VOLUME 57 ISSUE 1 JANUARY 7, 2020 P91
point, I was going into [round seven at]
Lovelock, [Nevada,] "Well, I can't lose
to him again or the points gap is going
to be too much." And sorry, but I don't
like the AMA points system! It's too
easy for someone to walk away. So at
Panaca I was the most worried all year.
So your back was against the wall
going into Lovelock.
Yeah, and even at Lovelock I wasn't
that worried. I had the worst start of
the whole year there. I don't know—I
was not worried [even with the bad
start]. I was like, "I'm going to do
this!" It took three and a half hours.
That was the most tired I've ever
been after that race! I'd planned to
save energy because no one had
done that race before, being new
on the schedule, and it was a long
race—it was 130 miles or some-
thing—and that didn't happen. I had
to sprint the whole time because of
my bad start and I had to throw all
pre-race plans out the window.
Winning that seemed to reset
your confidence, especially
knowing the last two rounds
would be at Lucerne where
you're very comfortable.
For sure. I mean, I felt better, but
then I was nervous because it was
like, "Well, I could lose it here, but
this is my territory," but I generally
had confidence going in.
You won the finale convinc-
ingly to clinch the championship.
Was it more a feeling of relief
or celebration or what to know
that?
I think the highest point for me
was 10 miles to go. I was pretty far
ahead at that point, and I looked
