Ahead of next month’s Masters of Dirt event in Dublin, JOE met mountain biker Sam Reynolds to talk death-defying stunts, why training isn’t training and Georgia Salpa’s personality.
JOE: So Sam, are you looking forward to The Masters of Dirt event in Citywest from March 23-25?
Sam Reynolds: Oh yeah, it’s the thing I look forward to most during the whole year. I think it’s the best event – by far the most fun. I love watching the motocross, the hot Fuel Girls, the fireworks and all the other world-class motorsport guys doing their stuff. Then I get to go party with the guys who are basically my childhood heroes afterwards. So it’s a great time all round.
JOE: Will everyone’s favourite Big Brother babe, Georgia Salpa, be there?
Sam: Well, she did do our initial photo call, so if she’s in the country, she might be there. But she has a fairly busy schedule after Big Brother, so you never know. She’s pretty awesome looking, but obviously I’d have to meet her to decide whether she’s a nice person. But the looks are pretty good to start with, that’s for sure.
JOE: We agree on that one. So how did you get into dirt jumping?
Sam: I guess at school. I used to cycle to school every morning and I made friends with the people in the bike sheds. They all had cool bikes and cycling was their thing. I went out with them one weekend and realised I had to get a cool bike like theirs. That was when I was around 14 or 15.
JOE: What kept you in the sport?
Sam: Everything about it is different, you know? I was always into extreme sports, but I think BMX is too confining. With mountain biking, you can just go anywhere and it’s always different. You can ride whatever you’re looking at. You can go up mountains, you can go into the woods and you can even ride in a skate park if you want. You can express yourself everywhere on loads of different terrain, so that’s why I love what I do.
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Sam Reynolds. Doing what |
JOE: Are you working on anything special for the Masters of Dirt show?
Sam: Well, hopefully we’ll see some double-backflips, but it always depends on the ramp because it’s such a difficult trick. You need a big jump with good lift and you also need good speed, so if all those things are there, then we could be in for some double flips at Master of Dirt.
JOE: What went through your head when you landed the double-backflip during your winning run at White Style?
Sam: Kind of like… a sense of relief, because obviously it’s a scary move, but I was more excited that I landed the trick, ‘cause it’s quite a big one in mountain biking. It’s been done before, but no one really does it in competition, you know? So yeah, it was the first big contest one for me. Then realising, “oh I could actually win this…” was also a good feeling.
The first time I ever tried the move was when I was 16 into a foam pit. The first one on a dirt jump was only last year sometime, and since then I’ve done less than 10 double-backflips. It’s only ever gone wrong once. But it was ok ‘cause I was able to just jump off. I knew exactly where I was so I just jumped out of it, got back up and did it again.
JOE: If you had no competitions coming up how often would you cycle?
Sam: Literally, whenever it’s not raining. I try to get out whenever I can, even if there is no one else out. I’ll still go on a cross-country ride by myself.
Yes, this is what these guys are paid to do… We’re off to get the bike from the shed
JOE: What does a regular training session consist of?
Sam: Well, we never really call it training. We just mess around ‘cause it’s fun and you have to keep it fun. The day you start calling it training is the day it turns into more of a ‘real job’ and you start to lose sight of why you started in the first place. All the guys that are the best at it love it more than anyone else. So I ride instead of ‘train’.
Riding makes all the muscles that I need stronger, so there’s no real need for me to go running, or whatever.
JOE: The Masters of Dirt event is going to be a little different for the mountain bikers this year. Tell us about the ‘tow-in’?
Sam: Okay, so in a mountain bike contest, there is a big run-in or a hill that you roll down, because we don’t have engines like the motorbike guys and we need to pick up speed first. In this year’s Masters of Dirt show, we have a wake board handle tied to the back of a motocross bike, so we’re actually getting towed. We get towed with one-hand up until the motocross guy is in 2nd gear and then we let go, so we’re being pulled into the jump.
The tow-in is harder because you don’t have a set roll-in distance and you don’t know where your braking points are. That’s because the guys on the motorbikes have a different speed every run and you have to let go at different times. It’s always challenging because sometimes you can fly really far and other times you end up landing really short so you don’t know where you are until you’re in mid-air.
You can practise a tow-in as much as you want, but it’s generally ‘luck of the draw’ on the night. Although, I have it down now at this stage.
JOE: What else can we expect to see at Masters of Dirt this year?
Sam: We have motocross guys doing their stuff, the snowmobile guy [Jostein Stenberg] is amazing and the quad bike guys are great to watch because they’re so different.
And then we’ve got the mountain bike guys too, obviously. We do smaller jumps than everyone else, but I think that almost everyone in the crowd has ridden a mountain bike at some stage, so they can relate to us better. I think that’s why we get more cheers than everyone else because the crowd relates.
JOE: Your bike isn’t a ‘normal’ mountain bike, so how does it differ to one that JOE readers would be familiar with?
Sam: Well, I ride a Polygon bike with Sram components. It’s only got one gear and one brake on the back wheel. This is because if you do a no-hander and you land wrong, grabbing the front brake could be pretty catastrophic. It’s heavier than most ‘normal’ bikes, but it’s also very strong. It has a low back end because you have to spin the bike around and get your legs over the back wheel to do tricks. It’s also got a little saddle because you don’t need to sit on the bike during a stunt, so to save weight we have a little one – and if you slip off your pedals it’ll save your nuts.
I wear Fox Clothing and a helmet at all times. I’ve always ridden with a helmet on, so whenever I ride without one now it feels horrible. It just doesn’t feel right.
JOE: Apart from the mountain bike side of things what’s your favourite part of the Master of Dirt show?
Sam: I like the whip-show from the motocross guys. It’s all about getting as sideways as possible. I’ve tried myself but it’s impossible. I can jump a motorbike but I can’t whip it – I’m not big enough. I’m working on that though, so maybe in a few years I’ll be in the show on a motorbike as well as the mountain bike. But I think I’ll always be on mountain bikes. That’s where my allegiance lies.
JOE: Thanks for your time Sam and good luck with the Masters Of Dirt event next month.
Sam: Cheers.
Masters of Dirt, fuelled by Monster Energy, comes to Dublin’s Citywest Hotel from March 23-25. For all the latest information on the event, check out the official website here. Tickets are available from Ticketmaster Outlets Nationwide or over at www.ticketmaster.ie/mastersofdirt.
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