On The Pegs May 2019 - Volume 4 - Issue 5 | Page 101

On The Pegs
Vol. 4 Issue 5 - May 2019
101
How different is your strategy for racing a GNCC compared to your
strategy for racing a sprint enduro?
I wouldn’t say there’s a big difference, but there is a difference. It’s good
for me to learn how to sprint really well because it helos me in the GNCC
series. At a GNCC we race three hours and sprint enduro tests are only five
to ten minutes at a time. So it’s a lot different. At a GNCC you kind of have
to have a little bit of a different mindset and say, ‘okay, I’m about to start
a three-hour race’. Let’s pace ourselves the first hour and a half, and then
the last hour and a half you go your full max. At the Sprint Enduro races
it’s like you have no time to rest. As soon as you cross that start gate you
have to hammer the whole five to ten minutes. Just for me, it’s just learn-
ing how to be comfortable being uncomfortable for five to ten minutes.
You have to ride that edge where you’re really pushing the envelope,
where you’re on two wheels or you’re off two wheels. The biggest thing
for me is how to change the uncomfortable to the comfortable. It’s fun.
It’s learning. I won the series a couple years ago but I feel like this year
there’s way more guys that are really fast. I feel like half of these are the
same guys that I race at GNCC.
So, you go out and bicycle the course, you find your lines. Are you
able to perfectly hit those lines every time and visualize them, or is
it kind of just a general thing?
Yeah, 75% of the time the lines actually work out pretty good. I try to do
the test four times. I do the cross test twice and the enduro test twice. So
first time around I try to learn it or whatever, and then the second time I
go around I try to go a little faster on the bike. That way you can still have
that speed as though you’re racing or whatever. So you kind of see what
lines will work and what lines won’t. 75% of the times the lines that you
see will work pretty well. That’s the biggest thing on the cross test. I feel
like I try to ride the line where I need to be. That way I can remember it
or whatever. I feel like I really struggle a little bit on the cross test. I always
kind of knife the turns where I need to sweep the turns. So I try to sweep
the turns when I mountain bike. That way I have that in my mind where I
need to do that on my dirt bike. Just 75% of the time it works, for sure.