2020 GNCC / FULL GAS SPRINT ENDURO CHAMPION KAILUB RUSSELL
P94
Interview
and trying to go as fast as you
can, you hit something, and your
bike goes up, and it messes with
you because you're like, what is
my bike doing? It shouldn't do
that. It should feel this way and
not that way. So, it plays mind
games with you. Almost not
knowing is a better plan of attack
than knowing too much and be-
ing too finicky to subtle changes.
It's crazy how that works. Back
in the day, you could have taken
my forks and thrown them as far
up in the clamps as they could
go and twisted the rebound all
the way in, and I wouldn't have
noticed a damn thing, but I was
riding to the line a couple of
races ago, and I didn't realize my
forks were like a millimeter high-
er than my practice bike was,
and I get to the starting line, and
I was like, 'Man, I think my bars
are too far forward.' I couldn't
pinpoint it, but I knew something
was off. I could just feel it just
riding to the starting line. So, I
got there, and I rolled my bars
back, and it still felt like shit. I
rode the whole race, and I came
back, and I saw that instead of
on the second line, I was on the
third line. I was like, no wonder
I felt so bad for 30, 40 minutes
because I was adjusted to it. It
definitely is a curse. So, there's
a fine line between being naive
and not knowing and a good tes-
ter and knowing everything and
being able to dictate. Definitely,
when you get going you can't
make changes in off-road. We
don't reset in 30 minutes. You
got to deal with it. Like I said,
off-road, you got to be mentally
tough to deal with your bike even
when it's junk."
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Due to a knee injury, Russell
was forced to end his GNCC
career at this year's Ironman
race, two races before the end
of the season. Of course, Rus-
sell is not entirely done. He will
still be under contract with KTM
in 2021, and he still has some
unfinished business.
"I would like to have won
Six Days," said Russell. "I feel
like I threw one away in 2015
when Ryan [Sipes] won and I
blew my knee out. It's a tough
event. Those guys are a little bit
more on point at certain places
and the terrain is so varying.
It's funny. You can almost go
anywhere in Europe and it's
"Back in the day,
you could have
taken my forks and
thrown them as far
up in the clamps as
they could go and
twisted the rebound
all the way in and
I wouldn't have
noticed a damn
thing."
Russell won his
first GNCC title in
2013 and has never
looked back.
