it will get you
1:51:16
where there will start to be teams
1:51:19
where there are actually say two or
1:51:21
three women on the team and no men
1:51:23
and the sport gets to a point where it
1:51:25
sees these women as athletes as
1:51:27
marketable brand ambassadors where the
1:51:29
focus
1:51:30
needs to actually be on those women
1:51:32
rather than oh we've got this team we
1:51:34
got these three guys and let's just
1:51:36
chuck her in
1:51:36
as well what would you say to that
1:51:40
yeah um good observation first of all i
1:51:44
would say that that
1:51:45
does happen for about a year or two so
1:51:48
they'll be like
1:51:49
well what i've noticed is the team will
1:51:51
be like yeah we'll get a woman as like a
1:51:54
you know an add-on as you said i don't
1:51:56
want to say bolton
1:52:00
an add-on but um
1:52:04
but i think that what i see with teams
1:52:07
that take on a woman
1:52:09
is they realize man this is actually
1:52:11
really valuable
1:52:12
and once they've had the woman for like
1:52:15
a year or two
1:52:16
they start to really um thrive and
1:52:19
realize that that's quite a valuable
1:52:20
thing that they've done and then they
1:52:22
start to
1:52:23
you know enhance that and promote that
1:52:26
and and keep
1:52:27
keep the woman on i think um
1:52:31
more teams should give a woman a chance
1:52:34
and then i would realize like the teams
1:52:36
that have women that it actually is a
1:52:37
really valuable thing
1:52:39
not only is it really good for promotion
1:52:42
and
1:52:42
for the sport and for women's writing
1:52:45
but you know it's really really great
1:52:47
for team atmosphere to have women on the
1:52:50
team
1:52:51
it makes a huge difference to go from a
1:52:54
male
1:52:55
dominated team to just having one or two
1:52:57
females on it makes a huge difference
1:52:59
like you get
1:53:00
a little bit more compassion a little
1:53:03
bit more
1:53:03
um insight into the track like a woman
1:53:06
sees the track
1:53:07
completely different and i think that
1:53:10
it's extremely valuable to have a woman
1:53:12
on the team if if you get the right
1:53:13
match i think as well if you look
1:53:16
like would you say next season when if
1:53:19
rachel comes back
1:53:20
when she comes back is she the lead
1:53:22
rider on that team
1:53:25
charlie yeah for sure well yes she was i
1:53:28
guess i guess
1:53:30
because charlie did so well but rachel's
1:53:33
gonna come back and over
1:53:34
he's gonna be back in the shadows like
1:53:36
straight away i think
1:53:38
and i think i think valley could be a
1:53:41
valley could be a team
1:53:42
the lead rider on a team with her
1:53:44
profile and
1:53:46
you know her potential ability yeah and
1:53:49
that's the thing marketing behind
1:53:51
the marketing that's gone on behind
1:53:52
valley and around valley
1:53:54
that's what we need to see more of and
1:53:56
it comes back to what you said tracy
1:53:58
about
1:53:59
people saying to you oh not to you but
1:54:02
to anyone
1:54:03
that if you were a man this if you were
1:54:05
a man that it
1:54:07
i i feel that even when sometimes
1:54:10
some of the women when they defend their
1:54:13
argument or whatever about
1:54:15
being underpaid or whatever the subject
1:54:17
is they still turn it
1:54:19
back into that kind of comparison to the
1:54:22
men
1:54:22
and i don't think you could be compared
1:54:24
in any way like
1:54:26
no i agree from scotland like
1:54:30
she came ninth and ninth at the two
1:54:32
world cups
1:54:33
and fifth i think at world champs and
1:54:37
that's a great signing for a team and it
1:54:40
shouldn't be
1:54:41
compared or analyzed in a way you would
1:54:44
analyze signing
1:54:46
signing a man because you're not there's
1:54:48
you were women it works differently
1:54:50
and i think it's i just personally think
1:54:52
it's looked at the wrong way
1:54:53
um and if we had the opportunity if we
1:54:55
had the means we'd definitely have a
1:54:57
woman on our team
1:54:58
um but you know we're so small we don't
1:55:02
but
1:55:02
um but yeah anyway yeah no i totally
1:55:05
agree with that i think that
1:55:07
um it's all about perspective and i
1:55:09
think that when they compare women to
1:55:11
the men
1:55:12
it's like in this day and age it's
1:55:15
ridiculous that
1:55:16
if you just take one woman and see what
1:55:19
she can give to your team
1:55:22
women give quite a lot to the team and i
1:55:25
mean not only that
1:55:27
just the support having an extra
1:55:29
supportive woman on the team to like
1:55:32
keep the house clean for example is huge
1:55:35
but
1:55:36
let alone you know let alone just
1:55:38
promoting the business
1:55:40
i mean how many women are back are in
1:55:43
the sport now it's
1:55:44
crazy i remember kind of
1:55:48
a few years ago when i started racing
1:55:49
nationals over here in the
1:55:51
i'm in the veterans category and there's
1:55:53
some obviously some really really good
1:55:55
ex-elite riders in there and we've seen
1:55:58
the standard of women's downhill
1:56:00
increased dramatically over that time
1:56:01
and i remember when i first started
1:56:03
riding
1:56:04
it the the top veterans would be like
1:56:07
you didn't get beat by a girl this
1:56:09
weekend did you and that would be any of
1:56:11
them you know
1:56:12
but then it started that you know rachel
1:56:14
started beating them
1:56:15
man on started visiting them and it got
1:56:18
to the point that nobody mentions it
1:56:19
anymore because they're all getting
1:56:21
beat by girls now you know the field is
1:56:24
getting so strong
1:56:26
that it's not a thing anymore
1:56:29
yeah i mean generally race by race we
1:56:33
are six
1:56:35
maximum of 10 seconds per minute behind
1:56:39
jack that's not much in in one minute
1:56:42
six seconds
1:56:42
you can count to six pretty fast yeah
1:56:45
yeah there you go
1:56:46
well look congratulations on an amazing
1:56:49
career and thank you for always
1:56:50
giving 100 and inspiring us all to go
1:56:53
full speed
1:56:54
all the time best of luck for the future
1:56:58
um yeah we look forward to seeing you
1:57:00
out still racing and stuff as well
1:57:02
thank you thanks so much for having me
1:57:07
it was a pleasure you are just touching
1:57:09
on what you just said there
1:57:11
um sorry no no you did erase down
1:57:16
your track um kawaranda is that right
1:57:19
karen
1:57:20
yeah that you'd smell i'm pretty
1:57:24
the results would go michael hannah
1:57:27
tracy hannah
1:57:28
everyone else
1:57:28
[Laughter]
1:57:33
i'd written it the year before with
1:57:34
byron a few times our mutual friend down
1:57:37
there
1:57:37
and i just was like oh my god like she's
1:57:41
gone
1:57:42
yeah like bernie was like
1:57:45
you're really fast here and i was like
1:57:47
yeah i know
1:57:50
this is my track this is my baby
1:57:54
nice amazing that's it from us for this
1:57:57
episode
1:57:58
thanks again to our sponsors hope
1:57:59
technology revolution bike park schwalbe
1:58:02
singletrackworld.com if you're enjoying
1:58:04
the podcast please
1:58:05
subscribe so you don't miss an episode
1:58:07
and if you've got a second please drop
1:58:08
us a review
1:58:09
alternatively please give us a follow on
1:58:11
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1:58:13
racing or facebook.com
1:58:15
making up the numbers jack when can we
1:58:17
expect a new episode of the vlog i'm not
1:58:19
seeing one for a while
1:58:20
we're having a little bit of time off
1:58:22
but we've got new frames on the way from
1:58:24
comet tell the mullet frames obviously
1:58:26
me and
1:58:26
i'll need to get out on those and test
1:58:28
we've been on 29ers so
1:58:30
yeah i'll definitely film an episode of
1:58:31
that show you show you guys how we're
1:58:33
getting on and what the results are
1:58:35
excellent well keep your eyes out for
1:58:36
that everybody we'll be back with
1:58:38
another episode very soon
#Sports