DREW BEZANSON IN 2016, WHEN THINGS DON’T GO AS PLANNED…

In life, and specially in action sports, it’s hard to predict the future, or even the next minute. Everything can change in a second. So when Drew Bezanson planned to ride BMX AND MTB in 2016 events, he hoped he could handle both as good as he handles his career in BMX so far. Unfortunately, things did not go as planned, due to injuries. Still, the canadian phenomenon keeps his smile and motivation, and Edmonton seems to come at the perfect timing, in his homeland of Canada, we might have to witness some of the best performances : doing great at two different disciplines.

What happened since we met for this interview in FISE UP,  early this year ?

This year was definitely interesting trying to do both BMX and mountain bike, before the beginning of the year I had a schedule that could fit both, but I got hurt and it threw me in that crazy gnarly schedule where I go from one BMX contest to another MTB contest without having time in between. It leads me to, well not a failure, but it was definitely harder that what I thought, dealing with injuries all year. It was not ideal, frustrating I would say for me to show out at only 60% and to not be able to showcase what I can do on bikes, because I obviously wanted to do well on both.

What injury are you mainly talking about ?

I dislocated my shoulder on my MTB just before the Rocket Air in Switzerland, and had to miss FISE Montpellier right after that. I had to do rehab but I could not go home to do it properly because I had other obligations so I had to do pretty much my rehab at airports with my stretchy cable hooked at a random rail.

How was the return on your bike(s) ?

I had only one week on my bike before I went to Xgames, my shoulder was so sored, I did allright, went 4th, then went home, rode my mountain bike for a couple of hours, torn it apart, flew to the other side of the world in Austria for a contest, it rained 5 of the 6 days I was there. It has been a tough year, it definitely didn’t go as planned but I am looking forward to riding the comp here and moving forward.

Tell us about your experience in Denver where you did the longest icepick stall in the history of BMX competition hahaha ?
Hahaha yeah so we are flying to Denver for the first FISE in Northern America, it’s a big deal for everybody, I am hanging out with Andy buckworth at the gym before the qualifications, playing around jumping up on the exercice balls and then… I fall directly from the ball to the concrete floor, break a little piece on my pelvic bone. I could barely move my leg, so there was no way to ride properly. I told myself, well, there is one trick I know will not bother me during my run, I ended up sitting an icepick for my entire run, went to the hotel, change my ticket to fly home early, and that was it for Denver hahaha.

I hope you get luckier in Edmonton, what’s your plan here ?

I plan on riding both, BMX and MTB, I'm still not 100% because of small injuries but we’ll see how it goes, not putting too much pressure on myself. I will do both here, but not in Chengdu because I will be away the 2 weeks before doing shows with the US troops on my BMX so I don’t see myself taking both bikes on that one.

Does it change your airport routine to have two bikes now ?

It’s definitely heavier to have two bike bags to carry and one other big bag for all my clothes, but it’s not too bad because I travel so much that I managed to have a status with the airline company that I don’t pay for bags anymore.