Filip does his best teapot impression

We reckon it’s always best for an interview to put the questions that the readers would like the answer to. And not being ones to think too hard, we figured that the best way to do that is to get the readers to come up with the questions. So that’s what we did with XC World Champion Filip Mierhaeghe – all these questions came from BM members. Sorry if we didn’t get yours in. Oh, and sorry too to Team Chodski’s Indians – Filip declined your kind offer, he’s going to stick with Specialized…

Bikes

Without sponsor pressure, would you choose hardtail or full suspension? And does it really make a difference?
I choose full suspension. I wanted [the choice] in my contract because I am a racer with a competitive mind and for me it is important to win races. To do that I have to be able to race the bike I want to race. If I think I have 1% more chance of winning the race with a hardtail, I will race the hardtail. I know a lot of people think I have to race the full suspension and of course Specialized would like me to race full suspension, that’s obvious, but in my contract I am free. Last year I did the Swiss Cup in Lugano, when we just got the Epic two months before. I was still in a period when we were testing them so I was not expected to ride one, but after I saw the course I thought it was definitely an Epic course. And for me now almost every course is an Epic course because I feel so good on it. With the World Championship last year in Kaprun Specialized asked me to ride the Epic, but I didn’t have to so I chose to ride the hardtail, because there was so much climbing – I said to Specialized that I needed the lightest bike I could get. But this year I went back to this course and I didn’t even try my hardtail. It’s still a climbing course but I feel good on this bike. It’s simple.

Is it good to know the hardtail is always there just in case?
I said to Susan that maybe next year I do not think that I will need the hardtail anymore.

Do you ride the Epic normally, or do you have other bikes, like an Enduro, at home?
I have a hardtail and an Epic. I would like to have an Enduro for fun rides. If I go on fun rides now I always go on the Epic. It is so much more fun to ride on a full suspension. When it comes to the races, I don’t know how contracts work with other teams, but with my contract I can choose which bike I ride. Each week it is my choice whether I ride the hardtail or the Epic. This is a good thing because it pushed Specialized to develop an XC full suspension bike that really works because it is up to me to choose. I did not even try the hardtail at Lugano. At St Wendel I did a practice lap on both bikes and I was very sceptical about the Epic because it was such a fast race, but even there the Epic felt better on the fast parts because I could sit down and pedal. With the hardtail you are working a lot more than you realise, even over the little bumps. You can go fast and it feels fast but you are so much more relaxed on a full suspension. Since St Wendel I have raced the Epic all year at every race.

Were you involved in the development of the Epic?
Not really, maybe they took into mind a lot of feedback we gave them on the FSR, which I thought was a really good bike. I rode the bike all the time on fun rides, but I didn’t think it was the perfect competition bike. We were free in our contract and we chose the hardtail. I think this is a good thing for a company to do because when we choose to ride full suspension they will know they have a very good full suspension bike on their hands.

Have you ridden a Specialized BigHit?
No, but I have been looking at it a lot and I would like to. I would like to do some freeriding.

Do you think you would be good at it?
No, but I would like to try it. I would be good at it to some point, but not the extreme drop-offs that they do. I am afraid of heights and it would scare me too much.

Do you expect to see more 29in wheel bikes used by World Cup racers, now that they are UCI legal?
I am not in favour of 29inch wheels being allowed in racing. First of all it is so difficult for the market to adapt – brakes, forks, everything has to be adapted. I think it is rude they have allowed that, maybe they want to evolve it more like cyclo-cross. Also, the length of race, some people want them shorter. In one or two years it could be just like cyclo-cross – one hour races with cyclo-cross bikes. It’s two completely different sports and it’s a difference in length. One hour is a resistence sport and two hours is an endurance sport, [and it’s a] completely different athlete who does these two things. So I don’t think we should evolve into shorter races or to 29in wheels. They will be allowed from the first of January, I hope they will be disallowed from the second of January. There was a questionnaire to all of the teams and I think 90% of the teams said no and then it was approved. Why have a questionnaire? I cannot understand that.

Filip in action at Fort William (Bigger pic)

Racing

What is the most important thing you take with you on every ride?
I have nothing. I try to remember to take an inner tube but that is about it. Sometimes I forget and it’s always when I forget I get a flat tyre.

How often, and how hard, do you really train?
Every day. I think I train harder than most other riders, not so much in hours but in intensity. I do extremely hard training, and I think this gives me a mental advantage on race day. Other people tell me that I train very hard, even my trainer says that I am crazy with my programmes. I suffer more in training so I have to suffer less in racing…

Do you see MTB racing as an extreme sport?
No, because maybe I am into it too much. It is a very beautiful, fun sport. I can see people from outside may think it is dangerous but not for us as we are under control, you know. We know how to ride a bike. Even the downhillers, it may look dangerous, but they have everything under control, even to them it must not seem extreme anymore. Maybe freeriding is getting extreme now with the organisations they have and the drops that they jump off, that’s different.

Where do you see XC racing in ten years?
I know that there are people who want to have shorter races. I am not in favour of this, I would like to see it as it is now. Maybe, the way downhill has 4X, XC can have a short circuit also. Maybe it will evolve into longer marathon races. The mad thing is that mountain bike races use to be long, three hour races, but they evolved into shorter and shorter races, so maybe the same thing will happen to the marathon races where they will become shorter and shorter. I think we have to pay attention to preserve the nature of MTBing and not change it too much. I think it is fine as it is and I would like to keep it like it is.

Should pink Lycra be outlawed by the UCI?
No, I like colours like that. I wouldn’t wear pink Lycra, but if it is a good looking woman on a mountain bike…

Is there good camaraderie among the riders at the start, or is focusing on the race too important?
At the start I am very focused. There is some kind of friendship always, but most riders are too focused. Like I said, I have to shut myself off. At the beginning of most World Cup races I have my head on my handlebars so I am not looking to anybody. After the race there is good camaraderie amongst most of the riders.

Did you have that feeling at the World Champs? Did you know that you were going to win?
No, I didn’t have that feeling. I have that feeling a lot but I didn’t have it at Lugano. I knew I had a very good chance and I felt very strong. When I knew I was closing 20 seconds per lap on the leader I knew that it could be my day. At the world championships I did not want to be sure because so much can happen especially as the course was so rocky that I did not want to have a flat tyre or make a mistake and crash. It was a difficult course to ride. I only allowed myself to be sure 500m from the finish line and that was just grass.

Are you riding cyclo-cross this winter?
No, I rode some last year but this winter I don’t want any competition. I want to take a break from competition.

Meirhaeghe faces the post-race press

Which would you value more, the World Championship, being World Cup champion or Olympic champion?
Definitely Olympic champion, it’s the highest in sport you can achieve. Olympic champion, no doubt.

Is that your goal now?
It’s the only goal. I wouldn’t want to give away either of the others, but if somebody said beforehand, make your choice, I would choose Olympic champion.

What do you see yourself doing in ten years time?
I have no idea. Really. It is so far away. I know I will keep racing for the next few years but that’s it.

Are cross country riders glorified roadies?
People that say that, don’t know anything, they don’t know what they are talking about. Cross country riders are good riders. If you put a roadie with us on a mountain bike you will see the difference. They can’t even turn right. It’s weird but I say that they can’t ride a bike. They can ride a bike on the road and they can go fast and stuff like that, but what we call riding a bike, they cannot ride a bike at all. We go fast down hill in races with the seat up high, with the heart rate up high. I would like to see a lot of good downhill riders do the same thing. Go as fast downhill as we are in the same conditions. They would be surprised. I am sure we would beat a lot of them.

What do you think is worse, a flat tyre on the last lap, or a complete mechanical failure at the first lap?
Complete mechanical failure on the first lap, definitely!

Do you find racing as draining mentally as it is physically?
Racing is not draining mentally, but the training and preparation is. I think physically I could race a lot longer than mentally. I think that will be the reason I will stop.

Given the choice between an XC World Cup race and a ride in the countryside with some friends, which would you choose?
If it is going to be a good World Cup race for me then I will choose the race, if it was to be a bad one then I would choose the ride. I am a racer, I have a very competitive mind.

Given the success of mountain bikers who’ve gone to road recently, have you ever been tempted?
I have never had an offer of really good money for the road, so its different there I guess. In my heart I am a mountain biker and this is important to me. I have a lot of fun on a mountain bike, just doing normal rides, singletrack rides. It’s so beautiful, you realise you are alive. I like racing on the road and I do it to get ready for mountain bike races, but only for a couple of weeks at a time then I have to get back on my mountain bike. I am a mountain biker in my heart. I started as a mountain biker and I will die as one.

What about as you get older?
No, I race on the road now, as I do every year, but to go only on the road? No. I am a mountain biker and that’s it.

What do you think would help encourage more people to take up the sport?
They need to get it on TV more. That’s the same with every sport. We are always fighting as mountain bikers to get our sport more in the spotlight. In Belgium the world championships were live on TV for two and a half hours, but we need more than this because as a product it is very good. Downhill is very spectacular, and they can make very nice programmes about cross country. This way it could get people into riding just for fun, not competition, but this is how it starts. It was great for Belgium with a first and a third. A lot of people who were not really into mountain biking got interested and are going to follow it a lot more now.

Filip on Filip

If you could ride only for one more day where would you go and who would you go with?
I would like to ride slickrock in America even though I have never been there. It is supposed to be very beautiful, smooth and fast. And I think I would like to ride with Jesus, he looks like he was a cool guy and I am sure he would have liked mountain biking. He would never fall either, and be so smooth when he was riding.

Why are you nicknamed Popeye?
At the beginning when I started riding for Specialized, the team manager came up with the name of Popeye because I was more muscley than most other cross country riders. There was a World Cup race in Germany where, when I was crossing the line, my arms looked really big so it stuck.

Anne Brown would like to know if you are married? Seeing anyone?
I am not married. I have a girlfriend, Susan. She works as team manager for the team so she comes to the world cups with the team. It is great, we get to see each other all the time because we work together.

What is your biggest vice?
I don’t do anything bad, I am a very boring person. I used to go out every now and then, but that was years ago. I would blow up and go out and get drunk but that’s over now. I would feel it in my training for up to two weeks, it was bad. Most of the time I am really focused on my goals – in the past few years I have been desperate to win more and more. You have to stay focused or you can’t win.

A lot of people have commented on how approachable you are – Thomas Lining said, “Filip is a true champion, I am the Race Director for the Youthcycling.com team, and at Mount Snow this year Filip took time to invite our boys up to his condo and talk with them about racing, riding and training – they will forever remember it!” We’ve heard of other riders being unapproachable – do you think race focus has to stop you from being a nice guy?
When I am focused I am thinking only about racing, but when there is time I think it is important for the fans to be able to reach their idol. I consider myself to be just another rider. I don’t like people who think they are more than somebody else. I cannot allow myself to think I am more than somebody else, and I honestly don’t think that I am more than anybody else. I just happen to be able to ride my bike faster than, at the moment, all other riders, but that doesn’t change me as a person. So, it’s normal for me to be available. Before a race I try to stay really focussed, and it is in my nature to stop and talk to people so it takes a lot of energy to shut myself off. Before the start of a race I would have to look only to my team mate’s wheel to get to where we were going and not look up, because I know if I did I would be distracted. It makes me happy to see these kids, they were proud and they were very happy. It is easy for me to go and sit on the couch and talk to them for a while. It gives me energy also.

Where do you ride just for fun?
I love singletrack. I went to America last year in December, we went to Colorado and California and did some singletrack rides that were just so beautiful. In Lugano this year there was some singletrack that we could take back to the hotel, just for fun. Sometimes the national team would wait until everyone was finshed, then they would come to the Specialized stand and we would ride home together on this piece of singletrack. It’s beautiful, this is what is all about, this is what we do it for. I still love riding my bike just for fun.