Interview: GNCC Champion Paul Whibley
Shan Moore | November 14, 2012
Paul Whibley’s journey to this year’s Grand National Cross Country title took a funny turn at the next-to-last round in Indiana. After leading the series points standings for the first 11 rounds, the Kiwi off-road star curiously ran out of gas on the final lap of the Ironman GNCC – the penultimate round of the series. At the time his bike sputtered to a stop in the middle of an Indiana creek, Whibley was holding a modest but safe lead in the race and was on his way to building a comfortable gap over title rival Kailub Russell in the standings heading into the series finale at Loretta Lynn’s.
The whole gas snafu, however, dropped Whibley to an eventual fifth place for the race and catapulted Russell into the series points lead. It was the first time all year that Whibley had been anywhere but atop the points standings and it made for a very interesting final race, where the two combatants came in separated by a single point, and Russell holding the slim advantage.
There was plenty of anxiety to go around for both sides at Loretta Lynn’s – under Whibley’s Am Pro Yamaha team tent, and under Russell’s FMF/KTM canopy…
For the rest of the interview, see this week’s Cycle News by clicking on the following link:
http://cyclenews.coverleaf.com/cyclenews/20121113#pg65