Speaker: 0:08

Alright guys, welcome to another a DB podcast. We have with us a very special guest today. It's Kyron Bacon who has just finished up the six days in Italy and he's actually made his way across to Portugal for the next round of the indu GP Kyron. Thanks for coming on board mate, and it's great to have you here.

Speaker 2: 0:25

Thank you very much. It's good to talk to you guys,

Speaker: 0:27

mate, we watched all you guys from back here in Australia, There were some that got to go over there and experience it, but for those of us, we kind of had to get updated day by day and following as much live timing as we could and whatever streaming we could get a hold of, six day was, I think a pretty good result considering you know, we had three teams over there and everyone inside the top. Well, six you guys inside the top three. The girls inside the top three and the world trophy team did pretty good. I think especially when you consider. we are looking at probably one of the greatest ever off-road races ever, in terms of how many wins Garcia has had. So, you know, the boys in the trophy team have their work cut out catching up with Garcia and Verona, but I think it was a pretty good result. We wanna talk to you today about how you went, how the Aussie teams went. Give us a bit of inside information as to, what went down, over there in Italy. So, mate, we're gonna just kick it off with wanting to know, like team dynamics. You guys land there in Italy. You are living in Europe. Well you're living in Italy, I think specifically. Yeah. You guys, people flying in from, the US you know, str over in the us you got the Aussies flying in from here. How does the team dynamic work when you all get together for the first time?

Speaker 2: 1:34

Yeah, it's pretty special actually. You know, when everyone comes from all over the world and all Team Oz gets back together, it's cool to catch up with all the old races I was with the last few years. Same with everyone else. And it's cool to catch up with everyone and, yeah, we're all looking forward to going racing for the sixth day.

Speaker: 1:50

And everyone gets along pretty well. I mean, everyone's like different ages, different manufacturers, different parts of the world. It's good unity within the team.

Speaker 2: 1:57

Yeah, really good. We all get along really well. Obviously we're very competitive as competitors, but when we are here representing our country and, just in general, we all get along really well and we're good mates and, you know, no hard feelings, you know, someone wins again against each other at home. It's, it's always, good job and you shake the hand there's only one winner. It's good to get along with everyone and, yeah, it's pretty special.

Speaker: 2:20

Does it feel more like a team event, the sixth day or an individual event?

Speaker 2: 2:25

a bit of both. Like obviously you're racing for yourself, but you're also racing for your country and the team. And I think it's more of a team event, you know, like, with, even with my team, like my team, I've got a follow rider and a mechanic, but they're also helping the other riders in the team, in the junior team carrying their bum bags for'em if they can. And you know, it's not always about just me, it's about all of us. You know, we're all gonna get through the race and, It's more of a team thing. obviously we all wanna do well individually, but yeah, we all focus on ourselves and we ride how we always ride and yeah. It all ends up working out quite well, but yeah, it's definitely a team thing.

Speaker: 3:03

You mentioned before, it's always special representing Australia, putting on the green and gold, and I think that's something as dirt bike riders, whether it's the sixth day or the MX nations that, you know, we all dream of as kids and most of us, 99.9% of us will never get to experience this. Tell us what. That's like, especially you guys get the parade day, you know, before the sixth day where you get the wander down the main street of whatever town, the six days in that year with the Aussie flags and big blow up kangaroos and everything else. And what give, give us a feeling of what that's like to walk around representing Australia in a foreign town.

Speaker 2: 3:35

Yeah, it's really cool. no experience like it, you know, get to wear the green and gold colors down the main street of Bergamo, which was pretty cool. and yeah, just singing the Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oy, oy, oy. it's pretty cool. Everyone else, especially in Italy they've never seen anything like it it's pretty cool to show everyone, what our country's a bit like and, yeah, it's pretty special.

Speaker: 3:55

And we Aussie well accepted in Italy and give us a feel of the Italian vibe for a six day. I mean, I feel Italy is. The home of Venturo, maybe in Europe. I think that's what it would be considered. So I imagine, yeah, it's pretty, they're pretty into it. What was the vibe like in Italy and did they like the Aussies being there?

Speaker 2: 4:13

Yeah, I'm sure they liked the Aussies being there. but Italy it's quite difficult, like the language barrier and stuff like that. not many people speak English, so that's probably been the biggest thing for me personally this year. Yeah, it's cool to see, you know, Italy at the moment is, I would say, well, it's proven the sixth day also. They've won the junior, they won the senior, and their women's team is very strong also. So obviously they are the best in the world right now. And even with the Italian season I've been doing this year, it's almost like doing a GP season. Like they're almost harder than the actual world rounds, which is, crazy.

Speaker: 4:46

Italian culture off the bike after every day of racing, I can imagine you were trying to remain pretty calm because you had to get out the next day. But by the time you got to day six and you finished the final mo, was there a chance to let your hair down and absorb some of the Italian culture?

Speaker 2: 5:01

yeah, for me, I was pretty bugging after six days this year. I was actually quite tamed, the last few six days. We let our hair down a fair bit. There's still a few guys that did, but, no, I, I've still, like, I knocked myself out a few weeks before the sixth day and, you know, my health's more important and, yeah, for me it was just trying to get the body back to a hundred percent and, and focus on the GP this weekend.

Speaker: 5:24

Yeah. Okay. Three more rounds, mate. Did you come into, Italy. Did you come into the six day then you, you talked about knocking your head around. Did you come into the six day 100% fit or were you 99?

Speaker 2: 5:36

Nah, definitely not a hundred percent. I got knocked Outta Wales, which was two weeks, three weeks before the, six day. the first week I didn't ride do anything after I knocked myself out. Then the week before heading to the sixth day, I rode three times. So that's literally all I'd done. the first time I hopped back on the bike, it felt like I was almost riding with a hangover. Like, oh God, couldn't focus, couldn't ride in the ruts. And the second time I rode, it got a bit better and the third time was better also. So, yeah, I didn't do much, even like training off the bike and stuff, like pretty much just. Gave it all up for three weeks, you know, just let the head recover and obviously try to keep the body moving, go for walks and get the blood filing and stuff like that. But yeah, I didn't do hardly anything the weeks before, so I wasn't really sure how I was gonna go going into sixth day, but, Especially after the first test. I think my first test was not great. Pretty average, but after that I kind of pulled my head in and just tried to get some decent times down.

Speaker: 6:36

Cool. alright, well let's just jump into your sixth day. we've talked briefly then about day one and kind of getting yourself, back in the right head space to race a sixth day. day two, you guys jumped into second behind Italy. This might be testing your memory, but you guys jumped into second behind Italy. you were kind of the pace setter for Australia. Pretty much early on it was clear that for the junior team, you were gonna be setting the pace. What clicked on day two?

Speaker 2: 6:58

Um, yeah, I don't know. Everything kinda went really well, especially for me. I've pretty much started how I ended on day one, or we had the same tests and familiar, especially my bike at the moment. I dunno why, but I'm usually a really good mud rider. But over here in Europe, A lot of guys are good in the mud, in the wet sub conditions, It's kind of, not really so much an advantage for me'cause everyone's good at it. but for me this year I've been struggling a little bit with the sub conditions on the 300. I'm not sure. Why, but, um, just the, the mid power, it's really, gentle off the bottom, but in the mid it spins a lot with the bike. So we've been trying to work on that a bit. the track wasn't so slippery or wet day two and it just really suited me. Bike had handled unreal, conditions were perfect and tracks really suited me

Speaker: 7:43

Yeah, it looked slippery off Canberra. Watching some of you guys go at your speed. And coming into corners tentatively and then coming outta corners made me think you know, if they don't look like they're going as fast as they can, can you imagine what the rest of us would look like in conditions like that? Yeah. Was it as slippery as it looked for us back home?

Speaker 2: 8:00

Yeah, definitely. If you touch the brake, the back wants to slide. And even the tires we run over here, like we have to run the road. Legal tires like become standard on the KDM Wrs, you know? It makes it, you know, you can't lean the bike over, you gotta keep the bike straight and slide with it it's just different type of riding and it's nothing we really have in Australia,

Speaker: 8:19

So we came to day three, I think. Day three. You had more new tests on day three. Was there any rumor behind people taking sneaky lines on day three with all these new tests? Or was it just another day of fresh tests and nothing really outta the usual?

Speaker 2: 8:34

for me it wasn't so bad. I struggled on day three. we had all new tests. I started first in the front row with Verona and Garcia, so I was pretty nervous going into day three. and especially leading out the test, like one test, I started the test first. Wow. and I had no idea. There was no lines. I had no idea where I was going. So, it's hard. We had one test, which was in the rocks, and I struggled. I just didn't remember the test quite well and misjudged a few corners, like it's hats off to Garcia and like, you know, when they're leading the test out, first thing with no lines, it's completely different to where we go out. We've got their lines to follow and stuff like that. So, yeah, for me, I didn't really, like, I didn't have anyone in front of me really. So I didn't see the shortcuts. But, it was very slippery, so a lot of people were taking the bunting out and stuff like that, so yeah. Okay. yeah, the rain definitely played a big part for day three.

Speaker: 9:24

Yeah. Okay. So it rained the night of day two or on day three while you were racing. Yeah. And so what is, what's it like then You mentioned leading out in front of Gussie and Verona, those two, like we just discussed before. Gussie is on his sixth straight ISD outright win. and you are lining up there next to him. What, what's going through your head lining up in and around these two guys?

Speaker 2: 9:43

It was, a pretty cool experience. it was a bit of a dream come true kind of thing. always looked up to them guys, especially Garcia and Verona. they're obviously the two bets in the world at the moment, To be lined up against them, especially as a junior. It's, yeah, very, very cool experience. And I get along with all, like, all them really well. they're always good to have a chat too. They talk to anyone, they might be the fastest guy in the world but they're always willing to talk to anyone no matter how good you are. Yeah, it's pretty cool to line up and have a chat Had to have a good conversation to'em. Like they're your mates, so,

Speaker: 10:14

yeah. Okay. Let's talk, day five. Let's go to day five. more rain, I believe leading into day five. It was hard to tell. Yep. Day five. More

Speaker 2: 10:22

rain because Yeah. Tracks got chewed quite a short day.

Speaker: 10:25

Yeah. Short day Yep. It was slick. It was rough, maybe the roughest day, would you say on day five? how was your feeling? Body, head, space, you know, that's a lot of riding, but we got another day to go after that. I know it's just a motocross, but day five's gotta be the hardest day of a sixth day.

Speaker 2: 10:43

usually day five is the hardest day of the sixth day. Like, your bike's starting to get a bit destroyed, you know, grips are getting worn out. Even, you know, the bike's starting to get a few hours on. It's starting to feel a Bit used. but even also the body, you know, we've had four days racing before but yeah, the day five this year, to be honest, like other than the weather, it was probably one of the easiest day fires we've had. Okay. especially this year. We've had a lot of road riding this year, Usually the last two six days I've done, we've had a lot of trail and it's been like the gps, like you're always in the mountains doing single trail and where this year we had to do a lot of traffic, like we're battling through traffic up in the middle of the lanes between cars and yeah, A lot of road riding this year. So the bikes didn't really take as much abuse as what they normally do. And same with the bodies Even blisters on the hands this year, like nothing compared to what I've had previous years. And day five, like'cause of the rain we had, they cut the days shorter and. We only had four tests for day five, and one of them, I think the first one they cut, cut bits of the test off where it was too slippery and sketchy. And we had one on top of the mountain. They cut that in half too. Mm-hmm. So two of the tests were pretty much cut in half and shorter. And then we had two rocky indu tests, which we had on day four. So,

Speaker: 11:57

okay. And you mentioned, having to skip through the traffic and stuff. It was a bit more road time and highway time. When we see events like that. Like daca, right? All their bikes are speed clocked and they've got GPSs hanging off'em everywhere to make sure they don't do anything wrong. Yeah. That you don't have any of that on your bikes, right? So how when you guys are splitting traffic and going, are there rules around what you can and can't do on those public roads?

Speaker 2: 12:21

There are rules, but I don't know, it's really strange over here. It's not like home, like everyone's speeding, like shouldn't be speeding. But yeah, it seems like over here everyone does it and you know, riding up between the middle of cars and it's just crazy. Like if you did this at home, like the road rule, like the road rules are just completely different over here. It's crazy. But yeah, especially after a day. Was it day four we had to like, we were rushing to get back a little bit and yeah, it was crazy going through the middle of lanes, cars and trucks, especially when trucks coming the other way and it gets a bit, get bit very sketchy. but I had to follow rider with me and you know, when we do have a rush, you go follow me and follow him up.'cause he's Italian, he knows the road. So I'd just follow him Pretty sketchy though, for sure.

Speaker: 13:09

I think that's the side of the sixth day that we never get to see as spectators because the only footage we get, the photos we get, and when we are able to get there in person, we just cover the special tests that you guys are actually at. But there is this whole other element to a sixth day, which is that within a time to period, you gotta be at the next special test. Right? Do you prefer that part of the sixth day or do you prefer the special tests of the sixth day?

Speaker 2: 13:32

the special tests are really cool. that's probably the highlight I think. you rock up to the tests and there's people from all over the world, air horns and chainsaws, and it's, a feeling like you don't really even get at the gps. it's a pretty cool experience, People don't really see behind the scenes of, getting to the next test There's always a few, hiccups and dramas along the way that people never get to see. some people hit cars and, just crazy stuff like that. obviously a few dodgy things happen too, that we never get to know about. With other countries probably. when people, it is what it is. They're always trying to get to that finish line and they'll do whatever it takes kind of thing.

Speaker: 14:10

Yeah. And especially'cause they're against the clock. So it's like, you know, all the rules are off when you're against the clock as well. Yeah. It's awesome. Okay, so let's go to the final cross, the final motocross test. The Covo test, I think they called it. the chance to get into first position was it was a long shot. Yeah. Do you guys feel like you still had a shot at that, at taking down Italy in the junior?

Speaker 2: 14:34

No, we were in third position. Yeah. Um, co. Yeah. Corey, not many people probably knew, but Corey got very sick during the sixth day. he had what I had in Spain, like gastro,

Speaker 3: 14:45

yeah.

Speaker 2: 14:45

But yeah, that took a toll on the team, especially. I think it was end of day two, we started feeling pretty average and, took a knock to the head also, so he was going through wars pretty much all week, so super tough to even make it to the finish. All the boys are very proud of what he's done. And, to still get Team Australia on the podium at the end of the day was really cool. yeah. Big hats off to him. going into Final Moto, felt pretty good. we could catch up a little bit, but Italy had a decent lead. France had over a minute on us, nearly had. Seven, eight minutes over fourth. We just really had to get through and finish, which is what we did. Had a really good final motto. all three of us did really well, had a decent start. I ended up third on the final, which was really cool.

Speaker: 15:24

Yeah, I saw that. a minute in from the US in second. France. that's a big gap. that's almost impossible in a motocross to make up.

Speaker 2: 15:33

Well it is a six days. Anything can happen, you know, like a bike malfunction Yeah, there is a few rules going on. Italy did something they shouldn't of the junior team at the final. they didn't end up getting penalized for it, but I dunno if you remember the four day, a few years ago, Andy Wil got penalized a minute.

Speaker 3: 15:52

Yep.

Speaker 2: 15:53

At the start, you go into the work period and if you go in early, that's a minute penalty. Yes. Well, two of the Italian guys did it at the sixth day this year, going into the final day. Two junior Italians went in one minute early and the French guys were blowing up about it it didn't affect us too much'cause we were a fair bit behind. But we just did our own thing and the French guys were blown up about it. They got a video of it and Nothing ended up happening. But yeah, no one really, I don't know why. Did they protest it? Yeah. nothing ended up happening about it. But they really should have got a four minute penalty, both riders.'cause they went on their same minute after they went in a minute early.

Speaker: 16:30

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 16:30

So, yeah.

Speaker 2: 16:31

Which we would ended up second.

Speaker: 16:32

man, you

Speaker 2: 16:33

Yeah. I don't know. It's, I don't know what's going on there. We, we, we also pro protested. Chris Gray actually went up and we also protested, but nothing happened. Yeah. Okay. We can't do anything. Hats off to Italy though. They did ride well all week and obviously Tom said that they did win. but they did go in a minute earlier and they should have got the minute penalties, but nothing happened. Yep.

Speaker: 16:56

Yeah. okay mate, well look, that's a six day wrap. it's impressive result, mate, I reckon second and E two, that's your best result to date out of the three that you've done. And six outright mate is commendable. tell us a bit about the plan for, next year, the Kawasaki deal you got right now. Is that just a one year deal or is it gonna go into next year? What's the plan?

Speaker 2: 17:17

yeah, working things out at the moment. hopefully I should know within the next few weeks what the goal is with, with the team I'm on currently. I'd like to stay with the guys if I can, but, yeah, we'll see what happens. nothing's locked in yet for next year.

Speaker: 17:30

Well mate, thanks so much for your time today. it's been a pleasure having you on and hearing about the six day and what kind of went on behind the scenes we wish you all the best mate for, next year and for the rest of this year and we hope that things work out and you end up where you're meant to be for 2026.

Speaker 2: 17:45

Yeah. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me