On The Pegs Vol . 3 Issue 1 - January 2018 P 103
On The Pegs Vol . 3 Issue 1 - January 2018 P 103
still be in the two-wheel aspect of sports , and travel the country again and show the little baby and wife , who is from Italy , the US . I think it ’ s a perfect thing . I can still give a good two , three , four years to it and have fun with it and see what happens .
Not many guys that have been on top are willing to do what you ’ re doing , because you have to kind of swallow your pride a little bit .
That ’ s fine with me . I ’ m not a world champion on dirt .
But you ’ re still a world champion .
Jean-Michele Bayle did it , but I think he was a little bit better at dirt than I was . That ’ s the only person I see that ’ s obviously done the crossover . For me , I always look at it like on the road race bike when I was in my prime everything was good and we won a lot . I was quick for sure on a road race bike , top five I think in the world for a few years . But it ’ s one of those things , I ’ ve been riding dirt long enough to know that there ’ s some super talented guys . I went to that Zink Ranch round and it was my first ever one to do . I think I was 27th or 28th . I had fun with it , but then you see what those Baylor boys do and what Thad DuVall does . It ’ s like , okay , those guys can ride . It ’ s not one of those things where I think the Pro2 class I ’ m going to be winning stuff the first year or anything like that . That ’ s the class that I think I should be in . Just having fun with it . I think I can get better , but it ’ s one of those things where if I ever get a top fifteen overall , that ’ s a win for me . I have no expectations of just flipping over and winning stuff and things like that .
The biggest change is going to be learning to read the trail because you ’ re riding it for the first time .
That ’ s when learning some of this stuff , and again being able to learn from a bunch of people has helped a lot . For me , even if I go race an enduro race in Texas I ’ m still learning how to read trail , building up dirt on outsides of turns . I can see if they ’ re tighter turns , faster . So , that ’ s my weakness . Obviously , this first year I ’ ve never raced in South Carolina . I don ’ t know what happens to dirt when it ’ s got more moisture in it or this or that . I ’ ve got big handicaps , but also it ’ s not like I ’ m saying , “ Hey , I ’ ve got a big handicap , so that ’ s my excuse already .” That ’ s why it is for fun . It ’ s for fun but also when I strap my helmet on , I ’ m going to ride as hard as I can and see what happens . But at the end of the day , if I DNF or I have a whatever , I ’ m not going to be crying about it . I ’ m still having fun for sure .
Did any of your sponsors carry over ?
Yeah . HJC and Alpinestars I think I ’ m always going to work with . KTM is giving me a little bit of support too . Then obviously a lot of sponsors like Enduro Engineering . n