Exclusive: Interview with the Complete Champion, Jared Graves

The 31 year old Australian needs little introduction, certainly the best 4X racer of all time, having totally dominated the UCI championships and World Cups for many years. Last season his battle with Jerome Clementz for the Enduro World Series title captivated the media and fans, each fiercely determined to claim the top prize. In the end it was Jerome who took the win, and Jared was left devastated. As the 2014 season opened in Chile it looked like the story was happening all over again, then in an instant everything changed! Jared sat down with us to share his thoughts on a season dominated by injuries, new challengers and brutal events.

First off, massive congratulations, you are our new Enduro World Champion, how does it feel?

It feels amazing, it’s what I’ve worked towards flat out since this time last year, when a big plan comes to life, there’s no better feeling!

Your position was strong going into the last round in Finale and we had all expected you to ease off a little, how did it change your mind-set, did you race for the win or just try and keep it safe?

I definitely did ease off quite a lot, but at the same time, it brought out some really good riding in me. I was really conservative in the technical stuff, but rode really smooth and efficiently everywhere else, I felt like I was carrying really good speed with minimal effort. So in a lot of ways I learnt some very valuable experience for the future from riding this way. I was trying to do the bare minimum in regards to speed vs. risk, so to walk away with 2nd for the race blew my mind and was a perfect way to end the season confidence wise.

So tell us about your winter, do you have some time off now to enjoy the moment, or is it straight into a winter training program?

Well right now we are exactly 2 weeks since racing in Finale, and I haven’t touched a bike yet. I know the importance of rest and letting myself recover, but sometimes it’s more of a case of MAKING yourself recover, which is what I’m doing now. Don’t get me wrong, I love down time and rest, but I really love riding my bike as well, it’s a tough balance haha! December will see proper training start up again.

The first round in Chile started a battle that everyone was expecting, Jerome and yourself trading stages at the front, how did it affect your motivation when both Jerome and Fabien fell injured?

Yeah Chile was bitter sweet. Jerome is a deadset legend and is the reason I train so hard, and that’s what I was doing all offseason, thinking of how to go about beating him. At Chile I know I was physically prepared, but I spent all offseason racing XC to work on my weakness of endurance. I always had power coming from BMX/4X, but after an offseason spent on the XC bike I felt my skills suffered, and I felt really rusty in the racing environment at that race. So to feel like I was riding badly and to lose by such a small margin was hard. Then when both Fabian and Jerome were injured and out for the season I really felt like it affected me negatively. Suddenly I was feeling all this pressure from people saying I was going to walk away with the series with them out, but I know how good the other riders are, and I really tensed up with that in mind.

If the stage was long and physical last season, all eyes looked to you for the win, but it seemed that this year everyone has raised their power game?

I think I was just as surprised as anyone when that turned out the way it did. I felt like short stages were my strength, but I always went well on long stages, no doubt everyone stepped up their fitness and strength this off-season.

What are your thoughts on the technicality of enduro, an often used reason for switching to enduro is that it is safer than DH, but we are seeing more and more injuries on the circuit. Is it the technicality of the stages or the closeness of competition?

Ah, such a good question that I really want to talk about. Honestly I thought the same thing when I started racing enduro, but as far as EWS races go, the things we race on now surpass the Technicality of DH world cups, sometimes it’s like DH trials to me, you are simply trying to just get through a section, it’s that hard! That never happens in DH. We’ve seen a ton of top World Cup DH guys come in and race EWS events, and some of them think they are just going to clean up, but they don’t. In reality, what people don’t realise is that it is a different skill set, one that I know suits me better than DH did.

The media always concentrates on riders with big injuries, but how hard has this season been for you physically?

I think talking about riders with injuries is normal, honestly, everyone is always carrying some problem, it just goes with the day to day riding. I have had some injuries this year, but I had preferred not to mention them, as I feel when you talk about them publicly they become more “real” and they then tend to play on your mind and you use them as an excuse. Since the season is over and everything is 100% I can now say that I had a knee ligament injury between Chile and Scotland that it was recommended to me that I shouldn’t be riding for 6-8 weeks, but I was able to ride with minimal pain. Only a handful of people knew I had this injury and only 3 people knew just how bad it was. I know there was further injury risk if I crashed on it again, but if you want to achieve a goal sometime you have to just get on with it. Sometimes ignorance is bliss! Some people think this is a dumb approach, and maybe it is, but we can only race for a limited time when we are young, so I honestly would rather deal with the consequences later in life and make the most of now. If you want something badly enough you have to find a way to push through, and right now I’m 100% glad I did. This is the Australian way haha!

How do you keep your flexibility after years of training?

Stretching, 3-4 times every day….you have to as you get older.

What are your thoughts on massive events like those at Whistler this year, many riders were not making the transitions?

Yeah that’s a tough one, I thought Whistler was maybe a bit too much. I mean, I know I’m at the upper end of the fitness scale when it comes to the top EWS guys, and I know we need to be challenged, but at the same time there needs to be some kind of Enjoyment vs. Toughness scale. If the event isn’t somewhat fun nobody will enter, and I think Whistler turned a lot of people off Enduro at EWS level. Especially when stage 4 was the technically toughest stage of the whole race, and we were racing that stage 5 hours into our day. With fatigue involved that becomes dangerous. I know a lot of people were just trying to survive by that point, and you are no longer racing if you just want to survive. People will argue against that, and I train to prepare for whatever, but I don’t think Whistler this year was the direction the sport needs to be going.

What are your thoughts on the 2014 season events, some of the rounds seemed a lot more pedally and physical?

I’d say this year was a lot less pedally and more technical than 2013. Again maybe too much so, I’m all about the overall test, but things seemed to favour the more technically skilled rider this year, and fitness/training was less of an issue. When some people were complaining about some of the more “bike park” type terrain Winter Park offers I couldn’t believe it! Like it or love it, Bike Park is a huge part of Mountain bike riding these days, and if the EWS is meant to crown the “overall” best rider, then this needs to be a big part of that. Some of the Euros saying “Oh this isn’t enduro” was so single minded. We can’t just race on high alpine raw goat tracks every weekend and think that to be an overall test. Euros, North Americans and Australians/Kiwis all have a very different opinion of what enduro is.

If you could change anything about the series, what would it be?

I think the series is awesome right now, I just hope they don’t lose sight of what the common day out riding is, which is what Enduro should be, no matter what continent you live in. Find a good mix and don’t cater toward one demographic that wants to see their type of riding catered for. I love riding all the types of terrain, and that’s what makes the series so good right now.

Aside from taking the overall win, what was a highlight for you from the season?

I think the Winter Park round. It was a pretty crucial part of the season; I sort of saw it as my race to lose. I had a lot of pressure on myself to win there last year, and I won a lot of stages but had a race ending mechanical on stage 2, which saw me almost dead last after day 1 of racing. I cemented my overall lead there this year and that was huge for me, and of course it is the round that is almost in YETI’s backyard.

Which for you was the hardest round?

It’s a toss up between Valloire and Whistler, for different reasons. At Valloire I felt tons of pressure because everyone was saying I was going to clean up the year after Jeromes injury, and Scotland went Terribly. Then I felt sickness coming on all week, which fully came on after racing and I spent a few days in bed. I was like “oh this is not happening” before the race, but I got through it, I felt really lethargic but made do, and things went my way in racing and I got the win. Whistler because of technical problems I had all day, and just trying to stop the time bleeding on stages 1-4. I got back to the pits after stage 4 when we could get some assistance before stage 5 and my Wife Jess was like, “you can still win this” and I was like “nahhhh, I just want top 3 and to beat Oton for the day” Then I had a killer stage 5 and won, I couldn’t believe it!

Which was your favourite stage?

Stage 6 in Finale no doubt haha, I knew I had it and just tried to enjoy the stage, which is what I did!

Did any of the rounds surprise you?

Valloire, I felt like I was fighting an uphill battle that weekend, but it worked out well, But I was lucky, Justin Leov should have won that weekend. And I was scratching my head in Scotland, I just sucked on day 1 there.

Has it been a big benefit having Richie on the team this year, he has had some great results?

Absolutely, he keeps me young, and brings out more speed in myself! like in Finale, we were out for a little road spin and rode the climb up to stage 1/3 and after we got to the top we couldn’t ride any trails back down the hill as they were part of the race course, so we went back down the road and we were just doing the biggest road drifts on every corner on the switchbacks all the way down. I wouldn’t do that if I was riding by myself, but it was awesome and we were laughing like 10 year olds the whole way down. He pushes me to go fast all through practice where it would be easy to get lazy and ride comfortably. I need a team mate like him; his commitment levels to going balls out fast in any one section are second to none.

OK, lets talk about the bike, you switched your bike mid-season, did it take a lot of adjustment to get up to speed on the bigger wheel size?

No real adjustment, we felt comfortable on the new geometry straight away. But we felt the geometry and the wheel size on the SB66 were holding us back in the early rounds. Sorry people 27.5 is no gimmick! YETI knew this as well, but we weren’t prepared to ride the new bikes until they were ready. It took until Winter Park before we were confident to run it. Yeti isn’t about running product until its ready, and we definitely respect that.

How does the new Switch Infinity SB6c compare to the feel of your SB66?

It just does everything a bit better, it pedals a bit better, small bump sensitivity is a bit better, it handles big hits better, lighter, stronger, and the geometry is more inline with what the bike is primarily being ridden on . It’s a win,win,win,win,win, haha.

How much involvement did you have in the development of the bike itself?

A lot in terms of geometry, every angle I wanted is what the stock medium is, which is what I ride. As far as the way the bike works I’m no engineer, but I said what I liked and didn’t like about the SB66 and they worked to fix that as best as possible, and they nailed it!

What do you do to unwind?

Always something different, I play with my Nissan 370z, right now I’ve been getting on top of the garage/yard/house, getting it just how I’ve always envisioned it to be since moving in 7 years ago. That’s taken up all of my last 2 weeks, you need to take a break from training at some point, and it’s the perfect reason to do that. I’m not a person to sit on the couch and watch TV, I have to be active.

Words and Photos: Trev Worsey

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