Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1039781
W H A T Y O U A R E S A Y I N G "I guarantee you, if he raced to the finish and won, it wouldn't have been good!" Motocross of Nations When I heard MXoN was coming to America I knew I just had to go see it. This might be the last time in my life (I'm kind of old, ugh) to get to see the best motocross riders in the world all going at it at one time on American soil. Am I disap- pointed we lost? Yes. But what fascinates me more is how we got so slow. I remember making our annual trek to Carlsbad in the early seven- ties to see the great European riders of the day just slaughter the Americans. Every year we got our hopes up and every year we got our ass handed to us. Those old feelings came back to me last weekend leaning on the fences at RedBud. The fact is the Euros just looked invincible. Why are the European riders so good today? The answer: Jeffery Herlings. Jeffery Herlings has single handedly raised the bar that every- one in Europe has to get over. Can you imagine being on any factory race team being paid to win races and your bosses keep asking you why can't you beat this guy? So you train, you test and your entire team work themselves to death just keep from being lapped by Jeffery Herlings. Herlings is big, strong, young, brash, out-spoken and confident. Without an American version of Jeffery Herlings to make us dig deeper, train harder and take chances we will be destined to languish midpack on the world motocross stage. American's aren't really slow at all, the Europeans have just gotten much, much faster. JD Potts The MXoNations is becoming irrelevant for Americans. It's mixing apples to oranges. The Europeans have their style of motocross and we have ours, plus supercross. Herlings would get his lunch handed to him on a supercross track. The Europeans have their game and we have ours. Terry Heath Monster Energy Cup It was pretty lame that Savatgy let Tomac by. I'm pretty sure Tomac could have gotten by him on his own. I'm happy for Jesse, the fan that won a million, [but] disappointed in the finish. Shawn Sage Put yourself in Joey's position: it's a new team and you have the opportunity to try and [screw] your teammate out of a million bucks, and have him and factory Kawasa- ki pissed all year, or make friends with the fastest guy around and possibly get a longer contract with the team. You have no idea how it might have turned out. The kid was haulin' ass and there wasn't much track left to race on. I guarantee you, if he raced to the finish and won, it wouldn't have been good! James Savatgy If Savatgy hadn't moved over, Tomac wouldn't have won. There wasn't enough track left before the checkered flag. Anyway, probably a smart move by Tomac's new teammate. Truly exciting racing. Kevin Burner You might remember what Os- borne did to Savatgy in supercross for the title [last year]. Think Tomac would do different for a million dol- lars? Third is way better than being taken out. Ed Stovin Letters to the editor can be sent to voices@cyclenews.com. Published letters do not necessarily reflect the position of Cycle News. Letters should not exceed 150 words and are subject to editing. Anonymous letters won't be considered for publication and each letter should contain the writer's name, address and daytime phone number… Editor P6 CN III VOICES