GNCCRacing.com: Hey Nat, why don’t you start off by telling us a bit about yourself, since I think many people in the GNCC community aren’t very familiar with you yet.

Nat Ross: Yeah! So as a mountain biker, my background was completely off-road. Where I grew up in Colorado, that meant only mountain biking. That’s all I did until I made it to the factory circuit, when I started training with Chris Carmichael (the same guy who trained Lance Armstrong). For me that was the pivotal point in my career where I was able to put together a better, more consistent program where I wasn’t always injured, like most mountain bikers usually are (laughs) I started training on a road bike to help get my fitness up, since there was better ride quality and less injury risk for the road bike workouts. Now this is common knowledge but back then it was our secret weapon.

Now, you’ve since retired from racing professionally, right?

I retired back in 2008. That was the year I got inducted into the hall of fame, and right around the time mountain biking split into two factions, cross country and gravity or downhill. Because of the split and the dawn of action sports, which altogether meant less coverage and less money and more uncertainty for professional mountain bike racers. It was the best time to leave, and I got to go out on top.

Makes sense. Why were you inducted into the hall of fame?

It was a combination of my result, and the work I did pioneering the 29-inch wheel. At the time I started, everyone used 26-inch wheels. Keith Bontrager used to manufacture frames, wheels and other components out of his garage in Santa Cruz. He made some 29 wheels for me, and my sponsor at the time, Gary Fisher, wanted me to train and potentially race on them. After riding them, I realized how revolutionary they were – even though they were a heavy wheel and not fast, they were stable and had a lot more traction. I felt those two things were important from having consistency on a variety of different tracks and injury prevention standpoint. This was in the early 2000s, but once I started racing on the 29 tires, our governing body, the UCI deemed them illegal. For the first couple years it was a real fight at every World Cup. I would continually get fined and sometimes would not be allowed to start the events. But Trek and Gary supported the movement and supported me. Eventually they were legalized and now 29 inch wheels are standard in almost all forms of mountain biking, even downhill!

What were some of those good results and career highlights?

I won a couple world championships, a few national championships and some overall championships as well.  On the road bike, I won Race Across America (RAAM) twice.

Sounds like you had quite the career!

Yes, I had one of  the best sponsors in the world and one of the best jobs in the world!

Speaking of jobs, I assume that you’re still involved in the mountain biking world?

Yes, I work for Pirelli, the Italian tire manufacturer. They wanted to get involved with bicycle tire manufacturing, so they hired me as brand manager, which basically means that I’m in charge of their sales and marketing for North America. I still get to do a lot of stuff, and the storytelling and history and now the crossover with the motorcycle stuff because of Pirelli is all really cool!

Since you no longer race professionally, do you have time for much outside of mountain biking?

Well it gives me more time to spend with family, which is nice. Other than that, I’m into brewing beer. I do collaborations with different breweries…. in my former life I was a biochemist. The most meaningful award I have outside of bicycling is actually a gold medal from The Great American Beer Festival when I was brewing at Breckenridge Brewery. I still have a huge passion for brewing!

Cool! Moving on to the eBike stuff, was the GNCC your first experience with eBikes, or had you ridden and raced them before?

I got on board with the eBike racing when it was starting to emerge in Europe about seven years ago. Those were the ones where you had to carry the battery in a backpack (laughs). I fell in love with it, and I’ve been doing as many eBike races as possible ever since.

What do you think of GNCC’s take on eBike races?

Well, first off, I love the atmosphere and the pits were incredible. I love that we start right on pro row, it really gives it that authentic race venue feel. Mountain biking has changed a bit. It’s not all bad with mountain biking now, but it’s changed, and I feel like it’s lost some of its appeal and its spectators, so you lose out on that energy you get from a crowd. At your GNCC races, I get to have that experience and feeling again, like I did back when I was competing. The formula here works better for that, and having the kids race right after us is very forward-thinking. The course itself had some great punchy climbs with rewarding downhills. I really dug the sand and rock sections, and enjoyed the soil and tree roots throughout the track.

And then how did your race and the competition go?

The competition is definitely there! One thing that was a challenge for me was the start. I’m not used to the GNCC ten seconds call and that format. I’m used to being in the holeshot in the chute, and leading from the start. So, I was last off the start, it was kind of pathetic (laughs). I made up for it though, and I do enjoy the competition and the chase! Hopefully once I practice some starts and am able to attend more venues and pre-ride more courses things will go a little more smoothly.

So, you do plan on doing some more of these races then?

I would like to! Towards the end of the schedule there’s some conflicts with the UCI World Mountain Bike Championships. I’ll miss two GNCCs for those, and I think Charlie [Mullins] was thinking about doing those too. This will be the first time the UCI has allowed eBike competition.

That’s pretty historic, right?

Yes! The UCI is pretty conservative – they’re the same ones who were fighting the 29-inch wheel back when I was trying to get them accepted. So, it’s nice to see them getting behind new stuff instead of trying to block it (laughs)