If you’re the reigning UCI World Cup champion then the off-season should be a time to rest, polish your Instagram skills and reflect upon a job well done. But for 2015’s dominating force, Aaron Gwin, he hasn’t slowed down one bit.

He’s parted ways with Specialized S-Racing and built himself a new home with UCI World Cup newcomers, YT Industries. We caught up with Gwin at home in California to find out a bit more about his journey to the very top of the sport and what he likes to get up to to prepare for the race season as part of our Downtime series.