On The Pegs Vol . 3 Issue 1 - January 2018 P 81
On The Pegs Vol . 3 Issue 1 - January 2018 P 81
place . There ’ s always usually somebody to ride with . I ’ m not struggling to find somebody to go out and put motos in . Honestly at the end of the day the one that always pulls through is probably Tayla . She ’ s there and she ’ s ready to ride . It doesn ’ t matter . Sometimes she ’ ll ride in the morning . I ’ ll text her and say , “ Hey , you want to ride this afternoon ?” She ’ ll gear back up and be ready to roll . We obviously still put in the time together and are able to ride a good bit together , but this year it ’ s been really good . We ’ ve had a lot of people to ride with . It ’ s been fun .
eyefor me , when I
nd of an
y was not up to par .”
The year you won your first championship you were pretty much a sand specialist , but now you ’ re very balanced . You ’ re good in the rocks . You ’ re good everywhere . Do you feel like you ’ re an all-around rider now ?
Yeah , definitely . I ’ ve spent a lot of time making sure that I could compete in every condition . It ’ s funny that you bring that up . This year obviously at my dad ’ s house we ’ ve got sand , we ’ ve got roots , we ’ ve got our tight trails . We ’ ve got almost everything you could imagine . Now my uncle ’ s new place is very similar , except we also have sand there . I get all the conditions . Grant asked me one day , “ Why are you riding ? We don ’ t have a rock race for three months .” I ’ m like , “ I ’ m riding the rocks because when that rock race comes I want to be 100 % prepared for it .” I go out and I change clickers . I try to keep notes . I try to make sure that I know exactly what my bike ’ s going to do . I try to find that really good balance between everything . A lot of times I ’ ll work a rock loop at least once a week , at least for a few minutes . Sometimes it ’ s my warm-up , sometimes it ’ s for fun . I want to be well balanced for whenever those obstacles are thrown at me . Obviously this year it ’ s really paid off . Any technical or rocky sections , it ’ s definitely been the deal-breaker at a lot of these national enduros for me whenever those gnarly sections roll out .
Talk about the series finale – the Gobbler Getter . That ’ s where the title was decided .
The day started surprisingly well . I think in my entire career in national enduros , I ’ ve probably only won the opening test a handful of times , I would say less than five . For me to start out the day with that win , that was definitely good motivation leading into the next one . Obviously things were still fairly close . I was able to gap out I think close to 30 seconds there after test four , or right at 30 seconds , just over . Somewhere in there . I gave myself enough of a cushion to ride those last two sections smart . I made a pretty big mistake there in test five and went down . That set me back . It ’ s funny -