Stampy & Ranga chat to Connor Fearon, professional downhill mountain bike rider and champion from Australia. Connor started his mountain bike career at a young age, showing a ridiculous amount of natural raw talent, quickly proving he can make a mark at the elite level. Connor is known for being the few to ride with flat pedals and subsequently compared to the likes of Nathan Rennie, Chris Kovarik and Sam Hill; however has proven he can stand out in his own right. Currently riding for the Forbidden Synthesis Team, Connor has established himself as “one of sport’s most recognized and respected gravity athletes” (forbiddenbike.com).
All right guys and girls welome welcome to sampion Ranger here we’ve got a special guest with us today Conor fan he’s uh not only has been a competitor of mine throughout the years but also an idol for a lot of young guys and girls out there and uh he really has come into
His element He I didn’t realize but he’s been Racing for a really long time now he’s been racing World Cup and norble races and a lot of Australian races for for quite a long time now he’s very accredited athlete and uh yeah from from here uh welcome Connor join welcome to
Join us thank you looking forward to having a Yar yep what was growing up for growing up for uh I’ll get it out eventually what was growing up like for you Connor uh growing up in Adelaide how was that yeah yes super I had like super good childhood um had older brother younger
Sister um we just lived like in the right near the Foothills um just south of Adelaide um I just remember riding my bike every single day for it’s probably like my earliest going back to my earliest memories um so growing up we were just doing you know family holidays
Riding bikes got into a bit of motocross racing um when I was like a I guess older kid or young young teenager um and eventually uh yeah like racing bikes but uh yeah yeah um just I just remember having like a super super happy childhood um growing up following my brother around
And yeah Rod and bikes a lot yeah yeah cool sounds ideal man it sounds like you had a really good time and I know that Adelaide it’s a very big sporting City down there with with a lot of good followings and like uh to some degree
Like a lot of the major big bigger cities don’t hear about Adelaide that much but whenever I meet someone from Adelaide and just hear the passion and and the real Drive behind their sport whichever it would be it’s always in experience in itself so we’re really
Glad to have you on Connor and um yeah we’ll uh hopefully Touch by stuff like feel free to talk about whatever you like man it’s good yeah sounds good I’ve never been to Adelaide and I really know nothing about it other than um it’s the city of churches yeah yeah that’s that’s
Pretty much all I know about adade and great white sharks so yeah those yeah it’s um for me just it feels like a big country town like there’s a lot of suburbs the CBD is not very big um but the city’s sort of squeezed in between
The ocean and the like the Adel Hills um so kind kind of Ideal for like if you want to do like water sports surfing um like going on the boat kaying whatever um and obviously mountain biking um motorbikes I think for for outdoors like everything outdoors is so accessible
Here like you could be in the CBD and you could ride to mountain bike tracks within like 15 or 20 minutes yeah and then you could also drive to the beach and go surfing in 15 20 minutes um yeah or you can be on a
Road bike and be out of the CBD and another 15 minutes and be like the rural like roads and which is awesome for like Road Road cycling and stuff yeah yeah how how did you get started in in racing um where did it all begin for you yeah
So I guess like I guess started riding as long as I can remember like I came off train training wheels like super early um I just remember like riding to school every day getting home and riding around the house building jumps um knocking around the neighborhood with
Like the local kids and just building wher we could find like a vacant block of land um and then we always were sort of like hanging hanging out the local bike shop which was just around the corner um and I still go to that bike shop now it’s called Mitch Cycles in
Adelaide so if you ever around um give it a visit like they’ve been supporting like the mountain biking for a long time um but so yeah I was like nine or 10 years old um and we just we just ride down to the bike shop and just Heckle
The guys there because we liked hanging out out there um and they had a poster for like the local race series um inside line so this would have been 2005 when I was I guess 10 10 years old um and yeah so like me and my friend Henry we just
Like got our parents to take us out to this this local race um which was pretty awesome like I didn’t really know anyone or know how it worked at that stage and uh yeah it was like a a down race at Fox Creek um and yeah just had so much
Fun had so much fun like so that was like my entrance to like the downhill sport like how it worked like it was a time trial or whatever um and yeah it was pretty cool I remember doing like a uh bit of like a track scope thing with Steve Marsh I
Don’t know if you guys would know him or remember him but he was a good yeah you know Marsh so he was like an elite Rider back then and I just remember him like showing us some sections and I was just absolutely mind blown about how how fast he was going so
That was the first time I’d seen like a pro Rider ride in real life and I just remember how mind blown I was and how cool it was um and I still have yeah I can still picture him like ride that section um in my head from yeah 2005 yeah how did you
Go in the in the race though did you were like were like a lot of us and like you like I I ented my first race and there were like all these crazy guys there and stuff like that and I actually beat a lot of them and I was surprised
Myself and then instantly it was like my Pathway to follow like I knew straight away is that something like like say your first race did you know that that’s what what was going to be your passion passion sorry um yeah like I guess so I did end up winning the race which is
Pretty cool and like a lot of the guys that were in the category back then like under 13s I’m still really good friends with now so that um that just shows like how good the sport is for making friendships but um yeah I don’t know if
I at at that stage I’d go dirt jumping go downhilling i’ just ride everything on the same bike um and I sort of liked it all all the same all the same um probably wasn’t for a few more years after that where I thought like racing
Could like is what I want to do and like could lead to a possible like overseas trips or like eventually making it my job which I I definitely didn’t know for a long time after after after that first race yeah tell us about your um introduction to the professional circuit
How how were you feeling when you went in were you were you you’re nervous were you quite The Confident yeah yeah so I guess um fast forward a few years from that that first race I did and me and my friends would like uh started doing the
All the races around home um traveled to a few National rounds and that was so fun growing up like in under 15s under 17s um and then and obviously working my way up and I guess starting getting pretty good and like getting the Australian championship title in under 15s and under
17s um and then when I got to under 19s um which is the age category you can race um like overseas like the world junior World Cups and Junior World Champs um I just got a really good opportunity with with coner back then um they had a pretty strong like national
Race team and Tai who manages managed that like got in contact with the the coner World Cup team um and I was able in 2011 go and race uh couple World Cups with the team I did mons Val soul and uh W Windom in the USA
That year so I did three World Cups not really on the World Cup team but just like taging along and they they looked after me um and yeah I didn’t really know what to expect when I was heading over like um at that time it was just watching
Reading magazines and watching like the clay P videos at the end of the year like he he made the F the first movie and like between the tape and I love those so that was I guess how I knew what was going on with the World Cups
Because there was no like not much internet or social media like now that you can how how was your introduction into the professional circuit Nathan oh remember no I me like roughly the same I must say I mean like just on the video sort of thing I mean like I think one of
My first videos I have was was from uh it was a recording uh just off off the TV of the 96 World Championships in cans and I reckon I I watched that footage so much so that the the the cassette tape was damaged from watching it so much and
Like I was just watch it time and time again and just like analyze every single part of it until I knew like exactly what to do and like to learn from that and like that’s all we had back in the day it’s really all we did have is just
To watch these videos and be in a of what’s going on and then all of a sudden like I I I went overseas and started doing well and I was racing against the guys that are in this video and I was really pinching myself you know and but
Uh but that’s just a stepping stone I think a lot of sports people have I mean like when you you know you’re basically versing your Rivals and then you beat them and it’s like what am I doing different you know and it’s like well I actually learned from you guys so like
Secretly you know you analyze them when you’re growing up and then but that’s just a stepping St with a lot of sports I think it’s it’s good who’s um who’s been your biggest inspiration in the sport uh Connor um how did how did they appeal to you so
Much yeah um so I got to say Nathan definitely was um Sam Hill and good answer and uh Chris Kar those those three like I guess when I was like 10 to 133 years old and just reading the magazines and watching those um play P videos like those three just really they
Just seem like the coolest dudes dudes there um they’re from Australia they all rid all riding flat pedals um and that had a major influence because I I still ride flat pedals um which is really rare like no pretty much no one on the World
Cup does that anymore um so that at that time I was like man no point riding Clips like don’t need that these guys aren’t aren’t doing that um so yeah like that like renie and uh Sam and kavar were definitely my my main Idols growing up um yeah I loved like
When I went to my first national champs and I think they were all there in like canra probably around 20208 it was the first time I’d actually seen these guys in real life and yeah I remember being like super star struck at the time yeah yeah I’ve met kabar he’s a cool
Dude met Sam Hill but um yeah so one of the one of the advantages that like even I had when I was growing up like coming into the sport was just how friendly the Australian Community is and then like like when I went over to America for the
First time it was it was difficult to sort of deal with people and a lot of it was to do with like having the pit areas were all segregated where you come to Australia we really didn’t have like a big pit areas we do now but like back in
The day it’s like you had to M mix and mingle all the time and like you know borrow Parts get ideas practice with people practice with your with your competitors I mean like you would do that anyways at the World Cups but because it is on such a biger scale it’s
Difficult to do that and and that’s where I think a lot of Australian Riders um not only in mountain biking but I keep mentioning in in lots of sports like that’s where Australia’s comaraderie like where it really comes together that’s we do have an advantage
With that I think it’s great yeah uh you may know I HED up the uh the Reen’s Army one uh one year down in uh down in CRA yeah yeah you do remember that were were you a bit young for that or yeah was that the world Champs or the world the
World Cup or because I definitely went and spectated yeah yeah um what was that what was it Nathan the world cup or the World Champ I think it was World Cup the first time when’s Army was there and they had t-shirts and like all sorts of
Funny stuff I didn’t even know like like in the leadup to like a big race like that I I generally just kind of Hide Away in then don’t really do much so I didn’t even really know I knew that Daniel was going to be there but then
Like I rocked up and there’s all these people t-shirts on and like like mad wife mad wife this chant which had nothing to do with mountain bike and whatsoever but everyone was chanting for for Ambrose’s um girlfriend or wife at the same time she had more racist did
You know so it so on that trip we saw some pretty wacky things what’s what’s the wackiest thing you’ve ever seen on uh on tour um I don’t know I feel like the last few years everyone is pretty cool like there’s not a crazy Afterparty um like a lot at most places and
Everyone sort of like sort of behaves but I remember like the first few years um at the at one of the afters in Europe I saw like some fans body slam a fat panda in Italy and just SL like smash the roof in and like I felt really bad
But like definitely don’t condone that sort of action but they just caved in this guy’s car yeah for no no reason yeah that’s not good that’s not good at all I mean like yeah I don’t know these things in particular but like like partying back
In the day at at some of the races like some of those things it wasn’t expected but it went unnoticed that these things were going on and like it was definitely dumb things were happening and and the sport actually got a bit of a bad reputation
For it and I and I can thank all of you guys like younger generation all that like it’s very more structured now it’s a lot more easily um easily viewable to to to to witness your guys’ talent and just the amount of effort and energy
That goes into it it’s it’s it’s at a much more higher and um professional level these days I feel I think it’s great yeah I agree yeah so I think I just maybe it comes with like all the social media Everyone’s Watching as well
Like it but I think a lot of guys just don’t want to do it like they want to be in good shape um hung over the day after the race like and it’s uh the competition is fierce so like any you don’t want to put yourself at any
Disadvantage yeah and and gives yourself bad publicity too I suppose yeah exactly yeah it can easily happen easily happen I mean that what’s uh what’s been the biggest lesson that you’ve learned during your time as a as a as a professional um probably like just not to I just
Learned this by myself just to uh not be so stressed out because you can’t or you you just do your best so like I went through a few years of sort of hating like trying really hard and being devastated when you crash or the race
Doesn’t go your way but um now that I’m older and I can like see in retrospect like it is a hard Sport and every run is not going to be 100% or the best like you’re going to crash might get a flat tire um yeah putting putting down your
Best run doesn’t happen every race so yeah um like now now that I know that I just go into the races like less stressed just focus on doing what I can for the best possible outcome um that’s it yeah that’s all you can do did um did you have a similar
Strategy Nathan or oh yeah for sure I mean like it took me a long time to realize that like your race run I mean like downhilling is one of the most Cutthroat Sports there is in the world it honestly is because you have all this preparation time leading up to it like
Your preparation your training and preparation leads up to 5 minutes or less than 5 minutes for for one run or one result to to to represent all of that leading up to that point I know a lot of sports are like that but when you’re doing such a dangerous sport such
As downhilling I mean like you look at Motocross and things like that yes of course they’re dangerous but they also have 20 minutes to sort of make up for a l time so like Downing is shorter and like one mistake and then you can basically count yourself off the podium
Sometimes so just learning and just having persever and like just understanding like those mistakes and just like having your formula and just ticking all your boxes in the leadup to it that’s the hard that’s the hardest thing and not having outside distractions as well just like cutting
People out that may or may not have have good or bad things um to potentially disrupt your run which again it’s only five minutes long so like you have all this time leading up to that to only five minutes so focusing is is a major part of it yeah just you seem very
Humble Connor how do you stay grounded in um in a sport with such big egos um I don’t have an yeah not at all I um I I just honestly feel like it’s when people sort of ask for signatures or photos it just sort of seems surprising to me because I’m like I’m
Just the same person as you like you’re out there rid having fun and I am it’s just so happens that I don’t know like for whatever reasons I I can just ride at this level like um so I don’t really see myself any different to just like a
Guy racing sport or Masters at the local race like we’re just both out here doing our best um so that’s how I’ve always felt I’ve never felt any different like to the normal punter um I guess that’s maybe why like I don’t yeah I don’t feel like a super
Like professional athlete or anything just just another guy out there riding his bike I guess with um that’s the best way OS comes big expectations too you if you don’t uh if you don’t succeed yeah a lot of weight there isn’t it yeah yeah uh where do you see MTB in
The next five years Conor um how far can Bike Tech improve from here like yeah yeah I guess the uh the World Cup series is gone through a bit of a change at the moment they’ve introduced a new like semi-final thing which a lot of listeners probably have seen so
Forever it’s just been you do practice um then you do qualifying and then the race but as of last year you did practice qualify and then there was another qualifying called semi-final before the final on race day um I didn’t personally like it and I think the
Rumors are it’s going to get changed back maybe next year just to just one qualifying round um I I don’t know where it will go but I hope the World Cup turns into more of a fair World Cup Series like with more races outside of Europe um obviously you need a lot more
Money in the sport to to sort of make that happen but I’d love to see it you know like go back to Japan or Hawaii or like back to Australia New Zealand yeah just because now it’s pretty much just a European n national series like is what
It feels like um so yeah like I would have loved to uh travel more of the world um maybe Nathan had when during your time you had the norbis and maybe some more exotic locations to just the normal yes yeah I mean like like back then the World Cup really was the World
Cup like you you went around the world and there were many different different destinations but I thought it was Unreal but like back in the day I mean I’m pretty sure that you still do but like like you have noral races which with North American series and then you also
Have a World Cup and so like when you’re going back and forth and then around the world like that it’s pretty stressful you know it really is and so like just having like a a neat format of the races that goes around the world that’s what I
See needs to happen like exactly like if it’s going to be World Cup I mean it’s it’s beneficial to have like all the same um people behind those events in close proximity but at the same time it does need to go around the world in in
In a certain way and and in in a way it does but I feel like we used to do it a little bit better like you you never know you never knew what was going to happen like you you land in a country you didn’t speak the language you didn’t
Know what the food was and that was kind of like whether he used it as an advantage or a disadvantage and like that’s what having a World Cup circuit that’s the beauty of it I mean like if you have too many races in the same area network same people same languages then
It’s kind of difficult to call it a World Cup you know what I’m saying like it’s I’m probably been a little bit outspoken there but yeah I mean there’s nothing better than traveling around and like experiencing different things and you really find yourself as a racer becoming better in different
Environments like some people really thrive in their home country and they they don’t go too far away and then they have problems so but yeah it’s I don’t know times are changing Maybe I’m Wrong maybe right who knows how how about the the technology surrounded by bikes do you think
Um how far can that go you know short of being basically motorbikes um yeah yeah well you are the motor so yeah yeah um I don’t know the bikes these days even since I started racing World Cup in 2011 the bikes have changed so much they’re way bigger the wheels have gone two
Sizes bigger so we we were on 26 and everyone went went to 27 and a half and now we’re all on 29 or like like 29 front 27 rear um and the suspension’s so good like people have the Telemetry system I I don’t know how it can get
Much better without like people just everyone utilizing the Telemetry and just making their buy a lot better like the technology is there now but we just needed it’s so good we need these like systems to know how to get the best of it at the race yeah yeah like man our
Bikes like don’t break we NE never get flat tires like the tub systems are so good hardly ever get flat tires never get flat tires no I can I get one flat tire a year maybe yeah hardly ever too easy way too easy man yeah yeah like that’s that’s riding every day like
Maybe one a year um one a year Jesus like that that was not the case for us back in the day at all I mean like flat ties there’s a few races there where you had to structure your practice to avoid getting a flat tire so like even if a
Race one was the fastest like your one particular line was fastest but it had a big Crazy Edge on it you wouldn’t even practice that because you know you’re going have a flat for the rest of the track so or you had to find an alternative way to get around it sort of
Thing so I guess you don’t really think about that now you just no get whatever you want yeah like in the the carbon wheels are so good I like when I go to threadb now usually like I guess 10 years ago I’d go to threadb all my wheels would be buckled like dented
Black ties spokes of loose when I was there um for cannibal like end of last year I didn’t touch my didn’t t one spoke over five days like no flat ties Rim carbon Rim just stays straight doesn’t get dener obviously like just it’s amazing how strong the bikes are now like
Resilient they are you’ve got it you’ve got it too good Conor you’ve got it too good you got to get got to get back back to your roots I mean back in my day back in my day back in my day guys you know we had it tough back in back in my
Day we have to ride uphill both ways back yeah your B to the top over your shoulders we did that’s what we that’s how we did it the scary thing is is true though but that’s that’s how it was but like I mean like for myself looking the bike
Technology these days I mean it it really is right up there with any other sport even Motorsport like some of the technology that we have and like different different components as far as different um you know carbon fiber versus o and Chromo like all those days
Are kind of gone you know I mean like I used to love writing steel frames and whatnot and I do have I’ve got a bit of everything still but um yeah just that technology like even to a point where I thought it couldn’t get much better then
It got way better again yeah yeah was it’s impressive and it still impresses me today it really does yeah when I was young I I remember um suspension was still in in it in its infancy and um now you just it’s incredible what what you see on bikes
Today so um just you got a computer stra to your bik now yeah you do yeah I was there like I I was riding in the ER of tubes and getting flat flat ties like as a kid all the time so uh yeah it’s definitely better now not having to worry about
That yeah I saw I saw an intro to a video a few years a couple weeks ago actually but um you were tearing up the road in a little datson 1200 Ute um that was one of my dream cars growing up you still got that or yeah yeah I still got
It still in the shed I doesn’t get to see the light of day very often these days but um yeah I always wanted one as well like always liked older cars and um yeah bought it as a little treat to myself like probably seven or eight
Years ago um yeah got home one year and getting paid a bit of money so yeah treat treat myself to that and uh yeah it’s sort of like it’s also fun but it also just keeps going up from value so it’s good little investment that I can
Have fun with on the weekends as well yeah totally can you fit a bike in the back yeah you can yeah I like don’t P pull part to a matchbox yeah you can I just hate getting it dirty so usually when I go riding it’s like gravel roads so I’m ah
Just take the van yeah yep totally definitely not a shuttle rig that’s for sure yeah have you uh what’s your dream car Nathan or dream vintage car dream vintage car well it’s still a porch 911 yeah yeah I still wanted one of those but like prices and stuff like that and
Like yeah I should have bought one instead of a house back in the day but I don’t know it’s still a dream of M I’m still young you know I’m still 40 something and then uh so there’s HS heaps of Good Times ahead you know like I’m looking venturing
Myself into the into the bike shop well pretty soon so I’m looking forward to that so just going through some formalities with all all that stuff at the moment so that’s good so I remember that story you told me you thought about buying a a Ferrari tester Rosa yeah I
Thought about it and I looked at the price tag and I was like about that it’s good to dream know like I grew out with having pictures of like what I wanted as a kid as we all did you know and so that was that was
One of them you know but uh whether that happens or not you know I have been in Ferrari before though but um yeah I me Po 911 I I I used to play that that game uh what was it test drive or something like that back on like a old school IBM
Computer you know like only the keys and like it was the maddest thing ever like just barely like it wasn’t black and white it was orange and black whatever it’s got a name for it but that’s what but that was my entertainment when I was a kid there’s no PlayStation nothing of
That that was like that was your game controller you know that was it yeah um you’re sponsor by monster of course um I have to give props to that that flavor mango Loco how good is that yeah we had uh had an apprentice that um
We drink two cans of that a day and um he swore by it loved it yeah Chi’s breakfast I think isn’t that it is yeah you go into the into the service station each morning and you see guys walking out with four packs of you know whatever
You drink they drink surely you’re not drinking all those in one day but U well maybe they do I don’t know got to get those houses built that’s exactly right hous built that’s it bro yeah all that stuff like for kids at home like red boy monster all those sort of things like
Definitely have it in moderation you need understand that yeah it is for it is for a purpose it does perk you up and like it’s the same as coffee as well you know like just moderation with those sort of things that’s for sure yeah I’m a Aid coffee drinking myself so yeah
Having a little team or are you you into Retro box Conor’s yeah yes I don’t if you call them retro but like um I guess like the era when I was growing up as a Grom and just like drooling over bikes in magazines and stuff would have been sort of 2005 to
2010 so in my head they’re sort of like the coolest coolest bikes um still so um yeah I got a Old Iron Horse in the shed that um but yeah I love like so when when I saw Nathan at the Retro sh and Shine Down in Adelaide um last weekend yeah it
Was cool to see all those old those old bikes still kicking um so I think yeah they just like etched into my brain as like that that was a coolest coolest error what what was the uh the ultimate bike if you could have had had one the ultimate retro bike I don’t know
Probably like the Ren’s yellow on horse SGS CU I remember in a magine I had there was a photo of him and it was like I think 21 the World Cup overall or um and it was just the orange TR kit like on that yellow bike it was a sick photo just
Watching that photo just looking at it because that’s what we did back then like no no Instagram or anything and um I just thought the photo was awesome um and the bike was awesome and so yeah it was it was cool to see that frame um
Last weekend in in person yep yeah I had um the Tre w-frame U canondale Super V yeah yeah miss goov idolized her um used to read The Strain mountain bike magazine and um photos and pictures of that in there and yeah I draw all over them and incredible yeah it’s funny just
Thinking like just going back to the same photo in in a page of a magazine like the kids these days wouldn’t even understand like what what the thing it’s just one photo yeah but yeah they just wouldn’t even it’s just funny how times have change in a short period of
Time like it doesn’t feel that long ago that i’ would be looking at the same magazine every day looking at the same photo yep I do the same thing same just do the exact same and it’s it’s funny you mention you mentioned Missy and like she’s had a
Pretty wild lifestyle and career and stuff that I was on the computer much the same as we are now and her head just popped up he said hey renie what you doing and so like she just appeared out of nowhere and I hadn’t had hadn’t seen
Or thought of her for years and years and like we just had this conversation you know and I was really honored actually I was I mean seeing someone who who has his crazy lifestyle I’ve had a bit of crazy one too but then like like
She just popped up and she just put her head out there and just said you know how things going and all that sort of things I was really chuck with that so and that just that just go to show like how close the mountain B Community is it
Really is age doesn’t really have a have a boundary Bally is great but um what’s what’s the coolest destination you’ve been to Connor around the world when uh traveling I reckon uh went to Hawaii for a video shoot um a few years ago that was pretty cool I
Would love if they did a race there i’ definitely I’d definitely hit that up um in Europe I love um I love marabar like funnily enough I don’t really like the racetrack but the town is really nice and cheap and they got a lot of secret
Like lers on the hill and we we stayed there for like two weeks me and and man like a couple years ago and just we stayed at top of the hill we’d ride all these sick like lers down to the Village like get a Chucky milk whatever catch
The gondola back up um just a really nice town marabo so if I was ever going to spend time in Europe I’d probably probably head there is there many tracks in U in Hawaii um no we saw just rode down this uh volcano thing that was um we went to
One bike park um but it was a bit wet and slippery free so we just sort of made made our own tracks on one of these volcano where there’s lots of like Mo people on dirt bikes will do like hill climbs and stuff so we sort of poached
Their tracks and yeah filmed on those and it worked out pretty good in the end but there was definitely no like bik specific tracks that I remember but it was still awesome um just riding this crazy volcano dirt hanging out the beach with the big sea turtles and stuff like
It was that was sweet yeah and it was actually with um Steve Smith as well so obviously his past shows yeah some some good memories with him as well yeah sweet yeah yeah I’m saying um like I never really thought of Hawaii as being like a mountain bite destination and and
Like instantly think of like the beach and all that sort of fun to have there and I remember seeing photos of the trailer they had this is years and years ago before your time Conor and um yeah the track it was going through people’s backyards almost and so like it was you
Think of Hawaii and and you think of like surfing and people on the beach and having fun and then they have a mountain bike race there and they’re literally going through people’s backyards you might as well have people drinking tea and like that so that was a real eye
Opener for me like just to realize that a a destination which is known for one thing can be can be known for several others as well that’s a beauty of traveling around the world man like anyone out there that’s listening to us that needs to travel get the itch man
And just just do it just do it you meet incredible people and just the the places that are around the world it’s it’s just totally unbelievable it really is have you got a A scariest place that you’ve been to um uh not super scary but I guess like
The race in South Africa it’s just like a different like we didn’t see much we drove through the town there’s like a lot of obviously like homeless people and yeah right it’s just I know seeing all the SL the slums and um like off the
Side of the highway I’m I I love South Africa I don’t want to look like talking ill of their country but you just don’t see any of that where where we’re going like in Australia and Europe of an eye opener yeah yeah when when you’re on tour do
You um you chaperoned around with security especially in places like this or um not not security or anything but uh I think at the like just at that South Africa South Africa race like with you I just remember the house just had like bar wife huge fence around like a
Big electric gate and just weird like nothing sketchy happened it’s just like a you’re I’m not used to that like yeah yeah yeah just to not to everyone as well like when you are traveling around you know like have the buddy system going like stick with stick with your
Guys and girls that you you know and trust I mean like it’s good to go out there and experience those those certain scenarios but I’ve been in a few scenarios there where I’ve just been by myself can’t talk the language and you really do need need look after yourself
Man just don’t think that it’s like some crazy holiday we can just row on down the street cuz people know that you’re a tourist and people know that nobody knows you there and you never know what’s going to happen you honestly don’t know what’s going to happen I was
In a few situations where a hotel for example I’ll make this kind of quick but I rock up there and the clerk was crying her eyes out at the at the at the checkin and I was like what’s wrong she’s like I’ve just been robbed so I literally walk straight past the guy
That that just robbed her I just thought he was like leaving was another person but she would she just got robbed and was crying her eyes out I was only young I didn’t know what to do but that’s nothing thing just you know have the body system you know and at all cost
Just stick together whenever you can so yeah plays to travel in peirs at least so exactly yeah exactly on onto a more serious topic here Connor do you think the Tasmanian Tiger still alive I hope so yeah Wilderness in Chazzy like riding MAA a lot uh yeah I hope it’s still still out
There hanging on and hope he doesn’t get his trees logged because a lot of log going down there at the moment so yeah have you had any sightings perhaps or um you know no have not no I haven’t heard any not yet though but yeah still still
Hoping yep you got a you got a tasan tiger story Nathan I do I think a lot of people this might have been for Conor’s time but yeah we we saw one we saw one that’s all I’m going to say I mean like it it wasn’t in Tasmania it was on the
Mainland but a lot of people do don’t know that the the the the thus team is actually on the mainland as well or it was on the mainland as well and like uh yeah doing a big uh charity ride yeah we we saw one all three of us saw it and so
You can look it up there are stories about it on the internet but um but yeah people don’t believe me but I don’t care I know what I saw I know exactly what I saw so that’s going back a little ways now but uh but yeah I mean let’s just that’s
Just part of the fun of racing bikes around the world and Australia it’s you know you never know what you’re going to see yeah I did um I did a job in Tasmania it was a a building project for a friend a friend’s parents who lived in
Tasmania so we traveled down there to do it um and while I was there I was asking all the people there have you seen it most people in Tasmania had seen a Tasmanian tiger really had seen one um wouldn’t put it past them I wouldn’t put why they
Don’t make it known maybe maybe they don’t want people going down looking for it um well that’s a big part of it too yeah like when we when we had our sighting it was like well we we shouldn’t really put this on the TV because people will go and try and find
Yeah the these animals and I actually felt really bad about that and I I agreed with them you know but like when you’re in shock like that you um you do dumb things you do yeah actually that that reminded me of the scariest moment I had um we were
In retalic Lodge which is a that country area in British colia um and me and my friend Caleb came around the corner and came face to face with like a big grizzly bear with a couple of Cubs and like I I just remember my heart sunk and
I couldn’t our voice was trembling I thought I was gonna die I thought the bear was just gonna attack attack us it had its Cubs and I was like this is it like this yeah I’ve come across a bear too and uh luckily the grizzly bear like
Didn’t didn’t care like just looked at us and then he walked off sort of slowly but I was so scared like truly thought I was just going to get mold um yeah that’s definitely the scariest I’ve been now that we’re talking about animal sightings yeah Bears prick the
Hell out of me I know and these guys are scared they think Australia’s Got dangerous animals I know I know like Australia has his reputation for having all these dangerous animals but like and it’s like oh it’s just a couple of bears over there and it’s like things are size
Of a portaloo and it’s Nails the size of your hand you know you’re not afraid of this this animal that can eat your head it’s yeah they’re worried about they’re worried about a red back spider or a snake yeah not scary at all yeah yeah so
Crazy stuff all right uh now for the uh the all important questions three yep what’s your favorite Metallica song Oh I can got be fuel just classic yeah it just gets you so so pumped um if you need to yeah get pumped for a race run or something like that like that song
Never Fails yep but they’re all good aren’t they yeah yeah totally good good choice good choice y uh do you flip your steak once or do you continuously flip until it’s cooked I just flip it once but I pretty hot yeah six minutes on each side yeah that’s
It put it on the counter for an hour then six minutes each side and she she’s done yeah like usually pretty well cooked but to roll yeah yeah no it’s uh fit once or isn’t it Nathan or flip off I’m sorry I’m sorry sir um the door’s over
There m I’ve noticed you’ve been slipping quite vigorously um yeah you could just let yourself out then that that’ be fine we can’t be friends no longer I’m sorry mate it was fun for a little while but and uh third question thoughts on global warming
Um I don’t know but I don’t mind if it gets hotter to be honest like I hate winter I’ve missed winter for the last 12 years being able to race the World Cup so yeah I like it toasty um yeah see what happens do you think it’s a real
Thing or you think it’s oh yeah I think I think it is real yeah yeah um not like a change myself to trees or anything but yeah I do uh do what I can you chain yourself to you just Breeze through them or brush them every now and S through them at
Speed without saying hello how rude so uh so it’s been great great having you on today Connor it’s been great good to know you a bit y yeah it’s been awesome having a chat yeah it’s uh yeah cool to speak to renie um like I
Said he’s big big fan of his like back in the day so yeah it’s been awesome me you as well um been a good time yeah well thanks a lot very much uh Conor there and um yeah we’ll um look to hear from you in the future man and stay
Healthy and uh stay on your bike for the most part but if you come off just get back on again bro that’s what it is right back on that’s it that’s it that’s it cool all right thank you very much guys see you next time see guys see