We talked about some current racers earlier. You mentioned a couple of riders that can ride at 100% but not 90%. Do you think they know that? Recognizing is a big part of racing.
Maybe the vision is better from outside, but maybe if for example on what we say previously a mechanic or someone at the start says “OK, go 100%, go full attack!” I think it’s not the right thing to do. I don’t know, it’s important to see that every rider is different, and for example there are some riders that you have to push them at the start because they are a little bit stressed or others you have to say “OK, look lets just do a clean run”. Some push too much.
OK lets talk about Lapierre, your future. Is biking the future for you?Yes.
And rally?(long pause)…I don’t think I will work in rally after I have finished racing. I spent ten or eleven years in bike and six or seven in rally car, but I’ve never stopped riding bikes. Working for Lapierre and BOS is for me, the future is still riding bikes in the mountains, trying stuff, two wheels, it’s more natural. I mean I really like rally driving, driving the cars but the mountainbike is more my world.
You were in a strange place in 2009 after eighteen years as a professional sportsman, in a transition. Within a year you seem a lot more sorted.Yes it’s not been an easy part. I started at 15, I’m now 34 and yes eighteen years of racing and at such a high level it’s not easy to start to think what I can do if I’m not racing – what can I bring to a company? Even my image. I have to think about what I would like to do, so it’s not easy because I also like competition and it’s not easy to turn the page and like OK say to yourself “now I have to think about working and not racing”. For me it’s not easy, honestly, when you are high level.
So many world titles, stopping, returning….
I never stopped mountainbiking, I stopped racing downhill. Yes I race enduro and I’m not saying it’s easy, but it’s different, it’s not the speed of downhill, it’s physical, but downhill is the real speed. Enduro is longer, more physical, it’s different.
Let’s get back to Lapierre.For now we are just talking, testing and R and D, even trying the road bikes, the cross country, everything. I try to be involved more at the beginning of the project, in the past it was that I was more involved later in the process, for testing. It was different for the downhill bike last year, I was involved straight away. These are things I really like, I was really young when I began testing. I have done it from early on and it was one of the things I really liked to do when I was racing. Training and testing – I was with Sam Blenkinsop in Chatel even after two runs I go to the truck and change something, even just a click to feel it. If it feels better I change, then I change the tyre, I will change a spring. I like to test.
Until you get the good feeling?Exactly, because always it’s training…to feel it requires training. There is nothing you can…there is nothing special involved but the more you do it, the more you do it the better you are. OK so I was maybe better when I was racing ten years ago because we were working with data and so with my feeling the guy behind the computer can see it and he can understand, and we do only this and I was really good at it. I lose a little bit but I try and get it back.
Do you feel there is a difference between BOS and the other companies?
For me I know there is a difference because I was really involved with them in the past. Over the past two years it’s different because (long pause) it’s a small company compared to the other ones. It’s really different and they work really well. I find this a really hard question to answer…(sighs)…before it was a different kind of working to everyone else especially when we were working with the data and everything, but still they really do specific training for a rider for competition. A bigger company is different, they adjust and then adjust more but (struggling)…I’m happy with what I’m doing with BOS. For example, I have three or four shocks and I test them. BOS didn’t come specially to do the test, so I test and I test and I try the four shocks on different tracks and I say “this is good here, the compression is good on this one the rebound better on that one, the high speed on that”, and then after that they make me a shock and so now I would like to try this and this and this, so they send me three more different shocks and we go on and on. It’s good to work, it’s incredible in comparison. And they have the machine to see what they are doing. And the speed of what we are doing is good, I like to work like this, it’s not just to get a shock and do some clicks.
So testing damping is one side, testing geometry and production bikes another. How about riders?The overall idea would be to be more involved with the team, Cyril Lagneu is the team manager. To be on the track to help, starting to help during the winter to set the bike, to test the geometry, I would like to test differences in geometry, longer, see where we can go. Soon I will ask to get a few different front triangles to see about the next production and team. I think the first thing to do this winter is to set the bike properly. For example Blenky broke his wrist, and now I am riding his size…
….he needs to go bigger.Exactly. I need to train also, but for Blenky he needs to ride different sizes even just to realize it might bring something. The question that is now given to me is ‘I do not know if the size of the downhill bike is compared to the size of the men’. For example, Spagnolo is not so tall and the bike is huge.
Maybe an optimum size?This is something I would like to see. In motorbikes there is the same size for everybody. It’s something I would like to see, if arriving at one size I don’t like and if Blenky likes. There are many questions I would like to answer.
What about enduro?There is more pedalling and there are tighter corners, more pedalling. You also need to integrate the size for pedalling, it has to fit right. Yes you need length also.
Much more riding ahead then?At the moment I know that I will ride a lot this winter and train and maybe also gain some more weight.
Put on?Yes I’m a bit light at 68kg. It’s a girl’s weight.
How tall?76…no, but when you look at the girls weight and you see in downhill the girls are heavier than that. Rachel Atherton is 66kg for example.
How do you know that?I looked yesterday on the web. I also wanted to know the weight of Gee (Atherton) to see if he is heavy or not, and from it I see he is 85kg. So yes, to add some weight, but my question now is to go with the team just to help or I don’t know if I go to race and walk the track and help. Try and help the best I can from the side or I don’t know if the best thing is to ride and have fun, to continue to ride, test prototypes, sometimes to ride and try new lines
Do you see many riders with the wrong strategy?Not at all, they are all different. It depends on each one. Sam for example he just likes to ride fast, but he is starting to think and work a bit more on his line, but for me, and what we saw from the side, maybe not enough compared to other riders. I think he could be faster if he looked a little bit more. Not to pass his time, but to work on the track, to look.
The possibility of an increased presence of Nicolas Vouilloz at World Cup races will certainly keep some people on their toes, for he brings with him an approach quite different to the rest. His knowledge on so many levels will carry an undoubted advantage to whoever races on the Lapierre team. Still. What everyone will be expecting is the sight of Nico behind the bar breathing at full tilt.
