GETTING TO KNOW KYE A’HERN
Kye, how do you feel your racing season went in 2018? “I would say my season has been amazing. I’m stoked with how everything went, and there were some really great races. The highlights would be Fort William and Lenzerheide, but as expected there are always some races that don’t work out for you. At a couple of rounds this year, things just didn’t go my way. But I’m really looking forward to next year, and hopefully I can make amends for the rounds I slipped up at in 2018 and have a good crack at them and come out on top this time.”
Do you think that’s one of the best lessons you can learn as a Junior – the ability to bounce back during the season? “You have to be able to make mistakes and bounce back mentally in time for next weekend. For me, a couple of rounds where things didn’t go to plan didn’t change how I view the season, but it did hurt my overall result for the World Cup Series. I was sitting in 2nd for most of the series, and then dropped back to 4th after my crash in La Bresse. That was a bit of a disappointment late in the season but I’m still stoked with how it all went. For a first year I think it all went pretty well. World Championships definitely let me finish on a high note.”
How has the support of your professional team, Canyon Factory Racing, made a difference? It’s more than just a bike, right? “It is a massive step, and you never truly know what to expect when you are going to make that step up. Luckily I had the help of Troy Brosnan and Mark Wallace as well. Just whenever I wasn’t sure what to do I could ask them. It was a bit like having two big brothers on the team who can help you out whenever you need a hand. They were a key part of my success this season. Especially being able to do practice with those guys. You learn what to look for on a track, and learn how to race the kinds of tracks that we were faced with. At that level it is just so different to what we race at home, and you have to approach things so differently.”
So besides the team support – the Canyon Sender must be pretty sweet too? “The Canyon Sender has been awesome, I haven’t really changed too much since I got on it. I’m lucky that I felt comfortable on it straight away which is awesome. There are always a lot of things to change on a bike to suit your riding, but I’ve kept the same settings just about the whole season. I’m normally quite picky as to how my bike feels, but I changed so little from when I got it. Straight out of the box it was a great bike.”
So you’re in your off-season now, what does the next few months look like at home? “I think I won’t do as many races as normal at home in Australia this summer. Racing really does take it out of you, especially with six months of the year spent away overseas in Europe or Canada or America. It is hard to be away from home for such a long time and stay in top form for that long. So when you get home and you get to have a break, it’s really nice to be able to switch off for a bit. I’ve been getting back into training now and I’m just going to train over summer, and I’ll do a few state level races but really I’m just going to knuckle down and get some good training in.”
Have you got most of your 2019 calendar sorted out? “I’m not too sure on the exact programme for 2019, but I know we will be looking at the World Cup, some Crankworx rounds and any IXS rounds that fall into the dates where we have some weeks off from the World Cup. I’m not 100% on all dates yet but I’m sure we’ll have it finalised soon.”