The motocross off-season is in full swing in the Great White North. With the temperature outside getting colder and colder, the rain turning to snow, and the Holiday season fast approaching, it’s that time of the year when most of us Canadians put our bikes away until spring eventually rolls around.
As for us pro riders, the work doesn’t stop when this time of the year rolls around. For me, after the Motocross of Nations, I immediately had to deal with the injuries that occurred while racing over there. I will not get into the racing, as the story has been told many times. It was not my best performance, and I will certainly live and learn from the mistakes that were made. Upon arrival at home, I couldn’t walk and was dealing with a concussion. I immediately went and saw my doctor in Ottawa to devise a game plan to get myself back ready to go. I did have some racing planned for the rest of the fall. I would have loved to race Paris Supercross again and was even planning on racing the AMO Arenacross Series. Unfortunately, my injuries were worse than expected and took quite some time to heal. Concussions are one thing that I take very seriously, and I need to be smart about how I deal with them. I was also dealing with a leg injury. During the crash, the bike ended up flipping and crushing my leg. This ended up tearing all the muscles in my calf. At first, I thought I had just broken my leg. In hindsight, that actually may have been a quicker healing process than this muscle injury. After all the therapy I have been doing, I am just now feeling back to 100%. This injury definitely took a lot longer than I thought it would.
Now, onto some funner stuff; with the injuries in the past, the work in the gym never stops. My trainer and I are always trying to improve my strength and fitness off the bike. I have done all my baseline strength tests, and we know the areas we need to improve on. Now, I am just hard at work, day in and day out, trying to better myself for when I get back on the bike. The fun part of the off-season is planning our winter plans. Like I said, no riding around here, so it’s almost time to head south of the border and start training for 2024. This year has been a little easier on the planning side of things as last year’s training with the boys at the Dog Pound in Dade City, Florida went so well; I am planning on doing more of the same this winter. I am very grateful that the crew there has taken me in as one of their own. This makes riding and training much more enjoyable. We are all a bunch of like-minded individuals; we all want to win, but we also like to have fun with it. This year will be a little different, as I will not be bringing my camper down to Florida. Chance Hymas has offered for me to stay with him at his new place not too far from the track. This will make living much easier for the few months I will be there. Chance is an amazing guy, and I can’t wait to see what he can do this year. If I can add just a little bit to his program, I will be happy with that. Who knows, maybe I will just have to travel to a couple of SX races to support the crew!
Another exciting thing this off-season has been the signing of my new teammate, Tyler Medaglia. With Jake [Piccolo] being out with a shoulder injury, the team had to act quickly and find another 250 rider to be under the red tent this upcoming summer. I couldn’t think of a better fit for the team than a veteran rider like Tyler. A cool background story is that I used to really look up to Tyler as a young kid. I remember watching him practice and ride and hoped one day I could ride like him. He was and still is a great role model for me in our sport! I really believe that Tyler and I working together will be something special! We both work extremely hard and come from the same background. I think that we will be able to feed off each other’s energy. I also think that when times are stressful under the tent, Tyler will definitely lighten up the mood and keep it fun for the crew! Welcome aboard mate!
A couple of other projects I have been working on include organizing my camps at MX Deschambault for the 2024 summer. I started this partnership with the guys at MX Deschambault this past summer. I was looking at giving back some of my knowledge to the sport when I have time. So, I have been planning how to make them bigger and better for 2024. So look for the schedule to come out here soon! Secondly, Tanner Ward, Dario Zecca, and I have been working on putting out a podcast. This has been a little while in the making, and we are learning so much about the whole audio side of things. We will cover tons of MX news, but the main idea will be to give everyone an outlook on life away from the sport, as well as our opinions on other topics from around the world. I am very stoked about this, as these are two very good friends of mine and just another venue where I can grow my brand and show people my personality! It will be called Out of The Gate, and you can find it anywhere you would normally get your podcasts!