Full Interview:

	12/11/2004
	Max Jaffa CHR
	Read on, you might learn something, or remember something you forgot, like why you started bike riding in the first place. Furthermore Max may well be regared as the gaffer but let me tell you there in nothing on a DH track that Max Jaffa cannot ride, i remeber the first time we went to Dunkeld, and a few people would not ride it due the severtiy, not Max Jaffa though-he took it on. What i''m trying to say is he loves the challenge....like all of us should..... Q. First things first,lets have your''e real name Max Jaffa/daddy. Michael Strangeways Q. Age???? Young enough to do it, old enough to know better Q. Okay you are viewed by most of the downhill team as the "gaffer", any comments?? Dunno how I got that tag, I just class myself as one of the riders....maybe its an age thing! Q. Gonna have the step-down at AE next year?? Never say Never........but I doubt it, maybe the coffin though. Q. Okay simpler ones, favourite track? Mmm I have 2, Dunkeld in the dry, Innerleithen in the wet. Q. Best result? Best position 8th SDA Pitfichie, best result 11th Scottish Champs Inner, it was a more competitive field. Q. Okay we know you masters are all sly buggers, can we expect to see you teaching Paxo (Mark Mclintic) any new tricks? And can he really challenge the French meister??? Yea now hes a master he will be entitled to his own chair and slippers in the pits. Seriously though on his day he will be as fast as anyone in Masters...so yea he can be a challenger. Q. After MCCarroll (mojo) which rider is most likely to try highly sophisticated mind games on the other unsuspecting masters? Too many to mention they are all wily old gits in Masters, all stretches and warm ups at the same time reaking of booze. Q. Tips on training? Feel free to turn into XC Jaffa at any point Hey I enjoy the nightriding and xc over the winter youd be surprised how many class descents there is out there in the middle of nowhere. As for training I like to keep myself fit but at the same time I don't do anything I don't like doing. Mind you I think for team members that are up there intheir categories and the younger ones who wanna get there (like yourself, Huggy, Tank and Paxo etc) you have to train hard to get those extra hundredths that matter at the sharp end. Q. So you and Shrek are probably the most evenly matched pair of riders (this season) time wise on the team, what you gonna do to beat him? He is getting quicker all the time and is 12yrs younger than me, its now got to the point where I will only beat him if he crashes as for what am I gonna do to beat him.......... lay off the brakes and pedal harder I guess. Q. What, in your eyes, is the DH team? (Apart from a dh team) To me its about riding and enjoying yourself with a group of friends who are all supporting and pushing each other to new levels, it's the riders that make the team not the team that makes the riders !! (I think that makes sense!!!!!!) Q. Who's you're favourite rider? Do old people have favourite riders?? Oi less of the old, favourite has to be Steve Peat to have competed at the level he has consistently for so long and for achieving what he has and still being just a normal bloke. Q. Okay then its only a mini interview so lets have one last funny story that's happened while you've bee at a race or out riding? (a bike) Shit there is so many, You should know you where with Huggy at every round of the SDA in 2002 as well!!!, most recently it will have to be when Paul Arnold was blatting down this big descent on his 7+ a couple of weeks ago about 3/4 of the way down he piled into a fence catapulting both him and his bike up and over landing bust on the other side, the funny thing was when he got up he saw that 2 metres to his right the gate was open hehehehhehehe. Q.Cheers Max Jaffa.

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