MYLES ROCKWELL

MYLES ROCKWELL

MYLES ROCKWELL

Interview with the 2000 Downhill Worldchampion 

(by F.Roman)

And the mountain-bike world, as a stranger, spectator to itself look at the day to choose the new world champion !! A moment... we're floating !!!.... "Pascal tried hard but is beaten !!! giant's Myles Rockwell has the best time right now ! The last rider down's coming to the finish !...Steve Peat is....second !!! Myles Rockwell is world Champion !!!" He's jumping out of the leader chair, send his goggles and gloves in the public, after a long shout of joy is voiceless, Runs straight in front of him on the course to the finish line ! He's running like a mad man ! Going no-where ! It's like he's looking for something he can't find ! He's coming back running, touching the spectators hands, loosing is hat, his glasses, his head.... He's drown ! He's bodyless ! His joy is so deep that we could cut a piece and it's going ...to everybody around !...  Because of that, the crowed feel that something happened, no such emotion for this victory can't come without Desire, efforts, tears and hope, maybe Love.... Racers, (the US : Cullinan world champ92, King93...) friends, his personal are coming and  give him a big hug now, he's almost crying ! the words are senseless... I come to him and we stay in arms few seconds....I know Myles well.... What an afternoon in this high Spanish mountains who give to the scene an elevated skyly dimention ! Myles rainbow is in this Spanish sky ! He's a rainbow too ! I know such a moment will change his life! What a good moment of Sport !

DOWN in flames

In the evening at the restaurant I'm at his table with Giant's team, racer and manager, he's calm and radius, not drunk for all the empty bottles on the table. We have a glass of Champagne and we speak about what happen and of the old time before he get-up saying "I need to go out and walk in the night, I need to be alone...I must go..." Myles and myself have been in the same world cup team, riding, training, eating at the same table, travelling all year together...and I tell him of the first time I meet him: it was in 93 in California at Kamikaze race...

FR :"I didn't really like you, you were full of power... But strangly wild and crazy... I am not sure..., but I could see a thing in your riding style I knew we share"

MR : "year, always high, I know..." (eyes shining modestly as an excuse) Then in the next winter we signed the same team and I went to his place in San Francisco... I discover in our differences our similarity points: our attention to  the nature voice, the research of the thruth coming from the happenings... The need of simple reality, the research for something more...the style on the Bike, the push of the limits, the "full gaz" sensations: The marks of our tires on the dirt ! The flames in our minds ! Myles spirit : Myles world There I meet his father and house atmosphere, the singular San-Fransisco feeling so different to me from here in Europe, here in France.... In those years I remember our discussion about the bad and the good, hate and love, our ideas about the meaning of what happen to us at the races, in life..... Image how it is like : travelling in the World, competed against the best rider of the world, what a fertile field for things to happen ! Presure, concentration, trainings, speed, danger, fear...(I wonder...), crashes, quiet early morning, douts...bloody elbows, hurting hands ;  Hope, you must have always !... Dissapointments, frustration often... The need to go far away ! the desire to come back quick !... "Air for Hope, Health for ground, Fire for power Water for life !"

Pain on the way

Because you read this, to give your an full idea about what this tittle represents to Myles I have to tell where he's coming Back from : several crashes and accidents let him just a bit away from the reward, until last year 98 ! When a knee wound was so infected that he couln't even sit on his bike to score top 30, to carry the US national championship !!!

The story :

In 1996 in the early season in Spain (after winning 95 World cup in Kaprun,3 place overall) Myles lost a wheel in the qualification run : he's Out off the final, so he has to qualify for the qualification the next week, world cup 2 at Nevegal in Italy... (....I let you appreciate the good rule and its consequences...) Then, at Nevegal, on a muddy course : a slide, a small crash and on an incredible sharp stone...Myles broke his knee cap in pieces very badly... Few hour later his leg is block in an big plaster, he must go quick back to U.S for an operation......how bad is it ?.... He's going away in an ominous silence... Later : I see him again in Hawai, world cup final 96 ; he needed 4 months to come back ! He's not 100 % and unsure of his shape but he's here ! His knee has a plastic piece, the operation was well done... He's far in the qualifiquation (as Tomac who won that day) and an incredible tropical rain fall before the best times come down, he's 3 rd at the race ! I see him laughing on the podium but tears are close too...he's back ! Then 97 comes...I leave the team to start another life, and I hear in November: "Myles brokes his 2 legs and left knee on a motocross crash !!!" I think..."Ciel !....how can he come back again now ?..." And he did ! Because he's the new World Champion today ! Now you know the walk....let's talk to the Giant man ! 

1/FR-What happen today Myles ?

MR-well,heuuuu....I ...the world...(smile) incredible, something incredible happen ! A victory... The most important thing in my life....something easy...It wasn't like I tryed !

2/FR-It was easy yesterday ?

MR-Yeah ! Sort of natural feeling, just racing...not concern about, I tryed to win but I wasn't really worried, not nervous, no training in the morning...I sleped very good... I felt I could win... my goal was top 3....

3/FR-You felt it was possible to beat Vouilloz ?

MR-the track was more my style than his...more like where I grow-up, less technical more agressive and attacking...and I was in the good mind attitude !

3a/FR-what was it ?

MR-I was ready...finally I let go of the need I let go ! I almost didn't care ! I wanted to go home ! all week ! I didn't really want to be here...hahaha ! I had a bad attitude...

3b/FR-related to what ?

MR-listening to people talk ! How good they're ! Or "this guy doing that" "You need to do this" Blablabla, bla bla !...I want to go away from people sometime... I want to be alone...being free of other people problems...

  4/FR-What happen since the begining of this year ? 

MR-well, I won the winter Games, the NORBA opener...7th in Maribor I felt good.

5/FR-Last year in Les Gets you were not pretending to be world champion ?

MR-year, it's true ! defenitly not, we spoke about it ! when you holding something too tight you can never have it, when you try too hard and you want it too bad, it can never be yours and when you let go of it, it comes to you, naturaly...

6/FR-How do you feel ? Back into action ?

MR-Year, inbeliveable....I'm always changing, every day, some day I think I need to quit, I need to do something else and the next day I wake up and I feel motivated again, so...

6bis/FR-what was your first thought when you realised you were world champion yesterday ?

MR-In the final moment I was thinking this could be the day, it was almost like I knew ! I felt like running... electricity...bright light !(laughing) I just lost my head ! And it's just coming back 24h later....Ha ha ! You know, this morning I wake up and I looked at the medal and I kissed it ! And I was just realising it wasn't just a dream ! Ha ha ! All these years of dreaming of the happening ! Finally, I'm really relaxed, very very light ! Without trying too hard ! It was the only way for me to happen !

7/FR-why do you think about that ? What do you miss ?

MR-it's hard to explain: my normal life without stress of the performance! Maybe, I don't know what's regular life is because I'm so far in this life, ...10 years of racing is hard...

8/FR-and today?

MR- well, I feel I can go for more seasons, my batteries are charged again! It has been so long I felt I was on top and yesterday I was really on top, I feel I've been reward 100% now I know it's possible again.

9/FR-what happen with your knees and injuries?

MR-Nevegal 96...Not even a bad crash, I fall on a stone breaking open my knee cap... Remember we had diner together that night...I was... out of my mind, I could not believe what happen; back home by my own, then, everything was quick: operation and then I tried to recover...3 months...and I return racing at Kamikaze; there I had a front flat crash at 50 m/h and I was OK! So, I felt I was back! (laughing) 97 was not a very good season, I didn't get the results I waned, had problems with my mind with my bike...then again at the end of the season I broke on a motocross crash My 2 legs and my left knee....!

10/FR-What happen?

Just a trail riding, I hit a tree...going very fast...

11/FR-Alone?

MR-No, with one guy, we were in the forest...and so I realised being a helpless animal... As a deer, which has been hit by a car and just close to die..., you know....

12/FR-Then? What happen? You mind?

MR-well, I spend 6 month in a wheel chair...My mind was...destroyed! I was pretending that everything was OK; I couldn't give up on myself! I couldn't decide I was done! ... You never know...I knew I had to made an effort to recover...First to walk then ride my bike one day.... that's it!

13/FR-You always thought it was possible?!

MR-No, I didn't, I think so: maybe it'll be possible maybe not... So, Cannondale gave me a charity contract...

14/FR-charity? What do you mean?

MR-No, I call it like this, but it was very nice from them, less than 50 % of my 97 contract.But I thought: OK you have a chance and you have time....

15/FR-then again?

MR-I was training 6 month to get back...and I finished here 5 in 97, best result of the year after missing the 2 first races.  

16/FR-Did you stop motocross?

MR-No...

17/FR-why not?!

MR-...I just love it! I love motorcycle...  

18/FR-You love it ?!!!

MR-year! I have a commitment to have my happiness, I mean, doing things that I love...

19/FR-you have no fear?

MR-No, I have fear but I don't have any problem with realising fear and understanding fear better...now, I know when to say: "stop! Now go home!" Sometime I go to the track, if I don't feel right, I just leave...sometime I don't even take the bike out of the truck...If I just feel something strange I just go home... My first thought now is the most important thought and I don't pretend to not hear it!!!

20/FR-and in life it's the same? With woman? (laugh)

MR-...I don't no about woman... I'm not that much experienced !...(laugh) . But yeah, I think my intuitions has always been really good in my all life... intuition of things to be aware of, happening...or people....I can read situations...  

21/FR-Initial intuition?

MR- I think it's coming from my mother who always around me to have that... My mother always pretend that it was.... true!!! Just not de-believe your initial feeling...

22/FR-how come she can say that?

MR-she's like that, she has an mystical... she has a way of reading into life beyond the acceptable and Normal fashion...

23/FR-and your father?

He's incredible! I was with my father when I was growing-up in my teenager years, He gave me, he always around me...the confidence, he gave me his confidence, Always! ...you know...

24/FR-what about your teenager years?

MR-I was a punky bad boy! ...12 year old I was riding my Mtb, I'm just really a Mountainbiker! No race before Mtb, just Bmx flat land, free-style when I was a kid.

25/FR-What about school?

MR-well, that time there...really not much, bicycles, drugs, and partying...

26/FR-Really?

MR-yeah, a lot of smoking and drinking, hanging out with guys who where very good bike riders..

27/FR-kind of San Francisco?

MR-yeah, alternative life place, lots of musicians, lots of artists, freedom...freedom of thoughts...sort of, you know, in some ways...going out of the: What is acceptable and what is not...

28/FR-can you leave somewhere else?

MR-I do! I live in Durango, Colorado it's a contradiction to how I am and What I carry with me. But I think it's too difficult to always stay where you grew-up... The security of knowing everybody...I enjoy being anonyme...

30/FR-What will be the biggest change now?

MR-the only thing for me, instead of being the "under dog" now, I'm the guy everyone wants to beat! Haa ! I don't really like that but before no-one care about me! I just hope to be a good world champion people respect and not hate!  

FR-You speak about Nico?

MR-well, not really but so many years the same person wining and wining...  

31/FR-Once we talk about, you almost cried after a race!

MR-yeah(smile)... because I know that I ride with passion, for feeling, with my heart... I feel he rides with...mechanical planning...computerised bike...

32/FR-you don't like that?

MR-the sport have never been like that for me...I don't clam to be a spiritual man, but I feel a little more spiritual about it... 

33/FR-Spiritual?

When I see the reality what my life is, how un-important it is! In one hand and one respect it apsolutly nothing! Because when I walk in the street in the city: you're just like anyone else...  

33/FR-is it a problem for you?

No! I love that! That’s reality! to me... I'm so happy to be in touch with reality, and not surrounding myself with everything that is this race life...I like to identify with all people... I don't want to isolate myself thinking I'm better than them.... sometimes I want to bring everyone with me in my success! When I win I almost feel that: that's a bad thing! I don't like that feeling: to be better...

34/FR-what did you feel after your victory?

MR-Oscar Saiz, you,  Kenechi Nabashima who was in my team before, really touch me with sincerity, and at the bottom line, finally Love! that's where I come from! I felt a lot of real happiness from everybody...Nico came too! he was simple, it was nice... But he was hungry! I will be wearing the jersey for 16 months and not just 12 !... (laughing!)

35/FR-you like the white jersey?

I'm afraid to be so clean! You know, I don't want to be the guy with a clean white jersey! I can't wait to get it Muddy! (big laugh)

36/FR-How much money you'll get?

MR-I don't know it'll be a nice pay check! (laugh) but I have no idea...  

37/FR-How do you see the evolution of the sport?

MR-I  need more things to make me feel young! It's so many year it's not changing! Sometimes we go on an incredible track and the next week it 's just pools in a mountain with tape...we need more creativity in track, to make it looking incredible and attract young kids! Supercross...motocross high speed big obstacles, where people look at it and say "ho ! my god !"...speed is what we need !  

38/FR-what happen when you go back now?

MR-I go home, ride my dirt bike, I'gonna sit in the hot tob...  

39/FR-a lot of people will call?

MR-yeah! I hope people call me and I won't call back!!! Ha ha haaha ! Because you know what? they didn't call before! So! what the hell they want to talk to me now?

40/FR-what about your bike?

MR-I ride a full stock Giant downhill bike! We are maybe the only one with a stock bike! It's good! All I do is select tires and my suspensions, small things: cranks gearing, handle bars...

41/FR-what do you like the most in the weekend now?

MR-the race moment! It’s incredible! Before I hated racing...now the racing is my favourite part, the only real...I wait and wait and wait for it! I just can't wait! And I'm not nervous, I want the real moment! Go! When the people screaming and screaming! They just want you to go fast! To get crazy! They love you and they don't know you...it makes me feel good when they Stay open mouth when I come... and I feel when I ride like shit!

42/FR-what is your best course?

MR-Slovenia is the best today, of course Spain! Metabief is my first favourite track.. Les Gets used to be my favourite, dry, before they change the top....I like Mt St Anne, it's me! I don't know why I've not been better there...full gaz!  

43/FR-How do you train?

MR-road bike...BMX: 3 times a week on a 20'in the winter, good to be very sensitive... Snow board with my girlfriend she's good! Motorcycle and motocross, I race the fast kids in Durango! (laugh)

44/FR-what about the end of the season?

MR-I can just ride my bike! have fun! Because nothing better can happen this year No lie ! I would like to succed every week-end... Smile ! Laugh ! I'll try to be like here : Laughing on the starting gate !

All right Myles ! Thanks...

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