Up next in 10
It’s that time of year when the #teamrumours are in full effect! Join George & Jack for some wild speculation, uncorroborated insight & the odd confirmed fact. Joining them are a couple of riders who’ve recently confirmed new rides: Commencal 21’s Angel Suárez Alonso & The YT Mob’s Dakotah Norton.
For more content see https://singletrackworld.com/2021/01/team-rumours-podcast-with-angel-suarez-alonso-and-dakotah-norton/
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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 and welcome to season
0:44
three of the podcast
0:45
legendary comedies faulty towers in the
0:47
office might have stopped after a couple
0:49
of series to preserve the quality
0:50
but there's none of those considerations
0:52
here and not only are we back for season
0:54
three
0:55
we've gone early this year so early in
0:57
fact that we haven't had time to sort
0:58
out any new advertising
0:59
so if you're keen to market your brand
1:01
to 6 000 fully committed downhill fans
1:03
please drop us a message on instagram
1:05
at making up the numbers racing thanks
1:07
to everyone for the feedback on the
1:09
getting more women racing episode
1:11
we've had more comments about that show
1:13
than any other and we're already
1:14
planning a follow-up episode
1:16
but in this episode we're gonna gonna do
1:19
a little bit of light to go with the
1:20
heavy because we're talking hashtag team
1:22
rumors
1:23
and the reason we've gone so early well
1:26
it's the high point of the offseason
1:27
teams have to submit their riders to the
1:29
uci by friday the 15th of january
1:31
so the deals are already done and you'll
1:34
have no doubt seeing some teams announce
1:35
already
1:36
but it'll be a few weeks before the uci
1:38
published the team so there's going to
1:39
be a few
1:40
there's still a few unannounced at the
1:41
moment starting with our own team rumors
1:44
then and i'm delighted to announce that
1:46
joining me
1:46
once again for season three he's one
1:48
vision mtv's jack reading
1:50
not had enough yet jack hi george thanks
1:52
for having me again
1:54
no man i'm really enjoying it and uh
1:56
keen to do another year with you so
1:57
hopefully we're gonna have some more
1:59
races to talk about and uh
2:01
yeah excited man the only people in the
2:03
world who do a racing podcast which has
2:05
no way well
2:05
had very little racing for for most of
2:09
season two
2:10
yeah we muddled our way through it i
2:11
think didn't we we did let's crack on
2:13
then
2:14
so what we're gonna do is go through the
2:16
teams alphabetically
2:17
and chat to a couple of the riders along
2:18
the way kicking things off
2:20
canyon who of course have two teams and
2:23
they only announced
2:24
last season so we believe they're going
2:26
to be the same for 2021 they're the
2:28
canyon collective factory team with troy
2:30
brosnan
2:31
mark wallace kyle hearn jacob jewett and
2:33
jack mara
2:34
and the canyon collected fn the canyon
2:36
collective fmd team with tony segre
2:39
chaos seagrove and dennis luffman
2:42
solid contenders in the men's and
2:44
women's fields there jack
2:45
you'd expect to see tony and troy back
2:47
at the sharp end in 2021 wouldn't you
2:50
yeah for sure i mean the women's field
2:52
is really starting to open up
2:54
and that will be really exciting to
2:56
watch again tiny came back well from
2:58
injury last year
2:59
fifth in the overall with i think it was
3:01
seventh sixth
3:02
third and third and i'm sure she'll be
3:05
one to watch for the wins throughout the
3:06
year
3:07
um that's undoubted and then troy
3:10
obviously was sixth in the overall in
3:12
2020 and by his standards that's
3:14
not very good is it um with it being
3:17
troy
3:18
i think his worst finish in a long time
3:20
he was seventh fifth eighth
3:22
eighth and sixth um but it was 2020 i
3:26
mean
3:27
you know how how much do we read into it
3:29
but we all know you can what he can do
3:30
and i'm sure he'll be in the fight
3:32
and then obviously they've got jack
3:34
moyer there who is such a dark horse
3:36
like
3:38
both downhill and enduro i wouldn't be
3:39
surprised you know see him
3:41
pull some results he's a really exciting
3:43
rider to follow
3:44
well next we have the first of what we
3:46
think of five teams riding common souls
3:48
in 2021 and that's the common cell
3:50
mock-off by riding addiction
3:52
and it's the big one really isn't it
3:54
it's got amari peron miriam nicole
3:56
tebow de prella tebow ruffan and gaetan
4:00
and in one of the most surprising moves
4:02
of the offseason remy tyrion moved on
4:04
from commonsell
4:05
did you see that coming jack and where
4:07
do you think he might be heading
4:10
honestly did not see that coming i i
4:12
would have thought
4:13
remy would have seen out his career on
4:16
commentary
4:16
and with that team so a huge surprise to
4:19
me
4:20
um when i did see it my initial feeling
4:22
was he must be retiring
4:24
um so if he is going somewhere else then
4:27
yeah news to me i'm not sure if i'm not
4:29
sure if you've got any any inclination
4:31
george
4:31
i've heard a couple i've heard one that
4:34
it might be giant
4:36
that would make sense and i've also
4:38
heard that it might be da vinci
4:42
because da vinci of split with uni or
4:45
and i don't know
4:46
i don't know what's happening with that
4:47
at all somebody did tell me when i found
4:50
out that was happening i can't remember
4:51
who
4:52
but they did say that both of those
4:54
companies da vinci and union were still
4:56
going to be at the world cup so
4:58
yeah maybe remy's going to the da vinci
5:01
that would make sense as well
5:02
so tell us a bit more about that team
5:04
dude
5:06
super exciting team isn't it it's
5:07
definitely one of my favorites to follow
5:09
um
5:10
omri will be out hungry as hell like
5:13
that's for sure after he missed out last
5:15
year and then
5:16
tebow is just yeah gonna be one to watch
5:18
for the wins definitely he proved that
5:20
he can be consistent last year and
5:22
he was super fired up and then miriam
5:25
nicole will will definitely be
5:27
in the fight for the women's yeah well
5:29
they've not announced a
5:30
replacement rider um they've been
5:32
teasing something on their instagram but
5:34
it looks like
5:35
it's suspension rather than a new ride
5:37
they're either switching from rock
5:38
shocks to fox or rollins
5:41
with tebow coming through last season
5:43
finishing fifth in the overall and a fit
5:45
again of maori
5:46
plus miriam as you say coming off second
5:48
in the overall do they need anyone else
5:50
absolutely not i mean with that lineup
5:52
they could have three riders on the
5:53
podium
5:54
every race and then with the ruffin
5:56
brothers backing that up with
5:58
solid top 30 results yeah they've got a
6:00
team ready to go so they don't need to
6:02
fill any more
6:04
more places really next there's
6:06
commonsell 100
6:07
which is thomas stack greg williamson
6:10
and hugo frixel on
6:11
again these three riders were only put
6:13
together last season and i
6:15
believe they're staying the same i
6:17
messaged greg and
6:18
he's on the team again in 2021 he didn't
6:20
mention anyone else but
6:22
it looks like he's gonna be the same and
6:24
i think we said when we had greg on but
6:25
they're like a team of wild cards really
6:28
aren't they you wouldn't be surprised to
6:29
see
6:29
any of them on the podium or equally
6:31
dnfing
6:33
yeah super exciting team for sure frixie
6:36
is a hell of a talented rider only very
6:38
young and it's definitely a matter of
6:39
time before he's
6:40
a regular podium threat for sure reminds
6:44
me of a certain
6:45
retired uk racer with this kind of
6:48
relaxed and fluid style
6:49
who do you think i'm on about there
6:51
george frix alone
6:53
who's be like who's relaxed do you care
6:56
relax still simmons no i think
7:00
think lazier lazier than simmons yeah
7:03
lazier than simmons yeah i suppose
7:05
simmons yeah simmons does come out the
7:06
gate with some powder
7:07
he's relaxing fluids retired bro yeah
7:11
retired i see what he's saying now
7:12
bryceland
7:13
yeah definitely they both kind of look
7:15
like they're not really trying when
7:16
they're going downhill and then their
7:17
splits come up and you're like
7:19
what um it's super fast so yeah
7:22
fricks is definitely one to watch um and
7:25
then greg showed us last year that he
7:27
clearly loves the bike and performs well
7:28
on it with that team in his corner so
7:31
yeah we can you know we can see him
7:32
pushing for top tens again
7:34
and then thomas stack he's got so much
7:36
fire um
7:38
so yeah not not the most consistent team
7:40
at the moment
7:41
with kind of one week they'll be great
7:43
and next week they'll be
7:44
crashing out but that could change and
7:46
next year they could could be banging
7:47
the results out
7:48
yeah and i saw i think um thomas has
7:51
posted on his instagram this week that
7:53
he's
7:53
he's he's had a wrist injury and his
7:56
first day out of a cast or something
7:57
like that this was this
7:58
way so he hurt himself in portugal on
8:01
that i believe it was the really fast
8:03
left-hander by the road um but loser you
8:06
yeah you don't want to go down there
8:08
you're chatting on probably towards
8:10
35-40 mile an hour and
8:12
he's i think he washed out and broke his
8:14
wrist or
8:15
yeah it must have been a broken wrist
8:16
because he's had the cast on now for
8:17
three months um
8:18
so that's off and hopefully be back on
8:20
the bike and getting himself fit ready
8:21
for april
8:22
cool then we have a new common soul team
8:25
that we know very little about and
8:26
that's common sol 21
8:28
and joining us now is their lead rider
8:29
angel suarez alonso
8:31
welcome to the show angel hey guys how's
8:34
it going
8:35
oh good well good you've had a fantastic
8:37
2020 season
8:38
national champion 11th and 7th in
8:41
maribor 12th and 8th in lucer
8:43
finishing 7th in the overall you must be
8:45
really pleased with that
8:47
yeah honestly i'm super super happy uh
8:50
you know it was
8:51
super weird last year with all this
8:53
great situation
8:54
and all that but i was good we had a
8:56
chance to race and
8:57
i did what i was expecting to do so yeah
9:00
i was super consistent that was
9:01
something that
9:02
i struggled a lot in the past so super
9:04
proud and happy to do that
9:06
cool did you do anything different in
9:08
your preparation for 2020
9:12
not not really like honestly honestly
9:14
from my point of view it's just like
9:16
i just got a chance to get everything
9:18
together
9:19
as normally always something was going
9:22
on like injuries or like something wrong
9:24
with
9:25
whatever the track or something like
9:27
that so this year i just felt like i was
9:29
ready
9:29
my body is healthy 100 and it was 100
9:33
healthy so that was the main the main
9:35
difference compared to before and i was
9:36
confident also too
9:38
yeah was it was it the first season that
9:40
you've actually been 100
9:41
fit for a while uh
9:45
yeah well 2018 i was really good i did
9:47
really good wrestles but i had some
9:49
mechanical issues at the beginning of
9:50
the season that i couldn't like
9:52
didn't help me as much and i wasn't also
9:54
as fast i think as i was this
9:56
last year but but pretty much that year
9:58
was pretty good also too that was my
10:00
best year until 2020 also yeah nice
10:04
so you've been with the yt mob since the
10:06
beginning five seasons
10:09
i did hear a little bit of talk it was
10:11
your decision to leave the team is that
10:12
right
10:13
yeah exactly like us well uh
10:16
yt like i really had a really good
10:19
relationship with whitey and i was super
10:20
happy with
10:21
how everything was going but having this
10:23
opportunity i felt
10:24
like uh it was super interesting for me
10:27
i like a lot the part of like developing
10:29
bikes and working with brands they
10:31
more focus on that racing part and stuff
10:33
so that was the
10:34
main thing that made me change my mind
10:36
and going somewhere else
10:37
and yeah exactly like they did a really
10:40
good offer and
10:41
super thankful for that but i just
10:43
wanted to do something different
10:45
yeah nice when did the planning start
10:47
then for the common cell
10:49
21 team well uh
10:52
so this year was everything was super
10:53
late but i already got in contact with
10:55
them before
10:56
before national champs that was around
10:58
maybe september or something like that
11:00
and they started talking to me and at
11:01
the end well like i was like yeah
11:03
well we'll see and depends a lot what
11:05
i'm going to do also in the world cups
11:06
because that's the main the main thing
11:08
for me and everything got getting better
11:11
my husbands were pretty good and then
11:13
everything is starting to look even
11:14
better so yeah nice
11:16
around around the end of the season
11:19
already i was
11:20
trying a few bikes and stuff and
11:23
that was something also that helped also
11:25
too i really like the comments i felt
11:26
like it
11:26
fits really well my writing style yeah
11:29
and
11:30
and yeah for sure like when i was
11:31
talking to them they were super
11:33
confident and like yeah you should come
11:34
and try the bike and then you'll make a
11:35
decision
11:36
like okay okay yeah absolutely so
11:40
um was it kind of your idea to have your
11:44
own
11:45
team with common cell the common cell 21
11:47
was there an option to join one of their
11:49
teams or did you
11:50
want to do your own thing uh i think
11:53
it's just just a few things that make it
11:56
go that way
11:57
uh because the other threat teams are
12:00
pretty french
12:00
so i think that's something that
12:02
wouldn't help me as much because just
12:04
being from other countries different
12:06
language wouldn't help
12:08
but but it's crazy because at the same
12:09
time with comments i'll everyone is
12:11
pretty
12:11
a lot of people is french but it's so
12:13
nice with me and
12:14
like from now on it's been super super
12:16
good but i think it fits better that way
12:18
and also commercial wants to
12:20
work harder on the side of the spanish
12:22
language
12:23
countries yeah that's why it's commensal
12:25
21 is because
12:26
21 countries in the world have spanish
12:29
like the first language
12:30
yeah so we kind of try to focus on that
12:33
a lot and work on the
12:37
speaking market nice that that's
12:38
something else i wanted to ask you
12:40
actually
12:40
obviously you speak english incredibly
12:43
well
12:44
um was it important to you to have
12:47
a spanish speaking team to create any
12:49
kind of like team
12:50
vibe that you're after or is it just
12:53
does it just work that way
12:55
i think it's well in in one way if you
12:58
really
12:59
i feel like you think really deep i
13:01
think it will be helpful
13:02
because it'll be easier to do everything
13:04
but in the other side i was so used to
13:06
do it that way with english and stuff
13:08
though
13:08
even i feel like i'm gonna miss it a
13:10
little bit you know yeah and
13:12
yeah and the way also like we're gonna
13:13
do a lot of stuff in spanish like so
13:15
much stuff i'm a bit worried in my
13:17
my side of losing a little bit of like
13:20
uh people that follow me that
13:21
international kind of english speakers
13:23
and stuff but i will try my best to keep
13:25
all the people like the situation and
13:28
what's going on and all that so my
13:29
instagram and
13:30
youtube and all that like will try to do
13:32
stuff in english
13:34
nice and then you've got a junior on the
13:35
team as well um
13:37
am i saying this right pal menial yeah
13:40
yeah yes
13:41
yeah yeah second year junior this year
13:43
yeah yes i'm aware of him from obviously
13:45
me helping dan
13:46
um in the running for the podium
13:49
positions
13:50
this year as a first year junior um yeah
13:53
very fast rider do you do you think
13:56
obviously you know us
13:57
in o'callaghan really well because
13:59
you've run a team with him
14:00
um yeah how's that how's that battle
14:02
going to go next year can he can he beat
14:04
austin on his day you think
14:06
i don't know it's it's hard to say
14:08
because for me i got a really
14:10
special relationship with with ocean and
14:12
his dad they've been really good to me
14:14
and i feel like i kind of be with them
14:16
and i really like them
14:17
but at the same time yeah paul is my
14:19
teammate but for now i like ocean a lot
14:22
like that's the main
14:23
the main thing for me i'll i'll try to
14:25
keep me
14:26
say help him because it's hard to say
14:28
because he's doing his thing he's doing
14:29
so good because him not because someone
14:31
is helping him but i always try to
14:33
something easy with you or be older to
14:34
see your stuff that someone doesn't but
14:37
that'll be hard to see but i think from
14:39
my point of view ocean is
14:40
is really really good like for me has
14:43
something
14:44
special it might not be good to say it
14:45
because it's not my teammate anymore and
14:48
stuff but for me it's the feeling i have
14:50
and i like to be honest and
14:52
easy for me is it special definitely and
14:54
i think everybody saw that last year i
14:56
i know his dad chris really well um
15:00
and ocean um well and yeah
15:03
i think they surprised everybo he
15:05
surprised everybody last year
15:07
um yeah with just how how fast and how
15:10
dominant he was so
15:12
yeah it's going to be exciting seeing
15:13
those guys move up to be second year
15:15
juniors and
15:16
uh yeah and going again so um
15:19
has the kind of move to have commonsense
15:22
21 and
15:22
your own team kind of has that been
15:25
inspired
15:26
by your time with aaron gwynne would you
15:29
say was there any kind of inspiration
15:31
i'm not
15:36
honestly it's something i ruined my team
15:38
but i'm really into it like i talk a lot
15:40
with the
15:41
money and there's another guy that with
15:43
the manager they work a lot with the
15:44
sponsors and
15:45
yeah i really like the idea just because
15:47
they wanted to go for a team that they
15:48
have
15:49
the best parts possible it wasn't about
15:51
getting money from
15:53
but at the same time it's pretty hard
15:55
because we'll be harder in some other
15:57
ways maybe wouldn't be as big budget as
15:59
other teams
15:59
but we make sure we're going to try to
16:01
have the best components possible
16:03
uh i feel like i always been like that i
16:06
always wanted to do something different
16:08
i don't know why
16:09
um i feel like just just the way i am
16:12
normally and
16:13
i'm really happy that you work out
16:15
because the bike for me is one of the
16:18
most important things
16:19
100 and i mean who who put the package
16:22
together angel because it
16:24
if you were speccing a dream build the
16:26
build you're running with a
16:28
common sal orleans and bergtech that's
16:30
pretty much the dream build isn't it
16:32
who's
16:32
who put that together so they the team
16:35
like charlie is the
16:36
the main guy on the team and then
16:38
georgie also to chimo is happy with
16:40
him so much with all the stuff and they
16:42
were talking with the sponsor
16:44
so was involved in some conversation
16:46
with all the sponsors and
16:48
for example with brakes might not many
16:50
people know about
16:51
hajjis uh we're running highest brakes
16:53
yeah and they're crazy good like
16:55
amazing like we tested before we signed
16:57
and we just to make sure they were good
16:58
and i was like i was like surprised like
17:00
what
17:02
yeah they're really good i never thought
17:04
they were
17:05
so so because they're not famous you
17:06
know and then we've cranked brother
17:08
wheels for example that for me it's
17:09
something important super important i
17:11
have a really good relationship with
17:12
grandmother's sister too because i was
17:13
with the shoes really soon and all this
17:14
with
17:15
cranberry pedals and stuff so kind of
17:17
everything is like yeah and then
17:19
the look of the bike always especially
17:21
super special too
17:22
so yeah like everything seems really
17:24
really
17:25
styled for me are you are you full um
17:28
full 29 or are you on the mullet
17:31
so honestly i didn't even try the 29er
17:34
they wanted to be to be directly on the
17:36
on the mullet
17:37
they say they are through the guy and
17:39
comments on the engineer just like you
17:40
just go with the mullet and then
17:42
you'll see and i was surprised like i
17:45
was the kind of guy i was like nah but
17:46
it doesn't make any sense i'm quite
17:48
tall enough like long legs so i don't
17:50
have any problems with the space and
17:52
stuff
17:52
well crazy good like yeah because i feel
17:56
like
17:56
it's better in what is better in a
17:59
moment but then it's not
18:00
worse in any way well it should be worse
18:02
it's like still super stable it carried
18:04
a lot of speed of course it accelerates
18:06
more
18:07
but it doesn't roll as super fast as a
18:08
29 when it's super quick
18:10
but it has so many other stuff that is
18:12
really good so yeah i'm super surprised
18:14
honestly like
18:15
because i was the other way before yeah
18:18
and is it full all in factory support
18:21
yeah yes that's something that's really
18:23
cool too like is
18:24
full factory where it's weird definitely
18:27
only i think only specialized it was the
18:29
only team having that so yeah i remember
18:31
when we had brayton on the podcast he
18:33
said there was a big difference between
18:35
the support
18:36
he wasn't full factory and the product
18:38
he was getting was very different he
18:40
thought to what loic was riding
18:41
yeah yeah like it's crazy because they
18:45
don't get so deep with any team i think
18:47
like they're super big and they know
18:49
what to do well
18:50
and then they let you do whatever you
18:52
but they guide you to where they think
18:54
is good for you yeah
18:56
so for example right now this week on
18:57
mandara and i was doing testing with
18:59
comment cell and we asking
19:00
what do like which cartridge run inside
19:03
like which hydraulic and all that and we
19:05
like kind of working on that and
19:07
and yeah they just guide you in the way
19:09
you should go by the same time they
19:11
just let you do your your thing at the
19:12
same time what is nice
19:15
nice so you're coming off the yt mob
19:17
like we said which is a very big
19:19
team lots of support staff are you
19:22
slimming it down a bit and running a
19:23
smaller setup
19:24
or are you trying to recreate that
19:27
factory level pit support that you've
19:28
been used to
19:30
so we are i think we're gonna have like
19:32
we don't have we're not gonna have a
19:34
truck we're gonna have a
19:35
big ban and then another little band
19:38
with a trailer and stuff
19:39
but we have a we'll have a big team like
19:41
big big enough i think
19:42
what is the main the main thing uh
19:46
and then i feel like now with all this
19:48
situation and thing
19:49
the image is more important in red bull
19:52
tv
19:52
and then the social media you do more
19:54
than having a big track at least
19:55
at the beginning when the team is not
19:57
super big so
19:59
yeah we're gonna try to do that and then
20:02
focus a lot try to do good videos good
20:04
photos
20:05
content all the time on the team and or
20:07
or writers on the writers also to your
20:09
site
20:10
but but yeah for sure in that size a bit
20:12
different because whitey mob is
20:14
really no like from a lot of people and
20:16
it has a big big name and even whitey
20:18
the brand too so uh
20:20
but yeah i think that's also something i
20:22
like i like to grow with
20:23
like we have brands that they're gonna
20:25
grow with us i think hopefully we're
20:26
gonna try to do that so it's just
20:27
something i like
20:28
because i'm trying to grow a field in my
20:30
career so yeah i like that
20:32
nice so you'll obviously be racing a
20:34
full world cup season
20:35
what other events does the team have
20:37
planned
20:39
so yeah we're gonna have to uh walk up
20:41
for sure as you say
20:42
national champs and then we're gonna do
20:43
some open like uh
20:45
spanish cup races too so they want us to
20:48
be there
20:49
and then try to do content as much as we
20:51
can for like
20:52
spanish speaking yeah no plans to get to
20:55
any crank works events
20:56
or anything like that no no not yet i
20:58
think no because also i
21:00
like it but if i want to be really
21:02
focused and do loads of
21:03
testing and stuff it wouldn't help as
21:05
much so we kind of like trying to
21:07
yeah 100 so um you haven't stood
21:11
on the world cup podium as of yet um
21:15
i had a conversation with you in maribor
21:17
after
21:18
you came seventh outside my pit and i
21:20
think
21:21
if i remember right your words were i
21:24
thought i'd done enough
21:25
when you were talking about thinking
21:27
you'd almost got a podium
21:29
yeah after what had clearly felt to you
21:32
like a great run
21:33
um did you walk away disappointed with
21:35
that seventh place and think oh i
21:37
i nearly got the podium or were you
21:39
happy with the result
21:41
no honestly i was super happy it was
21:42
just like a veal of
21:44
got to the bottom greg was first and i
21:46
got into the lead and it's like oh greg
21:47
did podium
21:49
the two days before yeah and i was asked
21:51
him and it was like oh yeah it was
21:52
pretty good run and just did a little
21:54
mistake at the top
21:54
and and then it was really good but then
21:56
i didn't though it was going to be so
21:58
tight at how it was yeah uh but still
22:00
super happy like i was like
22:02
i missed it by 0.4 i think it was
22:04
something like that so it was
22:05
nothing but it's a lot at the same time
22:08
uh but i was happy really happy yeah
22:10
nice yeah i think it was one of those
22:12
weekends where on the first race
22:14
because it was still quite wet the gaps
22:17
were quite
22:17
you know you had more room for error
22:19
whereas by sunday it was
22:21
pretty dry and yeah the smallest little
22:24
bit you were you were dropping back and
22:25
i think i remember
22:26
greg saying in an interview afterwards
22:28
that he was surprised i think he was
22:30
10th and i'm sure he said he was
22:31
surprised he was
22:32
something like that yeah he was that he
22:34
was back there well
22:36
anyway after a great season in 2020
22:38
finishing with your top 10 results and
22:40
seventh in the overall
22:41
um how are you feeling going into 2021
22:44
and
22:45
are you feeling like the podiums are a
22:46
little bit closer to being able to get
22:48
hold off
22:49
uh yeah i i feel like i feel like it's a
22:52
bit closer now just because
22:53
before the goal was more top ten than
22:55
podium
22:56
just to make sure i could be able to do
22:58
it because i knew i did it before so i
23:00
was like all right now i want to make
23:01
sure i could do it
23:02
yeah uh once i feel like now i'm i'm
23:05
kind of
23:05
okay to do it if you have a back weekend
23:07
won't be there i think like even top ten
23:10
because it's super tight but that's the
23:12
that's the goal of all i wanna
23:13
step it up a little bit and i'm sure
23:15
it's not gonna be
23:17
first second or third because that takes
23:19
even more
23:20
but to be you know good we can around
23:23
four or fifth maybe in a really good one
23:24
third
23:25
i think that's the the main the main
23:27
goal now and that's what what we're
23:28
working for and
23:29
what we're gonna try nice well it's a
23:31
really really mature and professional
23:33
way of looking at it seeing the steps
23:35
and and seeing where you are in your
23:36
career and
23:37
yeah well as you just said there are so
23:39
many races who we could name
23:41
that you know you wouldn't i wouldn't
23:42
bet against get in a top 10 on a world
23:44
cup weekend and
23:45
after the season you've just had you're
23:47
now one of those guys that we can
23:49
you know we can look to get in those top
23:50
tens so um
23:52
best of luck and uh we really i really
23:54
hope that the new team works well for
23:56
you
23:56
um and it's great like you say so you
23:59
know you're on the best bike so
24:01
yeah yeah i think so that i feel like
24:03
that's going to make a difference in
24:05
in one way like since the beginning i
24:06
was surprised how
24:08
because it's easier like just it's
24:10
really good bike just it makes
24:11
everything really easy
24:12
so when you're pushing having no
24:14
problems like less programs at least
24:16
with the track is better
24:18
before you go angel what is what are the
24:21
differences you've noticed between then
24:22
the comments all and the two as
24:24
uh for me the main thing is that it
24:27
makes everything a bit easier so i don't
24:29
think it would be crazy different
24:30
in fast because it's not going to be i
24:32
was close to the
24:33
first guy so not going to be just makes
24:35
everything a bit easier to write
24:37
and i'm enjoying writing a bit more than
24:39
i was doing before also too
24:41
like i've been riding a lot for example
24:42
this winter when normally in winter are
24:44
not right as much
24:45
also because i need to get used to but
24:47
it's just because i'm i'm enjoying a lot
24:49
i think the mullet has something to see
24:51
with that also too
24:52
yeah it's more more fun to write more
24:54
playful and
24:56
and still good in going fast and
24:58
consistent i definitely agree with that
25:00
when i came off the nikolai
25:02
in 2018 on to the common cell i felt
25:06
exactly the same thing it was just
25:07
easier to go fast because the bike was
25:09
smoother especially with the high pivot
25:11
and then yeah and then i've just come
25:13
off the 29er and we
25:15
obviously things in the uk are pretty
25:17
at the moment we're
25:19
not really allowed to do much so me and
25:21
dan have only had one day
25:22
on our mullets um but it was exactly the
25:25
same feeling
25:26
it was as fast everywhere but it was
25:29
more playful you could
25:30
corner quicker little simple things like
25:33
if i made a mistake i wanted to change
25:35
position on the track
25:36
you could just snap it back across so
25:39
easy yeah it's crazy
25:40
where is the 29 rear wheel is just like
25:42
you have to like send it a text and be
25:44
like
25:45
just a heads up we're going to be
25:46
changing direction
25:48
yeah it's like that that's the best way
25:50
to spend the difference because
25:52
even if you like it's easier to set up
25:53
more because the bike turns quicker
25:55
by the same time if you missed it yeah
25:57
and you can turn in that's really short
26:01
or angle like so short the bike will
26:03
slide
26:04
but don't lose much speed and it will
26:05
turn so so quick like chain direction
26:07
it's crazy and i really like for me i
26:09
feel like one of my strongest points is
26:11
turning
26:12
um just because i like turning a lot
26:13
also too and now i'm i'm loving it
26:16
it's great cool well but best a lot for
26:19
2021 angel i hope you have a great
26:21
season
26:22
uh thank you very much guys have a good
26:23
have a good job and bye-bye see ya
26:26
we'll be back with more after these
26:27
messages
26:33
welcome back our next guest is on the yt
26:36
mob so there's a lot to get through
26:37
alphabetically before then
26:39
so i'll crack on next team is
26:41
continental atherton
26:42
and it looks like they're staying the
26:44
same for 2021 rachel atherton
26:46
g atherton charlie hatton and millie
26:48
johnson i
26:50
dropped charlie a message and he he
26:52
confirmed he's on the team again next
26:53
season and
26:54
he looks from her instagram like millie
26:56
is too can g win
26:58
another world cup that's that's one big
27:00
question for this team
27:02
yeah i mean when we spoke to him on the
27:04
podcast at the start of last year
27:07
i would have said maybe he sounded
27:10
hungry and focused didn't he we asked
27:11
him some pretty probing questions about
27:13
what he wanted to achieve and he said he
27:14
wanted to be back at the top
27:16
um but his results last year just didn't
27:18
support that at all
27:19
um but again it was it was 20 20.
27:22
a lot of riders were walking around like
27:24
they didn't give a some were even
27:26
saying they didn't give a and
27:27
weren't happy about the double headers
27:28
so
27:29
was g one of those and he'll come back
27:32
the normal
27:32
g athlete that everyone's used to in
27:34
2021 i guess we'll just have to find out
27:36
what do you think makes greg
27:39
still be able to do it at 38
27:43
i'm not sure how old he is anymore and
27:46
now 39
27:49
not be able to keep to stay there i
27:52
think the thing is
27:53
he's never not been there has he so
27:56
yeah g kind of faded away a little
27:59
and then he came second at la bress
28:02
without an
28:03
endura rider being there he would have
28:04
won it um
28:06
and like then he's faded away again
28:10
whereas greg's never
28:11
not been there throughout everyone
28:14
sam hill aaron goin now the frenchies
28:17
greg's always been
28:19
a podium contender and a threat so he's
28:22
always going to have that hunger because
28:23
he's where he wants to be
28:25
um if if he has a season where he's all
28:28
of a sudden he's struggling to get
28:29
inside that top ten
28:31
it yeah he'll probably probably walk
28:33
away but
28:35
i think it's easier easy for him to keep
28:37
the fire because
28:38
it's where he wants to be so he's having
28:41
a good time
28:44
next question for that team is rachel
28:46
she's been out for a long time
28:48
it'll be by the time we go racing again
28:50
it's going to be nearly two years
28:52
how hard is it going to be for her to
28:54
get back in the groove do you think
28:56
yeah i mean honestly i think rachel
29:00
being what rachel's like i think she'll
29:01
only come back
29:03
to world cup racing if she thinks she
29:05
can win
29:06
and it takes so much focus and
29:08
dedication
29:09
it'll definitely depend on where she is
29:11
in her life like um
29:14
you know she's engaged now is she you
29:17
know wanting to get married and have
29:18
kids
29:18
who knows only her and her close circle
29:21
of family and friends know that maybe
29:23
only she knows
29:24
um she might take a different role
29:27
within atherton bikes as more of a brand
29:29
ambassador and
29:30
and not be doing the racing similar
29:31
maybe to what tracy hannah's doing with
29:34
you know the team she rides for and
29:35
she's not going to be doing those high
29:36
profile races but instead
29:39
you know represent net crank works and
29:40
things like that um
29:42
yeah it boils down to does rachel think
29:45
she can win the race
29:46
if she if she thinks that she will be
29:48
there for sure
29:50
but if she's if you know if everything
29:52
isn't in the right place for that then
29:54
then no i don't think she'll be there
29:56
fair enough
29:57
next up cube factory racing danny hart
30:00
and max heart and stern
30:02
danny on his new program he's going to
30:05
be hungry isn't he after the way that
30:07
the madison deal came to an end
30:09
his ex-team-mate winning the world cup
30:11
overall he's sure to have a bit of fire
30:13
in his belly
30:14
oh yeah absolutely he clearly didn't
30:16
have his head in the game
30:18
in 2020 and for obvious reasons
30:21
that news spill in maribor was
30:23
ridiculous i mean who knows why
30:25
that happened the way it did when it did
30:27
but in my opinion it was
30:29
very unprofessional um so it means for
30:32
sure he's going to come out firing all
30:33
cylinders for 2021 it's danny art
30:35
everybody knows what he can do he's
30:37
proved it many many times
30:39
um so yeah and i mean obviously he's got
30:42
his
30:43
with the team change he's got his new
30:44
coach he's under the fit for racing
30:46
program which is what i've been on for
30:48
the last couple of years and
30:49
yeah i can tell you from personal
30:51
experience he's definitely going to be
30:53
fitter and stronger and the most
30:54
prepared he's ever been i've
30:56
obviously it's quite a close circle of
30:58
us that work with johnny at fit for
30:59
racing and
31:00
that they're kind of happy where danny
31:02
is but they're also
31:04
really kind of keen to to to progress
31:07
him and he's keen to progress and he's
31:08
working hard up there with elliot and
31:10
adam so
31:11
yeah i think he's gonna be in good shape
31:13
i think the
31:14
cube bike is either a 650b or a 29 i
31:17
don't think there's a mullet
31:18
yeah oh really yeah i i wouldn't be
31:21
surprised to see one arrive
31:24
start of april yeah i mean we all know
31:26
from the
31:28
mist that he doesn't like or didn't like
31:30
that 29er so
31:33
yeah how easy it is for them to modify
31:35
the either
31:36
either frame with offset bushings who
31:38
knows but i didn't i didn't realize that
31:40
so that's interesting i mean he must
31:41
have been happy i'd otherwise i don't
31:42
think he would have signed because
31:44
you know with just him and max there
31:46
it's clear that cube wanted to win races
31:48
so he wouldn't have signed if he wasn't
31:49
happy with the bike
31:50
yeah it's a fast statement from cube
31:51
that isn't it it's a changing
31:53
ideology kind of to try and actually win
31:56
the thing
31:57
big time big step up with three you know
31:59
very
32:01
talented riders phil on his day
32:03
obviously can have
32:04
that kind of flash result but danny's
32:07
you know
32:07
a much more expensive consistent podium
32:10
and race win threat so
32:11
as you say it's definitely a big
32:12
statement the fourth team
32:15
riding common soul bikes he's dorval a.m
32:17
pro the dovel am pro team
32:19
which is camille balanch monica frasnick
32:22
baptist period
32:23
and benoit coulombs um last year they
32:26
had mariana salazar
32:28
on there as well and i believe she's
32:29
gone privateer now but will still get
32:31
support from dorval
32:33
camille obviously won worlds last season
32:35
and benoit had a really really good
32:37
season
32:37
including becoming french national champ
32:40
that team must have far exceeded their
32:42
goals for 2020
32:44
yeah for sure i mean especially with the
32:46
world champs um
32:48
but great year for them and it will be
32:49
exciting to see if they can come back
32:51
and you know build on that next year
32:53
but they were they're a really nice crew
32:54
i know i know more personally they give
32:56
us a lift up to the top and
32:57
loser when they didn't have to they're a
32:59
nice bunch and um
33:01
we definitely look forward to hanging
33:02
out with him again at the races and
33:04
hopefully benoit's working on his
33:05
english like he's promised so that we
33:06
can have him on the podcast this year
33:08
and
33:08
get some words from him definitely so
33:10
now now we get into a few that are um
33:13
unannounced so we've got first up we've
33:14
got the giant factory off-road team
33:17
as we've just discussed maybe remy
33:19
tyrion looks like jacob dixon staying
33:21
there and matthew sterling um
33:24
marcelo gutierrez did a glory dream
33:27
build video on his uh
33:29
instagram the other day so i don't know
33:31
whether he'll be coming back to world
33:32
cup racing or whether he's
33:34
he's out now but this is the first of
33:36
the big kind of
33:37
remaining question marks really i
33:40
believe
33:40
giant's the biggest bike company in the
33:42
world so they've got the budget but they
33:44
they never seem to try and make that
33:46
commitment to try and win downhill races
33:48
do they
33:49
no so i mean
33:53
from what we were from what i kind of
33:55
heard on the
33:56
gossip vine last year and what i saw
34:00
with them
34:01
having matthew and jacob at world champs
34:03
and then not having them
34:05
attend the world cups even though when
34:07
we were at leo gang we were
34:09
about three hours or something from
34:10
maribor
34:12
their commitment as you say is just poor
34:14
and it seemed like
34:16
it seemed like they'd just taken any
34:17
excuse to just not not any excuse
34:20
obviously there was a serious pandemic
34:21
going on but you know
34:24
small teams like myself made it work big
34:26
teams like specialized made it work
34:28
medium-sized teams made it work and it
34:31
just seems like
34:32
seemed like giant just couldn't be asked
34:33
and yeah
34:35
whether they're going to go right let's
34:36
do this properly and sign a big rider
34:38
like remy or whether it's just going to
34:40
be more of the same and
34:42
yeah who knows what to say so far they
34:44
certainly haven't been chasing those
34:46
race wins
34:46
yeah and then next ups gt factory racing
34:49
which win masters
34:50
johannes van closberg the denim
34:52
destroyer martin mays
34:54
noga korem ethan crack by the looks fit
34:57
it's
34:57
it's a very similar brand isn't it it's
34:59
a legendary brand with
35:00
huge sales globally but there are much
35:03
smaller brands with stronger teams they
35:05
seem to pick up riders who become
35:08
available rather than
35:09
apart from martin who has some kind of
35:12
connection i believe to gt
35:14
rather than going out and signing a
35:16
podium contender
35:19
anybody you think they'll be adding to
35:20
that lineup how can you see it that g
35:22
yeah i mean i do just wonder as you say
35:24
like i wonder how much martin costs
35:27
because win won't be cheap either
35:28
because he's a very marketable rider
35:30
with the other things he does away from
35:32
the races
35:33
so whether they're yeah they're happy
35:35
with what martin does from the racing
35:37
perspective and then they've got
35:39
what windows in the media and they're
35:40
kind of happy with that who knows
35:42
i mean that there's there's feel that
35:44
well kicking about isn't there so maybe
35:46
we'll see him pop up
35:48
like that um
35:51
he's been riding with win i think from
35:53
yeah because in the uk now isn't he of
35:55
course so
35:56
yeah i mean he's got a phil's gotta go
35:58
somewhere he's on the podium in
35:59
louisiana
36:00
somebody's gonna give him give him a
36:02
ride he's a super talented rider
36:04
i wonder if you know like you look at
36:06
those brands that
36:08
have to say the top three enduro world
36:10
series riders if you say
36:11
sam hill richie rood martin mays
36:14
probably top three
36:15
none of those have downhill teams
36:19
no you're sorry
36:22
you can't afford it i guess no that
36:24
happened to crc didn't it sam just
36:26
engulfed the budget and i think
36:28
the people involved in that team are
36:29
quite excited by enduro so they were
36:31
quite happy to just
36:33
go that way yeah i wonder if it does
36:34
translate to sales more than
36:37
having a downhill team you know having
36:39
the top enduro riders
36:40
i've been told before like maybe i i
36:44
guess there'll be
36:44
different opinions within the industry
36:46
on this and i'm sure grand managers and
36:48
people
36:49
marketing these brands have different
36:51
opinions but
36:52
i've been told the opposite many times
36:55
that
36:55
they're not bothered about enduro at all
36:58
and
36:59
and the you know the most of the brands
37:01
are more interested in pumping the money
37:02
into
37:03
downhill i mean correct me if i'm wrong
37:05
but specialized the donald team spends a
37:08
shitload of money do they even have an
37:10
enduro
37:11
team i don't think they do anymore
37:13
because they haven't got riders but
37:15
yeah so look at that biggest one of the
37:17
biggest bike companies
37:19
santa cruz they've got mark scott but
37:21
again no
37:22
proper maybe they are they've got that
37:25
character
37:27
yeah yeah but yeah as you say i think i
37:30
think
37:30
some rounds the chain reaction have gone
37:32
right we're all about enduro and
37:33
samuel and then other brands have gone
37:35
we're all about downhill um
37:38
interesting next is hope factory racing
37:41
one of the sponsors of the show and
37:42
i spoke with them this week and they
37:44
confirmed their sponsorship again for
37:46
2021 so thank you very much to that
37:48
for that to the hope team and but i
37:50
forgot to ask them about their team
37:52
whilst i was speaking to them so i know
37:54
melanie shapas is off the team
37:56
and you can't see any britain anywhere
37:59
else can you then hope he's been there
38:00
that long he's part of the furniture now
38:02
well we met and said that about angel
38:05
and
38:06
white and he's moved so one thing's for
38:09
sure brayton only does what brian wants
38:10
to do so
38:12
very much like danny if he's leaving
38:14
he'll be leaving for a reason
38:15
so yeah um intense factory racing
38:19
aaron gwynne nico malalian seth sherlock
38:22
moving up to
38:22
elite it's a big year for aaron isn't it
38:25
third year on intense
38:27
look to be getting back to his best in
38:29
2020 with that fourth and loser but
38:31
he's still stuck on 19 wins the question
38:34
is will we see gwyn on the top step in
38:36
2021
38:38
yeah i mean a couple of years ago maybe
38:41
three or four years ago i remember just
38:42
saying someone uh
38:43
that quinn was definitely gonna
38:45
supersede greg in the goat race and
38:47
yeah now i'm kind of of the opposite
38:50
opinion
38:51
at the moment you'd probably put your
38:53
money on like greg to win at fort
38:55
william or something next year and go to
38:56
23 and
38:57
maybe not see aaron but i mean aaron's
39:00
so calculated
39:02
he'll win when he's ready to win it it
39:04
won't be like a roll or a nice run that
39:06
we see someone like
39:08
i don't know let's say period on halfway
39:10
like leger last year where it was just
39:12
so wild top to bottom um
39:15
it'll be when all these ducks are in a
39:17
row and on the day um
39:20
none of the fast frenchies or or even
39:21
the goat will be able to touch him we've
39:23
seen that before like that run in
39:24
windham the run up by the soul
39:26
but the big question is can he get all
39:27
those pieces in the right place
39:29
and be there again he's one of those
39:30
riders that if everything is right he's
39:32
unbeatable
39:33
but it also seems that he's kind of one
39:36
of them
39:36
if one thing is wrong or a little bit
39:39
off he doesn't turn up
39:41
and i think with so many other guys now
39:44
in contention for the win
39:45
it's not just those two or three anymore
39:47
there's kind of like almost
39:48
10 of them that you'd kind of think
39:50
could do it so
39:51
so yeah who knows kona factory team
39:55
conor fearing
39:56
jackson through and milan miranda miller
39:58
i don't know if miranda will be
40:00
racing downhill but i think conor's one
40:03
of those guys
40:04
like dean lucas who stayed in australia
40:06
last year
40:07
sam hill didn't come racing yeah i think
40:09
it's uh
40:11
i was gonna ask you this a bit later
40:12
when we've gone to to scott but i'll see
40:14
now
40:15
do you think those guys if it's been
40:17
nearly two years since the race
40:19
eight at least 18 months how how easy is
40:22
it to jump
40:23
back in after that length of break do
40:25
you reckon yeah i mean
40:28
hopefully they'll get some events in
40:30
australia because obviously they're into
40:32
summer now in australia
40:33
there was one this weekend i think
40:35
actually the racing mount bowler this
40:37
weekend so there you go
40:38
so if they've got some pre-season events
40:40
it'll all come back
40:41
like it's like riding a bike okay
40:44
but um sorry that was bad
40:47
[Laughter]
40:50
yeah i mean those guys are experienced
40:52
they can you know they can
40:53
be getting back on with it i was
40:55
thinking about this earlier today that
40:56
dean lucas was 10th in the overall in
40:59
2019 he would have been permanently
41:01
protected
41:02
in 2020 i'm not sure what the uci will
41:04
do about that
41:05
um but when he swings his leg over his
41:07
bike
41:08
in april and maribor assuming he does
41:11
um it'll be 18 months since he's raised
41:14
a world cup that's a long time
41:16
yeah definitely madison sarasota factory
41:19
team the first ones to announce matt
41:21
walker veronica
41:22
vidman jordan williams and harry malloy
41:26
matt's obviously the defending world cup
41:28
champion
41:29
can he repeat in 2021 yeah for sure
41:32
very excited to see if matt can produce
41:34
his first win next
41:36
next year i do wonder if he'll obsess
41:39
about
41:39
winning too much and whether that then
41:42
unsettles him if it doesn't come
41:44
straight away
41:45
if you are listening back hopefully what
41:47
you and will have got going on
41:49
will kind of keep you uh keep you
41:51
focused and stop that happening
41:53
and uh you know keep the view on the
41:55
bigger picture now as we as we said to
41:57
him when he was on
41:58
like he's in my opinion he's definitely
42:00
got what it takes to spend 15 or 20
42:02
years at the top of the sport like greg
42:03
has
42:04
um the other uh the other one
42:08
on that team that's going to be quite
42:09
exciting is jordan williams
42:11
nobody you know a lot of our listeners
42:13
won't even know who that is but
42:15
he was a very fast youth rider
42:18
in 2019 would have been a second year
42:22
youth in 2020 so he's now going up to
42:24
to junior and dan knows him
42:28
chats with him and uh it sounds like
42:30
he's he's hungry as hell and very very
42:32
fast so
42:33
um those second year juniors uh sheen
42:36
and uh
42:37
the spanish lad that we were talking
42:39
about last night and a few of the others
42:41
that
42:41
they're going to have jordan to contend
42:43
with as well so that's going to be
42:44
exciting and then as you say
42:47
veronica let's see if she can you know
42:50
keep pushing for podiums next year
42:52
it's going to be interesting so jordan
42:53
williams when i started doing the blog
42:55
for single track in 2016 or 2017.
42:59
16 i think he was a first-year
43:03
juvenile and i remember this because
43:07
he went undefeated and i think he might
43:09
have done it he definitely did like his
43:11
first season
43:12
completely undefeated might have done
43:14
his second season as well at the
43:15
nationals and all the
43:17
all the uk races and he was he's the one
43:20
that i remember
43:21
you know how you see riders coming
43:22
through that you just think keep your
43:24
eye on
43:25
that one because he's winning every week
43:28
so yeah
43:29
yeah definitely watch next
43:32
ms mondraker lori looks like
43:35
they haven't announced but it looks like
43:37
he's going to be lori greenland brook
43:38
macdonald
43:39
eleonora farina and tebow layla lalit
43:42
how do you pronounce that t-ball there
43:44
i was called him
43:48
sorry tubo if you're listening um mike
43:51
jones
43:51
they've obviously announced off the team
43:53
we're presuming everyone else is staying
43:55
because
43:56
if you're announcing your rider was
43:58
leaving you then surely you'd announce
43:59
them all kind of at the same time
44:02
um andreas club looks like a good
44:05
addition to that team he's austrian like
44:08
marcus pekko who runs there
44:10
and he impressed on gammaxx last season
44:12
yeah
44:13
definitely could uh could be an addition
44:15
there i can't remember where he finished
44:16
in the overall but he definitely had
44:17
some good results a couple of top 20s i
44:19
believe
44:20
yeah that would be a good addition to
44:21
that team for sure and laurie
44:23
do you think you were confident you
44:26
thought laurie was gonna
44:27
win i mean obviously he had a bad injury
44:30
to his wrist i think was it the first
44:31
race
44:32
you were confident yeah you picked him
44:34
for for
44:36
winning stuff this season yeah i mean
44:39
i know i wouldn't be shy of picking him
44:40
again this is definitely a major threat
44:42
for sure
44:44
next we haven't i'll give it the full
44:46
name and she made a point of mentioning
44:47
to me this week
44:48
it's nina hoffman racing powered by
44:51
stiffmtb.com
44:53
and their rider is nina hoffman and as i
44:56
say i spoke to her and she's sticking
44:57
with the solo program in 2021
45:00
2020 worked out pretty well for her so
45:02
um
45:04
you can see her doing well again yeah
45:06
she won at least one yeah
45:07
yeah she won yeah yeah yeah where did
45:10
you can you remember where she finished
45:11
in the overall
45:12
i'm guessing third because mark
45:15
cabarrus won didn't she i can't remember
45:17
him miriam was second
45:18
my room second okay so yeah nina was
45:20
probably third but yeah
45:22
so she's definitely shown she's there
45:24
yeah
45:25
and if that program works for i can say
45:27
from experience that having your own
45:29
setup
45:29
can be really really beneficial so yeah
45:32
we've kind of
45:33
angel who we've spoken to already nina
45:36
going that way with a kind of similar
45:37
approach to yourself do you think we're
45:39
going to see
45:40
do you think that's going to be one of
45:41
the things that comes out of this
45:42
pandemic
45:43
the less kind of factory teams and more
45:46
people
45:46
going their own way honestly i mean
45:50
you're winding me up here i'm going to
45:51
be off but um i don't think it's
45:54
anything to do with covid
45:55
it's it's simply that there are not
45:58
enough
45:59
spots on teams for the amount of
46:02
talented riders that are in the paddock
46:06
and with the with the sport being
46:07
strangulated by
46:09
the uci and red bull making it more and
46:12
more difficult for teams to register
46:14
or you know it just means there's too
46:17
many riders for what's going on
46:19
so it leaves quite a lot of riders in
46:20
the position where they do need to do
46:22
their own thing and
46:23
yeah hopefully people will start to
46:25
really do that and
46:26
get their heads together and go right
46:28
hang on a minute well hang on we're all
46:29
top 60 riders and we're not on factory
46:31
teams
46:32
let's you know put our resources
46:34
together and combine some sponsors and
46:36
let's go racing
46:37
um because the cost to the brand must be
46:40
way less
46:41
you know if there's no stroke there's no
46:43
you know
46:44
definitely um next again another one
46:47
that hasn't confirmed yet but looks like
46:49
it's going to be the same from
46:51
having a little scout round on instagram
46:52
and stuff and that's norco factory
46:54
downhill team sam blinking stop henry
46:57
fitzgerald lucas cruz and elliott
46:58
jermison
47:00
sam i don't think sam came over for the
47:02
for the 2020 season did he think he said
47:04
in new zealand
47:05
yeah the three three big riders that i
47:07
was aware of not being in attendance was
47:09
sam
47:10
connor and dean yeah there were
47:14
three um so yeah it would be interesting
47:16
to see
47:17
he'd had a really good pre-season and he
47:19
wouldn't crank it yeah
47:20
yeah don't yeah interesting to see if he
47:23
comes out
47:24
the gate's hot this year um pivot
47:27
factory racing
47:28
looks like they're staying the same i
47:30
messaged emily and she said
47:32
she's um she's on the team again next
47:35
season there's going to be an
47:36
announcement in the coming days but it's
47:38
quite a strong team in it bernie kerr
47:39
headmasters matt walker
47:41
the austria the kiwi matt walker sorry
47:43
not australian uh emily and morgan shaw
47:46
that's a pretty
47:47
it's a strong lineup for a brand like
47:49
pivot definitely and the marketable
47:51
brand as well they've all got their own
47:52
qualities and
47:53
they're kind of like a little family
47:55
aren't they like emily said and uh
47:57
yeah fun team to keep your eye on
48:00
polygon you are tracey's obviously
48:02
retired
48:04
mick have you heard anything mick
48:06
keeping going
48:07
oh nick will be there when he's 50.
48:11
i ride with mick quite a lot of the
48:12
races and new runs together and hang
48:14
around in the pits and
48:15
he just loves it like this is what he's
48:17
done forever and
48:19
it's it's a good time and it's good
48:20
people and he's riding his bike and
48:23
it's going to end one day so if you've
48:25
got a deal you might as well
48:26
carry on with it and everybody's happy
48:28
for you yeah
48:30
i think mix 36 i'm pretty sure
48:34
so i'm unless someone changed i'd be i'm
48:38
convinced he'll be there to list 40.
48:40
yeah and as i messaged joe uh joe breden
48:43
he's confirmed that he's on you are next
48:45
season
48:46
there's rumors on the uh internet that
48:50
they might not be on polygon that the us
48:53
they might be on a different brand
48:56
i'm not saying anything but
49:00
be interesting to see what comes out of
49:02
that then because obviously couscous the
49:03
team manager has been
49:05
you know running the ui team with
49:07
support from polygon for about
49:09
nine years i think yeah so
49:12
that'll be uh be interesting to see what
49:14
happens there
49:16
propane factory racing george brannigan
49:18
henry kerr
49:19
luke mayer smith um there were rumors of
49:22
phil going back here
49:23
on the internet okay but
49:27
i don't know i don't know whether you
49:28
can see a brand it's a small brand
49:30
propane really isn't it
49:32
i might be misremembering but i'm not
49:35
sure that
49:36
relationship ended well no i don't think
49:38
he did now i'm saying so
49:40
you know whether they are just rumors
49:42
and speculation
49:44
um i think i saw george brannigan was
49:46
riding a new
49:47
downhill bike though the other weekend
49:50
right
49:51
nearby cooper knew back coming so next
49:54
alphabetically would be the santa cruz
49:56
syndicate but i'm going to skip over
49:57
those and i'm going to go straight to
49:58
the scott factory downhill team
50:01
which looks like it's going to be marine
50:02
cabaret brendan fairclough dean lucas
50:04
florian pierre and luis
50:06
guyer um as we said earlier marine took
50:10
the overall with two wins and two
50:11
seconds that's
50:12
that's pretty dominant and dean missed
50:15
the 2020 season
50:18
still quite a strong team for scott
50:20
isn't it yeah definitely 100
50:23
and uh brendan on his day can do well
50:26
and
50:26
and dean as i say 10th in 2019 and was
50:30
feel you know i can remember him saying
50:32
in an interview that he felt like he was
50:34
just kind of
50:35
gradually lifting his game and it's
50:38
going to be interesting to see if you
50:39
can continue to do that without 18
50:40
months away from the world cups
50:42
yeah so we're getting onto the juicy
50:44
ones now next is the we'll do the santa
50:46
cruz syndicate
50:47
so currently confirmed greg minar and
50:50
lucas shaw
50:51
with obviously loris moving to trek
50:55
syndicate only having two riders do you
50:57
think
50:58
that's a ploy or are they are they gonna
51:00
sign someone else or do you think
51:02
they're kind of
51:03
you think greg's coming to the end he
51:05
can't go on forever
51:07
they're waiting for a bruny or appear on
51:09
to become available say at the end of
51:11
next season
51:13
yeah i mean on the on the one hand you
51:16
think well
51:17
it's syndicate so they're not gonna sign
51:20
someone
51:21
that's not a top 10 contender because i
51:23
don't ever remember them having anyone
51:25
who wasn't contending for top tens
51:29
so you'd then think well hang on who's
51:32
left
51:34
not many people potentially so i can't
51:37
see them signing rabbiteerion because
51:38
because remy's in his 30s and they've
51:41
you know already got
51:42
menari's age you'd probably want to go
51:43
for a younger rider
51:45
um so you then could think well are they
51:48
going to maybe do a instead of a
51:50
three-year contract with a rider
51:52
thinking out of the box would they
51:54
potentially look at someone like jamie
51:55
edmondson and give him a one-year deal
51:58
see what he could do under greg's kind
52:00
of leadership and then if he doesn't do
52:02
well go on
52:02
on you go and and see if someone else
52:05
like bruno period is then available
52:07
um but i can't yeah
52:10
i can't see him taking a small rider i
52:13
really can't
52:14
so the syndicator has famously never had
52:17
a female rider
52:18
if you're gonna make a statement do you
52:21
go out and sign valley hall
52:22
well there you go that's that's your big
52:24
signing right there there's
52:26
you know she's gonna be fighting for the
52:28
winds we saw that world champs
52:30
she was uh before she hurt herself she
52:32
was absolutely hauling so
52:35
yeah i mean that that would be a good
52:36
fit wouldn't it it's it was
52:38
and as we said in the woman in the in
52:40
the podcast about the women
52:41
racing why is it a problem
52:44
it's not a problem it's an advantage it
52:46
would add an
52:47
exciting different feel to an already
52:51
very exciting team so i wouldn't
52:54
memorize it all
52:55
i was i messaged valet i was trying to
52:57
find out if she
52:58
she wouldn't tell me obviously i asked
53:00
her as well she didn't reply
53:02
but um she just laughed i i guessed i i
53:06
said look i'll guess that you're either
53:07
going to the syndicate
53:09
or the next alphabetically which is the
53:11
specialized gravity team
53:12
yeah so that looks like it's going to be
53:15
like and finn again with christopher
53:16
grife
53:17
just for grace still in junior you know
53:19
yeah he'd be second year junior next
53:21
year
53:21
junior you could i i if i was a betting
53:25
man if i was putting money on it i'd put
53:27
money on valley ended up at specialized
53:29
see i'd bet syndicate would yeah yeah
53:32
because it's specialized gravity i look
53:35
at that like finn and chris written down
53:37
and i don't see us
53:38
i don't see a seat available like that
53:41
team has been a two rider team now for a
53:43
while is it since lawrence left three
53:45
years ago
53:46
yeah so i look at it and i think well i
53:49
was even surprised they took a junior so
53:50
if then they took a woman i'd be like
53:52
whoa i'm really surprised because the
53:53
team just always seems to be small
53:56
and whatever um whereas as i say a
53:59
syndicate i could i could see valley
54:01
going there and fitting in well and
54:04
i could you know i could see it working
54:06
well with kathy and laura and
54:08
i can just imagine the pits and it
54:10
working and
54:11
so that's where i'd be putting them yeah
54:13
i can if i was kind of a marketing
54:15
manager now
54:17
a brand manager i would go out
54:20
and do everything i could to sign valley
54:23
yeah
54:24
she's she's the nearest thing i would
54:27
say to a guaranteed
54:29
podium in racing she's exciting as well
54:31
she's red bull she's kind of
54:33
quite charismatic around the the race
54:35
scene and everyone's talking about her
54:37
because she's young
54:38
um and she's she's gonna sell bikes and
54:41
i it's a brand like specialized she's
54:44
clean cut great image she would fit well
54:47
with that and i can see
54:49
you imagine that team like finn and her
54:52
and chris three red bull riders yeah
54:55
it's strong a syndicate ever had a red
54:57
bull rider
55:01
i don't know if they have you haven't
55:03
nathan ready pe
55:04
bryceland
55:07
red bull rider but that's just
55:10
coincidence so
55:12
it's laurie it's not larry not a red
55:13
bull rider no because like is
55:16
ah usually it's just one that rule is
55:20
starting to change
55:21
yeah we've got lords don't we well we've
55:22
got lori and g
55:24
and now kade well apparently when i
55:27
asked laurie about this i'm sure he said
55:28
something like they'd started making
55:30
like uh
55:31
because i said how have you got the deal
55:33
with g still being a rebel and he said
55:34
they're starting to do this kind of
55:36
legends thing
55:37
so gene is now a red bull legend
55:39
allowing red bull to start
55:41
signing more but obviously they took
55:42
lori and then they took kate so
55:45
i think that rule just isn't a rule
55:48
it's a real one they want it to be yeah
55:51
um
55:51
next up is the brigade uh
55:55
alex marion and rudy caberu they they
55:57
said goodbye to santa cruz this week
55:59
and this one have i oh i am
56:04
i was like uh hello i'm right here
56:09
[Applause]
56:11
it's because it's in a slightly
56:12
different color on my page
56:15
oh anyone you can't see him if you're
56:17
listening and you're not watching on
56:18
youtube water's got george has gone as
56:20
red as a tomato
56:21
i haven't dated you right have you
56:24
missed george tell him
56:25
um sr sumtar i'm sorry
56:28
no i can't pronounce it sr suntor common
56:31
cell racing the
56:33
fifth and final team we think on common
56:35
cell bikes
56:36
yeah i can i can confirm that this team
56:38
will be on common cell bikes because
56:40
obviously it's mine thank you george
56:41
thanks for remembering us
56:43
um i've got down jack reading dan slack
56:47
plus one yeah so we're super excited to
56:50
announce that common seller coming on
56:51
board as our second
56:52
title sponsor behind sr some tour so
56:54
that is great obviously
56:56
super excited to be continuing working
56:59
with both of those brands
57:01
dan is coming up into elite to join us
57:03
um in the big boys category so
57:05
we don't want to take all i'll tell you
57:07
is we're not taking a junior
57:09
because it's going to be too distracting
57:11
for me to try and
57:13
help down and get him into his first
57:15
year in elite and
57:16
try and spread myself too thin and help
57:18
a junior again
57:20
so the rider we're taking on will be a
57:21
youth rider um
57:23
with a kind of onlook on a three-year
57:25
plan but we're not ready to tell anyone
57:27
who that is yet
57:28
um but yeah super exciting we're ready
57:30
to go um
57:31
and uh and yeah cheers for cheers for
57:34
remembering us george
57:36
of all the teams for me to miss it would
57:38
be that one wouldn't it i thought is he
57:39
skipping
57:40
over this for any reason no and
57:43
you've been on the mullet yeah so we've
57:46
had
57:46
we've had one day on it i did some
57:48
back-to-back testing with my 29 i got a
57:50
video
57:50
coming from that on my youtube soon
57:52
we're just not releasing or not showing
57:54
the color yet comments
57:55
aren't quite ready for that because
57:56
it'll be a 2022 color
57:59
um down's gone straight to the mullet
58:01
he's only five foot
58:03
two or whatever he is so um he was
58:05
buzzing his ass every every
58:07
turn on the 29-29 and he just loved the
58:10
mullet straight away
58:11
so yeah we're both gonna we're all gonna
58:13
be on those for sure
58:15
cool so next up we have the the brigade
58:17
with alex marion and rudy caberu
58:20
as i said earlier they said goodbye to
58:22
santa cruz the other day on instagram
58:24
and uh
58:25
i believe they've got a new project to
58:26
announce any ideas at all what you think
58:28
that might be
58:29
yes a word word is that they're working
58:32
with a new bike brand
58:33
and we think it's a bike brand that
58:35
don't have a download bike at the moment
58:37
so it'll be a completely
58:39
new download bite that none of us have
58:40
seen i believe alex marin is testing it
58:43
at the moment so i think news is
58:46
imminent
58:46
um on what they're up to so that'll be
58:48
exciting to see that'd be cool to see a
58:50
new bike swimming had a new bike for a
58:51
bit yeah definitely
58:53
yeah i think that gammaxx was the last
58:54
one we saw wasn't it yeah
58:56
[Music]
58:58
trek factory racing downhill this is
59:01
just
59:01
this is just an unbelievable you like
59:04
this one
59:05
men's team reese wilson and i've put him
59:07
first because he's the world champion
59:08
yeah
59:09
i i saw you put him before laura's like
59:11
oh bold no
59:12
i think he's but yeah he's world champ
59:14
he's the world champion yeah
59:15
out race um yeah rhys wilson loris
59:18
vergier
59:19
charlie harrison and kate edwards
59:22
let's talk about loris for a minute
59:23
because 2020 was probably going to be
59:26
his year wasn't it
59:28
he found it for that front flight he'd
59:30
have probably been world cup champion
59:33
was that his big chance do you think or
59:35
will he have others
59:37
honestly like i i i have a different
59:39
take on it
59:40
and i definitely think there will be
59:42
others because he's world class and he's
59:43
not going
59:44
anywhere he's going to be pushing he's
59:46
going to be a podium and wouldn't
59:47
contend a week in week out
59:49
but i i think matt had him fair and
59:50
square like
59:53
matt didn't look rattled at all he was
59:55
just consistently pushing those
59:57
those runs out um and as we saw on the
1:00:00
last day
1:00:01
because he had he had the front flap at
1:00:03
round three didn't he yeah
1:00:05
and it was still all to play for um
1:00:08
in round four and um i think he was 13th
1:00:12
and matt was third
1:00:14
so yeah i think i think lloris will have
1:00:16
learned a lot from that
1:00:17
um and and yeah i think
1:00:20
it will help him be like stronger
1:00:23
mentally in those situations in the
1:00:24
future
1:00:25
yeah but i'd be amazed if he's never
1:00:27
woke up
1:00:29
champion i i can see that happening at
1:00:30
some point for sure
1:00:32
reece world champion and then he was
1:00:34
first in seed he wasn't he in maribor
1:00:36
yeah yeah yeah i couldn't remember if he
1:00:39
was seeding our time training
1:00:41
can he come into 21 2021 again with form
1:00:44
like that
1:00:46
honestly like i he shocked it certainly
1:00:49
shocked me
1:00:50
in in leo gang i i i don't think i ever
1:00:53
saw him
1:00:53
on the track because obviously i was
1:00:54
going up and watching down and it was a
1:00:56
different practice group
1:00:57
and mike vickers kept saying to me how
1:01:00
how great rhys looked and people were
1:01:02
making comments about it but i never saw
1:01:03
it first down then obviously it went and
1:01:05
won
1:01:05
um and then maribor that qualifying day
1:01:09
it we practiced in the dry and then the
1:01:11
qualifying date just
1:01:12
the heavens opened and it just rained
1:01:14
all day and it was horrendous
1:01:16
um it was just like riding in the uk
1:01:18
right
1:01:19
and he went and smoked everybody in
1:01:22
quality
1:01:23
and it was again it was like wow like
1:01:26
he's
1:01:26
he's here to stay and then obviously he
1:01:28
had his accident had to go on
1:01:30
so it was all a bit of a boom
1:01:33
and then and then that was the end of it
1:01:35
so
1:01:36
yeah who knows is he is he is he going
1:01:39
to be is he going to be there again
1:01:41
um well i think he was off track wasn't
1:01:43
he basically that was the
1:01:45
that's what and there was a this is just
1:01:48
from reading online
1:01:50
i haven't spoken to race but it they
1:01:53
they have a contract in all their riders
1:01:55
this is what it says online in all their
1:01:57
riders contracts there's a there's a
1:01:59
club if you become world champion we
1:02:01
have to offer you another two year deal
1:02:03
so they've got loris lined up reece is
1:02:06
off the team
1:02:08
and then they have to offer him this
1:02:10
deal so
1:02:13
that's you know that world cup world cup
1:02:16
world championships
1:02:17
that you know got him another deal for
1:02:19
another two years kept him on there yeah
1:02:21
definitely and it's but it's surprising
1:02:23
that
1:02:24
if he did have his options open and his
1:02:26
contract was up it's surprising that
1:02:27
other teams didn't come sniffing you
1:02:29
know again someone like syndicate you
1:02:31
could
1:02:31
i could have seen him after that
1:02:33
performance over those two weeks
1:02:35
i could have seen someone like syndicate
1:02:36
and minar going we'll have a bit of that
1:02:38
he's only 24. let's bring that in so but
1:02:42
he's obviously happy at trek and i'm
1:02:43
just glad he got off of that
1:02:45
continuation next final team the yt mob
1:02:50
david trummer dakota norton guy johnston
1:02:53
and ashina callahan
1:02:54
and we'll be back with the yt mobs
1:02:56
dakota norton after these messages
1:03:04
dak welcome to the show thanks for
1:03:06
taking the time
1:03:07
tell us a little bit about where in the
1:03:08
world you are right now
1:03:10
yeah so um i'm down here in in florida
1:03:14
at the moment
1:03:14
uh kind of a crazy place you know
1:03:17
there's not a lot here but there's a lot
1:03:18
of great motocross tracks so
1:03:21
you know we're staying in this little
1:03:22
town called waldo florida
1:03:24
and uh yeah so like right now i had to
1:03:26
go up to the starbucks to get wi-fi just
1:03:28
because
1:03:29
you know there is there is no no
1:03:31
connection out here so um
1:03:32
making do with what we have but uh yeah
1:03:34
just down here riding some dirt bikes
1:03:36
and how long you down that far i think
1:03:39
i'll stay for another week
1:03:40
um i'm gonna give it a whirl for another
1:03:43
week ride some dirt bikes i'm actually
1:03:45
going to try a gncc
1:03:46
an off-road motocross race on sunday
1:03:48
with my buddy nico malawi
1:03:50
and then he's going to come down and
1:03:52
we're going to do a few more days on the
1:03:53
dirt bike
1:03:54
i think i've heard of that nico does he
1:03:56
ride downhill as well or yeah he rides
1:03:58
downhill mountain bikes
1:04:02
you you came to the world cup scene
1:04:03
pretty late i think 2016 was your first
1:04:06
full season
1:04:07
and then you kind of really arrived in
1:04:09
2018 with with that
1:04:11
fifth place in luchen um that was your
1:04:14
first world cup on uni or da vinci
1:04:16
and you finished it off you finished it
1:04:19
off your time with uni or with a podium
1:04:21
um
1:04:21
at the penultimate one in loser it
1:04:23
wasn't too bad a ride for you was it
1:04:24
really
1:04:26
no no we'll take that i mean it's uh
1:04:29
it's pretty cool you know bittersweet
1:04:30
thing with uh you know changes in the
1:04:32
team and
1:04:33
in my last year there um but it was good
1:04:36
to you know i
1:04:37
i won my uh my i got my first podium
1:04:40
with
1:04:40
um another mechanic and then i had a
1:04:42
mechanic that worked
1:04:43
super hard for me for the last few years
1:04:46
um anger and
1:04:47
we got a podium for him right before we
1:04:50
left so it was definitely a bittersweet
1:04:51
thing you know we went into the season
1:04:53
with good vibes and uh
1:04:55
and it was kind of sad to see the
1:04:57
changes but you know
1:04:58
we we made the most out of it sweet so
1:05:01
what when did you find out that there
1:05:03
wouldn't be a
1:05:04
a team in 2021 because i think was it
1:05:07
rob said in commentary that you know you
1:05:08
were openly looking for a ride in
1:05:11
maribor or loser i can't quite remember
1:05:13
which one yeah
1:05:14
i think he announced announced it in uh
1:05:17
lusa but i got told
1:05:18
a week before world so we were all at a
1:05:21
test camp and you know vibes were super
1:05:23
high and it was like we got the wind
1:05:24
pulled out of our sails for sure
1:05:26
and i i there will still be a unor
1:05:28
program next year just um
1:05:30
the actual team union davinci will
1:05:33
there'll be some changes so um
1:05:35
at me being an american rider for a
1:05:37
european tool brand doesn't really make
1:05:38
a whole lot of sense so
1:05:39
no so you're managed by martin wyattley
1:05:43
i am yeah so he owns and runs the yt mob
1:05:48
so i'm presuming at this point he's got
1:05:50
a rider who hasn't got a
1:05:52
a ride next season he runs a team but
1:05:55
i'm sorry i'm presuming at this point
1:05:56
that he didn't know angel was leaving
1:05:59
yeah you know i don't know a lot of the
1:06:01
details there and
1:06:02
you know when i was looking for a ride
1:06:04
in uh lusa
1:06:06
i didn't think that that door would open
1:06:08
um you know we had we had talked in the
1:06:10
past
1:06:10
and and such and about management
1:06:14
talked in the past about the team and
1:06:16
stuff and
1:06:17
and it didn't really seem like there was
1:06:18
a door open and uh yeah it just
1:06:20
opened up pretty late and um and i yeah
1:06:23
i jumped on it
1:06:25
yeah nice well doc i want to start with
1:06:28
a little story
1:06:29
um for everyone you might hate me for
1:06:31
this one but um
1:06:33
oh boy there's a lot of stories we're
1:06:35
going back to it's not too bad we're
1:06:37
going back to lenses hide
1:06:39
2017 when i first met you really for the
1:06:42
first time
1:06:43
uh you i think you've been around the
1:06:44
world cups a little bit and i think as
1:06:46
george said you started in 2016.
1:06:49
um and that that weekend blends hide
1:06:51
we're all down at the lake
1:06:53
after the race i was with my girlfriend
1:06:56
at the time wife now and the rest of my
1:06:58
kind of team
1:06:59
crew and you with some of your american
1:07:01
buddies and we were just having like a
1:07:02
bit of a chill after the race i'd
1:07:04
i'd just come 18th which today is my
1:07:06
best ever result
1:07:08
and you turned up this loud
1:07:11
american guy making loads of noise with
1:07:15
his three mates
1:07:16
and we all got chatting and you dipped
1:07:19
your toes in the water
1:07:20
and said something i tried to confirm
1:07:23
this with sarah earlier
1:07:24
it went something like this i don't want
1:07:27
it
1:07:27
i don't need it i don't like it
1:07:31
that's so cold man
1:07:35
and yeah probably about something like
1:07:36
that i don't want it
1:07:38
it was so funny and you went on to tell
1:07:41
me
1:07:42
these excuses about your result you'd
1:07:45
come 29th
1:07:46
which was one second behind me in 18th
1:07:48
and i remember thinking at the time
1:07:50
what is this guy all about like blah
1:07:52
blah blah blah blah and
1:07:53
yeah you then went on to follow that up
1:07:56
with
1:07:57
14th in valdosol a month or so later
1:08:01
which i was like oh okay maybe he was
1:08:04
telling the truth that lanzarden
1:08:05
obviously did have some problems um and
1:08:08
then five months later you turned
1:08:10
up in croatia and you came fifth and
1:08:13
we were all like what the um dak
1:08:16
has arrived
1:08:16
so at the end of that story my question
1:08:19
is
1:08:20
how good does it feel to be a rider who
1:08:23
has come into the sport quite late
1:08:25
and be able to go on to get world cup
1:08:27
podiums and now sign for the yt mob
1:08:31
man i actually just gave me chills
1:08:35
literally like i just felt like my body
1:08:37
flushed
1:08:38
you know so how good uh i'll start with
1:08:41
the fact that
1:08:42
the yt thing didn't really sink in until
1:08:45
i picked up kind of my
1:08:47
my until then bite you know obviously
1:08:49
this year things are challenging so
1:08:51
um you know i was able to get a bike to
1:08:53
start riding and it had the seat on it
1:08:54
with the label
1:08:55
you know the yd mob logo embroidered in
1:08:58
the seat and
1:08:59
that's when it really sunk in for me
1:09:00
like wow
1:09:02
you know like one of the
1:09:05
the best teams out there you know i mean
1:09:07
and and whiteley i mean there's no
1:09:09
no comparison to his program and what he
1:09:11
does so
1:09:12
um man crazy crazy time
1:09:16
uh it was a long road to get there
1:09:19
you know i i went i climbed the ladder
1:09:21
for a long time and
1:09:23
and and there was a lot of challenges
1:09:25
but
1:09:26
um it makes it so much sweeter
1:09:32
with the road that i've had had to get
1:09:34
there you know i didn't come for juniors
1:09:35
i didn't um i didn't get all that world
1:09:37
cup knowledge
1:09:38
um early on i didn't get groomed by a
1:09:40
team i just
1:09:41
did it all on my own and it's it's
1:09:44
pretty incredible to
1:09:45
to have that story yeah definitely and
1:09:48
so much respect for it for sure
1:09:50
how much of of that success do you if
1:09:53
any
1:09:53
do you put down to your motocross
1:09:55
experience because for anyone who
1:09:57
doesn't know
1:09:57
dak is an absolute savage on a motocross
1:10:00
bike um how much
1:10:02
does that help would you say
1:10:06
you know i it comes down to a variety of
1:10:09
factors that have led me
1:10:11
to be where i am you know i i grew up
1:10:13
racing motocross so i have the
1:10:15
the speed the traction you know the
1:10:17
racecraft from racing motorcross even
1:10:19
though i only raced until i was like 14.
1:10:22
um and then i rode bmx dirt jumps in my
1:10:25
backyard i rode
1:10:26
you know skate parks a ton of
1:10:31
so i had the finesse from riding the
1:10:33
skateparks in the in the ability to
1:10:35
place the bike exactly where i want it
1:10:37
in
1:10:38
and before i even started racing bmx
1:10:41
i was in a position where you know i had
1:10:44
the bike skill
1:10:45
but that taught me the training side of
1:10:47
it because i was always
1:10:50
good at riding a bicycle but i never was
1:10:52
naturally gifted
1:10:54
fit or strong i had i was very bad at
1:10:57
racing bmx
1:10:58
so i had to work super hard to get
1:11:01
to get strong to get fit to you know
1:11:03
just be an overall athlete because i was
1:11:05
very uncoordinated and very out of shape
1:11:08
so kind of getting my butt kicked for a
1:11:10
few years on
1:11:11
in bmx made me you know work real hard
1:11:14
so
1:11:15
it was a lot of factors that came
1:11:17
together to me riding a
1:11:19
mountain bike well yeah nice
1:11:22
so um obviously as george said fifth
1:11:25
place at that
1:11:26
first loser race last year um we spoke
1:11:30
a little bit at the event about your
1:11:32
team situation
1:11:33
tell everyone how much pressure were you
1:11:36
feeling going into loser
1:11:38
knowing that you were essentially riding
1:11:39
for a place on a team the following year
1:11:42
yeah that that i mean you know it might
1:11:46
have seemed
1:11:47
calm on the outside but i was definitely
1:11:49
i was
1:11:50
melting down on the inside i mean you
1:11:52
know what
1:11:54
it's like it was kind of a crazy feeling
1:11:58
to think
1:11:58
did i really come this far for it to end
1:12:01
up like this
1:12:02
you know like all the all the struggle
1:12:05
and
1:12:06
in my you know my image of myself is
1:12:08
maybe not with the world views myself
1:12:10
you know i don't look at myself as a
1:12:12
as a top downhill pro i'm just like
1:12:15
still see myself as you know all the
1:12:18
struggles
1:12:19
all the the challenge is to get to where
1:12:22
i am and i'm like
1:12:23
am i really going to go out like this go
1:12:26
back to
1:12:26
trying to do it on my own you know yeah
1:12:29
and
1:12:30
you know i had built a pretty good
1:12:32
program and and
1:12:33
and worked really hard to get those
1:12:35
results and and it was kind of that
1:12:37
thing like is no one
1:12:39
seeing this like yeah is are we really
1:12:42
here oh yeah it was a lot of pressure
1:12:45
a ton yeah well obviously it's paired
1:12:48
off
1:12:49
um and you're now riding the the yt
1:12:52
chews which is a
1:12:53
well-established bike have you managed
1:12:54
to get much time on it so far
1:12:57
you know not a ton um the weather at
1:12:59
home has been pretty dreary
1:13:01
and i told myself last winter that i was
1:13:03
going to try to avoid the winter as much
1:13:05
as possible
1:13:06
you know i i as soon as the first snow
1:13:09
came and i was pa i was pedaling up this
1:13:10
hill and um
1:13:12
you know there's two inches of snow on
1:13:13
the ground and i'm like not again
1:13:15
not again am i doing this yes oh
1:13:18
um i'm i'm planning to uh to go to costa
1:13:21
rica
1:13:22
in february with my buddy nico so and
1:13:24
i'm hoping to get
1:13:26
a ton of bike time there and um get it
1:13:29
on some proper tracks
1:13:30
you know just sliding around in the mud
1:13:32
isn't really going to give me a proper
1:13:33
feel for the bike i don't think or
1:13:35
riding and it's you know completely
1:13:37
agree i completely agree i am
1:13:40
i didn't want to bring up covid during
1:13:42
this podcast but i'm going to have to
1:13:43
um for this next question um yeah i mean
1:13:47
i agree with that we try and escape to
1:13:49
portugal from here because
1:13:51
for five months of the year this place
1:13:52
isn't really much good for testing
1:13:55
because everything is as you say covered
1:13:57
in mud and really cold so there's not
1:13:58
really
1:13:59
much crossover to the world cups um are
1:14:02
you guys being affected
1:14:03
at the moment is it affecting your
1:14:05
training or are you kind of able to kind
1:14:06
of get out and ride and train and
1:14:09
and do what you want at the moment yeah
1:14:12
so uh
1:14:13
with in florida everything's fully open
1:14:17
like you can go to dinner um you have to
1:14:19
wear a map entering the
1:14:21
restaurant and stuff but um like if i
1:14:22
wanted to go
1:14:24
and do this podcast inside starbucks
1:14:26
right now i could walk in and do it
1:14:28
and i can order a drink and sit down and
1:14:29
take my mask off
1:14:31
um so for the most part for me um it
1:14:33
hasn't really affected
1:14:35
much um you know other than the fact
1:14:38
that things
1:14:39
there's no restrictions we just have to
1:14:41
wear a mask
1:14:42
at the moment which that's a pretty
1:14:44
controversial thing for
1:14:45
being an american at the moment but yeah
1:14:47
absolutely
1:14:48
well that's good at least you can get on
1:14:50
and train sorry george
1:14:52
yeah no i was just gonna say you're
1:14:54
joining the the yt mob i presume you
1:14:56
haven't really had a chance to
1:14:57
to meet up with them or anything yet but
1:15:00
teams are kind of
1:15:01
you going to one of the teams with like
1:15:03
the most backroom staff
1:15:05
and how how important do you think
1:15:07
that's going to be to your
1:15:09
development having it's such a big team
1:15:11
behind you
1:15:13
yeah i i i'm just excited to have the
1:15:16
guidance
1:15:17
that's the big thing that i've never had
1:15:19
um
1:15:21
i think that you know having you know
1:15:23
i've had
1:15:24
a great mechanic the last few years and
1:15:26
our team you know
1:15:27
really did everything they could for us
1:15:29
we you know we had we had a good program
1:15:31
over there
1:15:32
yeah but you know it's not i i don't
1:15:35
have anything to compare it to because
1:15:36
i've never rode on a full factory
1:15:38
program so i really i really don't know
1:15:40
that's you know i'm hoping that
1:15:42
having that guidance is having that
1:15:46
speed i mean i think you pretty much
1:15:50
just get better by going on to a program
1:15:53
like that you know just having all those
1:15:55
resources and being in that environment
1:15:56
i think it's something that
1:15:58
um just kind of breeds success so
1:16:02
it's a it's a tough question to answer
1:16:04
because i don't have anything to base it
1:16:05
off of well you've proved you can handle
1:16:07
the pressure
1:16:08
you know you're never gonna probably
1:16:09
feel pressure like that again like you
1:16:11
were in loser
1:16:13
yeah yeah that was that was that was
1:16:15
pressure
1:16:17
so um off the back of obviously saying
1:16:20
how excited you are to be on the yt mob
1:16:22
and get the
1:16:24
the full factory level support and you
1:16:27
feel it
1:16:28
it will potentially lift your game what
1:16:30
are your aims going into 2021
1:16:32
what do you want to achieve you know the
1:16:34
last couple of seasons the goal
1:16:36
is has kind of been the same um just to
1:16:40
be consistently in the top ten be a
1:16:43
podium contender and fight for wins
1:16:45
and you know it's kind of a scary thing
1:16:47
for me to say fight for wins
1:16:49
but it was a scary thing to say to write
1:16:52
down on the chalkboard
1:16:53
get a world cup podium a few years ago
1:16:55
when i and i did it
1:16:57
so um you know it's always a scary thing
1:17:00
to you know put your goals
1:17:02
out there in the open and and but
1:17:05
but you have to you know you have to
1:17:07
write it down you have to believe in it
1:17:09
um i just you know i i got my first
1:17:13
world cup podium
1:17:14
on a pretty loose run
1:17:17
and uh kind of hanging it out a bit and
1:17:19
i got my second one on a clean tidy run
1:17:22
um nothing out of the ordinary
1:17:25
yeah so yeah just in the future just try
1:17:30
to continue to put down those smooth
1:17:31
consistent runs and
1:17:32
and keep the mistakes to a minimum and
1:17:34
hopefully i'll be right there where i
1:17:36
want to be
1:17:37
yeah excellent cheers doc thanks for
1:17:40
making the time to come on the show and
1:17:41
uh
1:17:42
best of luck for 2021 and beyond thank
1:17:45
you guys so much yeah man best of luck
1:17:46
and i'll see you in maribor
1:17:48
right jack let's wrap up riders who have
1:17:51
yet to announce
1:17:52
who we haven't really talked about or
1:17:54
we've given them a passing mention
1:17:57
the ones i've got down here mike jones
1:17:59
lauren and melanie shapas
1:18:02
guyton vege jiri jab check
1:18:05
because the da vinci team folding really
1:18:08
um jeremy edmondson michaela parton and
1:18:12
luke williamson any ideas on any of
1:18:15
those
1:18:15
so i'm pretty sure luke williamson's
1:18:17
privateering right
1:18:19
um i've seen he's going to be supported
1:18:21
by um
1:18:22
rental through ice on distribution so
1:18:24
that is a big clue that he's going to be
1:18:26
privateering
1:18:27
um jury zap check will 100
1:18:31
stay with union so whatever unil's plans
1:18:33
are
1:18:34
you will be a part of that whether jamie
1:18:36
edmondson
1:18:37
or mike jones a part of a union
1:18:40
plan maybe i think mike jones is waiting
1:18:44
for frames
1:18:45
i think he's got something in the in the
1:18:47
pipeline i was messaging him he didn't
1:18:49
give me too much aware but
1:18:50
i think he's got some privateering no i
1:18:54
i don't know it didn't sound that way it
1:18:56
sounded like he was waiting for
1:18:59
he couldn't tell i don't know
1:19:02
interesting um
1:19:05
that michaela pink like interview i kind
1:19:08
of skimmed over it
1:19:10
there's no mention from her in that of
1:19:12
anything exciting and new for next year
1:19:14
it was more just that she was
1:19:15
going racing so i think she's going to
1:19:17
be on her own thing
1:19:18
do you think castro could be putting a
1:19:20
team together
1:19:22
yeah see now i said this um i actually
1:19:25
had conversations with jeremy edmondson
1:19:27
myself
1:19:28
with regards to our team and when those
1:19:31
conversations were happening i was
1:19:33
thinking a good
1:19:34
kind of fit would be catherine
1:19:37
run because obviously he basically ran a
1:19:39
team in maribor and loser with jamie
1:19:42
edmondson and michael lapon
1:19:43
on that team should we call it and then
1:19:46
it was they had a great two weeks so
1:19:48
that would really make sense so whether
1:19:50
cassaro's working with pink bikes put a
1:19:52
race team together and
1:19:53
um you know jamie edmondson and michaela
1:19:56
are on that
1:19:57
possibly who knows yeah but it's shaping
1:19:59
up to be such an exciting season
1:20:01
we we saw some racing at the end of 2020
1:20:03
do you think 2021's gonna run to
1:20:05
schedule
1:20:06
how are you kind of preparing for the
1:20:08
season
1:20:10
yeah so i mean my outlook is that i
1:20:12
can't see
1:20:13
that british race uh um stinion going
1:20:16
ahead that
1:20:18
just won't happen um unless there's some
1:20:20
kind of miracle
1:20:21
um but you know they they showed us last
1:20:24
year that they can run world cups during
1:20:25
this
1:20:26
nightmare that we're living through so i
1:20:28
could see the full world cup season
1:20:30
happening
1:20:31
no i can't see any crowds the only world
1:20:33
cup i worry about is fault william
1:20:35
with the way things are in scotland um
1:20:39
i i really doubt um i have doubts over
1:20:42
whether that will happen in may
1:20:43
um and then they won't reschedule um but
1:20:46
i can see all the european rounds going
1:20:48
ahead and hopefully by september
1:20:50
we'll be coming out the back of it and
1:20:51
we'll be able to get over to america for
1:20:52
snowshoe
1:20:53
um so i yeah we're just preparing as
1:20:55
normal we're hoping to get out
1:20:57
to europe me and dan um end of february
1:21:00
kind of
1:21:01
march and i've got a few contacts out
1:21:03
there that i do some consultant work
1:21:04
with with
1:21:05
developing bike tracks and stuff so we
1:21:07
can use that as a working reason to get
1:21:09
out the country so
1:21:11
you know we can kind of do some testing
1:21:12
because everyone's on the dollar bikes
1:21:14
at the moment dan messaged me earlier
1:21:15
just
1:21:16
going nuts because he's on his instagram
1:21:18
looking at all these guys in spain
1:21:19
riding downhill and he's staring out his
1:21:21
window at
1:21:21
rain and snow and he can't go anywhere
1:21:23
so we
1:21:25
wish to get riding are you finding it
1:21:27
hard to stay motivated or not
1:21:29
not at the moment because as i keep
1:21:30
saying to down at the moment all we need
1:21:31
to be doing is in the gym really
1:21:33
like this is the strength strength phase
1:21:35
really where
1:21:36
strength and fitness we need to be kind
1:21:38
of not distracted with the down
1:21:39
bike every day and putting a graft in so
1:21:42
no
1:21:43
at the moment i'm i'm sound um it
1:21:46
you know as with the outlook that in
1:21:48
february we can
1:21:49
get away and start doing some downhill
1:21:51
if that is taken away from us then
1:21:53
that's gonna be a bit a bit difficult to
1:21:56
deal with
1:21:56
it's more the it's more the fear of
1:21:58
being ready as well we need to be ready
1:22:00
in april to ride that three and a half
1:22:02
minute track as fast as we can
1:22:04
and the only way to be ready is to ride
1:22:06
tracks that length
1:22:07
and that rough so can't do that really
1:22:10
in the uk
1:22:12
and everywhere shot here anyway so and
1:22:14
it's all shot of course
1:22:15
well thanks again to our sponsors hope
1:22:17
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1:22:19
and singletrackworld.com
1:22:21
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1:22:39
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