On The Pegs December 2019 - Volume 4 - Issue 12 | Page 142

On The Pegs
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ment in your life, with the passing of your father as he lost his battle with
cancer earlier the same year. How did you cope with losing a man who you
had been so close to you throughout your career and was the ultimate
father figure?
As we got the go ahead from Red Bull that the wheelie project was on my
father became more ill and his treatment wasn’t going as well as we had hoped
so I was not really giving much thought to my riding as time was moving on.
He lost his battle early in April, my family and I were hit very hard as a massive
part of us was gone. I started to ride my wheelie bike after a couple of months,
but in early July I could do more than a couple of miles, so I called my manager
Jake and told him I wanted to cancel the whole project. He didn’t say much and
I knew the call didn’t go down well at all! I’m sure that losing dad had played
a big part as giving up certainly was never my style. I had a call from my great
friend Blackie and I think Jake had called him and told him that we needed a
team meeting to get back on track. I trained everyday and made changes to-
gether with Blackie and my mechanic Nick and things started going in the right
direction and to cut a very long story short in the end we succeeded. I feel sure
though that if dad had been with us, there would have never been that nega-
tive moment that I had as he always knew how to handle me in those situations.
Three years on, has it become any easier when you reflect on all the
magical moments you shared with your dad?
I have a lot of amazing memories from my time with my dad on and off the
bike. On my per-sonal side he was the best dad in the World and he always
knew when to pass on advice and was always there when I needed help with
whatever I was doing. On my career side we did every-thing together and
shared all those moments which will always be very special. Although my victo-
ries since he passed away don’t feel the same, I know that he would have want-
ed me to keep pushing to succeed as we had always done together.
Like your father, you remain a huge character in the World of Trial in
your role as Vertigo Am-bassador / Team Manager whilst also being the
UK importer for the brand. Do you still enjoy be-ing inside the paddock
and part of the Trial family, even after twenty-five years?
I love the feeling in the paddock and the Trial family as I call it. I always en-
joyed the testing so now working with Vertigo, right from the beginning of the