Matt Donovan
by Kyanna Sutton
Pro Mountain Biker
Q: When did you first start mountain biking?
I started off racing BMX bikes when I was four years old. I raced those right up until I was about 16 because when I got into high school I got into other sports, like wrestling and football and didn't pick up another bike until I was 20.
Q: How much time do you spend training?
During the season, I spend anywhere from two to three hours a day going to the gym and I ride a lot of motorcross dirt bikes; they're great cross-training tools. I also ride a lot of road bikes, and do some road racing -- it definitely helps with the cardiovascular fitness end of mountain biking. All in all I train 5 days and about 15 hours a week.
Q: How much money do you spend on equipment and gear?
Right now my sponsors really have me covered but when I first got into downhill racing about 3 years ago, my first real bike cost me $2,800, plus all my gear: helmets, body armor, gloves, lubes, and everything. That first season probably cost me, parts and everything, about $4,000.
Q: And you do all your own bike maintenance, right?
Yes, I'm lucky that I get to take care of my own stuff. This season I am gonna be hooking up with major sponsors so I won't have to maintain my steed as much, especially when I'm out West, which is invaluable to me just because the less stuff that I have to worry about, the better.
The key to making a bike last is maintenance, but a professional bike mechanic becomes another expense.
Q: What's a typical purse of prize money for downhill?
In local races, it's not much, anywhere from $350 to $500 per category. It doesn't sound like a lot of money, especially when you compare it to sports like tennis or golf and then you compare that to the money that pro football or baseball players get. But in this sport, you don't make your money in races. Money in extreme sports comes through endorsements.
Q: Do you get injured often?
When I first started out, my second season was very injury-laden. I had two concussions, a separated shoulder, a broken hand, multiple cuts and lacerations, and I cracked a rib. But that season I wasn't training like I do now. I wasn't in the shape I needed to be in. I am much more ready and less brash than I used to be. And you learn how to fall, you really do. You learn how to absorb the shock when you hit the ground. Everyone learns to fall in their own way to avoid injury.
Q: Do you consider your sport extreme?
I think there's mountain biking and there's extreme mountain biking. Your average rider will fall in the mountain biking category. But extreme is really in the eye of the beholder. To someone who's just started, riding off a three foot little cliff is a big deal -- to them that cliff is extreme. But extreme to me means something different. To me, extreme is riding my bike at 55 miles an hour down a ski slope.
In a dual slalom race you go up against some of these obstacles and you really have to question, "Why am I doing this; do I want to do this, this bad? Do I want to risk that type of injury?" You really have to ask yourself, "Am I really that extreme, or am I going to go to that extreme to win this race or to make my sponsors happy?"
Q: Why do you do it?
I love the adrenaline. I think most extreme athletes, whether they're motocrossers or downhill mountain bikers, skydivers, extreme kayakers -- whatever -- it all revolves around adrenaline. I have a friend, when people ask him, 'What do you do?' he says, 'I'm an adrenaline junkie.'
And there's nothing like that feeling, that high that you get after you've accomplished something that when you first looked at it, you went "No, there's no way I can do that." Or other people will tell you "No, you can't do that, that's too hard, it's too extreme," so you go out and you do it and you say, "That wasn't so bad." So I think the motivation for extreme athletes comes from a combination of things, but adrenaline is the driving force.
