Anthony Napolitan- 2006 San Jose Dew Tour Greg Weatherall © 2006 Lat34
Anthony Napolitan Gets Personal
Sep 10 2007 / San Jose, CA
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Lat34: How did Thursday’s Prelims in San Jose treat you?
AN: At first, I was a little nervous just because I was in Prelims and my first run put me in 10th. But then [after Round 1] I got bumped out of Finals completely. But, I held it together and put together a good run that put me in 7th.
Lat34: How was the course? How do you think it’s going to affect everyone for Friday’s Finals?
AN: The course is so much fun. The drop-in’s fun. I like drop-off roll-ins. And the course is different because there’s those first two hips. It’s going to be harder to ride for a contest because there’s not too many tricks that you can do consistently over two hips in a row. There’s going to be a lot of focus on big tricks on the last two jumps.
Lat34: How are you feeling with your position in the overall standings in the Dew Tour?
AN: Well, overall I’m in first which is a good thing. You know, I think Luke [Parslow] is 28 points behind me, and that’s pretty close. But, Dirt’s been so inconsistent with first place wins this year that’s it’s really hard to tell who’ll win. Luke could win. But, Ryan [Guettler] put together a really good run. So, who knows? If Ryan wins the Finals, I’ll still be in first. If Luke wins, and I place in the top three, then I think I’ll still be in first. I don't know. We'll see.
Lat34: What about Cameron White? Is he in contention?
AN: Yeah. Cam White! His run was so good in Portland. It was ridiculous. Triple whips! It was really good.
Lat34: What’s your biggest strength as a rider?
AN: Consistency. A lot of riders have some iffy tricks that they do. And I’m pretty thankful that I can do tricks that might be iffy to some people. And I think that’s been helping me out a lot this year.
Lat34: What’s your big weakness?
AN: Well, for this contest [San Jose], I think it’s tricks on the first jump. It’s a hip to the left. I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to do in the Finals for that jump. In my qualifying runs I did an x-up to turndown over it. And in practice I tailwhipped it. But, even though a lot of people are doing little tricks like that on the first jump, I need to come up with something better.
Lat34: What music are you listening to during your runs?
AN: I’m listening to the Gorillaz. The song’s called Dare. I like it because it’s real upbeat and it’s got a fast pace to it. I was going to change it up to a different song, but I forgot my iPod.
Lat34: Working on any new tricks?
AN: Yeah, there’s some new tricks I’ve been working on. Not too hard. But, I just wanted to stay focused on the tricks I have right now. There’s a few upcoming tricks that if I can pull them off will be pretty huge. But, we’ll see.
Lat34: What other Dew Tour sports are you following?
AN: I’ve been watching most of the contests. I haven’t caught much of the FMX. But, try to catch my good friend Daniel Dhers, who I live with at Woodward. And Chad Kagy, Kevin Robinson, Jamie [Bestwick]. I try to follow Ryan Sheckler. We’ve become pretty good friends over this past season.
And then the BMX Supercross yesterday. Those guys are fast! I never raced when I first started riding. It’s a totally different lifestyle. It’s like we’re not even the same sport.
Lat34: Any major plans for the off-season?
AN: I don’t know. I like traveling a lot. The off-season will be fun. It’ll be a nice little break where I won’t have to worry about points standings. I think I might take a little New Year’s trip to Hawaii. Hang out with Catfish [Zack Yankush], Big Island [Mike Castillo], Steve Swope and Mat Hoffman. So, that’ll be fun.
