2019 WORCS, SPRINT HERO & ISDE CHAMPION TAYLOR ROBERT
P76
Interview
Oh yeah. I watch videos of all those
guys. It's pretty cool. We have a couple
guys here in Arizona that are really good
trials riders as well so it's fun to go ride
with them—Josh Roper and Daniel Blanc-
Gonnet who were both on the [U.S.] Trial
des Nations team. We've got a good
group of riders out here in the Phoenix
area. On any given day we can have four
to six guys out riding together so it's al-
ways fun. It's a little more of a social event
because you're in the open-face helmet,
you're not going fast, you're all kind of rid-
ing in the same area. I like that aspect of it.
Looking back on 2019, you chased
both the WORCS and Sprint Hero se-
ries. How much of your focus can you
devote to each one?
They're pretty similar as far as the loca-
tions, and since the first time I did ISDE
back in 2010, I've always been a big
believer in sprint speed, whether it's for [a
two-hour] WORCS race or one-lap sprint
enduros. That's always been a big focus of
mine, just trying to work on that speed. As
long as you're spending a lot of time on the
bike, the fitness will be there. For me, they
kind of go hand in hand; I don't necessarily
focus on one more than the other.
Were you surprised you had so
much success? You won seven of the
11 WORCS races including the first six
in a row, plus four of the five Sprint
Hero races.
Not really because I've done that in the
years past. Even though I've gotten hurt, I
think in 2017 I won every single race that I
competed in, but they weren't all in a row
because I had an injury in the middle, and
the same in 2018—I think I won all of them
except for the last race. So, I knew it was
something I could do. It was just a matter
of keeping it together all year long.
Halfway through the year then, were
you more nervous or less nervous
about staying on top of the points?
As the year went along, I would say that
I started to get more nervous but mostly
because of the bad luck I'd had the last
couple years. I was so freaked out that
something would happen right before
the last couple races so I was real ner-
vous about that. The race that I clinched
the WORCS championship, I was even
freaked out a lap in because Zach Bell
Robert enjoys
technical riding.
You'll see
more of him in
EnduroCross in
2020.
