On The Pegs October 2019 -Volume 4 - Issue 10 | Page 83
On The Pegs
Vol. 4 Issue 10 - October 2019
83
I know in ’15 in Slovakia when I was racing in Sprint Enduros and I went and did Six
Days, I felt like I was way more fresh in those types of race situations. I’ve got some
high expectations for myself to do pretty well this year and hopefully keep my
head in the game all six days.
So you mentioned your goal, the individual win. You mentioned 2016. The
team was in a position to win. Taylor was leading the overall. How much do
you hold back for the sake of the team, and how hard is that for you to do
that for the collective good?
That would be a question for him, really. I know he was pretty stressed about
it. At the end of the day, in my shoes, I wouldn’t have changed anything because
when you try to start changing stuff that’s when stuff happens. It’s one of those
things. I know from myself racing, in the lead if I start getting complacent, that’s
when I start going backwards. That’s when stuff kind of unravels. When you keep
your head in the game and just treat it as any other day, if it’s meant to be, it’s
meant to be. If your bike breaks or something because you were trying, that’s
racing. Dirt bikes break all the time. It’s one of those things. It’s a double-edged
sword. For me, I would have just kept pressing forward and tried to get them both
done.
When you’re over there with these guys and you’re working together as a
team, is it on your mind that you might be giving these guys tips that are go-
ing to hurt you next year at the US championship title that you’re going for?
No, not really. I would say zero percent of Six Days kind of translates into what
we do here at home. I guess we do help each other over there in different ways,
and probably ways we don’t even realize we’re helping each other, but basically
it’s all just riding stuff and how if one person is really good in one test, we’ll kind of
pick their brain about what kind of lines they’re using and how they’re making it
around some of the more technical spots on the track, where they’re putting their
bike. Just certain things like that. Once you get back home, you go to a completely
different venue. It’s all a level playing field. So it’s not like we’re there sharing our
training secrets and this and that. The training is already done and you’re not
gaining much fitness while you’re over there. I would say mainly we’re just helping
each other try to get each of us around each test as fast as we can.
Is there anything different for this year’s US team that’s making it look es-
pecially good? How is the team shaping up right now?We had our ISDE train-