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Cycle News 2022 Issue 01 January 4

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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VOLUME 59 ISSUE 1 JANUARY 4, 2022 P55 in centers around intensity versus volume. "If you just trail ride without a stopwatch or whatever, you tend to get slow because you're not pushing that limit," he said. "Whereas, if you go out and do, say, five 10-minute sprints, that's 50 minutes of intensity as hard as you can race. In my opinion—and I think in a lot of other profes- sional racers' opinions—that's the way to build your speed is putting in timed, interval sprints: 10-minute sprint, five- minute rest, 10-minute sprint, five-minute rest or whatever the case may be. It's pretty basic; just putting in the time is all there is to it." That and his injuries have reshaped the way he attacks a race nowadays. Before, Wasson was the quintes- sential example of a hold- her-wide-all-the-time rider. Now, he agrees, "When I first started out, I was the kid from Idaho willing to go fast. I didn't really know how to go fast. I just knew I was willing to do it. "I've changed my approach a lot. I'm definitely a lot more cautious, but there's still part of me that's willing to hang it out if I need to. "I'm trying to get away from that just for the consistency part because it seems like as soon as you start hanging it out, that's when things get a little sketchy." Though only 28, Wasson "I think when I get too focused on what I'm going to do next, it takes away from what I'm doing now. I keep reminding myself, 'Just focus on what you're doing right now. What'll come next will come next.'" is well aware of how difficult it will be hanging on to that coveted number-one plate: "I've got a couple years left in the tank. It's hard staying on top like that. There's a bunch of young kids coming after me—all my competition's basically 21, 22. Now, I just have to ride with a little more smarts versus speed and just make sure the consistency stays there. It seems like the younger guys still make a lot more mistakes. I kind of know where they make mistakes and how to race them, so I've been working on my game plan going into the '22 sea- son: how to race them, where to push hard, where to back it down a little bit. "I've still got it, I think. "Now, I have the number- one plate and I've got to try to not let that get in my head and keep the same consis- tency going and try to defend it another year." CN ing to do a lot of things that most people aren't willing to do, but if you do them, it'll separate you from the rest of the people and build up that mental strength. How hard can you suffer? I figured out I can suffer a lot harder than the next person." More than that, Wasson feels, is that training in the Ari- zona desert makes him a more precise rider. "Idaho, you can brush through the bushes and stuff. Not in Arizona! You don't miss your corners. You don't blow through bushes because everything down there [cac- tus] will poke you!" Another bit of training phi- losophy that Wasson believes

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