REPORT 2 - JOINING THE MAD TEAM

At Bike 2004 Matt Barlow won a place on the MAD Team by finishing runner up in ‘Hop Idol’. This is the first interview to gage his initial reaction to joining Europe’s number 1 Mountain bike display Team.

Congratulations how does it feel to be part of M.A.D?
Absolutely fantastic to be honest! My lifetime targets since starting trials have always been to appear in MBUK, ride at the Bike Show and get sponsored so for all three to happen in three months it’s quite unbelievable. I’m really looking forward to riding along side Jack who is a great rider and also to learn a thing or two from the more experienced team members.

How do you rate your performance on the day?
Anyone who saw it will testify I was riding better lines in warm up than in the comp itself so from that point of view I’m slightly disappointed. However for my first two minute run I planned out a route around the arena I wanted to take and what tricks I wanted to pull and I was happy that I managed what I set out to do, even when I fell six feet on my first side hop after only 20 seconds I wasn’t too worried. I thought three big tricks would be enough to take me through and I knew I had time to get them in.
From a pure trials point of view my second run contains far too many dabs but thankfully that’s not what it was about. I was trying to give the judges what they wanted; flowing from move to move and putting in a lot of tricks this time with the odd big move.
In practice I consistently made it up the big transition to bunny hop at the end of the arena which allowed for many brave lines that the crowd would have loved. Unfortunately twice in the comp I failed to get up there so I’d say that is the most disappointing aspect from the day.
My final run was nothing special and I apologise to the crowd who were probably hoping to see big moves on the final run of the comp. I was simply exhausted and had achieved what I had set out to do which was to gain a place on the team. Besides I’d watched Jack, who had saved himself for the final and had a really good run, and knew in my state I didn’t really have a hope! (laughing)

Do you think nerves were the reason you were better in practice?
Definitely, to be honest though I actually didn’t think I would be too nervous riding in front of all those people and under pressure. Even whilst I was waiting to go out for my runs I didn’t feel nervous but when I went for the first up onto the logs my legs were like jelly.
It seemed that in each of my runs after falling I calmed down and was a lot better. Maybe because I thought, “Oh well, it can’t get any worse so I'll just ride now and enjoy it”

How are you finding the bike?
I’ve had the bike a week now and am already riding lines I’ve never been able to do before so I’m really happy with it. A lot of people asked me if I’d be gutted to swap my bike for the MAD trials bike but the answer is no. It suits my style and I feel comfortable on it too. Giles wants us to really test the bikes too so I have a licence to throw myself at lines I’d maybe think twice about if I’d just shelled out a grand for my bike.

How and when did you get into riding?
My Dad taught me to ride when I was knee high to a grasshopper and built me a ramp in the garden so I could ride lap after lap round the flower bed.
At 14 or so I started riding a lot of XC with a group of friends but during the winter it was too dark after school to ride the woods (read as: ‘too cold and wet and we were lazy’) so we started just riding in the town centre. One day my best mate lent me his copy of Chainspotting and I’ve never looked back!

Where do you see yourself at the end of a year on the MAD team?
I’m not sure, hopefully I’ll re-new my contract with MAD, if I ride well enough, and hopefully I will have graduated from Uni.