On The Pegs May 2018 - Volume 3 - Issue 5 | Page 74
On The Pegs
exactly what to do and how to get the
job done. Just working with him on
pretty much everything has helped me
learn what needs to be done and what
I should not do, or how hard to push,
when to take it easy.
What have you brought home from
that? What are you doing regularly
that he taught you to do on a week-
to-week basis?
It’s a lot of stuff that you would ex-
pect and that I did in the past. Just I
guess the way of going about doing it.
Like riding and training. Just doing it
correctly, I guess.
What about the extreme races? Is
that something you like?
Yeah, I enjoy the extreme races for
sure. It’s just a good change. It’s weird,
going to a race like that and the speeds
are just so much slower, but the ter-
rain is way more technical. I really enjoy
riding that stuff. I’m excited to get on
a two-stroke soon, one of the new TPI
bikes and start practicing some ex-
treme racing, getting ready for Tough
Leg Roar and TKO.
You are a little bit taller than most
of the guys, at 6’2”. Is your height an
advantage or disadvantage?
It’s definitely an advantage, especially
in the extreme stuff. When GNCC’s or
national enduros, any other racing gets
technical, I always have the ability to
paddle my bike up a hill or through a
rock garden or anything. But it definite-
ly helps even just the way I can move
my weight more and weight the bike
differently. So if you use the height to
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your advantage, it definitely helps out.
What do you do as far as setup? Do
you set your bike up differently?
I pretty much set my bike up the
same as anyone else. I don’t really think
it’s good to kind of adapt the bike to
make it taller, just because how they’re
manufactured that’s the best way. So
I find it is best for me being tall, I just
run my bike like a person who say is 5’8
or 5’10 around that height. I run it the
same.
You and Josh Toth are sharing a
house. Is there some kind of rivalry
between the two of you?
I don’t think there’s any rivalry. We’re
pretty good about it. Growing up rac-
ing against each other we always were
battling. It’s been good. No rivalry. Just
when it comes to the race, we obvi-
ously both want to win and do our
best, but we’re not going to do any-
thing personal or anything like that.
We train during the week and ride and
everything and have fun. I think it’s
good because we just push each other
to be better. Hopefully we’ll keep going
doing how we’re doing, and we’ll both
be one, two in the series and just push
each other to the top.
I think when America first found
out who Ben Kelley it was at Six Days
in Spain.
Yeah, Josh and I both did really well,
and our other rider, Jason Klammer. We
ended up third that year as a club, Trail
Jesters.