Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Was it difficu lt to keep from riding too much when you were battling so hard with Rodneyr I didn't really do anything different . I rea lly tried not to let the championship chase get to me . I think before, J was working so hard that by the time I got to the race, I was already tired. that maybe on a day like that, when you 're just riding and not thinking about it too much , you' re more prone to making mistake s. You tried to race motocross at Loretta Lynn's, T hat d idn't w ork out did itr No . That was afte r I did my shou lde r, and the n I jammed my w rist there . It just seemed like afte r I hurt my shoulde r, from that point on it was just a downhill slide. At Loretta 's, I knew a bunch of people were questioning why I was there in the first place , and I knew I shouldn't have been doing what I've been doing. But it was a lot of fun. I was surprised how many people knew w ho I was, and I met a lot of nice peopl e. T he battles w ith Rodney this year were pretty spectacular. Yeah. Th is whole year, so me of the races, like Wisp, it was great. I passed him on the last lap and I thought it was a done deal. He didn't look like he was cha rging too hard anymore. But he came by me just banzai down this hill. He just wanted it so bad . He looke d way out of control to me, and he's suppose d to be one of the smartest guys, but he just wanted it so bad that he was willing to do anything to get it. Th is year, he just had that te nacity. We we re in a hard battle, and you wou ld think you could maybe wear him out, but he wouldn't take no for an answe r. When t he series came back on, did you know you wouldn't be able to w in the GNCC titte] Some of the races the sho ulder didn't bot her me, but at the e nd of the year, w he n we had a GNCC and the n a hare scramble eve ry we e k, it started to get really bad. It was frustrating because I knew wha t I need ed to do, but I couldn't physicallydo it. I didn't want to tell anyone I was hurt and make excuses, so that was tough. The re are tw o ways to get hurt : You can get a cast and you're don e , but I was hurt and I was still able to ride. In some ways that is worse, because you have to dea l with the pain and the disappo intme nt and the frustration every week. I was fortunate to be able to w in the hare scrambles title again. Was it fun to race like that! It was fun. And it was all clean [racing]. Some day, when we're old and retired, I can think back that I battied tooth and nailw ith one of t he grea test off- road riders o f all time. A lot of people wonde red if the pressure of fight. ing for the t it le was go ing to get to you. Did itr No. I tried rea lly hard dur ing the week to not worry about it. My goal was to just do my best and be happy with that . It's such a long series , the last man standing wins. A lot of it has to do with w ho doesn't make mistake s or gets hurt , not who wins the battles. O ne of the ra ces t ha t wo rked out well for you was t he John Penton GNCC in Ohio. You dominated there. Did you feel like yo u were a bo ut to take contro l of th e se ries at t ha t point? You know, at that race I was walking around , and it was kind of muddy in the mo rning. I was thinking it wasn't going to be a fun race. But it seems like in the races where I have already given up, it takes the pressure off. It's like when I see a track I like, I expect to just fly out there, and then w he n J do n't do it, I get frustrated. Every athlete has a day where you have an edge, where the physical and me ntal sides co me toge ther. That was just my day. On ce that race was over, I thought I had some mom ent um. But a week after that, I got hurt . T he re were rumors a ll year that you were leaving Yamaha for KTM. My first inte ntion was to stay with Yamaha, but KTM asked me what I had going for next year. Most people figured I wou ldn't leave Yamaha because I'm such goo d friends w ith Randy [Hawkins]. My main thing was to not jeopardize my friendship with him. But KTM tried hard. They sent me fou r different co ntracts . But I didn't want to fix what wasn' t bro ken . The mo ney is not as impo rtant to me as being co mforta ble. A few years ago, you and your teammate Barry Hawk were just t o p-five guys. Now you're champions. Has the team dynamo ic changed! It has changed a lot. Ou ts ide of racing, Barry and I are still the same. We're frie nds. But he wants to w in as bad as I do. It's tough to be rea llygood friends w ith someone who you're battli ng w ith week after week. We both know the re's only o ne positio n that's o pe n. We try to be as good as we can, but any teammate w ill te ll you it's tough. • What happened? You know, it's funny, beca use we didn't have a race for a few weeks , so I wa sn't go ing to ride at all. But a coupl e of younger kids came down here and they wanted to ride . That day I thought it wa s so nice to just ride and not think of it as pra ctice or train.., ing. Lat e r on we were on top o f a hill , and we heard one of t he o ther boys crash, so we went back down the hill to check on him. I got my fro nt tire caugh t in a rain run, and I fell. At first my elbow hurt, but th e shoulder kept get ting worse . I d idn't see a doc to r fo r a few weeks because I was trying to convinc e myself it wa sn't hurt . But the re was a crack the re , and the bo ne kep t spreading apart . You know, yo u cou ld say it's just bad luck. But, my dad was thinking You've come a lo ng way in a short time. Do you have a perspective on how far you 've come? I still think every day of where I start ed and where I am now. It's hard for me to believe . I don 't even know w hat made it change. I don't fee l like I'm do ing anything different than w he n I was 16 yea rs old. I guess whe n a younger guy co mes up, and you have to race t he guys you used to idolize, you put them o n a ped est al. You let them beat you before you even start the race. But you get over being star st ruck, and that's w he n you can start winn ing. www.cyclenews.com CYCLE NEWS • JANUARY 5 , 20 05 89

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