If there’s such a thing as a celebrity in mountain biking it’s CedricGracia, a 29-year-old, outspoken, ebullient, and perhaps slightlyunhinged Frenchman with a staggeringly long list of successful downhillrace results on his resume. He is an outsized personality to say theleast: A large with a European swagger who travels the world bombinghimself down mountains for a living; an opinionated man with a foreignaccent and no compunction about calling his fellow racers“prostitutes.” As an interviewee, Gracia is about asentertaining as they come. On paper, it’s easy to see how his wordscould be interpreted as cocky, or as the rantings of some jerk jock whohas spent too much time being fawned over on the international mountainbike circuit. He is not though; he only speaks with the voice ofsomeone confident of himself and his abilities. Ultimately, Graciacomes across as the kind of guy you would love to go spend a nightdrinking with, assuming you have a robust appetite for mayhem. Wemet up with Gracia at the 2007 Sea Otter Classic, where he was the onlycompetitor running around in a sport coat, beer in hand and yellingabout 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 Graciadidn’t hesitate about ducking out into his RV for a 45-minute questionand answer session with a bunch of random interviewers he had never metbefore, not even asking for as much as an introduction or credentialsfrom his interrogators. He just amiably sat down and started answeringquestions, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, sometimes a little bombastically,always with candor, and seemingly having a good time the whole way. Whatfollows is the first part of the interview. Gracia’s interrogators weremyself, and Ryan Denehy of Eastern Front Visual. For the first part,Denehy asked the questions. Parts II and III are coming soon. –ZachAllen 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 ofCalifornia, really cold, it’s raining, we’re at Sea Otter, and it sucksreally 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 thesecond corner, [where] I crashed. I was OK riding, but I got unlucky inone corner it was kind of off-camber and I tried to hit too early and Islapped and… psshhh… I won the first run, second run I couldn’t catchthe guy. I went out on the first run really good, someone who went inthe 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 towin, you know? But whatever, tomorrow is another race, another day… Ireally 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 bikeindustry there’s some people with some attitudes and this and that, howdo you feel with all the other people you ride with? Is there anyone inparticular that you’re not too psyched on that maybe you’d want to talkabout?CG: Dude [there’s] so many people who suck inmountain biking, I don’t even know where to start, because I probablyneed 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 ofpeople, dude, they’re so annoying, they take this sport way tooserious, and I think it’s pretty bad. Like you know, like, I ridejeans, and they look at me pretty strange, I don’t know, because, Ifeel comfortable… I don’t know… they’re…. you know how it is, peopleare like “na, na, na, na, na, na, na,” like girls… whatever, fuck it, Idon’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 Iparty hard in the winter, but this time, not so many parties, a lot oftraining. I feel good, but the workup is coming soon, in one month. Itry to stay [away from] crashing, but I’ve crashed a lot lately. Idon’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 forme to win some races, not all of them, but some of them. And I want tobeat them in class. I want to show up to races in jeans and ties andshit 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 whowin, 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 andhave fun and make people happy. RD: Right on, soyou 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 50,000dollars to put a name on my jersey, I’m not riding with any name on myjersey 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 respectus, I want people [to stop being] prostitutes. We’re not prostitutes inour sport. It’s a hard sport, it’s difficult, we’re training hard, andit’s a real sport… you know… just because some idiots say “yes” for abunch 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 thepeople are ready to give everything they have, even their career, forfree stuff. I mean, I don’t buy my food and my house and my cars withfree 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 elsefor [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...)