On The Pegs February 2019 - Volume 4 - Issue 2 | Page 50

On The Pegs
There’s no doubt. If you don’t have that, you can’t
race at a high level. But you also have to know
how to navigate, and strategy. You have to be
able to adapt, be able to work on your bike. You
have to be able to ride all these different types of
conditions. You have to really think and be smart.
It’s crazy. It’s the Everest of motorcycle racing. It’s
really hard and demanding. That adventure and
every day not knowing what you’re getting into,
or the unknown and how you’re going to deal
with the adversity is really cool. I really like it.
Was it a bigger transition than what you
thought when you first started racing rally?
I thought once I was 100% dedicated to it I
would catch on much sooner. But there’s way
more to it than I understood. Once I got the nitty
gritty and raced at a high level against the best, I
learned that it’s not something you can hop into
and just be successful right off the bat. I think the
only person who’s done that is Toby (Price). He
just gets away with it because he’s not from this
world. He’s always just been different in that case.
I think he’s the only one that breaks that tradition.
For me, reality sets in when you have big crashes
because if you ride over your head or you do stuff
when you’re navigating and you miss a danger
or something like that, or if you’re just following,
that’s when you can get hurt really bad. You start
playing with fire and pretty soon you get burned.
I definitely underestimated it. I underestimated
how good these guys are and how much experi-
ence and how dedicated and all that. These guys
are pretty unreal. It’s cool just to be in it and
around it.
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On The Pegs
Vol. 4 Issue 2 - February 2019
P 51