Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1490240
INTERVIEW I OFF-ROAD RACER TARAH GIEGER P64 I'm exhausted and don't really want to race anymore!' You put yourself second so when you come to the races it's tough to be ready for 90 minutes in 90-de- gree heat." Off the bike, Gieger has many fond memories that trend toward the moto-related. "Experiencing the stuff I've experienced, and being able to travel around with global X Games; we went to Bra- zil and Spain and Germany and Los Angeles—or maybe it was Austin, Texas, that year; I'm not sure. Experiencing Motocross of Nations was really cool and [so was] being able to represent the U.S. at Six Days and experiencing all that with the team. "I don't know—I think every - thing—and the people—is pretty much what kept me wanting to do it for so long, too. Getting those experiences and with the people I was able to experience it with are unforgettable." As with many female riders nowadays, Gieger spent most of her career on 250Fs, though she did try 450s for some training, and she has a fairly strong opin- ion on the bigger bikes. "I never raced a 450. I did have one for a while I lived in Florida, so I could ride it in the sand. It's a lot. I always thought it was crazy when girls would race the 450s; it should definitely be just 250s. I don't even think the guys should be racing 450s!" Many times, the most recent memories are our favorites, and Gieger confirms this when asked which team over the years has been her favorite. "Definitely the JCR team has been the best. They're the most knowledgeable, I think. Also, the point I was at in my career when I started riding for them, it was not necessarily no pres - sure, but I didn't really have to prove anything—I could just go out and ride and do my best. I wasn't worried about the results so much as focusing on accom - plishing what I was setting out to accomplish and that was really great. Johnny was always sup- portive of whatever I had in mind and whatever series I wanted to be at; he had a bike ready for it. "I learned a lot on this team. Yeah, I think that's the best team I've been a part of." Lots of people—widely ac- complished or not—would do things differently if they had it to do all over. For Gieger, however, the regrets are few, though she ponders, "If I could do it differ- ent, maybe I'd train a little harder earlier on—or train differently! But that's just knowledge you gain through the years, right? I don't think there's any regrets on anything. It's just experiences and learning things and chang- ing the way you do it in the future from what you learn. I guess I wouldn't change anything the way it happened." Finally, as a successful motor- cycle racer and now mom, Gieger insists she won't push Mason into a life on two wheels, though she wouldn't steer him away from it either. "Mason's shown a lot of inter- est; he loves it! Obviously, we don't pressure him. He's only a year and a half old; you can't force that kid to do anything he doesn't want to! But he's starting to ride his bicycle a lot and he loves going on motorcycle rides. He'll hear a bike and scream, 'Bike!' He definitely loves it; it's one of his favorite things. "It definitely doesn't scare me. He's going to do what he's going to do, so if he can learn those skills earlier in life, it'll be better, I think, than learning it later on. It's too early to know where to go and once you start putting money into something and how much you want them to com- mit. I always would focus on one thing when I was into it, but Dusty is definitely completely dif- ferent. He'll do one thing for two days then want to do something completely different where I'm like, 'Okay, I'm into this' and I'll do nothing but that for months. "It'll be interesting to see what path Mason takes, if he's competitive or if he just wants to have fun." Either way, Gieger and Wygle will be on a new path and satis - fied with the one they've traveled thus far. CN "Gon to Sx Ds, tht ws one of the thns tht ve me confdence tht I could do t becuse I understnd t, nd I've done t ll, nd I'm prett clm nd ble to wor qucl under pressure•"