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/1513380
P124 INTERVIEW I AMA ENDUROCROSS & U.S. HARD ENDURO CHAMPION TRYSTAN HART mentioned, all the time. Cody Webb was kind of the strong guy to beat at that point, and you finally managed to start beating him. Was it in 2019 or so that you beat him a couple of times, and then in 2020, you pretty much just seemed to go on a run? 2020 was when I made a big step. 2019 wasn't a great year. There were only three races, so Cody didn't even race that year [due to an injury]. 2019 I didn't have a great year, but 2020, as soon as I got on the factory bike, I just had a whole new confidence. I won two EnduroCross races that year and showed a ton of speed, but I was crash - ing a lot. I think every other moto I was crashing. I stayed up until 1 a.m. last night, and I watched five years of EnduroCross, just seeing all the adversity I've come through before getting the championship this year. Then on the outdoor events, like I said, you seemed to really make a run on the outdoors. Do you think that success at the outdoor events comes easier for you? Yeah. I'm not a super-talented rider, I would say. I'm not the flashiest guy. Like Jonny [Walker], he won every [EnduroCross] hot lap this year. He's got that speed that I don't really have. But what comes naturally to me is fitness. Back in the day when they [EnduroCross] were 15-minute mains, it just came down to fitness, so that really suited me. So just when I was doing good, they swapped to the three, six-minute race format where fitness isn't such a big deal and it's more about sprinting those first couple laps. So, just when I was getting my foot in the door, they swapped the format, and it made it really difficult those first two years. It was super rewarding for me to win it like this because sprinting is just so difficult for me. So, the three- hour races are pretty natural for me because I can go for a long time at a steady pace. But sprinting was just always super tricky. I somewhat figured it out these last couple of years. What kind of training do you do for those out - door events? How do you train for being on the bike for three, four, or five hours in some of these events? Do you go out and ride in the woods? Do you have anybody that rides with you? How do you prepare for those kinds of events? I used to do a lot more than I do now. I still go on massive hikes and big ski touring in the winter, but now I rest more than I used to. I used to definitely do way too much exercise and burn myself out. Now, we have a trainer through KTM, Not only did Hart have to battle deep racing fields but also a brutal travel schedule.