JeffWeed

Thanks man!

FYI when anyone (you, me, or anyone else reading this) submits an article to PinkBike, the PinkBike editors will go through it and will change things. The title is often changed by the PB editors, and it does makes some sense- the byline isn't nearly as visible as the title itself. And on mobile, the byline is hidden on the homepage. My submitted title was "Expectation vs reality: life as a professional EWS racer" but PinkBike decided to put my name first. A little awkward for me, as this is all about Evan, not me, but now that the article has been submitted I can't change it.

He's totally real. Makes it easy to cheer for him! Go Evan!

Thank you Ben! I'd love to get to the UK to ride, surely it'll happen one day!

@rrolly: Evan is a very good dude, its easy to cheer him on!

Thank you Jonny!

Thanks for the note! The GR9 (901) has been great for me. AFAIK, the 902 is the SPD version, which I rarely ever use (*clips are cheating, jk). And finally, the 903 is a lower price point, lace up, more flexible shoe. I wear the 903 for errands and working in the shop, but I don't ride with those much. The 901 and 903 are totally different, one is a high performance MTB shoe (901), and the other (903) is much more casual. It does not appear that the 901 is discontinued, but it could be very hard to get due to supply chain issues. I am not a complete expert in all the Shimano details, and I'm also not quite sure if I'm sponsored by Shimano anymore, it's a weird time, but regardless of sponsor status, I do like their stuff. Maybe a Shimano guru can let us know what the deal is? And correct me if the above is wrong? In general, I'm not that experienced with flat pedal shoes. I did use a few 5.10 shoes BITD, and they were great- a little bit stickier rubber than Shimano, but lace up only. That was almost 10 years ago now! Anyhow, Shimano was sponsoring me before I converted to flats, so I had some Shimano flat shoes on hand, but I have not yet tried any of those other brands you mention. Eventually!

Someone on YouTube mentioned he had passed- I had no idea! I'm not into sports, so I was trying to think of "famous sports star that someone Evan's age would know" and that name popped in my head. I do think the comment that most professional mountain bikers are very accessible is quite true- and pretty cool!

Hahaha! I thought his comments there were great! As Brian Lopes says, the blue trails always have the biggest gaps, too.

I honestly have no idea, as I'm not involved in Ibis product development. I would love to have an e-bike in my quiver though, and at the moment, three separate companies have promised ebikes "when available"- which means I still don't have one! There's now a bit more ebike trail access where I live, too, so things are starting to make sense to ride ebikes more often.