VOLUME 57 ISSUE 50 DECEMBER 15, 2020 P93
not faster at the time, but I wasn't
as fit. Then I got fit and the next
year, I won a ton of races, al-
most won a championship. Just
everything snowballed in the
right direction for me. Definitely,
once you get a taste of winning
and what it's like, there's noth-
ing that can replace that feeling.
It becomes an addiction, and
that's how I treated it in a way."
JUST RIDE IT
Not only did Russell become
one of the fittest riders on the
circuit, but he honed his riding
skills and even his ability to set
up the bike.
"Back in the day, I wasn't that
good of a tester to tell you if my
bike was good or bad," said
Russell. "They threw a setting
in there and I rode it. Nowa-
days, I'm super finicky. A couple
clicks this way or that way; I can
tell major differences. Today
we messed with my bike, the
rebound, the high-speed, the
low-speed on the shock and
the forks. We made one-click
changes all day for each test,
and I would come in, and I could
tell drastic changes just in that
one click, nowadays. That's a
benefit, but it's also is a curse
in a way, for sure. Back in the
day, I would just go out and just
ride the piss out of the thing and
be like, whatever. It's not sup-
posed to do that. I don't know
what it's supposed to do and not
supposed to do. So now you're
hitting bumps and stuff, and
instead of just attacking the track
Russell also won this year's
Full Gas Sprint Enduro
Championship. He's won it
three times.
left
just
out on
was the
to do it."
