JoJo LeMond announced his CINCH Timed Event Championship retirement but couldn’t stay away for long. LeMond will be backing into both boxes come March for his eighth trip to compete at the Lazy E with a whole new game plan after sitting in the stands last year.
Kaitlin Gustave: You announced your TEC retirement a few years ago. What made you come back?
JoJo LeMond: Denial I think. I never got the chance to just sit and watch it and now that I have had that chance I think I’ll have a different approach at it. I have a different game plan that I think will work better for it.
KG: What was your game plan before?
JL: I just went in as a rodeo cowboy and just went as fast as I could go. After watching, the guys aren’t worrying about what they’re clocking or what their times are. You just need go and knock every animal down.
KG: How many years have you been attending the TEC?
JL: From ’09 until last year is the first year that I haven’t gone so I’d say about seven years.
KG: What is your best finish at the TEC?
JL: I think I’ve won second once and third a couple times.
KG: What is your worst wreck?
JL: One year I was out an entire season. It was in the steer wrestling when I bruised my spine and all of my organs. I bruised all of my internal organs and my heart had irregular beating. I was out for about seven months before my neck and my spin got well.
KG: Biggest struggle?
JL: The steer wrestling and the calf roping. They rope big calves there. I’m not a very big guy so I have trouble flanking some of them there that are real big. In the steer wrestling they take pretty good. They bulldog kind of like junior bulldogging steers so the bulldoggings not that big of a deal anymore. When I first started going it was pretty scary but it’s changes up a lot now.
KG: Who is helping you this year?
JL: I have Quinn Kessler.
KG: What horses are you taking?
JL: I’m going to ride Denver, my steer horse. I’ll ride Squirrel in the heading of Monty Lewis’. In the calf roping and the heeling I’m going to ride Spanky and probably Charly or something that’s slower in the bulldogging, I’m not real sure if I’m going to ride him again this year.
KG: Is there any advice that you could give to the Jr. Ironman contestants?
JL: Just go in with a game plan and stick with it. Don’t change it up if something doesn’t fall into the way that you think it should. Stay committed to your plan and see it out.
