106 http://www.racerxonline.com
like I never passed someone
past the halfway point before.
Maybe that same person...
I know that a lot of people talk
about that person’s father, but
I’ve never raced that father,
nor do I really care... .”—
were, according to Baggett,
directed at those in the media
he felt were slighting him and
other riders. Instead, it ignited
what has been perceived as
a war with Eli Tomac, a rider
Blake has never—and, ac-
cording to him, still doesn’t—had a beef with. Comments
in subsequent post-race
interviews about crashing
in the fi rst corner and being
able to come back to podium
positions exacerbated the
tension.
“That’s just him being
excited,” Keleigh says. “He’s
not trying to be arrogant.
He’s a blunt and happy
person.” But if it’s meant to
get people talking and create
buzz, he’s certainly done an
excellent job.W
orking with
Team Rocky
Mountain has
been good for
Blake. He does best when
he’s surrounded by people
who listen to him. He’s not a
demanding athlete; he just
knows what works for him.
“We’re all understanding
each other, is the best way
I can describe it,” he says.
Coming from a family of
builders, the amount of prod-
uct Baggett had available to
him on day one impressed
him, and he appreciated it. “I
would say ‘I would like to trythis or that’ and they already
had it built, on hand, and the
mechanic would be bolting it
on the bike.”
For Forrest Butler, Team
Rocky Mountain’s owner/
manager, good ideas are
always welcome. “Why
would I not be doing that?”
Butler says. “No matter what
we do, if the rider is not
comfortable, we don’t move
forward.” When Yoshimura
Suzuki—the team Baggett
rode for in 2015/16—an-
nounced it was folding late in
the summer of 2016, Butler
quickly snapped up the
available rider, who was still
recovering from a stubborn
collarbone injury. It wasn’t
an impulse signing; he’d had
his eye on him for a while.
“Blake’s open-mindedness
as a rider is the perfect fi t
and matches my open-mind-
edness,” Forrest says. “It’s
the perfect combination.”
Unlike most riders, who
answer bike setup inquiries
hesitantly at best, Blake isn’t
afraid to tell the public the ex-
act parts he changed on the
bike in any given week. After
his 6-8 fi nishes at Hangtown
’17, he sent Forrest a text
message: “We need to work
on things. I want to win.”
“That’s what I told him,”
Blake says while we sit at
the dining room table of the
fi fth-wheel trailer where he
lives nine months out of the
year. “I want to win. I’m not
going to get beat. There’s
no point in all the mechan-
ics going, there’s no point in
Rocky Mountain sponsoring
the team, there’s no pointI don’t
need a
baby-
sitter”
BAGGETT ON
PERSONAL TRAINERS