On The Pegs January 2018 - Volume 3 - Issue 1 | Page 106

On The Pegs
builds the cardio, which is necessary
to have that endurance throughout
the day and be able to stay strong
from the first section to the last. You
have to be in pretty good shape.
Anything that has two wheels I’ve al-
ways gravitated towards and enjoyed
doing. So when I can find something
like that that is fun and I want to do it
and it also benefits me on the motor-
cycle, everything goes hand in hand
and it makes sense to keep doing
that for as long as I can.
At what point during the season
did you realize, ‘hey, I think I might
be able to win this thing’?
There were three moments that
stand out to me. The first one was
actually in Texas on Sunday. It was a
relatively easy day except for a few
sections. And one section in particu-
lar, number 10, had a tricky uphill
right-hander. On the third loop I
came around and Marc was riding
ahead of me. So he rode it and made
a mistake. That kind of just put all
the pressure on me to either clean it
and have that confidence knowing
that I can ride that stuff just as well
or at times better than him, and for
me to be able to clean it the third
loop and have a clean day, just kind
of gave me a little bit of confidence.
It just gave me that little confidence
P 106
boost that I think carried through
Kansas. Then the next thing was in
Ohio. After losing the first day very
narrowly, I really wanted to make up
for it the second day. I started off well
but I had a big mistake when I broke
the ribbon in a section. I was just one
inch off my line and the front tire slid
into the ribbon and I got a five. After
that point, it was like, if I have one
mistake during the day I’m pretty
much going to lose. At that point,
it was like the whole season was in
jeopardy. Marc had the momentum
from winning the day before, and I
just blew it right away in the first few
sections on Sunday. But to be able
to turn that around and come away
with the win that day, that was really
key for me confidence-wise and just
to know that I can come back from
mistakes, and even if I do make one
there’s still that chance that he can
make one too. It really helped going
into the last rounds in Rhode Island.
The final thing was being able to win
in the mud in Rhode Island. That was
really the biggest thing for me that
just made it all worth it. So where I
had struggled the most before, I was
able to pull off the win. Definitely
those three times were kind of the
big memories for me and just kind of
wraps up the whole year in those few
moments.