That doesn’t sound like fun but you are handling it well!
I’ve had a lot of experience in my career! 

We will be looking for your ISDE updates on RacerX.com. That’s actually why we called you today! We’d like to get your perspective on what the team is going through right now? We are bummed that you are not there, but give us some insight as to what’s going on right now.
Well, they have been over there for about week and have been walking a lot! They’ve probably covered 20 miles a day on foot. They are walking each test section multiple times and looking for every advantage they can get. They’ve covered each section three times now and last I talked to them, they were hoping to get an opportunity to walk a couple sections a fourth time.

Wow! That is a lot of hiking. That’s different than going over and just riding a dirt bike.  
Yeah! I went over in 2013 on a club team and we started walking. I’ve had ankle injuries and surgeries and they were starting to hurt! So when I went back over on the Trophy team, I made sure I had been running and strengthening the ankles as well as took some hiking shoes. It was a lot better and it really helped. Last year, the tests I did the best in were the ones I had walked three times. I still won where I’d only walked twice, but it wasn’t by the same margin. The week of walking is really important! It’s not fun. But it pays off.

So have the guys gotten to ride any in their preparations?
Saturday and Sunday were days for a quick shakedown. It’s not as exciting as it sounds! They get a tiny little test track that is good for about 20 second lap times and there are 40 people on it all at once. It’s chaotic, but you can get a quick feel for what your tires are doing or if you need to make a quick click of suspension. Mainly though, it’s to make sure everything is solid on the bike after getting assembled out of the shipping crate.

What is Day 1 going to be like?

Well, because of the team’s dismal finish last year, they are going to start kind of far back. Layne will probably be in the 20^th or 30^th row. They always start based on the most recent finish, so day one will be the tough one. Once results come in from Day 1, then Day 2 will start off accordingly. I expect Thad [Duvall] and Kailub to be back around the 50^th row and working their way forward.

Have you talked to the guys while they are over there?
We’ve texted. I’ve been in contact with Stu [Baylor – Junior Trophy team], Thad, Layne and Taylor [Robert – 4^th member of USA Trophy Team]. I’ll be keeping an eye on all the Trophy and Junior Trophy riders as the event unfolds and then post the Racer X Updates to give the behind-the-scenes view. I’m looking forward to doing that. This is such a cool event and I want people to be aware and excited! This is the best against the best! The Olympics of off-road! I’m fortunate that I can bring the motocross base to the off-road world and now that I am an off-roader, this is my kind of racing! It’s intense and requires strategy. It’s different from GNCC and it’s different from Enduro. It’s something the whole dirt bike community should be watching and cheering. It’s huge over in Europe and I hope that kind of enthusiasm catches on here in the USA, too!