JARED GRAVES: Every year's a bit different with the travel.
In ways, it's good.
In other ways, it's bad, especially
coming from Australia.
Yeah, we spend probably 150-plus hours
in a plane every year for six hours
total race time in a year.
It makes you want the results and stuff like that
and to work hard, because you know you're not just
going to a race down the road.
You're traveling halfway around the world.
And when you're on a plane, you think of that a lot.
INTERVIEWER: How was your flight?
JARED GRAVES: Oh, long, man-- so long.
It takes forever to get here.
I think it's like the furtherest you can possibly
go from Australia to get here.
We're here now.
I think I'm awake.
I think after all the years of traveling,
that I've sort of got my routine down pretty good,
like to learn what your body adapts to quickly
and how long it takes to get over the jet lag.
The jet lag's doing its thing, as usual.
I was up at 4:00 AM this morning.
So I've just gone for a bit of a spin to wake the body up.
It's raining, which I'm actually happy about.
It's good to get out in some sort of wet, cold conditions,
because it could be like that all next week.
Getting out there and doing something positive
is what has to be done sometimes.
It doesn't matter what the weather's doing.
Just going out for a spin in the pouring rain,
or it's cold, windy.
I'd rather be doing that than sitting on the couch watching
TV all day.
The first two rounds went crap.
There's a lot of positives to take out.
I hate that sort of cliche saying.
But I was riding well.
I felt good on my bike and everything.
A couple seconds off getting myself in a podium spot,
and then two snapped chains in the last two stages--
back eighth-- pretty disappointing way
to start the season after the whole four-month training
build-up, new team, everything.
And then the crash I had an Argentina was a rock
that the rider before dragged on to the track.
Like, I didn't even know this a microwave-size rock was
in the track.
I pretty much got back to the pits,
and even within five minutes of the crash,
everything was starting to seize up.
I felt like I'd been hit by a bus.
It took me five minutes to get out of my jersey sort of thing.
And honestly, I had a bit of a teary there.
Again, there was more this feeling came over me of you
mess around, that's any chance of winning the title down
the drain.
I'm sitting in 28th overall right now.
But, yeah, as far as motivation goes,
probably no different now to what it would have been,
had the first two rounds gone to plan.
I'm nothing in the gym like now what it used to be.
I used to be that meat-head guy in the gym that his angry face
on and had don't-talk-to-me sort of thing.
I've definitely lost a bit of max strength from those days
with also losing 17 kilos.
Though I can still jump in the squat rack and squat 190
kilos without even being in the gym for six months.
All the years of doing it in the past
are still a benefit for me now, so it's worked out well
like that.
We landed on Friday.
The plan was to go Bike Park Ireland Saturday, Sunday.
We were hoping for wet weather, which is exactly what we got.
So that was perfect.
Just coming from home, just trying
to get your head around just mud and that again,
I feel like it takes me a little bit to adapt to mud and stuff.
Give me a couple of days, and I feel comfortable and confident
on it.
We had a great weekend.
Got out of it exactly what we wanted.
And I think that this trip's been perfect.
Paddy Behan, Team Manager, he's one-of-a-kind really.
He's always told us about his house.
It's just cool going there and seeing
like a homely environment.
It just makes you feel more at home.
It's cool to get in that environment straight away.
PADDY BEHAN: We're here at the third round of the year
at the Enduro World Series.
And it's great.
It's here at home in Ireland in Wicklow.
Jared and Curtis, they came a little bit early, and Hannah
came in just this week.
It's been a long build-up, but now the race weekend's here.
Everyone's happy and ready to go racing.
JARED GRAVES: I think the key to this race is just racing well.
Every stage is all about carrying a momentum
through every section into the next.
Running smooth but aggressive, and just
putting it together on the day, that's the key.
I've got some cut through my tire.
And then I've done some pretty irreparable damage to the rim,
just riding it through bolder fields.
There's no air in the back tire.
I don't know what to think right now, just racing, man.
The ups and downs of racing.
PADDY BEHAN: He thought the flat was OK.
It held up, and he went on a little bit more
and hit another rock.
And that's what finished the rim.
So he has to take a time penalty now for us replacing the rim,
but let's see how it works out.
Maybe he'll smash the last three stages
and go out with a little bit of a high.
JARED GRAVES: That was a lot of fun.
The crowd's insane.
The weather came out for us-- good experience.
The race might not have gone to plan,
but as long as you're giving your all, trying hard,
do everything you can.
But if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out.
I'll leave here with good memories of my first trip
to Ireland.