Bike
Aaron Gwin talks home comforts, riding for Specialized and his desire to be a World Champion.
Age: 25 Nationality: American Hometown: Wildomar, California 2013 Team: Factory Specialized Racing Discipline: Downhill 2012 Series Finish: 1st Career Highlights: 2011 & 2012 World Cup Champion
It’s astonishing that California, let alone the United States as whole, with it’s amount of great riding and heritage in the sport, had not provided a winner of the Men’s downhill World Cup series until Aaron Gwin came along.
Having now won it consecutively for the second time it doesn’t however come as a surprise that Aaron loves to stay there when not at the races, “I spend most of my time in the off-season at my home in California. The weather is still nice in the winter which is good for training and just about anything else you could want to do. I grew up in Southern California so it’s home to me. I’d have a hard time living anywhere else.”
Having spent his teenage years racing motocross, that too remains, “Luckily, I still get a lot of time to ride motocross in the off-season if I want to. I usually take it pretty mellow during the season just so I don’t get hurt and mess up my ability to race or train on the downhill bike. I don’t think there’s anywhere in the world better to live if you like riding dirtbikes than SoCal so I’m pretty lucky there.”
Switching to mountain biking, it seemed like Aaron went from podium contender to number one dominator in 2011 very quickly yet he plays that down with his typically modest outlook, “I wouldn’t say that there was any one thing that made the difference. I was close to winning races the season before and it just took time for all the pieces to fall into place. I made some improvements to my program along with just having more experience from the previous seasons so I think all of that just added up to giving me a good chance at success.”
Over the winter there was a lot of hype about Aaron’s move from Trek to Specialized, probably a little too much, after all no-one goes nuts if the guy delivering the newspapers is delivering milk the next day as long as they both still get delivered. Aaron didn’t seem too enthralled by the attention, “I didn’t think much of it really, I know that I made the right decision for myself and my career so I couldn’t be happier with where I’m at now. There’s nothing more worth saying. I loved the new bike from the first run down the hill and a lot of the guys on the program were already some of my best friends so to me it just feels like where I’m supposed to be."
"I haven’t been this excited about riding and racing ever in my career so I’m looking forward to what the future holds, we’re gonna have some good times.”
“We have a few more months left to prepare but I feel like I’m more prepared already than I ever have been coming into a race season. My main goals never change from year to year, I always want to give every race one hundred percent and have fun enjoying the experience of riding a bicycle for a living."
"On top of that though I definitely want to keep winning races and hopefully add a World Champs win to the list. I’ve had some bad luck there the past few years so I’m excited for the challenge and I know I’ll be ready when the time comes.”
