Offering an excuse over a week before race day, local racer Sean Kickbush (M22) reportedly just heading out to enjoy the trails.
Speaking from a squatted position in the back of his Chrysler Town and Country, M-22 superstar Sean Kickbush told reporters he would start the second race of the Short’s Brewing Fat Bike Series on February 11 without any ambitions for a race win. Far from it, he explained; “It’s been a busy few weeks and I’m really just heading out there to enjoy the day. No pressure. Just going out to have fun”.
In spite of his dedicated training, putting upwards of 30 hours a week on the bike and a carefully prescribed diet of individual rice grains and prunes, Kickbush insists the second race of the Series will just be “for the heck of it”. He was second at the Series opener, Fat Chance! at Crystal Mountain, where only a flying Jorden Wakeley finished ahead of him, and a resounding sixth at the Fat Bike National Championships just this past weekend.
A poster of himself, camera close up, with a hand-drawn crown on his head and a SBFBS medallion around his neck, contradicts his laid-back claims for next weekend. As reporters asked him about his long-term goals, Kickbush engaged himself in a series of push-ups, much like Terrell Owens begging for a contract some years ago. By all accounts, Kickbush’s regimen of having his wife and children slap food out his hand between meals isn’t the behavior of a rider simply riding for pleasure. Nonetheless, Kickbush really wants you to think he’s just going to hang back and enjoy the race, not to mention the Short’s Brewing Co. beer tent afterwards.
“Hey bro, I just want to get out there, have some fun, and throw back a few brewskies with my broskies after a great day in the woods. Now let me show you all the cup holders my Town and Country has!”