On The Pegs December 2019 - Volume 4 - Issue 12 | Page 67

On The Pegs
VOL. 4 ISSUE 12 - DECEMBER 2019
67
THESE BOOTS WERE MADE FOR WALKING
Everyone we spoke to credited the American team’s success to all of the walk-
ing they did before and during the event, plus the incredible orgainization that
US team manager Antti Kallonen and all the members of the US support crews
and US contingent have developed over the years.
“Each year our organization gets better; now it’s just small fine tuning,” said
Kallonen. “This year we arrived early, much earlier than in prior years, so we were
able to taper off the walking later in the week. We walked the most we’ve ever
walked, but yet the riders were the most recovered by the time the race started.
We were the first riders walking the tests. As the race got closer, we tapered off
walking and we took the time to actually replenish our bodies and take care of
our bodies to be fresh for the start. Along that, we had some nutritional changes
as well for the entire team that we were taking better care of our nutrition, our
lunches, our hydration. All that was much better taken care of this year leading
up to the race and during the race. Those are the things that we kind of refined
and did better.”
The only rider struggling with lines was Ryan Sipes, since he was one of the
early riders out. Ryan started off super strong on Day One but then fell off a bit
when the courses started to change on Day Two.
“I think that as the tests got rougher and the terrain started changing, Ryan had
a harder time adapting,” said Robert. “Ryan is really good when he can go walk
the test and visualize his lines. The first day, because he was in the E1 class, he
was on the first row that day. He was riding the test the exact same way that they
looked when he walks them. So he was able to ride his exact lines that he picked
out when he was walking, whereas as the tracks got rougher, and then day two
came around, it was like we were riding totally different special tests. He had a
hard time adapting, not being able to ride his exact lines that he wanted to.
“The sprint enduros that we have in the United States now, between the
WORCS Sprint Enduros and the Full Gas Sprint Enduros and our ISDE camp - I
think those are all huge helps. The biggest part is just having four guys that are
really dedicated to try and go over there and win. Every year the program gets a
little bit better with Antti and the whole KTM side just putting in so much effort
to the trophy team - there used to be a lot of downtime and a lot of wasted time
where now we go there and we’re walking every spare minute we can, just trying
to memorize every corner of the special tests. I feel like that’s been the biggest
difference.” n