On The Pegs January 2018 - Volume 3 - Issue 1 | Page 68

On The Pegs Steward Baylor took on an ambitious schedule in 2017, riding the Kenda AMA National Enduro Series, the Kenda Full Gas Sprint Enduro Series and the Grand National Cross Country Series. And despite falling sick mid-way into the year with the Epstein-Barr Virus, the South Carolina rider still managed to win two titles: the National Enduro title and the Sprint Enduro title, though they both came down to the final round. Steward is no stranger to riding through sick- ness and injury, and once rode a national enduro three days after having surgery to staple a bro- ken collarbone. On The Pegs spoke with the KTM rider and got the scoop on how he managed this year’s season. You won the opening round of the national enduro series in South Carolina. Do you feel like you came into this year better prepared than you have in the past? I’ve won the opening round down there in Sumter quite a few times. That was always one of my favorite tracks, the race that I ride the best. I didn’t want to say that that race really sets the tone for the season because I’ve done it before, so it wasn’t necessar- ily at that point that I thought that I could do it. But after the GNCC win, I knew for a fact that I was better prepared than I had ever been coming into a season. Obviously the consistency in the first part of the year, at least until I got sick, it definitely showed that I was where I needed to be. Obviously the sickness defi- nitely took me back down quite a bit. I still haven’t 100% rebounded from that, but that’s part of it. P 68