Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

befor~ that wa s Boyers (in Pe nn s yl v ani a ), a n d I' d co me off w inning th at. It was reall y muddy, and I'd h ad a good rid e th er e. I was rea llYhyped . "Bas icall y , w e h ad ' a few problems (at Sta r va tion Point). I w as trying to catch up a bit of lost time, and I just hit a rock at the wron g angle and it threw me off. It was just one of th ose things. I was probably rid ing the p ace that I'd ride in a World C ha m p io ns h ip Endur o (s pecia l test), but the probl em was , I was ha ving to keep tha t pace up for hours, not for minutes. That's the difference, and I think just the la ck of co ncen tra tio n on m y p art r es u lt e d in th e accid ent. " I w as in th e hos p ital for like a wee k, wh ich was quite a lot, really, just for a kne e su rgery . I tore three li gam ents in t h e kn ee, which w as obvi ous ly a lot wo rse th an I thou ght. I · < ctu ally w ent home after a th e race a n d s ta rted to walk on it, an d I thought I w as okay. It w asn't until I saw a top ph ysio (doctor) fro m b ack h ome, a nd we go t an MRI sc a n o n th e kne e . Th er e we re thre e (ligam ents) torn : the inner one, the ou ter one and the medial, the one in the middle. "So, ye ah, I' ve d on e a go od job in rehab. Th ey say it's a' six-mo nth thing . Actu ally, looking back now , it' s reall y been six months. The injury was in Jun e, th e 15th , and it' s like six months now . I'm virtually ba ck to how I wa s befor e the accident, which is goo d for me..This is wh ere I need to be at this tim e of the year." THE MOST DIFFICULT PART OF THE TRANSITION "When I came over at the end of '96 and I watched a race, it kind of changed so much between then and '97 . I don't know wh at happen ed, but - to me - the pa ce se emed to heat up and ev eryon e was really d et ermined . Th e race I w atched, because it was at the en d of the year in '96, maybe the guys had jus t ' backed off a little bit. "Bu t I know that from the start of '97 everyone was really determined. I think th ey realized that I wa s comin g ov er, and th at th ey had to p ick u p a good pa ce from the ou tse t. They started doing th at. I think from w hen th e s tart ga te , dropped in Ocal a (in Flo rida ), th e ' 97 GNCCs were totally different. "I thin k tha t' s w ha t I found . You never knew .what anybody was going to d o. It was just per race - w hoever wa s leading ba sically chan ged the tempo of th e ra ce, wh ich was really d iff erent, es pe cia lly w he n people used to say a guy wo u ld lead , and you'd go out and try to kee p with him. That went ou t the wi ndow when Steve (Hatc h) s tarted a cha rge in Ocala. I think from the n on, everyone wa s just trying to get to the front im med iately to race instead of hangin g back, then charging at the end . For three hours , tha t' s a long time t o charge. "As I said before, I d on' t th in k the guys from Europe would come over and understand the wa y of racing over here. It's like wi th all the top American riders: (Above) Edmondson with his son Jac k (who is app roac hing his first birthday) and his wife , Amanda . (Left) " I am really enjoying it. I'm loo ki ng forward to thi s year," Edmondson says. " I hope that at the end of th is year 1can look back and say. 'Yeah , tha t'was a lot better than last (when Injury cut his season short).' '' I know for a fa ct t h e Eu ropea ns wouldn't beat them in a three-hour race, that' s for sure, beca us e I'm ha ving my work cut ou t at the momen t. I just hope that with a lot o f hard work that I' ve been doing now since I' ve had my knee in ju ry , th at I ca n ge t back to the pace that I wa s at w hen I le ft th e GNCC series last yea r. That' s what I'm using as my goal. "Fitnesswise, now I'v estarted training in a gym. I'v e got a train er, Joe Licci ardi (the tr ain er /coach fo r th e FMF/ Honda 125cc MX team , as well as Jerem y McGrath a n d Greg Albertyn, among others). I'm the first off-road guy that's gon e to him . Obvi ously, I' m living in Coro na (in Ca li forn ia) now so it' s really handy for me, as that's wh ere Lieciardi' s based. I know it sou nds crazy, but I'm ac tua ll y enjoying it , r eall y, becau se I've go t someo ne with me that kn ows what the y're doing. They can pu t their experie nce to me and give me that experience. "In Europea n en dure s, it ' s t otally d iffer ent. All we need to d o trai ningw ise is spend tim e on th e bi ke and practice, like, short stages. For exa mp le, w e're d oing a loop here tod ay for tes ting, a nd it 's p ro b abl y e ig ht mi nutes long . We'd use that as a cross-cou n try te st in Europe , and w e'd probably be timing on it 15, 20 tim es a d ay, just trying to b eat yo u r pre viou s b es t time . Obviou sly, w hen you' re try ing to d o it for th ree hours, you've got to learn to ride for three hour s, not just for 10 min ut es. "I am really enjoying it. I'm looking forward to th is year . Suzuki is putting all th eir effor ts into th e GN CC, and I know tha t thi s is th e main off-road ch a m p io n s h ip in Am erica , b e cau se tha t's where all the guy s are. I hope that at the end of thi s year I can look ba ck and say, 'Yeah, that was a lot better than last. " SHOWING THE EUROSWHAT HE'S LEARNED "I p ersonally in te n d o n doing ra ces in so me Eu r o pe. Th ere a re so me GNCC-s t yl e ra ces in France this su mme r. I know that w ith th e expe rien ce I' v e go t h ere, if I we n t ba ck there I'm pretty sure they'd be in fo r a su r p r is e. M o to cr o ss rid e r s race it , a n d th ere ' s end uro rid ers; last yea r an enduro guy , wo n it. It is ve ry big . I've been ou t of Eu ro pe for a year alread y, and peop le are obvious ly asking qu estions. It'd be kind of nice to go back and show them my bikes and every th ing, wha t I've been doin g, all sorts of thin gs like that. "Racing in America, I think I'm only going to be racing in the GNC Cs. I wo n't be doing the ISDE; that' s definitely a nono. I think maybe - it depends on if it's okay with Suzuki - I might do the British World Enduro Ch am pions h ip ro u nd, but that wo uld be it, really, other than, hopefully, some motocross. I'm going to s ta rt th is weeken d and do so me motocross. Hopefull y, that'll help me get into race mode, because there's a lot of good guys there. They help me because th ey're fas ter th an me; I can look a nd learn from them an d pu t wh at I learn from th em into my GNCC program, w hich I know for su re will help me." A CHANGED PLAN OF ATTACK Unlike last yea r, w hen he tra vel ed th e Eas t Coast in h is mot orhome a nd flew out wes t occasio nally, Ed mondson is ren ting a home in Corona, California, not far from Su zu ki's head qu arters in Brea. Like his t" teammates, who live NO ill Northern California, he'll fly east for each race and -then return hom e immedia tel y, like a pro motocrosse r might d o. H is wife and their infant son will join him in Coron a a t tim es. Fo r m er p ro motocrosser and '97 GN CC Vet cha mp Tom Carson w ill be Ed dy 's mechan ic this year. . , " 'The way tha t I look at it is tha t this year will be so much easier for me - not so much the racing sid e of thin gs, bu t all the other thi ngs in life: the birth of my son, livltlg out of a mo tor hom e, traveling and not being ab le to practice. All tha t' s b asi call y go ne out th e window now. I' m starting fres h aga in, bas ically s tar tin g lik e any o th er Ameri can by stay ing in Am erica. I think that'll help me a lot. "I d on 't think I' ll be a t a di sad vantage by living in Corona becau se of the rid ing oppo rtu nities, and I kn ow from the tr aining side of it, I' ll be training probabl y three times a week when th e race season starts, so tha t'll keep me fit. "All in all, I thin k the program will wo rk out that much better. By living in California, I'll still be ab le to do wha t I did last year a n d, indeed , h opefull y have a better year. "If I w as tr ailing my wife a nd so n around an d having to drive myself to all the races, that wo u ld jus t wea r me out. You can' t be expected to perform as well as you shou ld wh en you' re tired . I hope I'll overcome that . "Ev e ry one ' s wo rking hard at th e mom ent. I know the team aro u nd me is really st ro ng, even the personal peopl e tha t I' ve go t help ing me, like Licciardi, like Julia n (Steve ns, his mechanic), like (Suz uki's) Mike (Webb) an d everyone. I thi n k t h at'll m a k e th e d iff erence, because I' m really use d to having a close-knit team around me." THE TEAM MANAGER'S ASSESSMENT Suzuki Off-Road team manager Mike Webb firmly believes this will be a stellar yea r for his trio of Rl'vI250-mounted s ta rs . A sk ed to eva lua te hi s British racer' s performance last ye ar, Webb sa id: "I th ink he did rea lly well. We knew it would be a learning experience. We kn ew th e fir st year w e wou ld be expe rime n ting with a lot of things: allnew tracks , a new form of racin g, a completely different environment for him. "Of course w e wa nted him to w in , but w e didn't se t unreal goals. At the point he got injured, he had wo n more . Nationals than anyb od y. He wa s lead ing the Har e Scramb les Seri es, and he had tied for the lead with the most wins in the GNCC series, so we were actu ally ahead of our expectati ons at that po int." But one of the jobs of a team manager , is to spot ways to improve his team, not just to look for weaknesses in the competi tion . So w hat's Ed mo ndson' s main ar ea to work on? "The main th ing wa s condi tioning," Webb said. "'E d dy's such a talented athlete; he's always relied on hi s ta le n t, a nd w h e n it cam e to the , GNCCs , h e re al ize d it's ba s icall y a three-hour sprint. People talk about it, bu t that's what it is. 'This year he's put on 15 pounds. It;s all muscl e. He goes to the gym two, 2 " hours a day, and then goes an d pound s motos af te r w ard . An d h e does th at every da y religiously. "So we now have the combi na tion of talen t a n d condit io n in g , and , w e've bumped up our testing even mo re than last yea r. We'r e ready." (~

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