Dynamic Life Cycles
Dynamic Life Cycles
Inside The Norco Race Division
The margins in downhill are razor thin, and Norco Race Division lives in that space. We sat down with Gracey Hemstreet, her mechanic Brett Ward, and data lead Jeff Hunter to unpack how a modern DH race program actually works, from early mule frames to a bike chasing its final few percent.
We get into the craft behind setup decisions: pushing aluminum stays to the edge before landing on carbon flex targets, testing geometry and idler positions at extremes to find the centre, and what changes when development shifts from “find big answers” to “chase small wins.” Gracey explains how her feedback evolved from “it’s good” to precise sensations the team can translate into measurable changes.
Psychology is woven through every lap. The crew talks about when to speak and when to stay quiet in the finish corral, how confidence compounds after a result, and why hovering just outside qualification can mess with your head. Leadership plays a huge role eliminating variables so race day starts with clarity, not noise.
With limited practice laps, the team builds an edge through preparation: track-walk footage, GPS overlays, and arriving at first laps with a plan. Add in team banter, travel stories, and the unsung roles behind the scenes, and this episode shows what it really takes to turn chaos into speed.
Reach out and get in contact with me here.
Subscribe, share with a riding friend, and leave a review to help more listeners find the show.
- Get in touch via my Instagram
- Hosted and Produced by Jarrad Connolly
Welcome back to the Dynamic Life Cycles Podcast. This week we have Norco Race Division joining us. Yes, Gracey Hemstreet, Jeff Hunter, and Brett Ward. Gracey, as you know, if you've been following the racing, has been winning all over the place. Between World Cups, Hardline, and a bunch of other events. Brett is the guy that keeps her bike running smooth. Between all the different chaos that she brings, yes, he does. Keep it nice and clean. Then uh Jeff, on the other hand, he's the low-key mastermind helping develop the bikes that these athletes are riding. So this podcast isn't fully about racing. We dive into a bunch of other things between the setup, the trust, how the team works, what they do in between races. So really hope you enjoy the listen. Cheers. Yeah, pretty good. Yeah, pretty good.
Brett Ward:Amazing.
Jarrad Connolly:Um cool. So we've got Gracey, Jeff, Brett all in the room here today. Um Gracey doesn't need much of an introduction, but Jeff and Brett, what are your roles on the team? How would you kind of describe them?
Brett Ward:I'm gonna let Jeff take this one. He's been on the team the longest, and I feel like he's a good man to stuff.
Jeff Hunter:Okay. Um we're part of the technical department, so we work at Norco uh in BC. Uh we are mechanics essentially. Um I when we're at races, I run our data system and kind of bridge a gap between the engineering department here and uh team staff, I guess. Um yeah, and a bit of uh mechanic hands-on work as well.
Brett Ward:And then where do you fit in? Uh I just like to hang out with these people. Yeah.
Jarrad Connolly:That's that seems like a pretty cool team. They seem pretty unique.
Brett Ward:Yeah. They're a select group of people that you know, if you're gonna spend a lot of time with, they're the ones to spend time with. Yeah, there's that's it really. I have no no real I don't have to do much. No. And I bring the good vibes.
Jarrad Connolly:Yeah. Yeah. So how does an orco become unique compared to everybody else? Bringing the good vibes.
Gracey Hemstreet:Yeah, we have more fun. Yeah, I think.
Brett Ward:Yeah, it starts from the top down. I think Greg has the most amount of fun.
Jarrad Connolly:He seems like it.
Brett Ward:Yeah. Yeah. And then that just filters down and we'll vibe off of that, and yeah. And then in between having fun, uh fix some bikes. Okay.
Jarrad Connolly:Yeah. And is there many bikes that need fixing?
Brett Ward:Not as many as you'd think. Yeah. No. Gracey's pretty easy on the bike. Gracey's pretty easy on the bike. Yeah, when she breaks something, she's stoked. Yeah. I'm less stoked, but I'll always tell her and she's like, Did I? Yeah. You broke a wheel-I broke a wheel! That's awesome! Yeah, let's keep that to a minimum, but yeah, that's pretty cool.
Jarrad Connolly:So I guess back to you, Gracey, a little bit. What is some of the things that you enjoy about working with the boys?
Gracey Hemstreet:Uh it's like the best group, I think, ever. They're super fun to hang out with. And now I live in Squamour, so I get to see them all the time. So yeah, well, these guys at least. But it's super fun.
Jarrad Connolly:Like, because you've been on the team for quite a few years and across a few different mechanics, different people, things like that. How does it change over the years? Like, is it obviously the vibes have changed, there's different budgets, different things like that. How's that changed for you?
Gracey Hemstreet:Yeah, the support's just like quadrupled from the first year I was on Marco. So, yeah, I mean, yeah, we're just like a sick, super dialed race team now. So, yeah, works good.
Jarrad Connolly:And then like things like um, I'm trying to think how to explain this or ask this, but like, how does the chemistry work? Like, obviously, this year there's been a fair bit of pressure, maybe not from anyone in particular, but with the results and stuff like that that have come, having these guys around you, how's that chemistry work for you?
Gracey Hemstreet:Yeah, I mean, no one stresses me out except myself at the races. Um, but I don't know. They keep it chill, they try and calm me down, which is nice.
Brett Ward:Yeah, it's definitely like you you as a as as the group of people trying to support, you're trying to always balance when is it good to say something that you feel will help, and when is it good to just let them go through the process. Yeah, um you're up and down so many times throughout a weekend, you where you think you are, where you actually are, what you think you can do and what is actually happening. And you know, they they come back every lap, so we see them every lap, we know exactly what they're feeling when they get to the bottom, whether that that doesn't mean they're not going fast, but they might feel like they're not going fast.
Jarrad Connolly:How do you sort of balance that? Because I feel like it's almost like as much as you're a mechanic and you're fixing those physical problems, but there's such an emotional balance there as well. How do you mentally prepare for that?
Brett Ward:You you learn on the go.
Jeff Hunter:Yeah, it's always different. It's always different. It's always different. I think if you come come out with a con if you're confident and appear collected, then it gives the rider confidence. Yeah. Yeah. So if you're calm and confident, that that helps them.
Jarrad Connolly:I guess yeah, you kind of feed off each other quite a bit. Yeah. Have you ever worked with a writer that's like super chaotic and had to almost backpedal and downplay it a little?
Jeff Hunter:Or you don't even need to mention names, but like there's not that many, so uh myself, no. Most riders I've worked with have been pretty, pretty calm people. Yeah. Yeah. No one no one gets worked out.
Jarrad Connolly:And then with your past, like you've done a bit on the XC side of things as well. How does that change? Because I feel like you've got the downhill athlete and then the cross-country athlete, and as much as they're both essentially striving to win, there's a very different process that goes into it. I feel like, does that make sense what I'm trying to ask? Like, does the XC athlete, I feel like, maybe a little bit more highly strong or not necessarily?
Jeff Hunter:I would say no. I I think XC athletes, it's more of a process they go through to get their body physically ready to output the amount of energy they need to. I feel like it's less of a like a mental thing. A head game, yeah. Yeah. It's not about preparation for one single moment, it's about overall preparation leading into an event. Okay. Sort of days leading in, energy, yeah, managing energy.
Jarrad Connolly:And then obviously managing, as you say, like managing time and managing everything that they're putting effort into. How does that translate to like I guess working with the bike and working with the athlete? Like, do they do many changes throughout the weekend, or is it mainly once they have a setup, it's kind of there?
Jeff Hunter:We're talking downhill now.
Jarrad Connolly:Well, or X. More XC, I guess, in that sense.
Jeff Hunter:XC set and forget. You kind of just run the bike.
Jarrad Connolly:Yeah. And then when you get someone as picky as Gracey here, how I don't know, ask Bratt. Um when you're working with uh like a downhill athlete, does that obviously it does depend on the rider? Like I know some riders are are insanely picky, and then other riders are very much set and forget, and it's sort of when they know their setting, they just kind of ride with it.
Brett Ward:Yeah.
Jarrad Connolly:How have you found a good balance there?
Brett Ward:Yeah, like it's it changed, it's changed year on year. And I uh you know I've got Gracey and Lucas Cruz to to go off from my downhill. Um I did a bit of Enduro before that, and it was a slightly different setup. But I'd say like it's good to have it's good to have an athlete that's very precise, but that doesn't mean they're always right. And it's good to have an athlete that's very confident that they can just ride the bike however it is, and you're trying your best to get it set up the way you think it should be, and they just get on it and go. Um with Gracey in particular, like last year, she's still very much in her university of downhill mountain biking, so she's still growing as she grows as as the sport, you know, as we grow as a team, as a new team. So last year it was very much like, I don't know, good. How is it? Yeah, it's good.
Gracey Hemstreet:I don't think that'll ever change.
Brett Ward:No. But it has. It's changed, you know, you'd say you've seen it for the last three years, Jeff. Yeah, I've seen your word. Your No, yeah.
Jeff Hunter:The change is it's gone from like I I'm like you have more to say about bike setup than you did in the past.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Jeff Hunter:Maybe maybe it's just maybe you always had things you wanted to say and just didn't say them, or or maybe your perception of what's going on with the bikes has improved. Maybe because you've just ridden more, but yeah. Yeah. How but that's the same questions over and over and over.
Jarrad Connolly:Does the language come into it a lot? Like I feel like I know growing up with the motorcycles and things like that, you can kind of describe it with sounds, and I think there was an edit with Luick out there at one stage where he was sort of like making sounds to describe the bike. Do you guys use language to kind of decipher? Like, and then that translation and and how how has that grown over the years, obviously?
Brett Ward:I think the sounds are pretty common from bike shop level to yeah, yeah. You would you just it depends on what it is, but you just try and if you're hearing something, like quite often then they're not focusing on the bike that closely unless it's really wrong. Yeah, okay. And then it's like, oh, this is doing this, and you're like, oh yeah, that's not good.
Jarrad Connolly:Yeah, yeah. Um and then I guess if you translate that from the racetrack back to like a testing situation, um and obviously the what's it been, two years on the new like test bike, I guess?
Brett Ward:With modifications throughout that, yeah.
Jarrad Connolly:Yeah. How has that changed? Obviously, we had Kirk last year on the team and and still working with us, but working through those engineer changes and and through that testing, how has that translated to then what Gracey says and what Lucas says, and and even Danny for that matter?
Brett Ward:I guess it's changed a lot. Like as from last year to this year, we've learned a lot more about the bike and things have been updated. So what we were working on last year might not be the same as what we've worked on this year. And some problems that we were working on last year might have been bigger problems than what we were working on this year. Um so like we may not have put as much attention into the stuff that we because we were focusing on one part of the bike. Yeah. This year we're really it's getting down to the nitty-gritty of right, the bike works well, but what are the other small things that we can improve?
Jeff Hunter:You know, yeah, the bike the bike's maturing. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely.
Jarrad Connolly:Yeah. Yeah, interesting. It's sort of one of those things that I think everybody's talking about, but it's obviously with a test bike, it's it's kind of cool to see it as a prototype being raced and moved around and almost not hidden like some of the other bikes have been in the past. So it's kind of yeah, it's interesting to see how that grows and changes. I think one other thing that I was thinking about with this is there's some things that have come up in the past that sort of haven't really gone to plan. So, like things that you've changed or you've like gone down and chased a bit of a rabbit hole, have you seen that much? Or is it like, I guess I don't know if you want to go too deep into that kind of conversation. But it's just one of those questions that was asked by somebody when I was saying that I was gonna sit down with you guys. Like, how how far do you chase things before you start to see sort of a negative versus a positive?
Jeff Hunter:Yeah, they were constant we're constantly we're constantly trying things. Yeah, yeah. Like we made a movement from we were originally one example of something that's changed in the last year is we we went from using aluminum stays to carbon stays in the rear end. Yeah. And that was we moved through quite a few iterations of our aluminum stay to try and understand what flex was correct for the bike. Yeah. So some of the options were good and some of them were a bit too far, and we kind of centered on something that worked, and and we were able to measure that and then take it to a carbon state. So that's that's maybe one where we we oversh overshot a bit and then came back.
Brett Ward:There was a lot of effort put into that alloy rear end from solid billet seat stays to removing the bridge and having a really flexy rear end. So they put a lot of effort into how to get the most out of that before then realizing all right, we have to kind of stop there and then start with carbon and see if we can improve from there.
Jeff Hunter:And it definitely made a big difference to how the bike it kind of it kind of mirrors how the original mule was designed, I think. They they designed it with a whole bunch of adjustment, BB height, um reach adjust cups, um obviously idler position adjustment, but with the intent to take it to the extremes where the bike was essentially unrideable and then move back to a more comfortable position.
Jarrad Connolly:So yeah. Yeah, so there is still a lot of experimenting to make that work. It's not not just like uh once the engineer says this is it, it doesn't always go to the city.
Jeff Hunter:Engineers are basing their decisions on on testing, yeah. Which is cool. They're not just drawing drawing the bike on a on cat and saying this will probably work.
Jarrad Connolly:Yeah, and I think going back to saying like And that's that's that's a few years ago.
Jeff Hunter:That's yeah, yeah. So uh that was a bit that was as the that was as the team was growing. Yeah, yeah. So it kind of predates this group a bit. But yeah, it's still worth mentioning because it's it's cool to take it uh yeah. Yeah.
Jarrad Connolly:Yeah, I think it's it's interesting to hear because I think a lot of people out there sort of see the final product and they make a lot of comments on the final product, but don't understand that full sort of range or scope that the bike goes through to get to that point. Um so yeah, it's it's really interesting to to see and almost could relate it a bit to F1, where like you're never gonna buy an F1 car, but that technology translates down and through and into other pieces. Yeah. Um so moving on from that, talking a bit more about tools and uh and as mechanics, one of the one of the big questions that I kept getting asked when I kept sort of talking about this podcast is Is there a tool that you've purchased that you regret purchasing? And is there a tool that you didn't realize you needed and it's used almost daily? Like I know there's some in my box that I've made or or sort of just put together and it's like, oh, I use this almost every day.
Brett Ward:Yeah. Can you regret buying a tool? I can I can buy a tool and be like, this is a bad tool. I don't know if I regret it. Yeah, that's a fair. That's uh yeah, tools are tools are fun to buy. They are. Yeah, yeah. But uh always the age-old, the tool that's good for the job is the best tool at the time. That's fair. I don't know, everyone asks me about what's your favourite tool, and everyone hates that answer of like the one that's good for the job. But it's so true, it's like I don't know. Depends on the job. Do you have a favorite tool? No. No? No, Gracey?
Gracey Hemstreet:No. I don't touch the tools. You don't touch the tool?
Jarrad Connolly:No. How far does your mechanical knowledge go?
Gracey Hemstreet:Uh I don't know.
Brett Ward:I can pump up my You can build a bike out of a box out of a bike bag. That's like pretty out of a bike bag, yeah. Like tightening handlebars is almost the most important thing you can possibly do, and that's Yeah, I can do that.
Gracey Hemstreet:Yeah, yeah.
Brett Ward:There you go.
Gracey Hemstreet:I can tighten a headset now.
Brett Ward:That's good.
Gracey Hemstreet:That's that's good.
Jarrad Connolly:Yeah. That actually is good. Yeah. It's not that easy. You'd be surprised how many people can't do that. Yeah. Yeah. Or they do it in their headset.
Brett Ward:Yeah. Um you're a good mechanic. You got it.
Jarrad Connolly:So, Gracey, who in the truck do you not let on the AUX chord? On the music?
Gracey Hemstreet:Oh.
Jarrad Connolly:I know I know there was a when we were in uh is it was it Coast Gravity the other day, and we were playing a few different songs. But who would you not let on there?
Gracey Hemstreet:From the team.
Jarrad Connolly:Yeah.
Brett Ward:Anyone that doesn't play with no broke boys. Yeah. If you're not playing no broke boys, I can tell you right now, you're off. You're getting murdered.
Jarrad Connolly:The best bit about that is the only song we're allowed to play when we're at Coast Gravity was No Broke Boys. Yeah. Yeah.
Brett Ward:I can't next year it's gonna be another one, but this year, No Broke Boys. Yeah.
Gracey Hemstreet:I could uh somehow that wasn't my number one played song this year.
Jarrad Connolly:Oh really? No way. It's because it was on everybody else's phone.
Gracey Hemstreet:Yeah, probably.
Brett Ward:Everyone that LinkedIn with the Spotify. Yeah, yeah. What was number one?
Gracey Hemstreet:Second. Yeah.
Jarrad Connolly:What was number one?
Gracey Hemstreet:It was Ordinary by Alex Warren. I thought that was weird.
Jarrad Connolly:Yeah. But maybe you had that at the beginning of the year.
Gracey Hemstreet:Yeah, I don't know.
Jarrad Connolly:You must have overplayed it together.
Gracey Hemstreet:You just forget about the songs you listen to at the beginning, I think.
Jarrad Connolly:You don't forget about number of points.
Brett Ward:No, not at all. I'd like to take a moment to go through the team.
Jarrad Connolly:Yeah. Can we can we dive into that? A little bit. Yeah. Like. So I guess to start that off a little bit is like, who is on the team that doesn't really get much sort of credit? And the reason I guess getting both of you both in here with Gracey is I kind of relate the mechanic to the stunt man of the Hollywood world in the sense that the stunt man doesn't really get that same credit that the actor does. Um do you see where I'm going with that relation? Like, how do you guys sort of pull yourself within that whole world of the circus of the UCI? In in the in the in the racing world, I guess.
Brett Ward:Much bigger question than I've been voting for. I was like, yeah, kind of willing to have that guy's a leg.
Jarrad Connolly:Who else is on the team that doesn't really get spoken about?
Brett Ward:Joe? Yeah. But then Joe's famous in his own way. Like Joe's under the radar in the team, but Joe's a hardline legend. So what does Joe do? On track. Technical. On track linesman. Line spotter. Yeah. Coach. Like a assistant coach to Alan. Yeah.
Jarrad Connolly:Yeah. Okay. And then who else? So who else do we have on the team? Like, obviously you have like Greg and and uh whenever Cole's there and people like that. Who else sort of play a pretty big fundamental part in the team?
Brett Ward:Connor, I think, is the biggest vibe. Like he yeah, him and Gracey have butt heads, all they're like brother-sister, they do not get along, there's a lot of fighting. Uh however, he's honestly one of the nicest guys. And for his for he's young, like he's got four years experience in World Cup. He's very knowledgeable, but also just such a brilliant human being.
Jarrad Connolly:And what does he what's his actual role on the team?
Brett Ward:He's mechanic for Bodie Kuhn and and Ares. Okay. Yeah. So he So yeah, he didn't work that much this year. Yeah, he had a lot of free time on his hands. Yeah, unfortunately. But yeah, he uh but he He's probably working now. He hustled, yeah. Like he definitely wasn't ever not busy. I think he's good at keeping the morale up. He's yeah.
Jarrad Connolly:Whereabouts is he from?
Brett Ward:New Zealand, Marbury. Oh yeah, sure. Sure. Yeah. He taught us all how to do uh yeah, the splat yeah, that, whatever that is.
Gracey Hemstreet:Oh, and the manu.
Brett Ward:Manu. Yeah, yeah. Gracey did a unreal manu in Andorra. Yeah. Like how she didn't just split her back open. Yeah. Just flat landed, flat water.
Jeff Hunter:Full manu. Full manu. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Jeff Hunter:Thanks a lot, Connor. Thanks so much.
Jarrad Connolly:So, what other world stories do you have when you're traveling? Like, I feel like it's such a unique situation for you guys to be in. And I know it's not all glitz and glamour, but when you are traveling, what are some of the highlights that you can think back on over the years?
Brett Ward:God, there's a lot. There's a lot. Yeah, it's almost every time we're together, and we're together all year. Yeah. I can't like it's always a high moment. There's so much stuff that goes on.
Jeff Hunter:There's constantly stuff going on.
Brett Ward:Like small stuff day to day, we're just constantly making each other laugh. And then we go and yeah, we go and do things and we celebrate and yeah, I don't know. Stand out. There's got to be a couple with Kirk. Kirk's so good. Oh yeah.
Jeff Hunter:Yeah, he laughed scooters in Libra. Mine scooters in the Lord. I wasn't I wasn't there, but Scooters in Lisbon. I hear that I heard that was a good kill.
Brett Ward:Let's get in the skate park. I was not liking that. So like I feel Kirk is so quiet and unique. Oh he causes trouble.
Jarrad Connolly:Oh really?
Brett Ward:He stays under the radar and just makes sure as much havoc can be caused as possible. Takes like the eldest brother. Oh yeah. Just like stirring the pot. Absolutely. Yeah.
Jeff Hunter:The trouble, the uh the the the uncle is trouble. Yeah. Yeah.
Brett Ward:Yeah. Fireworks. Yeah, I wasn't there for the fireworks, but MSA fireworks, you guys were there for that. Oh.
Jeff Hunter:MSA?
Brett Ward:Yeah. Last year? Got yelled out. Two years ago. Yeah, yeah.
Jeff Hunter:Yelled out.
Gracey Hemstreet:For sure.
Jeff Hunter:Yeah, with Lewis. And Lauren? Yeah.
Gracey Hemstreet:Oh yeah. We were lighting those off. That's fun.
Jeff Hunter:And then we got told off by the neighbors. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it was it wasn't Greg that got told off.
Brett Ward:Oh yeah.
Jeff Hunter:He I I think he took the brunt of it. Did he?
Brett Ward:Okay, because it was from what I hear it was his fault. It's always his fault. Yeah. Um yeah. What else? Greg's stories. Yeah. Just sit down. Like that's how we go to bed most nights. Just listen to it. Sit down and have Greg's stories.
Jarrad Connolly:Yeah. He would have a lot of stories over the years. Over however many years he's been traveling and he's a good storyteller, actually. Yeah, catches the the key moments. Yeah. Yeah. Without diving too deep into all the rest of it. Yeah. Um I had a point that I was gonna ask then, but completely mental blank talking about Greg. How is Greg to work with? Like I feel like as somebody that's been around for so long, he obviously has so much information. Um how is he at sharing that information and sort of mentoring someone like yourself and and sort of guiding the team?
Gracey Hemstreet:Zombie question? Yeah, I guess. Um yeah, I mean I've come down quite a few times like balling my eyes out, and he always just knows what to say. And he knows how I'm feeling because he's been through it all. So yeah, I don't know. He just always knows what to do and how to make you feel better.
Brett Ward:And he gives 110% of every element. Yeah. The rider element, the mechanical element, like every bit he can possibly do, getting up on track, being there, doing interviews for the team for future years and solidifying where we're at. And yeah, no one no one works as hard as him. Like all that effort he put in for 23 years as a racer, yeah. Just is now the same effort he puts into making sure we have a viable downhill team that that creates athletes that win races. And that takes a lot of work. It's not just showing up.
Jarrad Connolly:Yeah. I think like you can see that as the team grows and as they say is maturing, yeah. I guess he's got a massive part in that. Yeah, yeah.
Jeff Hunter:He's he's always looking for racing advantages, whether it's on or off the track.
Jarrad Connolly:Yeah.
Jeff Hunter:Yeah. He which is why I think he would claim it himself. He's great at testing and picking the best product to use or the best setup of a product to use. He's always after an advantage.
Jarrad Connolly:Okay.
Jeff Hunter:And it's good for to have someone on the team who's really pushing for that. Because not everyone would request that all the time. If everything's working well, you can just be content and I think athletes and mechanics could just kind of cruise and just use what you have that works, but Craig's always always looking for the next thing and the advantage that'll put you. Yeah, which you always have to be doing in a racing environment.
Jarrad Connolly:So Gracey, what is some of the things that he would say to you? Like obviously coming down so emotionally charged after some of these runs. I guess let's dive into that a little bit. Because I feel like a lot of people see this big tough exterior for most downhill races at that level anyway. Um but being so emotionally charged, and I guess it's very easy just to like put a front up. But what does he sort of say to help like break that down and allow you to I guess release and and work through it?
Gracey Hemstreet:Um yeah, well, like Leger, that was like probably the toughest race this year because I didn't get down a run without crashing or stopping or crying until finals ran. So yeah, before finals, I was like freaking out. I was like, like, I actually shouldn't even go up there. Like there's no point. Um because yeah, I can't even ride. And he was like getting videos from Joe and Alan and whatever, and he's like, No, you're like the best looking one out there. Like just believe in yourself and yeah, be confident. He's like, just have confidence and you got this. And then I went up and we won. So it all came together. It all came together, I don't know how, but yeah.
Jarrad Connolly:Is there much of a mental prep you go through? I know like some people will do like a certain ritual or a certain procedure at certain points of the day to lead into that. How how do you set yourself up? Because obviously over the years your writing's sort of progressed and and changed and you do have quite a con sort of confident, I guess, personality when you're when you're around friends. But how does that change on either race day or things like that, like the behind the scenes there?
Gracey Hemstreet:I'm definitely nervous. I don't talk much, I don't think. Um but yeah, I don't know. I just try and visualize the track as much as I can and yeah, listen to music, try not to think about racing. Um and yeah, just go up, do my warm-up, whatever. And just go and have fun. Try not to stress yourself out.
Jarrad Connolly:Keep it quite relaxed.
Gracey Hemstreet:Yeah, just keep it relaxed. And then at the at what some point I gotta get hyped up because I'm like That's where the tunes come in. Yeah, that's when nobody voice comes in.
Jarrad Connolly:Yeah. So you listen to that for three hours on repeat.
Gracey Hemstreet:Yeah, pretty much. Or like looking for the hose or something. That's my last song.
Jeff Hunter:I always put your headphones out of the top, but like Lady Marmalade.
Gracey Hemstreet:Or that's like that. Before Leo Garing? Yeah, yeah. I was singing that on the way down for sure. That was a good one.
Jarrad Connolly:That's a banger. And then do you so I just had a sat down and had a good chat with Ellie Hoskin and she talks about or she talked about not wanting to know results throughout the day and and things like that. Do you look at the results throughout, obviously, because the writers in front of you are going down? And do you sort of have an idea or are you fully blind going in and you're just going in as fast as you can go?
Gracey Hemstreet:Yeah, I don't want to know. Because like I'm only thinking about myself at the top and what I can do. Um but in Leger, I asked Alan, I was like, has anyone crashed? Like, are people just going down? Do I need to make it down or do I need to like push? And he was like, No, they're making it down. Like, you need to go down. You need to do this. Oh shit. Okay. Um, but yeah, no, for the most part. Yeah, no. Just focus on me.
Jarrad Connolly:And then I guess taking a step back right back to early days, how is that growing up with essentially a bike park in your backyard? Like what like not many people get to do that, and I'm not sure how many times you've answered this question before, but like I feel like that's such a cool, cool feature.
Gracey Hemstreet:Definitely. I mean, if my dad and the boys didn't start Coast Gravity, I wouldn't be here. Yeah. I'd probably be like playing soccer or something. But uh yeah, no.
Jeff Hunter:I soccer soccer's alright.
Gracey Hemstreet:And then I like tried um dirt wave at the bike park when it just got built, and I was like, oh, this is sick. And then I was like, oh yeah, I have soccer, I'm going biking. Um yeah, no, it was amazing. I just like grew up riding the park with the local boys. So I was the only girl, always. Yeah. And yeah, that was probably good for me because it I was being pushed every single time I'd go on my bike. Um so yeah. Then I started riding coastal crews and I was like, hell yeah, this is sick. Jumps. Jumps. Started doing whips, I was like, okay, yeah, this is my thing.
Jarrad Connolly:And then I guess now moving to present day Europe in Squamish, and there is like I want to say a thousand elite women up there riding. Pretty much. How is that? Because you've only been up there for what a couple of weeks, maybe a month at most. Yeah. I guess.
Gracey Hemstreet:Two months.
Jarrad Connolly:I don't know.
Gracey Hemstreet:Two months? A month and a bit.
Jarrad Connolly:How's how's that sort of are you riding with more females or are you still getting out with the more difficulties?
Gracey Hemstreet:Yeah, I'm still kind of riding with the boys right now. But yeah. I'm uh meeting up with Lily for coffee and some rides too, so yeah. Nice. It's been good. Yeah. Yeah. Lots more people than the coast.
Brett Ward:Yeah. So it's nice. Lots more peddling. Lots more peddling. I've retired the e-bike.
Gracey Hemstreet:Actually. Actually, I haven't ridden it in like a month and a half.
Jarrad Connolly:That kind of surprises me. Is it 2027? I can say that's a lie because you rode with us on an e-bike and that was less than a month and a half ago.
Gracey Hemstreet:Okay, well that was the last time. That was the last time though.
Jarrad Connolly:Okay.
Gracey Hemstreet:When was that? Like a month ago.
Jarrad Connolly:Yeah, give or take. Let's let's let's say it's a month and a half so you're not lying. Okay. That sounds good, yeah.
Brett Ward:Yeah.
Jarrad Connolly:Um and then for you guys, are you guys on the e-bikes much? And what do you feel with the e-bikes? Like, I know there's a video out there with Fred. Are you two? Let's not take the conversation this way.
Brett Ward:This will this will end back a bit for us. You know, Northco makes e-bikes, and people should ride the e-bikes. They are great. Don't ask Brett about either. I'll be riding my acoustic bike. Yeah. EMX with whole life. BMX with a whole life.
Jeff Hunter:Brett doesn't love e-bikes. Yeah. I think he said to work on too many in the shop.
Jarrad Connolly:Yeah. Yeah.
Jeff Hunter:Sorry.
Jarrad Connolly:I just told TS. TSD. That was a complete setup by someone external from this room. Sorry.
Jeff Hunter:I know who you are. I feel like we had a pretty good ride in uh Lenshead on those e-bikes.
Gracey Hemstreet:That was so fun.
Jeff Hunter:It was fun.
Brett Ward:Hey, riding bikes is always fun. Yeah.
Jeff Hunter:Yeah. Yeah. We were pushing people with daddy bikes up the hill.
Brett Ward:Yeah, that's right. That was not an orco. That was not an orca. That was our truck driver, Lucas. First proper mountain bike I think he'd ever been on, and he goes he goes in. Holy full on view. It was crazy.
Jeff Hunter:He did a scandy flick on a steep trail. I could not believe it. Never ridden a mountain bike before, and he was scandy flicking. It was great.
Jarrad Connolly:How do you just get on a mountain bike? Like what's his background?
Jeff Hunter:I think he re Snowboard. Superactive guy. Superactive guy skateboard. Skateboarder. Oh yeah. His job was an arborist, so he's like kind of an extreme guy.
Jarrad Connolly:Yeah, he just lives that at the end.
Jeff Hunter:He lives, yeah. Yeah.
Brett Ward:I don't know if you saw the GoPro footage that we were getting we were getting him on track walk to run top to bottom to give the riders more of like a feel at speed, and they would they would he would be able to do that.
Jeff Hunter:I think first one was lip twelve.
Brett Ward:Was it like four minutes? No.
Jeff Hunter:No, he he did like a ten minute run, then we sped it up four by four.
Brett Ward:Oh I see, yeah, yeah.
Jeff Hunter:And so it would be track speed.
Jarrad Connolly:It was. Actually.
Jeff Hunter:So it would be like uh like a helmet cam. Yeah. Yeah.
Brett Ward:A machine. It like ran top to bottom, jumping over like steep tracks jumping over lips, like he's the truck driver that gave more than in any other truck driver. Oh, absolutely.
Jarrad Connolly:Yeah, I feel like a truck driver does like the labor jobs, like puts the tents up, cleans up. That's that's kind of cool. Yeah.
Gracey Hemstreet:Oh yeah.
Jarrad Connolly:I don't know how far you want to dive into this, but something that just pops into my head is what are some like random or unique things you guys do on the road? Like in the way of skills, testing, like is there some stuff that like bike related? Or just just like running down the trail to get that footage? Is there like some things that you've never thought of and that all of a sudden have came up over the past couple of years? I guess GPS plotting for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Brett Ward:It's quite big. People have done that. Yeah. That's not new though. It's not new, but I guess it's it's something for us that's I guess new. I don't know if you were doing that before.
Jeff Hunter:Yeah, yeah, we were doing it last year and this year. This year, yeah. But we but um Warner Brothers gives us a GPS set of GPS points of the track anyways. So they map the track themselves and then everything's daughter like that. That's part of their timing system and yeah. Yeah, yeah. But advan other things we do. I don't know if that one should be.
Jarrad Connolly:Yeah. I don't know how many secrets you want to share. Is that that's it's like a bit of a lot of things.
Jeff Hunter:I'm trying to think of fun, like fun things, but also.
Brett Ward:Yeah. There's gonna be something.
Jarrad Connolly:That's alright. We can come back to that one. That's fine. I I don't wanna I don't wanna overshare some secrets that that we shouldn't talk about, but I know I feel like there would have to be some things that you guys have done. Like, I I wonder how many people are sending a runner down the track pre pre-race to get to get GoPro footage. Like, do you not just use GoPro footage from the riding? Like, do you carry a a camera when you're riding or is that still But you don't get to ride it until you until practice day.
Jeff Hunter:Yeah.
Gracey Hemstreet:So you so you're gonna run footage before we ride.
Jarrad Connolly:Oh, interesting. So like on track walk day, you just send a run send the truck driver down, and then you've got an an advantage. Yeah.
Brett Ward:Current racing, you're getting maybe four laps in the morning. Yeah. And then you've got time practice, which you might get three laps. So first day of practice, you've only done seven laps. Yeah, and you've got to be up to speed. Absolutely. That's we're doing everything. All the setup, everything we can get for the bike setup is done then. Because the two laps in the morning before quality, you can't really make much changes unless it's like a completely different track and it's wet. Uh those two laps are warm-up laps, and how has the track evolved at the end of the day from um elite men's or whatever? And then same on race day, it's two laps in the morning. So 11 laps of practice. Yeah. So if you can cite that track and your first practice lap, you know where you're going. You're you're getting ahead a little bit. Yeah.
Jeff Hunter:I mean I I think riders would try and find GoPro footage from previous seasons, previous years, or earlier in the season. That's that's what and there's often track previews. Yeah. So I feel like that's what you guys would do often. But but La Twelve was an example where there wasn't no one had ridden that track before. Yeah. Uh I don't know, was there a preview? Maybe there's a preview actually. Yeah, I think it was Did he run that one as well?
Brett Ward:He ran he didn't have the first one. That was the first one. That was a steep track. Yeah. I think his knees were pretty much. His knees are pretty sore after that one.
Jeff Hunter:Yeah, he stripped down more than he should have and got in the we had him on the bike uh uh cooling down after that run, and then he ended up in the river and was spotted by a few locals.
Brett Ward:Yeah.
Jeff Hunter:Nothing was hidden.
Brett Ward:Everything was on the middle of the pit. Like I don't know, like 10 steps from the back. All the variants back. All the variants back. Cold dip. Yeah.
Jarrad Connolly:So outside of roasting the truck driver, who who else normally gets roasted on the team, or is it pretty much an all-in broader? Just Connor.
Jeff Hunter:Connor gets roasted, Alan gets roasted a bit.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Jeff Hunter:But he managed he manages it better than Connor.
Jarrad Connolly:The age of experience. He can he can cop a little bit extra. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Connor gets roasted.
Brett Ward:Connor gets he gets a hard time. Yeah. But he gives everyone else. Yeah, that's why he keeps getting it. Yeah.
Jeff Hunter:He's always got to come back. He's good. Yeah. Yeah. That'll serve him well.
Jarrad Connolly:Yeah. Even just the simple ones. So has there ever been like a sort of like a big crash story that people consistently roast? Like take away, like obviously your. Crash you had and you jumped into the crowd, tried crowd surfing, all the rest of it. But like anything that where people haven't really got that hurt that consistently gets brought up.
Speaker 1:No, I don't think so.
Jarrad Connolly:Not really. Not really. No. Is there any moments that continue to to come up repetitively, or it's pretty, pretty much once it's done, it's done and you you move on because there's so much extra going on.
Brett Ward:Yeah, I don't know. I think Gracey trying to fly was will keep coming up. Yeah. Yeah. Previous to that.
Jarrad Connolly:Yeah, how's your Instagram on that? I feel like you you would see that every day being re tagged almost.
Gracey Hemstreet:Oh I did, yeah, for like a straight month.
Jarrad Connolly:Yeah. That's insane.
Gracey Hemstreet:Yeah.
Jarrad Connolly:How not that I wanted to dive too deep into that, but how did that feel? Like coming down, last run within let's call it home race, Canada race, like obviously there was a fair bit of pressure on that day. Well, I I guess there was pressure on that day. Um and then to to try and crowd surf at the end instead of cross the line. How was that?
Gracey Hemstreet:Uh I don't know. It wasn't very fun. Kind of hurt a lot. But um yeah, I don't know. I was leaving the pits, I was like just thinking, can I ever really want to win? Or like I'll just win a hospital. Yeah. But like I'm not usually like that. I don't know. I don't know. But uh yeah, definitely wasn't my plan. But I was so gassed, I was done.
Brett Ward:Yeah, so physical and longest track of the year and a lot of tracks have got a lot track. Yeah, it's got a lot shorter, but those old tracks are still four minutes plus.
Gracey Hemstreet:I was so done. I was like, Brad, like it has to be still we have to change on the bike to like make it better. But yeah, no, it's just my fitness and overall. Yeah. What well yeah, I don't know. It was hard.
Brett Ward:Fitness is there, it's just the fatigue. If you're not used to it, week in, week out, you're doing two and a half minute, three minute laps, and then you add another minute, it's huge, and you're you're not necessarily training for that when you're in the season. So at the end of the season, you're used to these slightly shorter laps. Yeah, almost like sprint laps compared to a marathon. Absolutely, yeah. You take Fort Bill as well, like Fort Williams, another really long track, and people are gassed at the bottom.
Jeff Hunter:Yeah, gassed at the bottom, yeah. Even though they spent the winter training.
Jarrad Connolly:Yeah, I feel like there's many stories about Fort Bill where people are talking about tasting blood at the bottom of the run and like all of that type of thing. I don't know if you get that reference. Gracey's probably too young, but the Sam Hill reference. Did you No? I yeah, I remember that comment. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that's a that's a real old one. Might have to share that video with you later.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Jarrad Connolly:Is there is there much sort of like unspoken stuff between you guys in the way of like writer, mechanic, just like I guess a trust that is built. Do you guys have much of unspoken rules, or is it pretty much everything's full communication?
Brett Ward:No, I think between us there's a lot of unspoken rules.
Gracey Hemstreet:Yeah.
Brett Ward:I don't know what the rules are, but we just we get each other. You like you have a bund where you're just like it's time for motivation. It's time to just fucking deal with it and be quiet and we'll just get on with it. And there's time for you know. Yeah. Right, we we've dealt with that.
Jarrad Connolly:Let's have a bit of Yeah, when it's time to work, you work, and when it's time to play, you play.
Brett Ward:Yeah. Yeah, you can you can you can unravel every lap, and some athletes will do that. They'll want to talk it through, they'll want to talk about every bit. And as a mechanic, you you want to like instill confidence and you want to give them the right words and and motivation to to be like, yeah, we've okay, we've spoken about that, and we've dealt with that section, and you'll go out next time and you'll kill it. And you know, and sometimes you're just like you know, with Gracey, it's like you've got this every time. We don't have to say it every time that you've got this. You know you've you know you've got the ability, you've got the speed, you've got everything you need, but it doesn't always come together, and that's fine as well. Like it's yeah, when it you don't win every single time. Yeah, you just put everything in front of you so you can win every single time. And if you keep doing that, you'll be consistent and you'll just build on it and you know. We could say it every single race, but eventually it it loses its meaning.
Jarrad Connolly:Yeah, it definitely yeah, you you kind of glaze over it a little bit once you say it too many times.
Brett Ward:Yeah.
Jarrad Connolly:Is uh you just mentioned about like diving too deep into individual particular runs. Is there many sort of like myths or settings that like some riders will sort of like obsess over? Do you find?
Brett Ward:Yeah. Everyone's process is different. Going back to Greg's, I'd say Greg's Greg's process is to tick off all the boxes in a circle across the practice until he's either back to where he was or he's found a problem. Like definitely last year with him racing, it was definitely like right, we'll do this to this, to this, to this. Okay, it's not that, it's not that, right, okay, we've tacked everything. I know that I've checked everything and we've not found something better. It's go time, I've you've done it. Um and that means you're changing a lot of things for the sake of it. And that may, you know, it may be not always possible, but like you know that that that's the process. Yeah. That's what he needs to be like switched on, we're ready to go.
Jarrad Connolly:He's ticked all those boxes to be confident in what he's writing.
Brett Ward:And then as to placebo things, it's yeah, I'd say sometimes there's some placebo things you do. Yeah. Yeah.
Jarrad Connolly:Yeah. Changing to higher pressures, air pressures by one PSI. Yeah.
Jeff Hunter:A PSI is enough. That makes it does make a difference. Yeah.
Jarrad Connolly:Um one rumour I did hear, and I won't mention names, but there was a rider that would choose silver spokes over black spokes because the friction between the black and the silver was less with silver, so it gave a certain feel through the wheel. Is that some things that you guys would dive into, or is that if that person won races then uh get on?
Brett Ward:Yeah. Yeah. Then it made a difference for them.
Jarrad Connolly:Yeah, and I guess that's where that comes into play. Yeah. Yeah, interesting.
Brett Ward:It's really like what what are you gonna focus on that's I know I've like looked down into the smallest, smallest depths of the thing I can do to win.
Jarrad Connolly:Yeah. Yeah, when you're at that one percent of one percent chasing.
Brett Ward:That little bit of anodizing friction is enough for him to lose a race. Yeah.
Jarrad Connolly:Them to lose a race.
Brett Ward:Yeah.
Jarrad Connolly:When when you're uh I guess yeah, when you're talking about how small the gaps are too, it can really make a difference, I guess.
Brett Ward:It's a confidence thing. I like Danny, unfortunately, this year was always on the back of that second.
Jarrad Connolly:Yeah.
Brett Ward:And I honestly believe it's like people that are constantly getting in that top 20, they know they can get into the top 20, and they've got that tad bit more confidence to get into the top 20. When you're always within the back of that second, tenths off getting in the top twenty. In your head you're chasing it. And that's you know, he got through in Lens Eight. There's a couple, and that was his race that he won world champs in the wet. So like he had that just inkling of more confidence because he I do well here, this is my place, gets in. Yeah, so you are like you can do a lot of things on the bike, but if you're always in that little thing, I think it's just a comfort, like once you know you can get in, and you can get in once, twice, you can always get in, and that's how Lowick and Jackson first, first, first, is that they they they've done it once or twice now and they know they can do it, they'll keep doing it. Yeah, it's then and the mental game is huge, and I yeah, it's an exciting thing to kind of dive into that. Yeah, whoever's smart enough to figure that stuff out is.
Jarrad Connolly:Did you find this year that you had a bit of a change with that mental aspect? Like obviously, you had quite a quite a lot of success in juniors, and then the past couple of years have sort of been I wouldn't say bad years, but they weren't winning years. If that makes sense, they were yeah, they'll they'll moving upwards, they were increasing. Yeah. Um, and then this year, like obviously you had quite a bit of success. Did you find that shift in yourself? Like, did you notice that?
Gracey Hemstreet:I don't know. It just depends on how I'm riding. And then if I'm riding super good, like my confidence is super high. And then I'd win and I'd be like, here we go. And then the confidence just keeps rolling, and then Yeah.
Jeff Hunter:Is that like a feeling when you're riding? Like a feeling on the bike, or it's results.
Gracey Hemstreet:Oh my god. Like it's like everything. Yeah. It just happens. I don't know, you can't really control it.
Jarrad Connolly:Energy.
Gracey Hemstreet:Yeah.
Jarrad Connolly:But it's not consistent. Like it's not like every time once you start hitting that point, it's not consistent. You consistently have to work on it.
Gracey Hemstreet:Yeah, unfortunately. But yeah.
Jarrad Connolly:Yeah, fair. Uh last question before we start to wrap this up. And once again, this is an external one. Best hangover cure after a win.
Brett Ward:Not getting drunk in the first place.
Gracey Hemstreet:Uh nothing, I think.
Jarrad Connolly:Nothing like that. You just keep certain people a lot. A long drive to the airport. Yeah.
Jeff Hunter:Yeah.
Brett Ward:Yeah, that's three three times this year. The drive to the airport with their own. I don't think it's helped them. Yeah. We've had we've had side doors down the highway open. Yeah.
Gracey Hemstreet:Oh yeah.
Brett Ward:Yeah, some release. Some release, yeah, a little fresh air, shall we say?
Jarrad Connolly:Yes, okay. Fresh air. Anyway, we'll move on from that because as I say, that was not one that I was gonna ask, but I kind of got pushed into that one. So um, yeah, thanks for.
Brett Ward:We take our jobs very seriously.
Jarrad Connolly:Hey, it's it's downhill. Like, I I joke, I did a lot of cross-country racing, I've done a lot of downhill racing, and I feel like the downhillers have one of the best sort of lifestyles when it comes to athletes. Like, they're famous enough, they earn a lot, or some people earn a lot of money from it, but they don't have to worry about as serious like an XC athlete to what they're putting in their body day in, day out that's gonna affect them in three, four weeks' time, you know. So you have to have fun for sure.
Gracey Hemstreet:Uh yeah. I think so.
Jarrad Connolly:Um, but yeah, thank you for coming down from Squamish. It was a bit of a mission this morning, it was dumping with rain. There was a few car accidents, so atmospheric rubber. Yeah, that's happening, beginning of winter. Yeah. Thanks for having us. Yeah, thank you. Cheers, and thanks for Norco putting up with us in this room.
Jeff Hunter:Yeah, thanks, Norco. Thanks, Norka. Thanks, Narco.
Jarrad Connolly:Cheers. All right, thanks, guys.
Jeff Hunter:Cheers.
Podcasts we love
Check out these other fine podcasts recommended by us, not an algorithm.
Steed Cycles podcast
Steed Cycles
Gypsy Tales
Jase Macalpine
