Jarad Rando at Home

Recently, this great photo of Giant MTB Team member and Gravity expert Jared Rando was taken by photographer Damian Breach. Damian has given Giant permission to show off this photo here. For more great pictures taken by Damian, go to:

http://www.damianbreach.com/

Damian notes on his website about this picture:

“Have a quick look at this photo and write down the first thing you see. If you
noticed all the bikes then you're a bike geek, if you noticed the White Lightning
X1600 then you're a photo geek, and if you noticed the fishing rods then you're
a redneck.”

We wanted to ask Jared some questions about this picture and about his racing season back home in Australia.

Q. Jared, this is a terrific photograph taken by Damian Breach. Tell us about this room. Where is it? How big is it? What is it—a garage, a shed … a modified outhouse?
A. The room is a garden shed in my parent’s back yard which has been turned into a mini bike workshop. It's an awesome setup and I spend plenty of time out there working on my bikes and getting eaten alive by mosquitoes.

Q. You've told us before that, when you're not riding gravity, you're fishing. What's the stuff on the ceiling? Are you mostly fishing in the surf, or deep sea, or lake trout?
A. I fish for pretty much anything but on the ceiling there is mainly my saltwater gear- there's a couple of 12ft surf rods and some other lighter gear. It's only a small part of all my gear on the ceiling there though!

Q. With this shop, you must be pretty popular with your riding buddies. Do you do a lot of work for friends?
A. I'm always working on my friends bikes. I like having my bikes running really well and it's the same for my friends. In fact I probably spend most of the time working on my Dad's bikes- he rides more than me! It's something I really enjoy and I find it quite relaxing. I actually work a couple of days a week in a friend’s bike shop and I really enjoy it so if I'm not working on my friends bikes at the shop, I'm working on them at home.

Q. How's the racing season going for you down under?
A. Not so great so far. I have had a couple of months off the bike which was great for motivation for next season but not so great for my form at the national races here! I had a really big crash at one race and finished 4th is another. National Champs are this weekend though and I have been training hard the last month so look out for a good result!

Q. When are you back in the US to race with the Giant MTB team?
A. The first big event will be Sea Otter (April 17 – 20, 2008) so I'm really looking forward to that. The Dual Slalom there is one of my favorite events of the year so I can't wait!