Yay! Wow!
Hey, you ***.
So I was like ***. I made him angry.
[LAUGHS]
This massive, massive crash. Whoa.
Is that the truth or not?
No.
You know everyone watching heard that and now
they're gonna smoke you. [LAUGHS]
[CALM MUSIC PLAYING]
I've come to Andorra to meet the man
who has won four of the last five World Championships.
The last three of those back to back.
COMMENTATOR 1:
ANNOUNCER 1:
ROB:
like no other rider in the modern era.
COMMENTATOR 1:
ROB:
winning the World Cup overall for the first time
and making him the first rider in over a decade
to hold both titles in the same year.
COMMENTATOR 1:
Let's see why Loïc Bruni is the undisputed king of downhill.
COMMENTATOR 1:
ANNOUNCER 2:
[LIGHT MUSIC PLAYING]
-Lolo. -Yeah, Rob.
-How are you, man? -Good.
-Good to see you. -How are you?
-Nice to see you. -Welcome to Andorra.
-Bit chilly. -So cold.
Get in the warm mate, let's get in the warm.
So it's been a while Loïc,
since we last had a sit-down and a proper chat.
Actually it was 2016 the last time we did this.
And you've had a huge amount of success since then.
And quite honestly,
I have to take a bit of the credit
because back then when we went around the back of your house,
I told you you were gonna win everything.
You will dominate, like win as the last few years.
That's what everyone's saying.
Told you.
Yeah you were right man. Exactly.
I'm gonna take you through some of your better moments
over the few years
and we're gonna start with your first World Cup win 2016 in Cairns.
-You were World Champion at the time. -But never won a World Cup.
You'd never won a World Cup. Let's look, it happened.
COMMENTATOR 2:
It is green.
ROB: Look how fast you carried man. Look at you.
And we pulled this semi-slick out of nowhere and no one had won.
-No one. -Because it was far away,
and it was so good.
[APPLAUSE AND CHEERS]
ROB:
I will choose world champ race over a World Cup round
but I waited so long before my first World Cup win,
that this one felt so special.
LOÏC:
So you won your first World Cup in 2016.
ROB: But the two following years,
World Cup wise were quite difficult for you.
Yeah, big time. I had quite a lot of little injuries.
You know the kind of things that takes you out for a while
and while the others are racing
and you just have to catch the train, and then it's so hard to get going.
Is it hard for you to manage your head in those periods
because you want to win, right?
Yeah and when I got injured these two years I was so...
sad and so disappointed in myself and so...
-Were you? -Yeah.
If you ask around me, I'm not someone extra confident.
It's mad to hear you say that, you're not confident
because you have come across to me as being perfectly confident.
By that I mean, there's no arrogance to you,
because some riders are bigger than in real life.
They have to be to perform.
But you are just you.
And yeah, I never see a weakness
in you mentally, but you do.
Yeah, for sure.
I've had a mental coach for like since 15.
-Yeah. -And then he saw all my mistakes.
How much of a difference working with mental coach made to you
than in a race run?
It's not only the race run, it's all the time.
-Is it? -At training,
in my life with my friends, my girlfriend, my parents.
-Runs that deep? -Yeah.
It's just kind of the thing that brought open my eyes on many things.
I try everything set all the time as balanced as I can,
when I get to the race I only think about riding fast.
Is there one piece of advice
that stands out the sport psychologist gave you?
Just one, one thing that really makes a difference?
Being focused on myself, stop caring about what other people think
and care about what you want and what you need to do.
And that's turned everything around?
Yeah.
You know everyone watching heard that and now they're gonna smoke you.
I have other cards up my sleeve. [LAUGHS]
ROB:
Maribor, you'd never in my eyes looked better than this.
Really?
ROB:
COMMENTATOR 3:
Look at the time! Bruni goes fastest!
But things can change very quickly.
Fort William, second round, and this massive, massive crash.
That your qualifying run?
LOÏC:
LOÏC: Yeah, that's like a tenth of a second inattention.
I just lost the grip and kept…
-Could've been catastrophic. -Yeah.
-Didn't think I would ride day after. -But you did.
LOÏC:
made the difference at end.
To be honest, this race here for you queued up
probably the best mountain bike World Cup season has ever been.
-Yeah. -You know what I mean?
How do you manage you know, that risk and that injury
because you need to be going as fast as you can go all the time really.
You have to always ride, at least I do,
always ride in my comfort zone.
Even in a race run?
Even in race run where I push but I never go over the limit.
I'm sure some tracks I can go faster
but I'm not sure I can finish the run.
You say that right, in 2009 I saw that as well,
because you kept your head.
And it would have been so easy with Pierron, your big rival last year,
and he was, I don't know he rides
maybe on a bit more emotion
or something like, he can just sometimes turn it on
and it must have been hard for you to manage him.
LOÏC:
He will not do well, then win one after.
LOÏC:
it was impossible to beat because he was riding all he had.
While I was trying to ride smart.
So, it was hard to balance.
And 2019 was a weird one in the fact that the World Cup finished
after the World Championship.
So you had one round to go.
I was trying to do one thing at a time.
We got to Mont Saint-Anne, everything was just focused on that race.
COMMENTATOR 4:
gets on track here in Mont Saint-Anne.
What is it about World Championships that brings the best in you?
COMMENTATOR 5:
I don't know, I feel like the one-shot run
is what I like, now or never.
COMMENTATOR 5:
It's Bruni!
Bruni becomes a three-time back-to-back World Champion.
LOÏC:
That was kind of the thing I didn't want from him
because after a race like this,
you will react to one of best runs you do,
you know, in Snowshoe.
So I was like ***, I made him angry.
ROB:
the last World Cup of the year. You went in number one plate, leader.
It's been an intense season.
You'd won World, you have the biggest title
-but you haven't got this one. -No.
ROB:
to win the overall World Cup
-and you came down in third place. -I know.
COMMENTATOR 6:
Either Danny Hart wins the race and I'm fourth, Amaury second,
I win the overall.
Either Danny is fifth or fourth after me and I win the overall,
but if he is second or third
and I get pushed to fourth while Amaury is winning, I lose it.
COMMENTATOR 6:
which means the World Cup does go to Amaury Pierron.
That run felt like 20 minutes.
-Did it? -Yeah.
COMMENTATOR 6:
So now the World Cup overall will go to Loïc Bruni.
Here comes Danny Hart.
Danny not supposed to be good at sprinting but he holds on and wins.
COMMENTATOR 6:
and it's Loïc Bruni that is the overall World Cup champion.
I can't imagine you wouldn't have cried after that.
It was so much there.
And then all the season just finished there you know.
LOÏC: It was done.
-I love Danny Hart since then. -Yeah.
ROB: And relationship with Amaury,
one of the best things to watch last year.
ROB:
As you've got bigger rivals, you've become bigger friends.
LOÏC:
As he progressed I've always tried to help him like yeah,
because he's super nice.
LOÏC:
-So you stopped helping him as much. -Yeah.
And then it started to be a really good relationship
because now we're on the same level.
LOÏC:
ROB:
Two Frenchmen battling, winning everything, nothing between you.
Then that last race, that last run of the last race...
-Yeah. Exactly. -...deciding the World Cup.
ROB:
I think probably a big part of that
is you're settled in your personal life with Malene.
Yeah, she's been kind of the little thing
that brings me back at each time in the zone,
because she knows me perfectly. I think I owe her a lot.
You make a good team. That's for sure.
I'm gonna go and see her down in Girona,
and then I'm coming back here to Andorra
and I might have something come up my sleeve for you, very special.
-Alright. I'm ready, man. -I've oversold it.
I'm on my way now to see Malene, Loïc's girlfriend.
He himself says that he wouldn't be so successful
without her in his life.
[LIGHT MUSIC PLAYING]
Malene, how are you?
-Good, thank you. -Nice to see you.
Nice to see the sun, nice down here.
-You want to go upstairs? -Yes.
Let's have a chat. How are you keeping?
MALENE: Good, good, good.
So, Malene, you're Loïc's girlfriend
and one of the top cross-country riders on the planet.
He says that you are also one of the biggest influences,
part of his success.
You think those two things go hand in hand?
For sure. We always support each other a lot.
And since we met, like, both of us just took a step up.
I think when he met me he saw, like, more for like an endurance athlete.
I think he learned something from me, like, seeing
"Malene sleeps from 10 to 8 every day."
-Yeah. -Like some routines...
-Yeah. -...that you need, nutrition...
-And discipline. -...and recovery and...
We try to train together.
But Loïc can't keep up, right?
Is that the truth or not?
No.
I can get my ego really happy on the climb...
-Yeah. -And he has ego happy
-on the downhill. -Perfect team then.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
How do you balance relationship and racing?
The races, we are both, like, agreeing that we are on duty,
like, we're doing our jobs.
When there is World Cup week,
it's more about the racing than the relationship.
And on Monday we come back home
and we are just Loïc and Malene again.
ROB: Yeah.
MALENE:
make it easier sometimes because we understand.
Like, I understand the pressure Loïc is under when he's racing
and racing for the World Champ title
or the World Cup overall, like.
I give him space because I know that I am his girlfriend
and he love me so much but I also know how much racing means.
Yeah. Is there one thing, one thing, that makes Loïc the racer he is?
That's a hard question.
I know it is.
It's actually almost impossible to answer but what do you think it is?
I think his ability to really put the focus in when it counts.
There's the past and there's the future, but there's also like now.
And I think Loïc is really good at being in now.
No, you're right.
But to win four of the last five World Championships,
you know, one run that comes around once a year,
can't contemplate how he's done it that many times.
-Can you? -No.
-...almost unbelievable I think. -Yeah.
-Got away. -Don't know what to say.
-It's just insane. -No. That's right.
ROB: There isn't much you can say about it.
Malene, Loïc is incredible at riding a bike fast.
Can he ride one slowly like walking speed?
Because I've got something I'm working on to surprise him.
Well, normally, he doesn't like it, no.
No. I don't think he will actually. But I'm gonna try and pull off anyway
and gonna see him again in Andorra.
And so fingers crossed. Malene, good luck next season.
-Thanks for your time. -Thank you.
Yeah, it's been amazing to talk to you.
You, too.
ROB: So living in Andorra is only the world's greatest
ever motorcycle trials rider and I know someone who knows him.
To get him out on a bike with me and Loïc
would be a dream come true literally.
So I'm going to make a phone call and see if I can make this happen.
Jose, have you had any luck?
Alright, I'll leave it with you.
You've got hold of him. Yeah.
He said what?
[LIVELY MUSIC PLAYING]
Loïc, you mentioned to me you got a trials bike quite recently.
So there's a special treat for you.
Ask me.
I've arranged for the king of downhill
to go riding with the king of motorcycle trials Toni Bou,
26 times a World Champ.
Loïc, get what you're riding down before Toni starts his ride.
Okay! Where is the ***!
ROB: Come on, Loïc. Yes!
Good. It's good control.
Pretty good.
It's not as easy as it looks, actually.
[LIGHT MUSIC PLAYING]
Wow!
Nice!
Hey, only with the clutch?
Yeah, clutch.
Yes.
LOÏC: Wow.
Now click it up, that's it.
Yes, Bruni! Woo-hoo-hoo!
-You look good, mate. -Yeah?
I've never seen you so far out of your comfort zone.
LOÏC: Hey you, stop the ***.
Christ Toni.
I think it's the altitude, not my fitness.
LOÏC: Wow.
That was pretty close.
I think we only do that once. That was close.
Oh, my God! Toni!
What ***.
How did you do that?
Can you levitate in real life?
Toni, it was as amazing as I thought it would be to watch you ride.
Thank you. What do you think Loïc?
Thank you. I'm depressed.
You know what, I knew I was bad
but now like I'm going to sell the bike, I think.
It's been great to see you for a few days, mate.
Gonna choke me to say but you're an incredible world champion,
an incredible ambassador.
You are dude, you're the man. You are the man.
-Thank you. -On and off bike.
It's good to see you winning.
You got another year?
Last year, it was a pretty stressful season.
Yeah, that was way too stressful.
It took me a while to get ready for this one.
-But I've seen you, -Did it?
gets me pumped and I'm ready I think.
Good luck mate. Bonne chance.
-Merci, my man. -Merci.
[LIGHT MUSIC PLAYING]
-ROB: Let's come back in one piece. -LOÏC: Yeah, we won't race-race.
ROB: No, ride around, that's a good idea.
Do you think you were faster than me?
Yeah, we did a little race and you were like…
Anyway it's been great. I think it's time we loaded up.
-Yeah. -Yeah.