INTERVIEW
P62
CYCLE NEWS RIDER OF THE YEAR KAILUB RUSSELL
BY BRETT SMITH
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEN HILL
W
hen he heard the "pop" Kailub Russell also
heard two very likely championship titles
go crashing out the window. That pop he
heard, while competing at the ISDE in Slovenia, was
the ACL ligament in his knee tearing, which would
normally put a sudden, and lengthy, stop to anyone's
activities, especially a motorcycle racer's. But Kailub
couldn't stop; he had some unfinished business to
take care of, like sewing up two of this country's most
prestigious off-road championships, which he did, in
fact, go on to do in the 2015 GNCC and AMA National
Enduro Series, which is something no one before
him had ever done—win these two titles in the same
year. And that's not all, by winning the Enduro title, he
and his dad, Jeff, became the first father and son to
win AMA titles in the same category. The icing on his
2015 cake was that he also wrapped up the inaugural
Kenda Full Gas Sprint Enduro Championship earlier
this summer. Yes, it was a remarkable year for
Kailub who impressed our editors so much that we
unanimously selected him as our 2015 Cycle News
Rider of the Year. — Editor
Even a shredded knee could not
keep Kailub Russell—arguably the
best off-road racer in the U.S.—
from piling on the titles
WHAT A
YEAR!
