VOL. 50 ISSUE 46 NOVEMBER 19, 2013
Smage's
mentor is
former trials
champ Ryan
Young, who is
also Smage's
minder.
"I really think that's the only
way," says Smage. "You can ride
all day everyday in America and I
still don't think it would be enough
to be competitive. They live the
sport over there, and that is what
it takes to be as good as they are.
The competitions are much more
serious, there are more of them,
more riders, more places to ride,
and people are into it. The young
kids are practicing with the best
riders, and progressing rapidly to
get to the top level.
While so many of Smage's Pro
trials colleagues are switching to
EnduroCross, he has, so far, resisted the move.
"It is awesome to see some of
the trials guys do so well in Endu-
roCross, they are finally getting
some much needed credit," says
Smage. "I have actually done a
few EnduroCross races back in
2008-'10. I was able to make the
mains, so I was surprised and
happy with that. I was always on
a pretty beat and borrowed bike,
and not in shape for racing, so I
pretty much just got smoked in
the mains. But I did manage one
fifth, which was a huge surprise.
I had my fun racing in stadiums
though, and with the bikes and
riders getting so good, I don't
think I would be competitive anymore. I'm okay with that though,
I'll stick to racing RC cars to get
my moto fix."
To supplement his trials career, Smage and his brother Phil
have been doing riding shows,
the "Smagical Riding Shows," although it's proved to be a difficult
P61
ferent terrain and rocks after riding metal ramps can take some
time, and doing circle wheelies
all day sure won't help my lacking
hill climb skills.
"It varies year to year, but between nationals and the shows
I rarely had a weekend off this
year and the travel can be pretty lengthy. One winter we pretty
much hit the four corners of the
lower 48 states, doing a 12-city
tour that basically zigzagged
across the whole country. The
further the show, the harder it is
to make it worthwhile. When you
add up all the travel expenses, it
can be hard to make money in
the end. But we have been doing
all right for the most part, and will
consider offers to go pretty much
anywhere."
When asked if he thinks he can
surpass Geoff Aaron's 10 national
"
IT IS AWESOME TO SEE SOME OF
THE TRIALS GUYS DO SO WELL IN
ENDUROCROSS, THEY ARE FINALLY GETTING
SOME MUCH NEEDED CREDIT.
"
task juggling the shows with national competitions.
"It can be tough," admits
Smage. "Riding shows may be
time on the bike, but it is nothing
like a competition on natural terrain. When most of the weekends
prior to nationals are spent riding
on flat ground and metal obstacles, it can be difficult to find time
for solid practice. Adapting to dif-
titles, Smage just smiles.
"Now that I'm over halfway to
what Geoff did, I can appreciate it
even more," he says. "Ten titles is
a lot, and I still can't even imagine
how he made it happen. My goal
has never been to beat that record, but now I can really see how
impressive it is. So I really don't
think I can get that many championships, but you never know." N
C
