I was always more of a country person. I never dealed well with the big city. I really like Ouro Preto, I feel comfortable here. It feels like home.
I believe that living within a beautiful view gives you great spiritual peace. That is why I like Ouro Preto so much.
My name is Bernardo Neves Cruz, I am 22 years old and I am a professional Mountain Bike athlete, born and raised here.
Our life has always been kind of hard, my dad always used the bike for transportation, and I always went with him through the streets of Ouro Preto,
sitting on the pipe of the bike. We used to go to the bakery, here and there... So, I grew up with the bike being part of my life, even if I did not plan for that.
Is it recording?
I would say that I am a bit of an anxious person.
I am getting anxious, dude.
I am a very agitated guy.
Let me fix one thing, wait a second.
I always want to do something but never give myself the proper time for it. I like to use my day to do my stuff, so I don't give myself a break. The guys say "you have to stop for a while." But I can't.
This is who I am.
I used to ride the bike for fun, for the adrenaline rush. When I was a young boy, I enjoyed the tracks and the slopes.
Then, there was this race in Ouro Preto, in 2005, I watched and found it very crazy, and I participated. Since then, I never stopped.
As the years went by, my will to do mountain biking grew more and more...
I started at the end of 2005, since then I have never stopped and, in 2007, I fell and everyone thought that I was never going to be able to walk again;
I lost a kidney, but I think it motivated me even more to want to ride a bike, and I love to do it, so I guess this incident would not make me stop.
I was Brazilian champion in 2009. Then I continued riding, I didn't expect to be the Brazilian champion, and that came naturally. And I saw that it was what I wanted for my life.
Living with the nature, the speed and the adrenaline encouraged me to stay in the world of downhill.
For me, family is everything: my parents, my sister, my girlfriend, my dogs... I really miss them when I travel. Sometimes they tease me up,
because I'm traveling and I call my mother asking about my dogs, then the she's like, "you ask about your dogs and not how your parents are doing?" Well, they are everything to me.
When Bernardo is not here, it is so empty. Bernardo is a very special child. Even with all that is going on in his life,
Bernardo does not change, and this is very important. I have a lot of admiration for my son.
Since I started having this professional life, I do not spend as much time at home as I did before, that is when you start to give more value to the family,
you see how much you can miss your family, and then, when I'm at home, I try to enjoy our time together as much as possible.
And if I spend a lot of time away from home, I miss that so much that I have to go back. Otherwise I start getting stressed. I like being at home.
Each person has to have a place to go back to, in which they feel safe. It is essential. You going back to the land where you were born gives you the feeling of being at home.
I always say that determination is the key word. Willpower, focus, that's it. You have to be determined with what you want.
I think that the dream of every athlete, not only in the mountain biking scene, like in everything else, is to be world champion.
We are motivated for the victory. I think no one in the world likes to lose, not even those who are not athletes. My life is a competition all the time,
so winning is the best thing in the world. Losing sucks, it is very bad. You can use the loss as experience so you don't make the same mistake the following time.
From now on, I want to continue dedicating myself more and more, and I want to be world champion. I know that it's a very difficult task, because I am new to the sport. The guys who are running
the World Cup have already been doing that for 10, 15 years, and this is only my 2nd year. But the guys have two arms, two legs, like me, so if I practice I can get there. They're no different from me.
What do I want? Several things. I want to continue my life without thinking when it will end and I want to win several races. And I will win. If God allows me.