COFFEE TALK : Martin Söderström

I catch up Martin Söderström for a short interview after his podium in Crankworx, a 3rd place which just follows a long serie of good results for the tall swedish rider…
Full interview and pics after the drop…Thanks to Joakim Andreassen for pics.

It was your first time in Whistler, you get 3rd, tell me how everything happened over there ?

First of all I didn’t know what bike I was going to ride in whistler. Because my NS signature slopestyle frame didn’t show up in time. Well it was just to take what I had in the garage and it was an old Cove hooker from 2004 I think. After a few days of work was the bike good to go.
The first days in whistler I was like on happy drugs the weather was sweet and the riding was splendid, I felt that the bike worked very well. When I saw the course I had a good feeling about it, it was actually a bit smaller then I had expected but still the biggest course I ever ridden. The course was closed the days before the comp because of the rain so when the competition day turned up I had pretty much not even ridden the course. But I didn’t freak out I just started at the top and worked my way down with the tricks I wanted to do. You could feel in the air that this comp is a bit bigger then normal. Everyone was quite and focused this was the first competition where you didn’t know if your run was even going to make it to the final it was such a high level of riding.
It was 2 runs and then the judges did pick the best 6 riders to the superfinal. I had decided to play it safe in my first run just to get a score and see what position it would give me, but I wasn’t concentrated at all and crashed on the wallride. The frontwheel was totaly smashed and I was super pissed because I didn’t even know if I could do my second run because the time schedule was pretty tight. But I managed to get a new frontwheel and make it to the top of the courese in time. I wanted to be in the superfinal so I tried to put together a good run, it didn´t work out exactly as planned but it was still good enough to move on to the superfinal in 3rd spot.
My run in the superfinal was pretty much the same as in the final because I pretty much got a blackout but I am very happy about my 3rd place! I will try to improve it to next year!

You were riding a fully, it’s not really often for you, how did you manage the change ?

I have actually never been riding a full-suspension on slopestyle so it was a totally new thing for me. But I liked it a lot, everything wasn’t harder it was just different. So you will see me riding more full-suspension in the future for sure !

Your season started really well, and now you get the third place at the biggest MTB contest of the year, what’s your plans now ?

I am very happy about this year but soon is the winter here again and the progressing for next year have to start. So my plans is to do even better next year=D

You were first pretty well-known for your park/dirt riding skills. Watching you during Anti DOT, you were pretty confident on a big bike too, how do you see your future in MTB ?

I did choose riding mountainbikes because you can do so many different things on them. I love to mix between all the different diciplines in mountainbiking so now when I have the opportunity to ride everything I will just do it as much as I can ! But I guess I am still more of a dirt/street rider you will see more of that in my new movie that is out soon !

What do you think about course format, between pure dirtjump, slopestyle and big mountain stuff like Anti DOT ?

As I said I love to mix all diciplines then you never get bored of riding and that is exactly what is happening in Anti DOT you can ride all week and push your limits and never get bored because you all the time ride different things. I love to be in Hafjell for Anti DOT I always have such a good time there !

If you want to add something, it’s your time man !

Thank you to www.lowfibicycleclub.com for keeping me updated about what is happening in the sport!=D (ndlr : i didn’t pay for that héhéhé).