Our favourite moments from The Ride Companion podcast 2024 (so far). Featuring Rob Warner, Bernard Kerr, Jono Jones, Sam Reynolds, Preston Williams, Hans Rey and Joel Anderson.
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Time stamps
00:00:00 Preston Williams on Loic Bruni
00:04:42 Sam Reynolds talks Darkfest
00:10:31 Rob Warner on broadcast changes
00:24:16 Bernard Kerr’s budget cuts
00:30:21 AG1
00:32:26 Why Jono Jones never turned pro
00:35:26 Bernard Kerr on team costs
00:42:08 Will Jono Jones commentate in the future?
00:44:46 Joel Anderson on Nico Vink’s jumps
00:53:06 Hans Rey on ebiking with the president
01:01:49 PEAK SUPPS
01:05:36 The Race Companion announcement
01:11:57 Rob Warner on his diagnosis
01:26:59 FOCUS DEALS +LIKE & SUBSCRIBE!
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Edited By: Doug Tucker, onlyflightdispatch.com
#TheRideCompanion #mountainbiking #mtb
[Applause] my dad used to be like oh come sit down watch like mxgp and I’m like oh it’s just 40 minutes yeah I’d rather just go like ride or do something else that’s good man yeah you study it though don’t you yeah I think of you as someone who
Just through mountain biking and riding with you think about technique and think about what you’re doing oh 100% was that the same in Moto 100% but I wouldn’t study like a whole race so much I’d go find whoever’s fastest find a clip of them slow it down watch where their feet
Are you know what see if you can see how much they’re breaking what their arm position is whatnot there’s great analysis now of of um particularly with jet I think there’s really cool analysis of like exactly what you said foot position through the whoops was super interesting yeah and like um how they
Fatigue later in later in the race and stuff like that I I all that [ __ ] I could talk about that stuff even in mountain biking like bike parts and stuff less so but I really love like technique I think it’s interesting what’s cool about mountain bike over
Motocross with that Motocross is more of this one technique works this one that’s that’s right most other stuff’s wrong whereas I find with mountain bike it really depends on your style a lot but like so many different techniques work which is really cool CU you can look at
Like five different people people all go through one section at the same time like same speed but all their techniques are different and you’re like how is that even possible that you can be thousands within each other but all doing something different yeah whereas Motocross it’s much more like balls on
The feet attack position whereas like mountain bike and if you’re tall you might have like a slightly different technique and then you got people who are smooth who are aggressive I think it’s just more noticeable with mountain biking than motorcross yeah is interesting yeah I guess you stud you
Obviously do do you have like an aim I know we’re skipping ahead a bit here but do you have like an aim when you see someone ride like are there riders that you like the way they ride and you want to take something from for sure for sure
I mean like Everyone likes someone who just looks stey and comfortable on a bike right yeah so I do like watching them guys a lot and just seeing like what they do like um I say like J Penton all his old instab bang eclips used to be insane you just
Like watch what he does and he’s just so smooth I think that’s what really made his videos good was just how smooth and effortless he made stuff look yeah and then same thing with like watching him in person is like nuts because you can hear when he breaks and like you watch
Him come in he’s broke really hard you’re like oh he’s cooking but like he’s broke so early but then he just lets off and like you’re stood in the main part where everyone else is still breaking he’s just like let off and he’s gone past and you’re like has he got a
Motor in that bike whereas he just picked up all that speed from so you mean he’s breaking way early than everyone but almost setting up and then just then he’s gone he just lets off The Brak so early to everyone else that he just carries so much speed it’s actually
Ridiculous so so with that information do you then as a rider then try and put that into practice Yeah so it’s a really good thing in like winter loads of people do it we’ll just go practice they’re breaking and like see how early you can break almost cuz the earlyer you
Let off your brakes the more speed you’re going to carry and if you simplify it I I love that it’s like instantly that’s something that I I try and break as late as possible yeah everywhere because I I’m not really trying to go quick I’m just trying to yeah so there’s
Definitely a balance um and it depends what’s after that section of track because if it’s like a really tight turn you don’t need to carry speed go for it break late slam on because you you don’t need to carry the speed anyway it’s like a speed limit around the next fit but if
It’s like a fast open section you want to be carrying as much speed as possible for you need to get off those breaks as early as possible I tell you what I love this stuff I love this chat I like when we go for rides we always end up getting
Stuck on it I I absolutely love it for some reason it’s sort of yeah I like it’s sort of proves you do actually love biking a if you can get that much out of a straight in a corner and you can really dissect it all anything so many
Riders that I sort of admire the way they ride I like it as well just pick up on Tiny Little Things and you’ll just be like oh you notice as well I I can’t put them into practice like probably you can but I can definitely notice things and yeah I think that’s rad
Yeah right can you explain to me what your day has been so far today and what it’s going to be in the coming weeks just sort of before we move on to why your ankle is up on the table okay well yeah I’ll explain as to why I’m not in
South Africa right now because basically I’ve been out there the last for two weeks starting off the event the build um and getting things ready for darkfest um that’s pretty intense two weeks so you very so what happens you fly over what talk us through what it takes to
Because I guess people are used to just seeing the Highlight clips and it looks like the jumps are you know there perfect condition and they’re working fine but a lot goes into that yeah and it starts a lot a long long time before arriving there actually I’d say actually
More like August the year before right sometimes even a few years before um because obviously the jumps and the whole event actually cost quite a lot of money now we’ve got 40 Riders and then like 30 kind of stuff including filmers and even people down to someone who
Picks people up from the airport we have three people shuttling to the airport because 10 people can arrive in 3 hours and obviously you need like I don’t know three cars to take all their bikes and everything so even yeah all of those people still need breakfast lunch and
Dinner and they need the cars we need to rent the cars and everyone needs a bed everyone wants like yeah a beer every evening or two or three so all those things that like I never used to think about we have to kind of budget for all
That so obviously that money has to come from somewhere so the years before we have to work on on sponsorship and who wants to sponsor the event to the point where actually we’re still working on some for 2025 to see if we can make it happen again next year because there’s
So much needs to go into it if we didn’t have the money to do it we would be stuck there I think these days it probably costs between one and2 200,000 Euros to put on a dark vest so wow that takes a lot of dude organizing to do yeah which
Sounds okay it sounds like an unbelievably massive amount of money but I heard things like Rampage has seven figures rather than I know they’ve got seven it doesn’t it doesn’t because you reach all over the world that like some of the I guess the test is whether your
Uncle’s mate sends you a video of the biking as to whether it’s a successful thing so you got your uncle’s mate he’s sending you Danny Mack isn’t he right AB he’s going to send you a Fabia whing along the way yeah some big snow jumps yeah he’s going to send you a rampage
And I tell you what Uncle uncle’s mat’s definitely going to send you it’s going to be a run of darkfest especially a Tom I dead 100 foot backflip is it dude yeah so in in that sense 200 Grand seems kind of a steal potentially yeah when something that good happen thanks I dead
Yeah he went on the news for that one so yeah so everyone was very pleased with that so I guess that I guess we’re probably skipping forward but I want to ask you about like because you do you obviously then compile all of the reach
Of your event we do a report at the end yeah exactly to then send so that’s what I mean like yeah back in August I’d have made the report from the year before along with monster like they’ve got a lot of internal reports that they do obiously they’re the main sponsor they
Give up sort of most of the the money in the organization as well they really help with the organization so they kind of make their own report to make sure that it’s worth it for them and then I can borrow some of their numbers and then yeah we show potential sponsors
What their reach could be and then if they like it then they come on board and yeah we’re definitely not a usual I I’ve seen some proposal decks from maybe some other big events and they’re definitely not like USS ours have got like Cade with the middle of his head shaved off
Saying this is the best event ever stuff like that to the point where we’ve never managed to get like any out of Industry sponsors weirdly but I did send it to someone who works with like car brands and he was like yeah he should probably take stuff out like really yes I
Actually had to take that out still no one sponsored it anyway so yeah if anyone has a car BR and they want to sponsor darkfest please I promise we’ll take the na wonder if Elon listen listens Does Elon listen hey some trucks up to the top of the hill would be
Pretty cool would they oh they’d be real good dude if he if oh if you could how weird is it when you get to a certain level of power if you could just get like the clip to be seen of us suggesting that a cyber truck takes the
World’s craziest Riders to the top of the course of the biggest jumps and I heard they’re like bulletproof as well and they said maybe we would have to pay the excess at the end when all the Riders scratch it leopard proof we to the point where so we rent so many cars
And I’ve bought five cars over the years two are dead um one of them we had to fix the back this year because it just sort of seems to happen after a few drinks of everyone a bit of excitement that the thing is to go on a
Safari with everyone on the roof of the cars and uh last year I was like actually no two the last two years I’ve been like okay The Safaris can get quite early like there’s some real steep roads you have to quite know what you’re doing especially when it’s dark and everyone’s
Maybe had a beer or two I thought you know I’m not going to go on the Safari for the last two years cuz normally I’m the main driver and instigator but they kind of I know the road so I can know the good ones to take everyone them and
Then the two times I’ve not been on it one the wheel got ripped off of one of them and another one there was a huge dent in the back of them I won’t say who did them but we both know one of them’s offered to pay real nicely so he’s cool
One of them hasn’t and they all came down like yeah a bunch of 30 year old men all pretending like the wheel just fell off and to find out if my predictions of who it is true correct maybe everyone can comment who you thought wrecked the car on both years
Yeah that’s good maybe who offered to pay and who didn’t so you are you done plugging the dear can we plug your movie now let’s plug my film man yeah how are we going to do it cuz we’ve watched it we’ve had can we talk about it we’ve had our first premier
Talk about it yeah let’s not we won’t do spoiler no spoilers mate no no spoilers you got to go watch it you’ve seen it you know what it’s about it’s a bit different I feel like we should go over what it’s approximately about without giving anything away do you think you
Could do that yeah yeah you reckon yeah yeah so yeah we can talk about the the the premise you know what I mean yeah well yeah so not doing the World Cup commentary anymore about ended me not yeah I won’t lie yeah no I haven’t talk
About it much but it did it was it was really wild actually I can’t still really get to terms with um yeah I don’t really understand why it messed me up so much like it absolutely destroyed me yeah yeah he still really now it was like a good 18 months of
Absolute grief depression I suppose I don’t know I never really been depressed but I never gone as dark as that mate really and I still don’t really know why but anyway you know I finally came out of it last year like I knew we were
Going to be doing beyond the line so I made myself go to some World Cups because I knew I needed to level up as I wasn’t going to be able to operate and present like I was it was dark so what did go to World Cups look like when you
Were going to World Cups like for William forance yeah what were you doing at the World Cup yeah I did that’s why I asked to honest I wasn’t in a good place no did you yeah you could say that that’s fair enough but I had to go and
That was a start of me recovering a little bit actually you know I didn’t to go though we reluctant to go oh mate it took everything I had to go there and then I acted weirder than I’ve ever acted when the finals were on I went and
Sat on my own so I could hear the results in the woods on my I just sat in the woods on my own listening to the results I couldn’t you know and obviously the you know the whole time into it like the year before theck or when was it 2022
That last year of I mean that’s when I started to have like a breakdown probably and it was I mean I can remember like we got the news that was one thing and then and then as the season went on like obviously was running out of races to comment on
Commentate on and I love commentating on mountain bike races because it’s literally the only thing in life that I’ve ever been good at right that’s how I see it literally so you know and and then in Andor actually but we had a we had to go live with a pre-show cuz there
Was a change just before it FL had just pulled out or something and they were like right I’m going to do the pre-show again change it and we nailed it we nailed this pre-show live like minutes ago before we went into the commentary and then afterwards and I’ll
Tell you this now right this is how Bart was one of my is probably one of my best friends and I’ve never spoke to him since this all went down like really yeah turned I didn’t speak to no one mate I I fall on out with Martin Ashton
Because he works for for GMB I fell out with everyone you know yeah bad I’ve apologized to Martin now the other day but probably then people will never be the same with me again but I I was you know for one of a better word I was
Absolutely [ __ ] I didn’t get out of bed for two weeks mate I was like yeah yeah yeah I cried every day I was angry it was like grief it was like grief at one point mate I like I got I speak to this professor I Professor Copeland I don’t think
You’ll mind me saying that like and it came about because I had a good commentary once and I said to him I want to reenact that and he out me he’s a sports psychologist not a shrink not that I’ve ever spoke to a shrink but I
Speak to him and and it took me probably months before I even rung him and I was and I I was like I’m in the [ __ ] here you know I’m really in the [ __ ] here actually and then he um and then he said write down all your
Positive things for like a week and I I couldn’t write down except I went out in the garden and saw a leaf had grown on this [ __ ] olive tree that I got and that was the only because it had been a bad winter frost wise and that was the only thing I
Could think of that was like was a positive thing so I was pretty done and I still yeah I still can’t really put a finger on it why but it was my life really I suppose 30 years on that tour and then I never really performed as a
Mountain bike race and I’ll tell you why in a little bit probably but like you know to to yeah I don’t know it was just ripped out from under our feet it was me I did it for 12 years with Red Bull Red Bull took me on and this you know after
Free cter they took a massive chance on me really they did I’m [ __ ] loose ass like especially those days yeah I was out of control like I’d been all the way through my mountain bike career and all the way through everything I’ve ever done School College I never had a job I
Couldn’t I had jobs I got fired from everyone I got kicked out of school so so that you know it was a massive thing to be professional to learn and very hard to learn how to be a commentator and then do my bollocks on it you know
Absolutely put everything into it yeah I can see why it killed me a bit because I almost thought that nothing will ever compare to that commentary again and that might be true at the moment nothing’s quite as good as commentating on a World Cup yet but we’re coming back
With s abajo and like hard lines coming but you know the World Cup I was a part of that as a rider so it is special to me and I loved all the stats and I loved all yeah I loved it all I loved it I loved going in the commentary and
Broadcast and I love making it I didn’t love it I hated making a transition from freeer to being a professional commentator it took me years and thousands and thousands of pounds spent by Red Bull with like um Gary Bloom you know it was it was the gnarliest thing
Ever so I guess through all that it’s quite easy to see why why it’s like part a big part of your own identity I guess how you see yourself yeah I think so like people it was an obsession for me for sure yeah you know was there um like an
Opportunity to fight back at all you know like obviously you said you got the news of like okay it’s transition into a different broadcast group however you want to put it was there an opportunity there where you were like whoa angone I can carry on or was it almost like P
Almost like no this is it it’s it was so when we found out it was literally like the rug had been pulled out I think I I don’t really like to talk on behalf of Red Bull but for me was like has that really happened but it didn’t sink in at
The time and and then you know like well that’s what I was talking about we did that pre-show live and then Bart after the show Bart said make me cry to say it we’ll talk about it in a bit but actually don’t worry if I cry I’ve got
No control over my emotions which is actually a thing so anyway and he said afterwards I’ll miss these days with you Rob and then I ended up that night walking down the ice Street in Andora with all the go I went shopping just take my mind off
Things I was just walking down the street there people everywhere I just started crying like [ __ ] tears coming out my eyes I was like what is going on here like whoa whoa whoa and that was the start of me breaking down and I don’t really know how I got food and
Commentaries but I loved it so much that I did and I didn’t really let I didn’t let it slip I did one [ __ ] one in Monson and cross country cuz I was I put so much should have like Finn one the day before and I knew it was probably like
The last swan song so I went I did I went big on it it was cool but yeah so that was the start of it and then limp through them commentaries and also it wasn’t like and it was hard for everyone I worked really closely with Chris on
This series you know and um Chris trit my boss and it without him it would never have been what it was like like he has insane like production values that I love I always went I was desperate to do a perfect podcast I re I came close in
Le gang once I did because it was yeah short track and quite an easy sort of track to commentate okay yeah I had all these obsessions with it but but you know yeah me and trit and trit actually a few months afterwards said something that I won’t say here but just really
Yeah may it sounds like you’ve had amazing people around you as well that’s the thing it’s not like the commentary all of it isn’t it it’s like the whole experience for all those years and then we had Jamie come in with you know who was this fell who was just for the last
Three or four years of it that oh he was I mean for a start he was English and just so much fun but he was just um incredible like a genius with words genius with like creativity and making just out of the air he’s like right you
Do this you do that and there you know he was so I had amazing people around me to do it and obviously when you got amazing of people around you you know you got to be amazing right and I’m difficult as [ __ ] to work work with
Right I’m a pain in the ass and Red Bull put up with all that I’m you know I ain’t easy man I was you know I was late today I’m late for everything I’m all over the place so for them that Stand By Me me not being an ass kisser I don’t
Reach out to people I knew that I had to be the basically my work ethic is just to be the best I can be and hopefully you know be really good because this is the any way I’m going to hold on to this job that I love so much so that was
Almost the motivation to be to do it as well as as I did it which was definitely to the best of my ability I think a lot of it gets lost because the whole broadcast was so slick I think the amount of work it will seemed natural it
Was slick because of the work yeah yeah yeah yeah but because it seemed natural which is probably a lot down to you and your style or whatever but I think probably people don’t realize maybe quite how I I tell you what someone someone um
Asked me if if uh if I would ever want to do it and I absolutely I know how much goes in well I know how much I think goes in and it’s not no you got to live it I think so to I especially to
Learn it I did like I used to I’d go off in tangents in like research and commentary which is pretty easy to do and you know you’d find a rider from there and you oh who’s that and then you’d go on roots and rain and that would lead you done another Rabbit Hole
Sometimes before a broadcast I’d easily stay up till 2:00 in the morning doing notes right and I’d have note on everyone who’s in that final which was the top 30 men or whatever which you know and top 15 women W it so or top 10 women but I would always there’s always
Some people in there you never knew but I’d always make sure I have something on them I don’t know but in the end I was like it was wearing me out a bit and I’d noticed it the next day so towards when I got when I got on top of it then um
I’d always have a rle to try and stop by 10 11:00 at night it would affect the broadcast but yeah I was all in I was ABS it was the arst thing mate I had a bloke called Gary Bloom like I said and to work with him and have him I’d come
Out of freecast of thinking I was the absolute muts nuts at commentary right I was drunk all the fans love me I came out with the most outrageous on liners that would get me arrested now like the stuff I said was insane but people loved
It and that was the start of it it’s unbelievable that Red Bull took me on it actually when I look back it was a different time but like you know and and do you know what I you know I’ve hopefully always work for Red Bull now
Cuz it’s the only place I’ve ever fitted in yeah and it’s because it’s because they’re very direct and and I like that you know it works for the way I work so but and and of course that last year those races as well like everyone I was it was overwhelming the
Comments and on site I couldn’t move without people coming up to me I couldn’t move without people coming up to me it won’t be the same without you rob it ain’t going to be the same and each time and that happened like I can’t even explain that’s all I heard a blo
Was cry in America a blo cried he was like I’ve seen this before we going to miss you and all this [ __ ] you know and like it took its toll on me it did it [ __ ] tore a little piece of me away each time until basically there was
Nothing left yeah and then in val Sol I did finish the commentary and the next morning I come out of the hotel and this bloke heard me talking to someone who was wanted an autograph or something and he was like are you rob water and I was
Like yeah and he was like oh my kid loves you and I thought you don’t know who I am like and and for the first time ever he goes I’m going to go and get my kid and I was so dumb I was absolutely
Dumb had to get in my car and i’ I just I just walked my I got my car and went I didn’t even wait and that you know I wouldn’t do that but that’s H yeah and then i’ come home and then that winter was that was a heavy winter M and I
Don’t suffer depression right I don’t think I’ve ever been depressed in my life honestly and I don’t even know if it was depression it was like grief it was like grief but I couldn’t get over it it went on for 18 months like it did until I went to Fort William and then
Well no even last year and I went to L and we did a bit of work there and these things started to help me come back a bit but yeah I was rinsed I was absolutely destroyed in what way just like would you would you watch any of
The for instance any of the broadcasts no I can’t well I can’t even no really yeah no and now I can’t listen to I so which is a bad because for Bey on the line I do need to be on top of it a bit and I probably will again but sometimes
I follow you know the ucci mountain bik World Cup Instagram but then I have to turn it off because it’ll ruin my day a bit right you know that’s nothing against who’s doing it now it’s because I ain’t doing it in my mind you know
Yeah so yeah it was brutal it was brutal and you know that ain’t just me that’s gone through it I know that you know people at work don’t they don’t talk about it but I know I know that a lot of people went through it like I
Did what’s it like for you at the moment with the team and stuff tough we’re taking budget cuts honestly I’ve put so many hours working over Christmas that I didn’t I was like oh I going get to chill loads and it’s been yeah funny and we did good as a team
Like not in a big headed way we got I got three World Cup podiums the team won three uro World Cups between us we won three crank Works downhills uh two crank works slems you know like as a team we got it over five million views on
YouTube with Team videos which is about four million more than any other gravity team in the world so we I think did pretty well last year and we’re down a lot of money you know like on the year so yeah yeah it’s tough how do you do
Like how do you balance it like what what do you what can you do as a team manager to like keep the wheels keep the wheels turning it basically just comes out of my wage I’m lucky enough now that I’ve done well enough and I’m very I I I
Realize how lucky I am yeah you stinking up the place mate yeah needs to go outside outside we’ll go for an I’m lucky enough that I have a good wage now that I just make $660,000 less like if I’m on I think like down whatever amount but whatever you’re down you make that
Less as the team own going or whatever yeah cuz everyone else has contracts right Eddie gets paid what he gets paid Jake gets paid what he gets paid so as Morgan you can’t just be like oh hey we took a budget cut you’re getting a pay
Cut so I mean maybe I don’t know they’re all getting paid the same but basically just fixs me and I get pay cut okay which kind of sucks well yeah it does but like mate you got to keep the wheels turning can’t have another team B
We’re lucky how good we are I mean I saw that orange thing like the orange filing for administration thing I don’t want to say it’s bankrupt made me really sad I was such a fan I was honestly it made me sad and I talked to Barney and it made
Me genuinely sad like Steve Pete Man Steve Pete on orange bikes the 222 and the 223 I got a global racing one discounted from a shop in Guilford and that was my dream bike man that orang with the swing arm you know and I was just like dude honestly like hit a
Little C today I know yeah what a fan of the brand was it the missile the hard tail the huge ju yeah the missile was the sexiest bike so cool yeah it’s true man it’s it’s tough to see it really is hard hard to watch however much it sucks
I think a bunch will go probably yeah yeah like it’s yeah it’s tough for teams for everyone like so many good Riders out there don’t have rides do you think it’d be different for you if pivot was a and the probably is one I’m sorry an
Enduro team we are the Enduro team as well as the down team but yeah some of our sponsors have been like hey we might have to give you a cut cuz we just don’t see any Roi in nuro right I guess Sor I just see it as like a downhill team I
Don’t know why no we have sponsors calling us up and saying we might need to cut you because you’re downhill anjuro and we don’t see nuro doing anything for us interesting we literally have people telling us that three sponsors tell me that like what’s nuro
Doing what do you think um I think they do a terrible job the organizers of the Endura of like um is it promoting I want to say promoting or not visualizing it um filming it or whatever or like coverage the coverage is Dreadful so I would agree if you’re at the race and
You’re involved the racing is unbelievable it’s better every year it’s Tighter and Tighter the Riders are incredible the racing is amazing if you’re there you’re on the edge of your seat with your team and everyone there and it’s it’s insane it’s such good racing it’s amazing if you’re at home
Trying to watch it it sucks the website’s down half the time on live timing and it’s I think they need whether it’s invest more money and they have a runner I think I mentioned this to you they have a runner like they film a stage and they have a runner with the
SD card and it’s going back to an editing studio and each stage it gets finished they have this Runner going with SD cards or whatever so 10 minutes after that race is finished and they film the podiums there is a highlight reel online that someone’s been filming
All day and that’s just me thinking about that it doesn’t seem that hard to me to do I know I’m just making that up on the spot but you have someone running SD cards back with day and a team editing it you have a good highlights package the minute the race is finished
You could put them on a Dr and just send them straight back send them something but yeah it is Dreadful at the minute like it’s a participation sport at the minute so it’s a difficult sport to cover and it always has been what’s changed so previously it’s still a
Difficult sport to I think they had some good filmers before and now their filmers aren’t as good like I know Seager and everyone did it before they had some great guys I don’t know who does it currently I think the investment into their filmers or coverage or edit
The investment lack of lack of investment lack of effort essentially the sport when it comes which is the sport I think it’s a lack of care from the the organizers and if you’re Warner Brothers Discovery you are a media company and if you can’t get money out
Of the media why would you bother if you’re them which sucks to say like cuz I love him yes so I wonder if it’s a conscious decision whether it’s they sat a table and gone we got to cut what we’re putting in I don’t I don’t know
Anything we media company we like X views worth X to us and this isn’t getting this many views to it I yeah I don’t know either but whatever they’re doing I don’t think is working or it looks like a lack from from someone that’s pretty involved in running a team
And putting money we pay to be there they don’t pay us to be there we pay to be there compared to a lot of sports and I feel like it’s just such a Snowball Effect Now isn’t it as we’re watching like as soon as that happens at the top
Level of like yeah we’re not going to invest in you know the the the the visual aspect of it and then teams are like well obviously why we’re not going to invest in being there so this snowball fact yeah we have our sponsors telling us hey we’re seeing no coverage
From you guys in Juro so hey we might cut the the funding to it and you’re like fair enough if you don’t see anything why would you spend money on it so you’re trying your hardest you’re getting results you’re doing all you can we’re doing really good we’re getting
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Watch ones about wind farms what else have I’ve been watching recently why do you watch ones about wind farms because of uh I look at that at work now I want to learn more about wind farms why do you need to learn about uh wind farms at
Work um because my job’s like to help Finance Wind Farm or solar or renewable energy projects so that’s that’s very clever but then your job is also jumping doing the jump yeah yeah can you explain that um what do you think of you know like if you’re if you’re researching
Wind farms and you’re talking about financing these huge projects what do you think of the mountain bike side of your job do you think of it as like a remnant of your childhood do you know what I mean the thing I’m hanging on to no well
I don’t think you’re hanging on to doing a good job I just mean like I what you mean I don’t know it just seems very different yeah yeah yeah that’s great I wouldn’t have it any other way they really they compliment each other to me personally because they’re so extremely
Different yeah I definitely did just do biking at one point and wanted to and then I did just do work at one point actually or at least studying in University but to do them both’s great yeah one without the other would be strange now a lot of people say that
Like why don’t you just do biking and YouTube and things like that um but I did for a couple of years not YouTube I did just race yeah and it was brilliant some of the best years of my life but it was um just a lot of the time you look
Around there’s a lot of people that were a few years older that were still really trying and this is probably a pessimistic Outlook we’ spoke about this before haven’t we but I didn’t want to keep trying try and trying to make it to well ultimately to be really good at World Cup racing
Um and then miss other opportunities if it didn’t work out yeah yeah it’s not pessimistic is it but it’s like no it’s not there’s probably a a there could have been other opportunities if I didn’t do that but the position I’m in now I wouldn’t change anything from the outside get to
Do yeah it seems good from the outside yeah really lucky now yeah does it we made you do your first race this year didn’t we not first race but for so long yeah first race for we tricked you into yeah yeah pretty sure fastest time of the day I can’t
Remember oh we didn’t stay till the end in case we found out the times yeah we have to be smart we can’t just do what we want obviously and money’s definitely tighter obviously yeah like our budget’s been cut which is pretty heavy but then at least we’ve got
Well it sucks that there’s only in euros and Europe like I think that’s Dreadful yeah but saves a bit of budget there and how do you budget a race dude I would not have a clue where to start if I had to do a full season of anything like the
The idea do you have a spreadsheet this is a stupid question I don’t even know if I want to admit this no let’s let’s he It Go on I don’t know the answer I don’t really do one I don’t need to nice the only thing that M like that we have
Enough money to do it right anything after that if I make $5 I get $5 yeah so it doesn’t really matter and I know I’m going to make enough money to live so I don’t have to do a budget let’s say we count all the food last year and we’re
Right we spent $26,500 on food now what what have you learned you spent $26,500 what do you do with that or should we try to spend less next or what like you have to eat what you eat what does it matter if I count all the food
Or if I try and budget the food for 24 what does it actually as long as you know you’ve got enough money to cover the year what does it matter like I literally couldn’t tell you okay the accountant two years ago at the end of 20 beginning of 23 the accountant that
You spent I think we spent 2,800 in McDonald’s in 2022 the team did in like a 3mon period in the middle of Europe Good Year it’s a celebration 2,800 McDonald’s in the vict well like Sunday in Europe Sunday in Europe a lot of things aren’t open and we spend a lot of
Time driving on Sundays in Europe 10 hours yeah yeah and where are we going to eat yeah Europe food on the motorway sucks for one yeah McDonald’s isn’t great but it’s your best option 98% of the time but honestly the budget okay I know what a total dollar figure we get
Is yeah yeah yeah but other than that I couldn’t tell you how much we spent on flight well I kind of do cuz like pivot might ask hey can we but like can you show us this this this but otherwise I don’t know and it doesn’t matter as long
As there’s enough money is that like two people going to a crank Works event two people extra it’s a really big cost like to run any race team and to do any event is like I don’t think people I never really think about how many people you
Have to bring around with you no it’s insane it’s a lot isn’t it I’ll work out like yeah that’s too much for like someone’s like hey can we go to that crankworks and two extra rows I’ll just quit do the math I’m like that’s too much or whatever but our team’s so
Unique because I own the team all it makes a difference on is my wage so either I make let’s say $50 at the end of the year or I make $5 as long as there’s enough money for everyone to get paid their wage and everyone go around
It actually doesn’t matter I just make more or less money okay so that’s that’s when you’re talking about okay so what gives you actual freedom is the fact that you are a rider and that you have a wage yeah but I couldn’t I I honestly
Don’t know how much money I make but the team manager wage is well I don’t have a wage either yeah I just get whatever’s left okay but that’s insane that that’s that’s the reason why this no no no I don’t think you are it’s really good I
Think like cuz I love the team and I like I do it for a passion as well as a job that’s what I think is really good about it actually yeah like it doesn’t actually matter like if I have $800,000 left at the end of the year or $5 as
Long as I’ve thought it actually doesn’t matter yeah it would be nice if you have 800,000 left I don’t just to put that out there um we aren’t Santa Cruz or gt or anyone else that has these huge budgets but it actually doesn’t Okay it would be nice
But it really doesn’t matter like I don’t I have unless we were going under every year which the first couple years of the team you are going into negative it actually yeah it doesn’t I don’t need to work it out like I just make less money or more money yeah it’s a unique
Position because someone who’s not like like you were saying not the rider not the owner would have to report team manager you would have to rep we’re spending this weend in that we spent how much in McDonald’s next month you’ve got to cut the McDonald’s yeah the McDonald’s yeah
You got to cut that and a rer gets their waging their contracts 50 Grand a year or whatever exactly where you’ve negotiated it totally different so you own the package and whatever is I tell pivot they’ve got to give me $10 um Fox suspension have to give me $3 for
Instance someone gives me $1 I make sure there’s enough money in the pot to pay everywhere and go around and pay for a season yeah which I kind of just know BK racing still a thing technically team they’re the title sponsor yeah they are the title sponsor
Of the team but hopefully we never go away from but I love them and Chris and Cindy and everyone at the company that’s made it happen but yeah technically like I own the bus and the Vans and everything right yeah interesting but it’s a random model I remember our team
Manager the guy helping us SL your step was like yeah but like do you want me to add it all up I was like doesn’t really matter you can if you want it’s pretty is pretty unique though it’s sort of like three roles like you normally have
A manager who doesn’t own the team and then you have owner and then you’d have a rid you’re doing kind of three jobs which is quite quite good it’s a lot sometimes it’s quite hard isn’t it I just I can’t imagine doing it yes you
Have a lot of help obviously we have an accountant and no doubt yeah but still good on you yeah it’s really weird I know people always get confused by this but when they ask like people that like either work for us or something and it’s bad though because sometimes people can
Take the pier like oh know we can just get for another dinner I’m like no I will like I’ll periodically check you’ve got some sort of I’ll check through the bank statements or whatever especially if youve got like wise bank and you could be like okay why was there
Three McDonald’s today let’s not take the piss here you know like or like you’ll see like each of them we’ve got a Big Mac nuggets fries a sundae and a drink you’re like just get your Big Mac meal and a drink like I’m not here to
You know what I mean like they’re all like mechanics you’re bad for this they’ll try and get a Big Mac meal and put nine nuggets on the side you’re like you need nine nuggets as well oh God I love how the whole team just comes down to nuggets the problem
Like the guy going down the track it’s crazy speeds all of it all comes down to comes down the bloody macers I tell you C called us out for it was almost three grand hopefully McDonald are watching or listening and Hing the boys up with a
Gold card yeah someone will have got one I I think I know the answer to this question I’m about to ask you but I’m ask you anyway can you ever imagine not doing all all that and just focusing on racing and what do you think it would how do
You do you think it even would affect your results do you want me to do did you you enjoyed the the interview voice didn’t you MH you did quite like it didn’t you e um does he have a career in commentating he’s done some Red Bull
Stuff uh but it’s never found its way on air oh yeah what happened to you were doing onsite commentary at hard weren’t you now we’re on Hardline anyway actual commentating yeah not presenting you were doing you were doing live stuff weren’t you onsite live yeah so the presenting stuff that’s
What it is with umtv is for the Red Bull daily shows yeah covering the race but yeah the last year um bad weather was coming in yeah one of the commentators that was going to do it with Rob couldn’t make it and they asked if I well i’ said I’d do
It with him on qualifying day yeah but there was a really high chance that the qualifying race would be the main race then it have to cancel it so I had we had to commentate it like it was the the finals and then they’d wait wait
And see whether they were going to use it or not how nerve-wracking was it I mean how good is Rob it’s unbelievable how good he is there’s so much going on I just thought you have a tell in front of you and you’re watching what the viewers at home are seeing and
You just talk about it and the premise of it is that is what exactly what going on there’s also a screen with words prompting things coming up there’s people in your ear that are talking and telling you to mention this or not mention that there’s the time to talk
About the racing so Rob’s role is commentator and hype man and then it works best when he’s got like a someone who’s more analytical with him so he can refer so for me it was someone that had raced it before so you’re the have a job
Yeah he’s the the lead or whatever but I had to take the earpiece out pretty much cuz it’s like so much going on in fact didn’t I think he like turned it off for me to make me feel more at ease and he just monitored all of that but I
Can’t he’s like I couldn’t believe it I said to him after this is Way Beyond anything I thought was required and he is the the God he it’s really cool that isn’t it like realiz in awe yeah cuz I I can really I can picture you doing
Really well but there’s a lot more to it I think isn’t there I’d absolutely love to do that sort of thing would you yeah but um yeah just I’m sure a lot of people would I think you’d be terrific at it as well I think you’d be
Terrific you rode with vinc right yeah so I I owe that actually to get pumped he’d seen get pumped and I think he shared it and at the time I was like oh my God even if that video gets deleted now I’ve made it and then um uh I had a
Friend from cormal Jasper Flashman yep um and he went and did the Fest stuff on his own and then he was he was my ticket in basically because I knew I knew him and then he introduced me to Nico and then Nico’s like yeah you can you can
Come with you on and at the time I was like sick yeah I don’t know if I’ll do them but I’ll definitely take up on the offer and I must say when I got to lose Fest I was pleasantly surprised I honestly the whole way there I’m like
What have I done I’m going to get there and they’re just going to be like unreasonable you know like fmx jumps yeah they are yeah but you’re going to look at it and you’re going be like makes zero sense but I remember sitting there and we were there early we were
Around the jumps for two days and I just felt a lot better I was just like right they actually look like real jumps they don’t like if you stand far away they’re not even big so that is I you watch someone jump them and you it’s not like that doesn’t work
In my mind it could makees perfect sense I get that so how did you go about first runs how did it work what were you like and which loosefest is it how many years ago is this one it was they had the 100 foot step down right and then you went
Around the corner and you hit right the one that Remy crashed on yeah okay but it was it was a year or two before Remy crashed I think right um and basically first person I saw do it was Reynolds he was like I remember from last year I
Think and then just dropped in and he did the first one and I was like all right it doesn’t look too bad we’re all sat up the top you all your body armor on you’re like I think I’m ready and then Jasper was the next one hit it so
He jumped it perfectly fine both these two just landed and pulled off and they were like right got the first big air out the way I dropped in I remember I hit that first lip and I was like this this has gone well like like I’m flat
I’m going to land and the moment I landed I was looked at the next lip and I thought it ain’t ever going to be faster than this so I just did the next one and then I landed in and fr it exactly the same so I did the third one
Really yeah so so run one I did the first three yeah and then I was like I’m not doing the 100 foot step down first run cuz you know that makes zero sense cuz it’s like a fire Road around the corner and then it’s just been chopped
Off the end so you didn’t follow no interesting I would bastard I would yeah that’s pretty bold move that I would always follow I was 19 at the time yeah so it’s just like it wasn’t like a point to prove but it was like I’ve seen two
People do it I know what it’s going to be like yeah it’s built in at 19 isn’t it and I think Sam said before he dropped in it’s a bit of a scrub and a lean cuz the first one’s a hip but the case pad is massive it’s like honestly
Like 20 foot of case pad and it sloped down so if you case it you just take off again and do like another 40 foot but you’re all right yeah it’s not like it’s like that you know like like kids build jumps in terms of big jumps I think Sam
Is one of the best people to listen to or any jumps actually because he gives like real it’s weird details that stick with you yeah that you don’t necessarily think about at the time but it’s really helpful because I always worry about giving someone the wrong I wouldn’t want
To do that at all that’s the worst thing ever but he he’ll say you won’t overshoot this or he’ll say something that just puts exact picture of what’s going to happen in your mind yeah I’ve really noticed it with him I don’t know why obviously hanging out with him a lot
But big jump specialist he is isn’t he yeah which yeah well I mean if you can’t you can’t build stuff like Dart Fest and not know what you’re doing no true yeah you’d hurt a lot of people yeah yeah just it just wouldn’t work do you think like your attitude towards it’s changed
Now from being like 19 and probably showing up with a bit of I thought I had but then obviously my foot fell off yeah and then when I went to rawal Hills end of last year there was another 80 foot jump and I didn’t follow any anyone off that
Right but I think cuz it’s Nikos he has this certain like style of building that just seems to not upset your bike at all so you just know exactly what you’re going to get so interesting all right maybe it was just a confidence thing that I knew his jumps were fine
So what would you say if you had to put why it why it has that I think they’re just so mellow you know I I’ve had this conversation with a lot of people that you don’t people don’t realize that jumps need to change as your wheelbase
Gets longer you know like on a BMX a curb feels quite quite good jump than it and the bigger the wheel size gets the worse the curb feels and then like if you want to jump a car you need a lot more lip yeah I don’t know about jumping
Cars I mean it’s your sort of area of expertise I mean I’ve jumped a few cars but you know like a motorcross bike needs a massive jump a mountain a mountain bik like the transition yeah and a mountain bike ain’t far off a motor bike really when you’re going that
Far so you need a motorcross jump so people that are people that build like little jumps with like little curves on them and then they’re like I’m going to jump 50 foot off that and you’re like yeah good luck yeah cuz it’s just going to ping you so you say niiko stuff’s
Quite mellow I think he’s just not afraid to spend 6 weeks piling up mud really yeah you know a lot of people trying to get on with it and Nico’s just like no the jump needs to be bigger like okay that’s a lot of it isn’t it when
You look at stuff you built when you’re younger it’s all just it’s not tight because you want it to be tight it’s because it’s the limit of your like the size of the fridge yeah it’s like the limit of your um endurance you’re digging endurance it’s
Like can I be bothered to put that extra 15 wheelbarrows on this lip or should we just go go back and watch some videos of raw Hills the jumps and just pause when it’s like a big wide bit and look what how big a hole he’s dug for the mud he’s
Like reduced the whole of raw Hills down 10 foot and just put them into Landings it’s insane yeah you know he’s got like 14 ton Diggers on higher and it’s him and a mate are just scraping the Earth and making like the biggest part of the dirt you’ve seen you’ve had some big
Projects haven’t you what was that that grass field that you had yeah so that was with especially you know obviously everybody watched the Seux videos and you’re like that’s what I want to do I want to build my own track so I managed to convince spey UK into it at the time
There was a they had a media guy right so he basically took it under his wing and I spoke to him and he’d organize all the money and all that and it was basically for the release of their triple clamp Cano right oh yeah so they
Want they wanted like a a youth spin on it if you know what I mean because I don’t know if you’ve seen the canos out in the world but they’re usually bold and they’re usually called Barry quite a quite a demographic for them demographic yeah so they wanted
They wanted a youth spin on it so okay for some reason they let me do it so I got one of my mates to come down and who because I couldn’t rather a digger at the time okay and I would I just was trying to explain my ideas he had some
Of his ideas he dug M across tracks before so he knew what he’s doing yeah and we just I think we had a like a 4 ton Digger and a 15 ton Digger and he just went ham and this F to we built and
Then I think X Games was on at the time we watched the Moto X quarter yeah and then he spent four days building a quarter with a 15 ton bigger you know like it was literally like two children in front of the TV like we could make
That and then it was like we could make that’s funny it’s like kobby Raha just special and you’re like I’m going to go so high and you’re like yeah 10 fo out the top it how long have you been ebiking for cuz been involved with GT you get early
Access to these things I was actually an early Advocate when people were laughing about I there’s a particular Pro writer who had a really big eBay career after his analog career was over but I remember like the year before he started ebiking he was making fun of yeah you’re
Getting old you’re getting gray hair ebikes you know how lame and then and then like he had a whole like second you know like and it’s the big Mr ebike and there was I actually did my very first ebike ride back in 97 what no way yeah together with
President George Bush at the time what what wait dude talk us through this at the time TT was just gone public and they they had acquired always other companies like BMX companies usually or stuff and they had invested into a e company that was way ahead of its time
It was called charger not nothing to do with the English charge brand but I think they were called charger huge battery and that was this stop this event and and Bush was there speaking and everybody was like is there’s a photo op with the Press if you want to
Do one and at the time I wasn’t a big bush fan and I was like I do it if I can do it with my bike there said well then you have to wait to the very end and we can come in and I did actually back
Wheel Hops and he shook my front wheel instead of my hand what did he do yeah and he was super cool but TT brought that that charger bike in there I was and and he test roded in this hotel conference room and he did he did
Some laps and I followed him riding a wheelie and and that and I remember him like oh this is great I need one for Barbara his his wife and then I and then then he was like oh no I need two actually I want one too and then he was
Like no wait I need like I need actually Four I need like two more for the Secret Service guys so they can keep up with us whoa but um so anyway that was my first like rubbing elbows with ebikes and then and then the president and then later
Yeah that was a funny little encounter but later I was into it like when when it really started in Europe and and like years before and at the time GT didn’t have a ebike right so I I it was about 2008 or so or nine I converted one of my
GT Force bikes and I put a rear hub motor in there and and added a battery you know like those bionic systems they had back then yeah and I just used it kind of to go to the Post Office kind of a bike you know but rode a little bit
Off-road with it but that was early on and then and then I had to wait you know when the boom then really kicked off GT didn’t have a bike initially you know and then ever since they have one and now now I’ve been like really into it been working with Shimano really closely
I’m one of their ambassadors and and I think it’s awesome these bikes you know have have opened up a whole new world and for me they came at the right time I think conversations for sure changing I think even between the people that I speak with it’s definitely changed so
Much now where before you kind of get not ridicule but you’d be like oh you’re you know yeah I I had when I first started riding for focus and it was like it was it was in the contract it was like you don’t have to promote this they
Were really s they were so cool about it they were like they didn’t want to make me feel like I had to promote something I didn’t believe in and and I went for rides on it and I was like it was already an amazing bike it was already
Up to sort of modern standards it was a Shimano motor it was it was a good bike but I was just on my own and I didn’t like I didn’t get it as much and then the moment um a friend got one then it was like ah you know it was like instant
It yeah mix rides don’t work out so well you have to be you have to be on the same bike even you know people with half it unless they they’re so much fitter then you know but then you have to be super fit to hang but um yeah you have
To you need a you need a mate to ride with and yeah that’s you’ve seen like the media landscape change so much throughout your career what do you see now for mountain biking like what is it you do you like all the stuff on the phone do you like
The YouTube the Vlog stuff like what what’s your feeling on all of this well it sure has changed you know from back in the days I mean there used to be like five big photographers in the world for mountain biking who would shoot the majority of the photos yeah and nowadays everybody
With an iPhone has become a photographer and and it’s it’s a bit overwhelming sometimes you know back back in the days like I have a love hate relationship you know because it’s it’s a very cool tool and you can do so many cool things with it and and it’s great but
It’s hard to keep your finger on the poles these days there’s so much going on and even even the biggest names do stuff that goes like it’s forgotten like a day or two later you know yeah and it’s it’s so many people and and doing it
And yeah it’s just it’s just changed and you just have to kind of go with it and you know everything has has a good side to it too and I’m not a biggest fan of filming on myself that’s why I I I didn’t jump on the whole goo proing
Either even though I had an opportunity early on and I was like kind of I was so spoiled being photographed by you know like I was like I don’t want to you know film myself I let I let some cameraman do that and stuff and and and and
Nowadays you have to do it and and yeah it’s just like it’s just like with the sponsoring cake you know like there was a time when if you wanted to be a professional mountain biker you had to be a racer and and mainly a cross country or downhill guy there was a few
Guys who got sponsored because they were like a four cross Specialist or slalom guy but other than that there was hardly anybody to make a living outside of racing and I was I was doing that with my with my trial shows and with my videos and and at the time like I said
It was like you had the finger on the PO you could there was five guys eating of that non-racing pie yeah now there’s 5,000 people eating of that pie I mean if you count in all the Free Riders and the the the YouTubers and the influencers and the trials guys and the
Dirt jumpers and then the you know and even you have to count mountain bike guides there’s so many now and they are kind of semi-professional or at least a lot of them are sponsored they get bikes from a brand and that goes all Taps into
That budget of you know so so there’s a lot of people eating of that pie now and and yeah one single move or action is is not as cravit than yeah than it used to be so interesting man because you shouldn’t actually like it’s it is so
Easy to just go let’s say someone who’s not actually very good at biking is an influencer so easy to knock it but it’s not like like I don’t feel like that’s a part of that same pie do you know what I mean it’s like a it’s almost like a
Separate thing like people want to like um they want something they can relate to even if it’s not good biking yeah so so then for someone to compare kind of like seminar at the very Pinnacle to this person who’s doing how how how I learned to Bunny Hop it’s like it’s
Really different actually it’s not no one should feel threatened by it no but equally because of this pie you kind of do don’t you you kind of yeah I guess I don’t know why and I don’t know if it’s also threatened it’s also a bit I think even the marketing people are confused
It’s hard to put a value on anything you know what is it worse to get fifth at Rampage or what is it worse to go have 10 million Tok or what is it worth to have a double page in yeah what 40 million views on German TV now people would be confused
By that it’s too complex yeah because even magazines because I used to I used to think well magazines were easy that this magazine sells 20,000 and I’ve got a page in it double page it’s worth this that’s what they’ pay for advertisers sure but then you’ve got like factor in
That the person has to sit down they have to read through it and on the page where they’re open opening you they have to not take a Sit from their coffee you know cuz they could miss it that easy just the same as when they’re scrolling
Through in yeah but not as not as easy than on on Instagram you miss Stu much quicker you know yeah yeah you you know how many tweets you miss since we’ve been sitting here you know they will never come back and yeah and like maybe they’re the ones that could change my
Life and welcome to the ad break oh the best place to be it is and this one’s good as well it’s one of my favorites it is are you ready to start you can start you start I’ll start it okay M but it’s going to I’m going to throw it back to
You because you’ve started riding again right and you’re riding a lot it’s almost impossible to get all of you cuz all you’re doing is out there pedling the bike okay yeah which means you’re going to be want to recovering as best as possible key and stacking gains I
Want to be okay all right well the com companionship bundle by Peak Subs is the ultimate all-in-one solution for your pre intra and post ride needs dude that’s right we developed this bundle in collaboration with the Wizards at Peak UPS to make supplementing as simple as possible this bundle includes five
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To a mountain bike specific bundle I totally agree okay should we have a quick look at the bundle see what’s in it and how to use it okay first up start your ride off right with our goto pre-ride drink activate pre workout okay it’s available in three delicious flavors this Powerhouse formula is
Designed to enhance athletic performance and mental alertness nice dude so mid ride you want to replenish your energy stores with our inide drink Essentials that’s quite a handful that is yeah Tri car powder and electrolyte multivitamin effervescent tablets well done you got through that one really well I did and
They’re on the table yes so these are packed with carbohydrates and essential vitamins and they’ll keep you going strong mild after mile lap after lap jump after jump and there won’t be a bonk in sight maybe a nose Bonk when you’re jumping right yes it well done
And after you finish your ride treat your muscles to a dose of grass-fed whey protein that’s the stuff regarded as one of the highest quality protein powders on the market and available in delicious flavors Ollie what’s your favorite protein flavor there are actually so many flavors there are but I like to
Keep things quite simple to be honest yeah I’ll just go with the chocolate chocolate’s good chocolate’s up there for me they actually just sent some samples which I tried um and the new salted caramel so good but not just like see this is a thing you can use this in
A few different ways especially with the wayy protein so yeah you can have it in a Shaker standard yeah or maybe you can put it in some porridge yeah there you go you know what I mean stuff like that so you can use it in a variety of
Different ways okay that flavor is trending dude salted salted caramel is trendings are right there they’re right there yeah they got their finger on the PSE haven’t they they have right well that’s not all as well the companionship Bund that’s not all the companionship bundle also includes a 600ml protein
Shaker for easy mixing and our exclusive roide companion sticker sheet to add some style to your gear yeah mate you can get all of this with free UK shipping included and there’s more more there can’t be more we’re going to have to get another table no
There’s more more you can get 10% off with the code the ride companion and that’s not just 10% off the bundle 10% off the entire site mate and they got so much stuff a lot yeah you can use this as a base found raisins on the site the
Other day there raisin cheer seeds I bought those off the site the other day seeds there’s literally everything you can need almost everything you can need yeah so what was the code again what was it again sorry mate it’s the ride companion okay peaks. co.uk 10% off is really reasonable isn’t
It live in the dream or what get amongst it companionship thanks Peak sus back to the episode all right so we’ve we’ve tried to do this a few times we’ve tried to release our exclusive news it’s exciting as well and kind of messed it up but not
Messed it up but like we’ve not quite done the thing properly the clip whatever it is so I figured let’s just talk about it this podcast is the one this is the one to do it we’re sat together we’ve got this opportunity and Now’s the Time to do it we’re Midway
Through Sports news what better to announce yeah something that’s really going to pull us all together as a community all together as a community yeah make all of the stuff we’re talking about now better dude play along imagine if as as a sports fan you could
Literally just go on a site sign up and then you just make your sport 20% better 20% better and 20% more exciting exactly so we’re launching a fantasy Mountain bik platform which is insane called the race companion the race companion that’s why comp we teased it quite a bit now
Haven’t we yeah a little bit I think we have teased it a little bit a few people managed to find the Instagram account but yeah at the race companion where you can keep up to date with some news but obviously the main thing to do is head
To the race companion.com where you can sign up for Early Access Early Access indeed access to what Davey access may ask the fantasy sports platform what is a fantasy sports platform so you can play along you can build a team it’s like a traditional fantasy Sports
Website so you can go on you can build your team up and you can play against your friends you can play in the global league for some pretty epic prizes D this sounds this sounds like it’s going to cost a lot yeah it it should cost a
Lot yeah but the best thing about it OE go on it’s free to play that’s right it’s free to play mate and you can win sick prizes and stuff yeah so this just to give some context to this uh came around a while ago really we’ve been
Working on it behind the scenes for about 6 months give or take yeah so yeah we had um you know this pink bike did fantasy and we had a fantasy league on there which ended up somehow being the biggest league on pink bike and then when pink bike didn’t do it uh for
Whatever reason I don’t know uh someone’s built one that we now work with and we Curtis yeah big up Curtis we put our twist it big up Curtis we’ve put our Twist on it we put our branding on it you’ve done some sick branding for it we’ve got some of our sponsors involved
But ultimately the main thing is every episode of the podcast we do when it’s when we can yeah we’re going to do a little segment called the race companion absolutely we’re going to do some picks we’re going to do some stats we’re going to talk downhill we’re going to be
Better at it than we are today I’m really excited for it because it’s like a posit I just feel like it’s going to make this Race season what we need is a bit of positivity we do need positivity we need Community positivity AB comp and you can you can go on there you
Can create Leagues with all your friends so you can play Just against your friends or you can play in the global league so so just to refresh my memory from the last time I played fantasy yeah which was on pink bike in our Rod companion fancy league on the race
Companion you’re going to be given what a sum of pretend money a budget a budget and then you have to build your team okay and each Rider will individually have a different price yes so the better Riders will be more more expensive but then the game really is to find the
Hidden gems isn’t it it’s to find the ones that may you know making big progression through the season yeah Preston Williams might be a good shout I don’t know but he could be great example he’s not going to be too expensive but yet there’s a probability that he’s
Going to win one like it I like we just throwing out there it’s yeah so it’s I’m trying to think of examples from last year that were like yeah wild cards good good yeah uh yes yes um for sure yeah great example would have gone in you would have made really
Good points on that really great points and then the more points you accumulate the closer you can get to winning prizes for each individual race yeah yet to be secured and also a prize at the end the big prize the overall is the overall the
Big prize yet to be secured but there is going to be an epic prize yeah there going to be a day with us doing the podcast but there’s also going to be other games on there so we’re going to work with crank Works to put a crank Works downhill race series together dude
Possib endless the possibilities are endless yeah so it’s going to be fun makes biking more fun chat on there with your friends and hang out so yeah stoked I’m up for it it’s good I think like I think there is a difference when you have a horse in a race there is a
Difference yeah I tell you what I notice it the most if um like when bren’s not racing all my all my childhood growing up we’ve always had that reason to watch and like and that andard and like when I have friends in the race and they’re doing well really exciting isn’t it way
Better so now we can just all have fantasy friends and we can all have fantasy horses all have hor in the race so yeah Stokes I’m really excited about it I mean it’s been a lot of work believe it or not behind the scenes but these things are not easy to build
Apparently so I’m really ex excited to First build our team we should build our teams on air oh I like it shouldn’t we we should do it whether whether it’s with a in a podcast or whether it’s a separate it would be quite fun or we
Could come in with our teams and discuss them and why we’ve chose them that’s true and then we could have the companionship maybe comment their team below or yeah whatever I think I need to I think I need to be like w it’s difficult isn’t it to have like
Friendship band list yeah I don’t I think I it’s more fair for just I have to just pick yeah yeah the budget makes it good anyway the budgets for sure yeah so um yeah I’m stoked man I’m really excited it’s going to be fun it’s going
To be a fun thing that we’re going to grow organically with the companionship so please head over and sign up for Early Access race companion.com the race companion.com sick Name by the way yeah it’s good it it’s the best name plus the the cap we could just pretend that
That’s the race companion Logo put a bit of orange on it easy it’s done job done still available yeah please um yeah cool stes really excited honestly really really really proud really excited of it we just growing the [ __ ] thing aren’t we so yeah it’s Mega EXC exciting there’s one direction to where
You were at and loving it yeah it was and it was 30 years in the making yeah that’s so it’s a 30e part something that you feel like you’re really [ __ ] good at so it’s not it’s not a stupid thing to sad about it’s not a job is it and
It’s the only thing I’ve ever been good at you did win a World Cup so I think that’s sort of slightly bollocky did rain yeah but it does rain it rains a lot it most of them it RS at most of them when everyone else is just come
Down but you know I don’t care about that but the year the year after I was like I was third I was third all year of the year after it was mint I was on all the podiums most of the year five I think out of seven and and then and I
Went into the last World Cup with the number two play and it was caun I’d won the year before and I got pissed the night before like literally I got drunk the night before most World Cups right and when like Palmer what I mean if he’s
Telling you one day he said to me get drunk after the race idiot you know that like you know and I wasn’t alcoholic or anything I was just loose and wild and you know like like so I’m I’m going to put some stuff out there a day that I never
Have that that cuz the last six years I suppose have’ been a bit odd they haven’t certainly been as bad as the last last two but and it’s taken me six years to come out and say it and I’m going to struggle to say
It but yeah six years ago I found out I have autism and a thing called um which was a [ __ ] weird thing to find out when you’re 47 years old yeah you know Christ like i’ Liv me old life and and everything like just fell in place
Behind that like like Mom told me the other day that at Nursery I went there a week and they said please don’t bring him next week I was you know I just smashed everything up as a baby I was out of control primary school I just remember just being out of control and
Tooking taking poos in the swimming pool and like working outside the headmaster’s desk sat next to the Head Master’s desk and I used to break pens with pressure like you know I was out of control and then and then and then secondary school you know I was in
Naughty class like I still got a lot of their mates now and you know and then I in in the naughty class I sat there with a lighter under the table and set fire a table and then I got moved from there and had to work outside the Ed Master’s
Office I used to go at school with a handful of golf balls and at lunch time I’d throw them on the car on the onto the playground as hard as I could and you just Bo you do window smash or car teachers cars got dented I was on report
All the most of the time mom and dad never knew I used to forge my signature I can forge now pretty good but yeah I used to forge me signature all the time I was you know I was a ren I did well not to get expelled out of school and
And it was because of autism but I didn’t know that at the time everyone teach taught me so I have this thing called PDA right which is um pathological demand avoidance it’s been quite a trip finding all this stuff out like which means I don’t like being told
What to do right it’s as simple as that yeah and even today I said to you like I said to myself I’ll leave at 9:00 this morning I left at 10:00 because 9: actually she became a demand on me and I was like I got 10 you know and that
Didn’t become a demand so I made it by half 11 but you imagine how weird that is like if you’ll text me about going riding if I don’t text you straight back and I think about it it becomes a demand it might it’s an effort for me to text
You back and say you’re come also there’s the social side of it as well so this is something that you found out six years ago this is when when you went in for what how how did you end up find out I don’t I I don’t I’m pretty private but
Someone close to me found out a lot of people are going to find out like this because PE kids now get get school it gets picked up EAS and then I started to see it a bit and I was like I ain’t got
That have i and then I was like I read a bit online you know autistic sort of things and I was like yeah I notice every number plate when I’m driving a car I read every number plate that goes by and like it says things like roots are different like Roots important like
Routine I was like ain’t got a routine and then I was like I do drive to endley every day for a bacon sandwich and on the way home it’s quite a decision whether I go left or right up this way or this way up this Valley and it
Started to dawn on me and actually then other things happened as well and and and then like I said I thought I was really stupid right and this leads into the commentary right so I thought I was thick I acted thick all them lot of them kids around me that
I was mates with at school ended up on substances like loads of them do loads of end up in prison like you know naughty kids I had good parents luckily and like I had an interest more than anything I had an interest of motorcycle trials yeah and I would so I got kicked
Out of school secondary school they made that Mom and Dad made me go to college I lasted two months at enle college and got kicked out of there because I didn’t turn up because I was only interested in riding mot bikes dad made me get an apprenticeship at Ro no and then Dad
Said right I’m not buying you any more mot bikes finished with you you know you’re naughty out of control the rouss I have the RS I’d have a trial once I try to load my bike on the back of the car on a trailer and I temper I let it
Go man it went off the trailer and up the back of the car like I was out of control I was wild and then and then he made so I wanted a new trials bike cuz that was my obsession and he said you’re going to do an apprenticeship at Rover
I’ve worked in a factory all my life you know and he actually blessed dad he thought it was a good living you know and it was a good living in the bloody 60s or whatever yeah but I just not interested in earning 200 quid a week on
A production line anyway had to go and do it and I I lasted 6 months on this production line doing the same job every 2 minutes putting wire an harnesses in Rover 800s and I was like this ain’t what I want in life and I even had
Trouble there I walked off the job and because the bloke [ __ ] punched me because I said Kate Moss was [ __ ] look not Kate Moss Kate Bush I was like turn that crap there yeah it was rough as in there so I walked off the job and then
And then the cars got around I don’t know like half a mile to the next station where my bit mad they had to stop the production line for like 20 minutes I think it was 10 grand a minute they lost really so that didn’t last and then Dad got me an apprenticeship and
Then I mean oh my God so I’ve got a thing called dyspraxia as well which is like clumsiness if you like carrot fingers that’s why I can’t work on bikes right I’m I really struggle but but um what was I saying but so so we were talking about how you got
This how you went through finding out with all of these individual separate things did they just sort of as soon as you found out did they fit into place did it did make a lot of sense long time okay it took yeah I was definitely in
Denial for a long long time and it and then I don’t remember when I accepted it but I remember that I cried every day for eight days and I mean sobbed like I was gutted I’d spent my life as a stupid person thick thought I was thick I mean
I act I’ve acted thick in the past people people I’ve always acted a bit dumb because I thought that’s how I was and um actually so you you thought you thought you were dumb so you acted dumb yeah but there was so many things that
Upset me about it when I really got into it like autistic Spectrum Disorder oh great I’ve got a disorder what’s disorder about it it’s actually only about order like why am I disordered I’ve come you know I’ve lived 47 years of my life like this all right it’s been
A bit of a mess but now I was commentating at this time remember and I knew I was a bit you know I knew I wasn’t an absolute idiot um saw some people who Bo two people told me I needed take medicine medication that [ __ ] Me I would’t take medication for nothing it’s my head it’s been all right for 47 years why would I take medication that really really really really really upset me that did yeah I outed it together in this place and I walked out and I just burst into tears again yeah yeah but
When I found out I had it yeah eight days I remember and then I was like you are who you are it’s just a label like doesn’t matter this is who you are this is who you’ve been so what about all this [ __ ] and an Autism right like it’s
Pretty invisible if you don’t know about it but if you know about it you see it I see it everywhere it’s everywhere lots of most people a lot of people are on a spec they say one in 200 [ __ ] and and also you know well look yeah I show
I brought this right so when I when I when I so all this went on and I accepted it myself and I knew I had it and then I wanted just to go and get a proper diagnosis yeah so so sorry just to unpack so you you ended up getting
The first diagnosis and then did it like sent you down a bit of a rabbit hole of like no I’ve done all that right so no so I kind of worked it out myself let’s put it that way right yeah oh mate it was like horrendous though like I say a
Disorder that that crushed me I mean it shouldn’t be called that so what were your preconceptions then cuz I’m interested in that what do you mean by that like what did you thought about any of these words that came back on this bit of paper what did you previously
Thought about them autism um oh ADHD you know things that well the first thing I did was what Rainman yeah which was like the biggest mistake you can make in your life I was like oh my God I mean is that me like you know really repetitive and
All them like that was a bad mistake that was so that would be the the thing that makes that bad I assume would be like oh I didn’t realize oh I didn’t like oh that if that’s what I’m like didn’t realize kind of thing sort of
Yeah I was like yeah yeah yeah yeah I was like my God I’m one of them to be quite honest yeah yeah and then and then oh my God so you know that Chris Packham the BBC Wildlife presenter like so he’s got it and he went he did a show on it
And I watched it and it came out at that time actually weirdly enough and oh my God it was like the bleakest thing and that that almost ended me well when I say that by the way I’ve never had a suicide or anything fought in my mind
Mind ever I’m a LIF lier and I just I just like the World Cup and that was I was just desperate to recover so I can get on my life again and same with this actually but this finding out how autism did not hit me as hard as losing a World
Cup but you see the World Cup is like it changes really serious thing for an autistic person so right yeah so it was like and it’s like the biggest change oh yeah it absolutely it was really positive it was the only thing that made
Me you know I was good at it you know but watch this show and he was like I tried to kill myself a few times and and then he he went to this um he went he went to an American clinic so autism is annoying in that you can’t get rid of it
Really so like every time I go to an airport three days before I will start I’ll probably be in a bit of a bad mood and it’s a i you I can’t explain like I hate airports like I hate it’s bright I always wear sunglasses but like the noise there people everywhere there’s
Cues and then I have to get on a plane and sit next to someone close and it’s disgusting I’m germaphobe I’m an absolute hypochondria I don’t like it don’t speak to me don’t look at me and then when I get off a plane I’m so
Stressed out like that I’ll go to get in a car and 9 times out of 10 and Red Bull always give them my own car it’s like they knew I don’t know if they know or not well some of them know because I’ve told them because I’m so out there
Sometimes and I get in a car and honestly nine times out of 10 it would take me 3 hours to do an hour’s journey I get lost my ADHD is out control I can’t follow a satnav I can’t work anything out like honestly and then and
This is like you know Red Bull makes so many allowances for me like you wouldn’t want to be my travel agent I am out of control with stress and then and then I’ll get there and and and usually day one of when I go to a World Cup or when
I went to a World Cup I would spend in hotel room and I would not leave that room I get room service I stay in there from the morning till the night I might go out in the evening for some bit of fresh air but I would sit and research and that
All day and that is like therapy like comfort blanket oh my God man I love stats just sat on the bed watching videos making notes I’m never happier and then I go and delivered it in a commentary box but this Chris Packham thing like that and he went in this
American treatment where like like it’s a school where they basically knock it out of you like it’s like like I don’t know there’s a process there’s a name for it where I don’t know like like electric shock therapy almost to someone you know it’s like you’re going to get
And they reckon it works he went in and he was like oh God the windows are all out of not and I like Symmetry and I don’t like shitty over I like this some some rooms I comfortable in some I really don’t some I really feel on edge
And it’s probably to do with the symmetry of the room yeah like it’s a pretty mad thing to tell you all this cuz I don’t know how it works myself it’s like bizarre to me as it is anyone else like to say this like what what’s
Going on in my head I’m just like your windows I’m MAC that’s all it is and if there was more Macs in the world then I wouldn’t have to fit in but at the moment I’m my minity so it’s very hard for me to fit into a normal world that’s
How it is I don’t so this disorder thing really upset me it’s not a disorder I’m just different and looking back do you feel like there’s a there’s a term I guess people use for this a lot like about masking oh yeah so and this isn’t about me at all
But I’ve definitely had in the past conversations with my partner about it where I I’ll say like look I feel like [ __ ] inside but on the outside you’d have no idea cuz I’ll just put on this front and it’s just like oh and you’re known as that guy like the loud yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah so I guess it gives you that you’ve always got to be that guy even if inside you’re like really unhappy yeah and it’s exhausting it is yeah exha D I slept all the time because it ruined my SL sleep pattern which is
So sleep is absolutely crucial to me and getting up early is not a thing I can do right but on top of that right it’s probably noisy there it was overwhelmed it big trucks there was nowhere to hide apart well once my tent was there in the
Afternoon I could hide in that but until then I sort of exposed yeah it was it was tricky but and you know I I am up for that like I absolutely want to live my life as normal as I can so it’s not you know I don’t want everyone to listen
To this and go we can’t send him a duck out again no I absolutely loved it it was a hell of an experience and I live for those moments and the visuals man I can see like a big truck I think you know I get impressed by like I love
Volcanoes why because they’re just massive I can like they say you can stare at twirly things or something when you’ve got autism but I stare at volcanoes I love a view I standing for hours and look at [ __ ] mountains or view yeah I’m weird I know I’m weird it’s all right hey man
What an episode that was you did amazing in it and so did you you Shawn like a star you Shawn like a moon I sha like a focus spring deal oh beautiful transition got question for you David to kick this final advert off yeah what would you do with up to
€400 yeah if you got it back when buying a bike oo I could stay in the bike shop and spend my €400 on accessories good point support your local bike shop great point I could take the €400 and go to another shop close by maybe buy €400 of
Pasta maybe go to the euro store get 400 and just that’s Christmas done for eternity just keep handing them out tickets yeah beans tires um shammy cream a new pet a new pet perhaps a water dragon or an iguana lovely idea well Focus are actually making that question a reality nice
Because with the focus spring deals you can grab up to €400 back when buying a new bike if you want to find out more check out the terms and conditions and all of the details in the link we’re going to put that below and I’m also
Going to read it out please okay you ready for me to read it out yes this is old school in it reading out links yeah anticipation I’m going do anyway I want the deal ride. focus. bikes SLS spring deals TRC oo nice so that is ride .
Focus. b/s spring deals TRC and let us know in the comments what you would do with 400 best answer wins a signed odub hat I like it good I’ve got hats yeah I’m ready yeah I’m good that hey can we also put something up here that you can
Click on for the next episode how about we put a subscribe up there in the middle yeah we’re going to put a video we think that our lovely companionship will love on your face on my face yeah can’t see me now gone and on my face another video that we think people will
Love and thank you for watching thank you for listening please hit like And subscribe you guys are the best peace and love
4 Comments
What legends, myself and the misses ended up crying watching your podcast with rob warner 🔥🔥
100÷ the best podcast on YouTube been here from the start big up boys 👍
Most other podcast’s would be stoked to post this as a year end best of. The fact that you’ve had this many amazing episodes in just three months is proof that you guys are doing something right. The episode with Hans and Rob are my favorite by far!
defo sam pilgrim broke the car