If there’s such a thing as a celebrity in mountain biking it’s Cedric Gracia, a 29-year-old, outspoken, ebullient, and perhaps slightly unhinged Frenchman with a staggeringly long list of successful downhill race results on his resume. He is an outsized personality to say the least: A large with a European swagger who travels the world bombing himself down mountains for a living; an opinionated man with a foreign accent and no compunction about calling his fellow racers “prostitutes.”

As an interviewee, Gracia is about as entertaining as they come. On paper, it’s easy to see how his words could be interpreted as cocky, or as the rantings of some jerk jock who has spent too much time being fawned over on the international mountain bike circuit. He is not though; he only speaks with the voice of someone confident of himself and his abilities. Ultimately, Gracia comes across as the kind of guy you would love to go spend a night drinking with, assuming you have a robust appetite for mayhem.

We met up with Gracia at the 2007 Sea Otter Classic, where he was the only competitor running around in a sport coat, beer in hand and yelling about who had “parked the raper van” (as in rapist) next to the his RV. By four o’clock on Saturday, the Commencal party was going, but Gracia didn’t hesitate about ducking out into his RV for a 45-minute question and answer session with a bunch of random interviewers he had never met before, not even asking for as much as an introduction or credentials from his interrogators. He just amiably sat down and started answering questions, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, sometimes a little bombastically, always with candor, and seemingly having a good time the whole way.

What follows is the first part of the interview. Gracia’s interrogators were myself, and Ryan Denehy of Eastern Front Visual. For the first part, Denehy asked the questions. Parts II and III are coming soon. –Zach Allen

Ryan Denehy: Start with the basics. Who are you? Where are you? And what are you doing?

Cedric Gracia: Wow… my name is Cedric Gracia, from France, here in the North of California, really cold, it’s raining, we’re at Sea Otter, and it sucks really bad… is that enough?

RD: Perfect. All right describe your race today.

CG: Ha ha ha! Today my racing wasn’t so good. I was feeling good until the second corner, [where] I crashed. I was OK riding, but I got unlucky in one corner it was kind of off-camber and I tried to hit too early and I slapped and… psshhh… I won the first run, second run I couldn’t catch the guy. I went out on the first run really good, someone who went in the final last year. Bad day, but that’s what it is in Mountain Biking, you know? When it’s raining like this it’s an option for everybody to win, you know? But whatever, tomorrow is another race, another day… I really want to kick their ass really bad, because I hate cocky fuckers… and I want to kill them, all right? Is that OK?

RD: Yeah, it’s perfect. So on the topic of cocky fuckers, in the mountain bike industry there’s some people with some attitudes and this and that, how do you feel with all the other people you ride with? Is there anyone in particular that you’re not too psyched on that maybe you’d want to talk about?

CG: Dude [there’s] so many people who suck in mountain biking, I don’t even know where to start, because I probably need 80 percent of the riders are pretty annoying. Like, Steve Peat [is] really cool, Palmer, when he was there, was awesome, Rob Warner, stopped, he was awesome as well… a lot of people are cool, but a lot of people, dude, they’re so annoying, they take this sport way too serious, and I think it’s pretty bad. Like you know, like, I ride jeans, and they look at me pretty strange, I don’t know, because, I feel comfortable… I don’t know… they’re…. you know how it is, people are like “na, na, na, na, na, na, na,” like girls… whatever, fuck it, I don’t really give a fuck.

RD: Awesome. With that said, what are your plans for this season?

CG: Well, I’ve been training really hard this winter, like a lot. Usually I party hard in the winter, but this time, not so many parties, a lot of training. I feel good, but the workup is coming soon, in one month. I try to stay [away from] crashing, but I’ve crashed a lot lately. I don’t know why, maybe I need to get this out of my system. I feel good, I think it’s time for me to win a World Champion jersey, it’s time for me to win some races, not all of them, but some of them. And I want to beat them in class. I want to show up to races in jeans and ties and shit and beat them and be like “hey: what’s up now? Huh? Any questions, problems?” Heh, heh, heh. It will be good. Cause most of the people who win, they’re not even psyched, they’re like, they win, they go home, they take a shower, they sleep. I don’t know. I just… want to win and have fun and make people happy.

RD: Right on, so you were talking about showing up in jeans and your crazy outfits, you’re known for your style, what can you say about that?

CG: I don’t know. I’m saying as long as people are not paying over 50,000 dollars to put a name on my jersey, I’m not riding with any name on my jersey besides Oakley and Commencal. I don’t want to prostitute myself, what we do is real work, we work hard, I think people need to respect us, I want people [to stop being] prostitutes. We’re not prostitutes in our sport. It’s a hard sport, it’s difficult, we’re training hard, and it’s a real sport… you know… just because some idiots say “yes” for a bunch of stickers and free tires… stupid, stupid.

RD: So you think there’s a lot of prostitutes in the sport-
CG: -Yeah!

RD: -people who give up they’re names for too little?
CG: Most of ‘em. Maybe the top five are ok, but after that, most of the people are ready to give everything they have, even their career, for free stuff. I mean, I don’t buy my food and my house and my cars with free shit. That’s bullshit.

RD: Tires don’t pay your bills.

CG: No! Fuck, if it is the case, I ride for fun, and I do something else for [work]… and then… it’s stupid. A lot of prostitutes in our job.

RD: Right on. Any last words for the people out there?

CG: Yeah… get a life, fuckers! Heh, heh, heh…
(Part II coming next week on BNQT.com...)