Kabush takes the win in the sprint at the short track race. © Cyclocross Magazine
“Can you do an interview now?”
“Getting ready for hockey match at SCOTT tent. Swing by.”
Somehow, whether it involves renting an ice hockey rink and challenging … well, everyone … to hockey as Canada versus the World at the cyclocross World Championships, or just starting an impromptu hockey game at Sea Otter, Geoff Kabush will find a way to bring hockey into the equation. “We’re a Canadian-based team … It’s part of our culture, it’s just who we are,” he tells me. While we did sit down for a serious interview afterwards, hearing Kabush talk hockey shouldn’t be missed, and you can find that full interview below.
But we do talk about serious topics, like his win in the short track race on Friday at Sea Otter and his second place in the cross country race the next day. “I’m really happy with the short track, he says, but he’s still a bit upset about losing the cross country win by so little. “I’m still stewing a little about the cross country race yesterday.”
So, what happened in the race? “Well, blast from the past Miguel Martinez, bit of a character back in the day, not one of my favorite characters, went solo about five kilometers in. Quite impressive ride to hold off the entire group, we had pretty good horsepower … But in retrospect I probably should have laid my cards on the table a bit earlier. I went when I saw he still had 30 seconds about two kilometers to go. It was tough to come up about 40 meters short of the line and see that celebration.”
“I’m still really happy with the result, but it’s tough having that replay still going around in my head.”
But Kabush didn’t race the cyclocross race Saturday night for redemption, and says, “Cyclocross is for the fall. We’ve got so much going on, lots of industry stuff, lots of meetings, talking about all of our programs.”
After cyclocross Worlds, Kabush took some down time in Canada, training and spending time with his sister Danelle Kabush (stay tuned for an interview with her about Xterra racing and growing up with Geoff), then heading to California for some training camps and a race in Texas before Sea Otter. Now, “It really ramps up from here with this and then Whiskey 50, and the first couple of MTB World Cups.”
As a pro MTBer, Kabush is one of the racers most impacted by the USA Cycling and UCI ruling about non-sanctioned races, and with all of the latest drama surrounding it, he says, “I’m glad they had the courage to back down. It was all pretty ridiculous. A lot of politics in there. It would have been interesting to see it all come to a head at Whiskey 50. It might have resolved it for good. But thankfully everyone can focus on the racing this year but it’ll be a major issue after that, especially the enduro discipline.”
Goals for 2013? “It’s always the World Cups, and Sea Otter and Whiskey 50, and I’d love to get the National title back. There’s also some fun events like the Trans Provence. And with ’cross, have some fun, mix it up, maybe go to Europe, maybe visit Japan. We’ll see what’s fun.”
And the hockey match? “I’m pretty confident in my draft picks and my team. We’ll give it 100%. I think we can come out on top.”
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