Most students in high school play a school sponsored sport. But Sophomore Evan Tallbott enjoys a different sport, some would even call it an extreme sport. Evan is an active motorcross enthusiast riding almost every day of the week.With 12 broken bones many of which have already been previously broken one would think he’d move on to another sport, but Evan is a resilient rider when he breaks a bone he sucks it up, gets it bandaged and nags the doctor to release him so he can go riding again. Evan trains constantly trying to improve his skills so he can win races and make a name for himself in the dirt bike community. He tried his hand at regular sports such as soccer and basketball, but he found his dream sport of motorcross in early 2010. Evan said, “with the wind blowing through the slits in my helmet and the speed makes me feel like a lighting bolt, I’m unstoppable.”

Evan began riding in early 2010 to follow in his father’s footsteps, his father has won over 30 races including the Virginia and North Carolina State Championships over the length of his racing career, and Evan hopes to do better. He’s already well on his way to surpassing his dad with winning over 20 races on the “Dirt Scooter”. On the “Scooter” Evan has jumped hundreds of tabletops, flat topped hills and single, double, and triple hilltops. One of his crowning achievements was jumping a 115 foot gap that made him feel like he was on top of the world.

Evan also performs a wide variety of tricks. Such as a one handed jump, a “nac-nac” or bringing 1 leg up to your elbow while in mid-air. He also can perform another mid-air trick called a “whip” which is when the rider whips the bike sideways. One of his most daring stunts is a “no hander” where he takes his hands off the handles when hes in the air. Although he doesn’t like the Superman trick, which is flying off the bike and into the ground he does perform it quite often.

Evans broken bones are widespread throughout his body. So far he has broken his collar bone, femur, toes, elbow, his tibia and fibula, ribs, and shoulder putting him out of racing a total of 18 months. Through all of his injuries his parents are very supportive of his motorcross career. Due to his injuries Evan has spent a total of 1 full week in the hospital. Even with all of those injuries Evan has still traveled abroad visiting places such as New York, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Tennessee, Florida, Maryland, South Carolina, North Carolina, and West Virginia.

Unlike most of the dirt bike riders his age, Evan is a sponsored rider and gets equipment and funding from companies such as Triangle Cycle, Yamaha, Answer Gear, Decal Work, and FML or Flying Machine Factory. Being sponsored by these companies helps Evan get discounts and reductions in prices for the gear he needs to ride.

Evan hopes to be able to go professional one day and be sponsored by companies such as Dunlop, Red Bull, and Toyota. But if his dreams to be in the big league are diminished then he will attend Liberty University, majoring in engineering. With an engineering degree he would plan to get a job designing dirt bike tracks for professional racers. He spends multiple hours each week designing blueprints of various tracks in his bedroom.

Evan defines his riding experience in one simple sentence, “Riding gets me away from the world and lets me focus on the next hill that’ll take me to the next level of enjoyment of my life.”