10-19-07 // Online Exclusive: A ride with Kabush

I’ve heard a lot of excuses (and made a lot excuses) for sucking on the bike. Lack of sleep, brake rub, the previous night’s cheap burrito—I’ve heard ’em all. I guess this is why it was such a refreshing experience to ride with a guy who doesn’t make excuses and who really doesn’t suck. In fact, this guy doesn’t suck so much that he recently won the NORBA cross-country and short-track series for the third time. I speak of course of Geoff Kabush, the Canadian cross-country rider.

Team Maxxis riders Kabush and Mathieu Toulouse were doing a ride at Interbike’s Demo Day in Bootleg Canyon and I, lucky intern that I am, got to tag along for the ride. Including Toulouse and Kabush, there were four of us on the ride. A Litespeed bike dealer and I made up the rear of the group with the two Canadians leading the way.

Geoff leading the pack at Fontana Alan Davis

We started our ride by climbing up the Girl Scout Trail. It was one of the easier trails, very smooth with banked corners and small technical rock clusters spread throughout, and we were going mostly against traffic. Downhill riders plunged past us, squealing their brakes, and while I’m sure some wanted to unload a few choice obscenities, once they saw whom we were riding with, the usual comment was something like, “Whoa dude, I nearly ran into Geoff Kabush!”

After dodging a few more freeriders, we talked a little bit about Kabush’s early September crash on a road bike and how it affected him for the world championships. Kabush injured his arm badly in the crash, and could only limp to 50th place at the worlds in Scotland.

“Two days before I couldn’t even ride the [world championship] course,” said Kabush, pointing to a scab on his arm. “It’s frustrating when you work really hard for a race and then it all falls apart.”

Next year Kabush said his season will be based around earning points for the Olympics. “My focus is going to be more on the World Cups next year,” Kabush said, adding that he might even miss a few NORBA races if there’s a conflict with the World Cup schedule.

“If I can feel the same way that I did at the Saint Anne World Cup [where he took third this year] then I think I’ll have a good chance at winning [in Beijing],” said Kabush. “I’m going to do everything I can to win.”

For being one of the most popular XC riders and having some of burliest sideburns I’ve ever seen, Kabush is a very mellow guy. He seems to realize there are more important things than Olympic medals and racing—his wife, family and dogs are among those things. “Winning a medal isn’t going to make or break my life, cycling isn’t everything,” he said. “The Olympics are just added incentive to win.

Hanging out at Dirt Demo Morgan Meredith