OTP : WHAT THOUGHTS WERE GOING THROUGH YOUR HEAD WHEN YOU REALIZED THAT YOU WON THE OVERALL CHAMPIONSHIP ?
TH : That was definitely a good feeling ; it wasn ' t really something I was fully focused on this year . My full focus for this year was just winning races because last year was the first time I really ever beat Cody Webb at extreme enduro and before that no one had really come to the USA and beat Cody all that much ; he pretty much won every race he entered when it came to extreme enduro in America . I think everyone by now knows he ' s one of the best in the world . We went at it all year long ; he got one third and other than that we went first and second every race . It definitely went down to the wire and to compete against him was an honor ; to beat him definitely felt amazing .
OTP : A COUPLE YEARS AGO AT ERZBERG IN 2019 , YOU HAD AN ISSUE WITH YOUR FRONT BRAKE ; CODY WASN ’ T ABLE TO FINISH THE EVENT , SO HE OFFERED THE FRONT BRAKE OFF OF HIS RACE BIKE TO HELP YOU FINISH . AS YOU WERE COMING UP IN YOUR CAREER AND MORE OR LESS IDOLIZING SOME OF THESE RIDERS , LIKE CODY , WHAT WAS IT LIKE HAVING YOU KNOW ONE OF THE GUYS THAT YOU REALLY LOOKED UP TO HELPING YOU OUT IN A BIG EVENT LIKE THAT ?
ON THE PEGS // PAGE 96
TH : It was definitely really cool of Cody to help me out . I probably wouldn ' t have finished that race if he didn ' t help me because without a front brake those downhills are just impossible . I would have had to throw my bike down and it probably would have got all messed up , so yeah , without Cody ’ s help I probably wouldn ' t have finished . Definitely a big thanks to Cody for helping me finish my first Erzberg . Me and Cody have been friends for a long time now ; I think maybe 2017 was the first time I went to his house and trained with him . I think every year after that , I went to his house a couple of times , so he definitely welcomed me with open arms . He ' s always been really nice to me and I ’ m super happy to consider him still a friend .
I think this year if one of us wasn ' t there , the other one would have been pretty bored ; we both want to have the other one there . It also helps us because I think both of our big goals are winning on the world stage at like Romaniacs or Erzberg against everyone , and me and him can ' t really do that without each other . We need each other to push each other just like Mani [ Lettenbichler ] and Billy [ Bolt ] are kind of doing in Europe right now .
Winning the Kenda AMA Extreme series was definitely a stepping stone , but we still got some work to do if we want to get my end goal .