CYCLE NEWS RIDER OF THE YEAR JARED MEES
P108
INTERVIEW
with him, that the XR was better at some half-miles that
we went to; there's no doubt."
Being on the same machinery this year, however,
evened the playing field for Mees, and that was per-
haps the X-factor.
"I feel like I got off of the XR and got on a better bike
and we were on equal stuff. Instead of losing those
races by inches we were beating him now. I think that
was a big part of it. And we were able to still keep the
success on the half-miles, if not have more of the suc-
cess on the half-miles."
THE FIGHTING
MENTALITY
At the end of the day, it still boils down to this for any
champion in any sport—never give up. And Mees has
shown that tenacity time and time again.
"You can't have 'quit' in your vocabulary to be a
champion, in my opinion," Mees says. "Honestly, that
mentality comes back to when I was in high school on
the wrestling mat. I think if I had to dedicate success
to anything that I've done, I'd have to say that a lot of
it has come from me being a wrestler in high school.
When you get out there on that mat, you don't have
any excuses. You can't blame it on the team. You can't
blame it on anything. It's you and the other guy and
that's all you got. Aside from racing, wrestling is prob-
"The cool thing
about our team
is—I really, really
look forward
to seeing them
every weekend,
every one of
them."
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
DAVE
HOENIG
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
DAVE
HOENIG
