On The Pegs February 2020 - Volume 5 - Issue 2 | Page 95

On The Pegs
VOL. 5 ISSUE 2 - FEBRUARY 2020
95
Right now, Maddie Hoover is the rider flying the American flag full time
in Europe and we’ll have an interview with her as soon as we can catch up
with her. But recently, 11-time US MotoTrials champ Pat Smage had the
unique opportunity to go to France to compete in the International Indoor
Cup against the likes of Toni Bou and Adam Raga, and he’s going to give us
the lowdown on that. But first, we want to ask him about winning the 2019
AMA Athlete of the Year Award at the AMA Banquet in Ohio.
Tell us about winning the AMA Athlete of the Year Award for a second
time. Was that a big surprise?
Yeah. That was incredible. It really just shows how strong the trials community
is to be able to come together and get that many votes, as it is a member vote.
I just expected there to be no chance against the likes of the other competitors
when you’ve got the ISDE winners in there too. I thought for sure one of those
guys would take it. So, to be able to win it out of those guys was a real honor and
something that I think is really great for the sport of trials to get that recognition
against those disciplines. It’s huge and something I’m really glad to be able to put
my name on for a second time, actually. I won that eleven years ago, so to do it
again almost doesn’t feel right. But very happy to get another one, since I know I
won’t be there in another eleven years. Go to enjoy this one while I got it.
That’s cool. I’m really stoked for you.
That was really surprising when they did call my name. I’m like, “No. Wait.” Brad
(Baumert) didn’t even know. He’s in with the AMA so he was like, “Yeah, they
didn’t even give me a heads up about anything.” Surprised everybody.
Let’s talk about the International Indoor Cup in France. Did you get invited?
Yeah. I got invited pretty late and didn’t have a whole lot of time to put a plan
together. Then it took a little while to get confirmation if I could even get a bike.
The Sherco team here is not the factory Sherco team. It’s all different people and
I just haven’t really had to ask for support for quite a while over there, so I didn’t
know what to expect. But they actually went all out and really helped out a lot.
They provided a van, two bikes, parts, and everything I needed to travel over
there. So, I was really appreciative of that. When they offered that, I couldn’t turn
it down, the opportunity to be able to try something like that. Then to ride an
indoor even in Europe was something I’ve always wanted to do. It’s kind of on
the list of things I wanted to try. I’ve done pretty much almost everything else in