Danny Hart
“... there ’ s a reason that
not many people have won the World Champs
After Fort William World Cup it was on to Leogang , Vallnord and Lenzerheide , right ?
At Leogang my chain snapped ! Vallnord went well though . I knew I could win there or could do really well but my head wasn ’ t in the best place with having a tough season . I had a third with probably the most exciting run of the day . That was a good building block for moving forward .
Then I had another third at Lenzerheide and another tough week to be fair . I had a lot of crashes and beat myself up a little . I was happy to come away with a third there and then go into a bit of a break off the World Cups .
What have you been up to on that break ?
After Fort William , I was on the road ‘ til Lenzerheide which was a long time . It was nice to go home for a few weeks . When you ’ ve been away for a long time like I had you just want to sit on the sofa and enjoy sleeping in your own bed ! It was nice to see a lot of friends that I haven ’ t seen for a long time .
I didn ’ t ride much to be fair because I beat myself up a little bit in Lenzerheide and I had a few bumps and scrapes . I had a week off the bike and yeah , I just bimbled around Redcar seeing some friends . I went to Vee Dub festival .
We ’ re now pretty much half way through the season . What ’ s motivating you at the moment ?
I ’ ve had two good World Cups and I ’ ve got two tracks that I won on last year coming up . I ’ ve got a good bike , I ’ m fit and I ’ m strong .
And what ’ s frustrating you ?
The start of the year . But what can you do ?
How about Danny Hart ’ s Descent Hamsterley Bike Park . How did that come about ? What ’ s the plans for that ?
First things first , it ’ s not strictly just me that ’ s done it . It ’ s my parents that are running it and they ’ ve put a lot of time into that . With me racing it ’ s hard but that ’ s me for the future .
We ’ ve already put a lot of money into it and got the business running better . We ’ ve got three buses running now and there ’ s new tracks in the pipeline . There ’ s a lot of work involved in working with the Forestry to build new tracks - we don ’ t own the land so we don ’ t just have the right to do what we please and there ’ s a lot of hoops to jump through .
World Cup tracks are causing a bit of controversy this year ... a lot of riders seem to be complaining about tracks being too much bike park .
Tell them to go and work in McDonalds ! It is what it is . It ’ s got to be a good show for TV and gone are the days when we get tracks that riders get wet dreams about .
Lourdes was a wicked track . Fort William is a good track . It ’ s been the same for a long time but they changed a big section . There ’ s rumours that Red Bull want to change it further down which I think sucks . I understand where people are coming from when they say Leogang isn ’ t good enough ... but the way I look at it is that Billy the Kid that goes to the Alps with his mum and dad on holiday can relate to Leogang . He can see how fast people are going . It ’ s also another aspect of downhill mountain biking . That ’ s what people ride . We used to go to South Africa and it sucked but it was a part of downhill mountain biking .
Andorra was an awesome track . You ’ d go ride that with your friends on a mountain biking holiday ... what ’ s wrong with that ? I should really like Lenzerheide - I ’ ve won there in the past - but people were saying that I didn ’ t really ride the same as I did in Andorra . There was nowhere on that track that let me do that . There was nowhere that I could nearly go over the bars or miss a line and have to do a big inside line . You just had to stay in the main line .
The big race coming up for you is obviously World Champs . How are you feeling about that ?
I ’ ve done the work I guess . I ’ ve worked as hard as I can , I ’ ve done what I can do . It ’ s going to be a tough race for everyone . It ’ s a physical track but I ’ ll have a nice bike . I ’ ll make the bike as light as I can . I ’ ll be as fit as I can and what will be will be . It ’ s not my favourite track but we ’ ll go with a positive mental attitude .
Of all the races that you can achieve , is World Champs the most important ?
I guess I can say that it is because I ’ ve won it twice . I hear people say “ oh , but the championship overall is way harder !” they ’ re right , it is harder but there ’ s a reason that not many people have won the World Champs . There ’ s only a select few that have won it or won it a couple of times .
And having won it twice , what would you say it takes to win a World Champs ?
Everything has to go right . Last year I had confidence . I ’ d been there practicing and done my homework . You have to put all the pieces of the puzzle together and I ’ ve managed to do that twice . u
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