It’s been a roller coaster season for Cody Webb after suffering foot and knee injury at ErzbergRodeo in May slipping his AMA EnduroCross run this year. The FMF KTM Factory rider spends his time on a couch potato for recovery and preparing for return to get back in race.
Starting the season, Webb won the first round of the series with having little preparation time. In round two at Costa Mesa, Webb suffered an injury on his shoulder in a practice crash but later got the win in a dominant fashion in Reno for round three. After the three rounds of great finishes, Cody Webb talks about his current run on the season.
Cody Webb said: “I slammed the ground the Thursday before Costa Mesa, so I was all beat up before the main event. I think just, mentally, my head really wasn’t in the game that day. I just rode really tight and uncomfortable so it showed in my results. I led the first little bit of the race and didn’t have the pace to match Colton there. He was riding really solid that night. So obviously I needed to regroup and had to get myself back in the game. I kinda feel like I got lucky at Prescott to get the win. I just put in the hard work that I wasn’t able to leading up to the series and I know I only had one week, but it was enough to get my confidence back again. I rode every day in between Reno and Costa Mesa and I had Trystan [Hart] at my house with Cooper Abbott and Cody Miller and we were just laying down moto after moto because, to be honest, I still felt like I wasn’t in racing shape, intensity-wise, after breaking my foot. “
Interviewer: “What does that do for your confidence when you’re training with Trystan?”
Cody Webb: “Riding with Trystan is really good because he’s such a determined young rider right now; he really wants to make that break to be a top guy. We’re doing motos on my track and Kacy Martinez’s track and a couple other tracks in Nevada, and every time we ride we want to be competitive. I was definitely really bummed to see him get hurt because he’s a really nice kid and he’s been working really hard and he’s riding really well right now. It sucks that he went down like that in the heat race. So we start with a gap between us and he doesn’t want me reeling him in and I don’t want him closing the time on me. It causes us to both really push. We both end up excelling.”
Interviewer: “What was the way you had with the Matrix in Reno?”
Cody Webb: “Colton, in terms of raw speed and aggression, I feel like he pretty much has me covered. I try as hard as I can but I can’t quite match his raw speed. But if it comes down to a technical sketchy line like that, I feel like I have the confidence to nail it. I think I jumped [into the Matrix] every lap in the main event, which was saying something, because in Costa Mesa I could barely even hold on about two-thirds of the way through the race. I just felt more comfortable and know I can hit those sketchy lines. Definitely the Matrix helped me get that win in Reno.”
Interviewer: “It almost seems like the key is to jump over the tougher obstacles rather than ride through them?”
Cody Webb: “Yeah, a little bit. It depends on the obstacle. Like at home I can jump my whole wood pit, but I focus on going through it because it’s such a pain in the butt and sometimes you need something to ruin the flow. In Costa Mesa we were jumping up the whole rock garden pretty much – it was a little too easy, I think. But in Reno, that rhythm I had through the Matrix, it wasn’t like I was jumping the whole Matrix. I was tire-tapping my way through it. It was a really high-risk line that saved a lot of speed. But it’s gone both waysThat was more of a technical thing versus an all-out, go-for-it mentality.”
Interviewer: Well, you sure made it look easy on it, huh?
Cody Webb: “Honestly, it was easier than just getting through it, like double, double, double. It doesn’t make sense, but it made the track easier for me!”
Interviewer: “What else has helped you gain the edge this season?”
Cody Webb: “This year I changed the way I’ve been doing starts. I pretty much holeshotted two of the three main events this year, so that’s helped a lot. It makes life a lot easier when you get a good start.”
Interviewer: “At this point, what is it going to take to clinch the championship?”
Cody Webb: “The biggest thing is confidence. I knew I didn’t have enough EnduroCross motos leading into the series, so in one week I did, like, triple the amount of 12-lap than I did all season leading up to it, just because of being hurt. I’m getting back in the game. My confidence is rising.”
The round four of 2018 EnduroCross season will return in action on October 20 at the National Western Events Center in Denver, Colorado
