Granieri is one of the best dirt jumpers in the world. We spent some time with him during Eurobike, and asked him a couple of questions...
Please introduce yourself to our readers.Hi I'm Yannick Granieri, I'm 24 years old, a professional mountain biker and I'm as French as a baguette!
The FMB World Tour is the pro world tour, it's the most important series in your discipline. You finished 7th, are you happy with your place? Yeah the FMB World Tour is the most important tour for us, and this year I ended up 7th, but I'm not that happy with that! I had such a good start to the season and then I made a mistake in Whistler, and from there it was the beginning of the end! Ha ha ha! After Whistler I was super pissed off against myself and it was hard to stay focused for the rest of the tour! Whatever, I'm still stoked with what I did during the season and I'm already burning inside to get on the podium next year!
What is your best memory this year?My best souvenir I had this season was when I got 2nd at Claymore Challenge! I crashed in the foam pit 2 days before the contest and I hit my shoulder really bad, I didn't know if will be able to ride! But my super mama doctor "Jamie Goldman" gave me some pain killers just before the final and everything went really good! I wasn't stressed at all, top and bottom went exactly like I planned, and I finished on the podium really, really close to Brandon! I was stoked, after that I knew that everything is doable! Best feeling ever to be on the podium!
What is your biggest regret?The worst time of my season this year was definitely Red Bull Joyride! I showed up there on my hardtail thinking that it will be rideable on this, and that was the first mistake! I had a good training day the first day, I did everything I wanted to do so I was happy with that, and then I didn't ride until the final (second mistake). The first training session the track was pretty wet and not finished yet. The final day was super dry which made the track totally different and way faster! The first warm up I had didn't make me comfortable 'cause I crashed 2 times! First time I over shot the first dirt jump and the second crash I 50/50'd the last drop! I was so angry against myself! I was like: "what that fu... are you doing yannick! stop being a gay boy and f*ck...g ride your bike like you know how to do it!" Also how stupid I was to not bring my slopestyle bike! Oh well it was a big mistake! So I crashed on my 2 runs and ended up dead last or something!
...also Red Bull District Ride! I still don't get it how come I can be that far away on the ranking! I'm not saying I should've been on the podium, but I deserved a higher score for sure! Flip whip middle set and flip whip the last big mama, 12th? If someone has the answer please send it to me!
You've done a lot of contests this year and it's difficult in these conditions to do some training and take a rest. How will you do it in the future?Yeah this year I almost did every single contest on earth! It's hard to travel everywhere and try to stay on the top 5 guys! 'cause you can't really practice that much during the season for us Euro guys! From May until October we have a contest every single weekend! So next year I'm only gonna stay focused on the big events and try to do a few French ones for some fun with my mates!
Some events like the Red Bull Rampage or the Chatel Mountain Style are big freeride events. We know you're more specialized in dirt jumping, do you like these kind of events? I'm more a dirt jumper than a big mountain rider, but the FMB World Tour put all these events together so now if you wanna be top 5 you have to be polyvalent in some way! So I did my first rampage last year, I tried my best, it was f'ing scary, the first to drop and then I got used to my big bike and I went for it! I had so much fun up there! After that comp I realized that mountain biking had still so much new stuff to try, and since that event I'm riding my big bike as much as I can, I love it! So next year I will be at Chatel and I will play on my bike!
Will we see you on a freeride bike soon?Yes I have got a new video project with Dakine and most of the video will be on my full suspension bike!
What are the tricks that you want to work on this winter?I've got a few new moves that I'm working on like a few new 360 flatspin variations and a few double tricks! I love doing tricks that no one does, it's so much better if it pushes the limit of the sport!
What are your major events for 2012?FMB World Tour, the new big event in France, the Kamikaze game in the 2 alpes! Our Euro Crankworx! I will be the designer of the slopestyle course! Be ready!
Apart from the bike, what are your passions and hobbies?When I'm not on my bike I love shredding my skateboard, or motorbike, pit bike, wakeboard, ski, snowboard, everything where I can get adrenaline! That's what I live for!
Peace out from France!
Yannick Granieri
Photos Credit:
Stephane Cande Yannick Granieri will be the last rider in the Fastfokus videos series, online in November on Pinkbike.
2011 Yannick Granieri sponsors :
Also euro crankworx??!
J'espère te croiser l'été prochain pour se refaire Vénosc ensemble comme lors de ma saison d'été, ou tout simplement pour un verre un de ces 4.
Arnaud G, le belge, l'ancien mécano de chez Camp de Base ;-)
Sacre bleu, Yannick, nice riding! Fromage de chêvre!
Are you riding a Trixer by now?
a really huge rider !
Perhaps it's because this is the only "hard" trick you've been doing lately. My opinion is that judges know that flip whip it's your best trick so you've been overdoing it.
If so Brandon should just scoring last, cause he makes everything look so easy.