On The Pegs July 2020 - Volume 5 - Issue 7 | Page 98

On The Pegs 98
I had made up my mind at the beginning of the year before we even started
competing that that was going to be my final season. I didn’t really tell a lot of
people about it or anything. I had already kind of made up my mind what I was
going to do. That again just kind of sealed the deal.
It was sort of bittersweet, thinking this is my last national season that I’ll ever
ride. Obviously I had a great run. I did twenty years consistently at the nationals.
My first national I ever rode was way back in ’86 and then my last one was 2006.
So I did a full twenty years on the circuit. So I was a little bit maybe burnt out. I
knew the younger guys were coming up. I wasn’t sure how long I was going to
really want to hang it out for. In my mind I felt like I could probably win a couple
more of these, but it just seemed like a good time for me to step aside. I could go
out as the ten-time champ and whatever. Endurocross stuff was starting to kind
of kick into gear. I was kind of getting excited about some other stuff. I was also
super busy at that time with the demos. That was probably my peak time. So I
was kind of dedicating less and less time to outdoor trials. I was running around
like a crazy gypsy going to all these events and putting deals together to try to
do performances. But it was kind of taking away from actual rock riding. It’s a lot
of fun to wheelie around and splatter up stuff and show off the sport, but it’s not
the same as going out and really focusing on outdoor national trials and focusing
on the championship. So I wasn’t dedicating as much time to the actual championship
at that point. So I felt like if I keep booking myself crazy with shows, it’s
just a matter of time before I get beat here anyway. So I think maybe this was a
good time to call it. n