Hey! I think when you are good, you are good! Good means of course fast on his bike, but also dedicated to his sport, train hard, able to set up right his bike and know what he wants. That means if you have all of this, you will get a trainer, move to race everywhere etc… The only problem is that cost money… So need to find help at the biginning!

I raced rally, not rally raid or circuit because I love the way it looks like mtb dh. Maybe I should try rally raid one day, if I find the opportunity…

Hello, a few ones are importants! Suspensions, tires, geometry… Enduro bike are already quite optimized! We have telescopic seat post, light carbon frame with 160mm of travel, we start to have handlebar lock out… Transmission can still be improved, with a wider range for exemple, to stay in 1x10.

I loved my Lapierre Spicy carbon frame, light, efficient, steep head angle…

In France, we always got a great help to help youg riders! The french federation always organise training camp, organise good team during europe aen and world championship! Organiser here also organised some good races, who help to practice and get a better level! Of course you can always do more or better, but we have a good base to work. My personnal point of view, regarding DH, is that it's an individual sport, and difficult sport to practice! You need somebody with a car to bring you up, bike and tires are expensive with a lot of travel! In general, you see up and coming young riders are not alone, and in most of the case, they get dad's and family help! So federation is good in some cases, but to achieve it, you need personal help!

It was the case for me, my father gave me all his extra time (after his job) to help me to get it.

When I was competing, I was doing my own geometry, and working closely with the engineers on all aspects to set up the bike as best as possible! I enjoy developing my bike almost as much as riding it.

Now I 'm working at Lapierre R&D departement, I'm in charge since last year on bike geometry, and also give my opinion on upcoming projects.

Ideal bike could be an all electric assistance bike, suspensions who adapt his stiffness depend the kind of bumps, electric speed, internal transmission, as light as external with the same efficiency, of course all carbon bike…

Yes and no! I love all the new st uaff because it always work better and better, and you can go faster and it's more easier! Old staff was epic, but so good too!

:-) I didn't know this spot, but I look on youtube and yes it looks great! One day maybe, who knows!

Hi, yes both are all about speed! Rally care is more dangerous, it's more about brain and concentration! In bike, you also add the physical aspect and body coordination! MTB taught me how to manage competition!

I think 2 cars was amazing: WRC PEUGEOT 307 was amazing car, and the legend car WRC SUBARU IMPREZA.

Salut, my first mtb race was december 90...Long time ago! When will be my last?? When I will no more able to ride…

Hi, yes I went 2 times in Russian for IRC rally, and yes the average of nice girl is really really high… You are lucky boys!!! I love them;-)

We don't know yet what UCI want precisely to do! I don't know which one could be the best format, because enduro has a wide range! My personal feeling is that I like stage races with both climbing and elevation gain. Elevation helps get more stages, with some bike climb to get it more physical, and not racing DH. But enduro is so wide that it could be All Mountain races, with somes UCI points on existing races, who could include all type of races, mass start, rally enduro, enduro with elevation etc…

Well, yes I have the feeling i'm getting a bit slower on the bike, but I'm still taking some big risks when riding, bike, cars or what ever...I have the feeling that it is not necessarily age that changes things, but perhaps more that I now have a child...I 'm not crazy about partying too much, but when I decide to do one and have fun, I feel pretty dead afterwards…

Hi, it was not always easy… What I can say, is it was easier for me for a World Championship, than for a WCup race! World cup races, I was sometimes afraid to lose them; however, with a World Championship, I just want to win it… Makes all the difference! But to help, I visualized the track, the line, and focussed all my attention, and did it during the run. I always tried to do a fast and clean run. Don't think too much about the other riders, just focus on you and try to give YOUR best!

Competing again, I think about it many times, and almost did it, but I think now it's too late! I'm getting older, and have been away from racing (not like Steve Peat). It is still very difficult for me to leave the World Cup scene without being a contender/winner and accept a result of 10th place or more. Meaning, when I race even if it is for fun, it is very dificult to just do that — race for fun — as I am competitive and would find it very hard to be happy coming in 10th place or even worse!

Hi, I stop DH racing because it become more and more difficult to keep the same motivation as in the past. I had the feeling to start to loose some races just because I was not so focussed, or didn't really want the win… And it scared me because I was a winner..:-) My last challenge was to get a 10th World champ title, and when I achieved it, I had a feeling that I had accomplished what I had to do, and rally car called me (in my head)

Training was a combination of XC bike, road bike, gym, moto bike, dh, bmx, and never excess 20h/week, in general around 15h.

Hi, yes it has ben crazy for me to race with such amazing driver s like Gronholm, Solberg and Loeb! It's happenned in 04 and 05 for my first WRC participations! It was crazy because and I had only competed in rally with a small 206 cup in 03, with max 10 rally s in my whole life!!! But to go into rally, I practice on gravel road with a small 106 when I was still racing MTB, and on snow during winter in the famous «col de Turini»…

I always love driving cars, but I was too focus in mountain bike to take part at some competition! So I wait after my last World champ title in 02 to try the peugeot cup, won it and get the opportunity to start a second carreer in rally.

In 2007, I was testing bikes for Lapierre, and thought I'd race for fun and just to feel one more time how was it to take a WCup start, and raced in Champéry! It was super cool feeling! But after a 5 years stop and still competing rally car, it was not easy to have the right speed and the good shape! Shape is so specific in dh, that after 1 minute, I was dead!!! Gone were the times when I used to finish my race faster than at the start…

To answer the question if I had a psychologist help, I will answer yes, even if I never went to see a real specialist! But, all around me, my father, trainer, doctor, girl friend were always there to help me in some difficult moments!