Bilko's Down But Not Out!
Written by Goba Wednesday, 30 June 2010 21:51
Bilko's Down But Not Out
Interview by gobadirt.com
In 2009 Blake ‘Bilko’ Williams had a smooth run prep wise going into X Games 15. Three solid weeks on the Crusty tour to work on his tricks gave him the mental edge going into one of the world’s biggest competition events, and his results of one Gold (should have been two), and one silver showed he was on top of his game. Flash forwards 11 months and Bilko looked to have the same conditioning and frame of mind leading up to X16 after riding night after night on the Nitro Circus tour. Then he made a stupid mistake and tweaked his knee on the second last stop, which forced him to sit out for three weeks before he made a return to the third stop of the Red Bull X-Fighters tour in Moscow, Russia this past weekend. Struggling with the tech Moscow course all weekend saw Bilko’s run end in tears when he missed a grab returning to the bars after a huge Cliff Hanger Flip in his last practice session. He crunched into the ground and threw what was looking like another good run to X16 flying out the window. We caught up with Bilko back in America the day before he goes under the knife to repair a cracked collarbone to see where he’s at and what hopes he has for X Games 16 in one months time.
Bilko, it was tough seeing you go down in Moscow, how you feeling mate: Feeling pretty disappointed and frustrated that I’ll be heading into X Games unprepared. Crashing in Moscow has definitely put a damper on things.
Yeah on the Nitro tour you were really starting to fire towards the end: Yeah, leading up to that knee injury in Adelaide I was feeling really good and riding really well, like in the practice session there I was the first guy out on the course and the last to get off. I was getting right into it and all my old tricks were coming back to me – Lazyboy Flips, Cliff Hanger Flips, Seat Grab Flips, 360 Combos, and all my regular tricks – I rode for a solid three hours and then later that night I hurt my knee. My last few injuries have come from doing something I shouldn’t really, things that are unnecessary, which really, really sucks! Making silly mistakes and doing something I shouldn’t be doing is something I’ve got to learn to stop doing.
Nitro would have been perfect prep for the big events coming: Yeah for sure, like last year I rode Crusty tour leading up to X Games and I was really confident going into the event after three solid weeks riding every night, and the results at X Games showed. I had every trick dialled, the 360 too, I was good to go for anything.
Bilko and Sincs teamed up in practice at X-Fighters Moscow. Pic gobadirt.com
After watching you struggle in Moscow most of the weekend do you think you came back to early from the recent knee injury, or didn’t you have a choice: I probably should have missed the Moscow round, but since I’d already thrown away one X-Fighters round I figured if I wanted to finish in a decent position overall I really needed to tough it out in Russia and see how I went. Then all of a sudden boom! Out again. And it was tough, the course was on a slope, there was uphill and downhill jumps, the ramps were European not America, I had my American suspension set up for American ramps, plus I flat-landed a few jumps, which made my back worse because I was compensating for my knee. I was just fighting an uphill battle the whole time, but in saying that I started to feel really good by the end of practice, even though I was still in a lot of pain. The more I rode the better I felt as I hadn’t practiced the three weeks leading up to the event, like I crashed on a trick I’m more than comfortable with, and that’s what sucks. The wind was up and my bar turned, plus my foot slipped off a bit, and one of my hands missed the bar.
One of the hardest things to take in after your accident was Tommy breaking down, that wouldn’t have made things any better for you: Yeah Tommy was even stressed out before that crash. It definitely sucked, and I didn’t want to see him in that state at all and it hurt my collarbone more just seeing my old man so upset. Him being stressed out all weekend made it tough to deal with too. In hindsight maybe I shouldn’t have gone. It could have worked out better but it didn’t. You never really know, but now it’s made X Games 16 ten times harder.
Bilko's old man Tommy also had a tough time in Moscow. Pic gobadirt.com
Is your knee feeling OK, do you think once your collarbone heals you’ll be right to go again: Yeah it will be fine, especially now I’ve got some time to rest it, plus I’ve got my doctor already working on it while my collarbone heals. He’s also got me on some good supplements to help speed the recovery. 
So the collarbone was all you cracked in Moscow: Yeah all I did was snap my collarbone straight through the middle.
How long before you can ride again once surgery is done: It will be done Thursday (Oz time) and I’ve got a five dollar bet with Travis Pastrana for X Games freestyle as he got his replated today (Wednesday Oz time) so he’s got a one day head start on me. The doctor told him he could ride in 20 days if he doesn’t crash, so that leaves him six days for X Games, and going by that I’ll have five days to practice before X Games. So if I behave myself and try to listen to someone’s advice for once I should be right. At least Best Trick is after freestyle this time, which will work in my favour.
So five days ain’t a lot of time to get your shit together mate: Ahhh mate when you’re a sick c%#T like me … (Laughs) Yeah what makes it worse for me is I haven’t ridden much the three weeks before this injury, and if you take away the three days in Russia that wasn’t really practice because I was under pressure a bit, it will come down to six weeks off the bike and only five days practice before X.
Is it possible to get something big down in five days for Best Trick: Well last time it took me two days in the foam pit to get something down for Best Trick, but this time I kinda want to stay out of the pit because it hurts and probably a lot of pressure on my shoulder too. So with Best Trick being last now I’ll save it till then, but in saying that I’d also like to have something new for Freestyle so I’ll cross that bridge when it comes to me.
Good luck Bilko, and hope your shoulder heals fast mate: Yeah sweet as!
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