When Nic Long ended his Pro career there was never a question about whether he should turn to the Vet Pro class. He was always in, 100% in. Nic Long is the personification of BMX, it oozes from his pores, of course he was going to race Vet. What did surprise us, at least a little, was when he transitioned to Vet, he did it on flats. We’re not sure he actually said it, but it was almost a soft retirement, not from BMX but rather from competitive BMX despite wanting to race a competitive class.
He was 100% in, but this was for fun, not accolades. And we were onboard, 100%. The man who had won World Cups, multiple US nationals, and led the Rio Olympic final, was racing on flats, on steel, and we loved it. We affectionately started referring to him as ‘Full Flat Nic’.
His ethos seemed to run parallel to our personal one, albeit at vastly different levels, BMX is more fun on flat pedals, and in the air at every opportunity. Obviously, that only applies to you once you’ve stopped chasing wins. Nic was racing … on flats, on a steel frame, for the love of the sport … for fun. ‘When I got hired by Huffy,’ he told us, ‘I started the conversation with saying I planned to continue riding flats and just having fun like I had been…I wasn’t selling results anymore’. Inevitably this meant the man who led that final in Rio was at the back of the pack more often than not, but he was entertaining the crowd, and himself we suspect … doing things you wouldn’t normally see in a race.
But then, we noticed the training began to pick up, the timing equipment started to appear, and the gates were back in full swing. And then he clipped in. Our heart sunk … just a little. ‘Full Flat Nic’ was sidelined. Nic was leading laps again. He tells us the decision was his alone, it was to help Huffy, ‘We were going to do a Chomo frame at some point, but with the creation of the Primus already in the works, I just felt like it would help sell some more bikes if I was leading a few more laps a year, and not floating around the back doing table tops’, … ‘Plus, I didn’t really want to ride flats on an aluminium bike’.
We’re happy to believe the help Huffy line, but we wonder if Nic, while at the back having fun, was looking at the leaders and thinking … I miss that. Having fun is a major part of the sport, but probably not enough to placate the competitive streak it takes to have the success Nic had in his Pro career. The decision was almost inevitable, the drive to succeed of an Olympic BMX racer was always going to come to the fore. Nic was making podiums again, on his terms, ‘I am the TM, so nobody (at Huffy) really cares what I’m racing. They do like seeing me winning or in the mix…but my job doesn’t depend on it at all’ … ‘I hate the pressure I feel to win or do well, I always have’, he told us, ‘but it’s been fun preparing for events and trying to execute’.
While Nic is recovering from his death-defying fire jump, he is still contemplating life at the sharp end of the Vet Pro class ‘I’ll stick with clips for another season or two. The fans love seeing me up near the front, and they’re the ones coming to my clinics. I’ll give ‘em a show for a bit longer haha’.
Be it on flats or fully locked in, it’s hard not to admire Nic’s commitment to the sport, to the lifestyle, and his ability to decide he wanted to be at the front again and to go do it. If you look up BMX in the dictionary there should be a photo of Nic Long!
We are looking forward to the return of ‘Full Flat Nic’ though …
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