Cycle News

VOL. 55 ISSUE 43 OCTOBER 30, 2018 P133 Saturday, which was part of the reason why Team USA quali- fied midpack. There was Aaron Plessinger crashing out of the lead in his qualifying race, then falling a second time. These are the obvious things we saw. There was no sense of ur- gency whatsoever. Tomac hung around behind Tommy Searle (on a basically stock KX450F) in the first moto for 11 laps, only getting by when Searle's bike died. Tommy Searle is a great racer, but under these circum- stances, there's no reason for the current AMA 450cc National champ to hang out around him for 11 laps. And Plessinger was in the same boat. He rode most of his two motos without goggles, and two times—both times with- out goggles—saw him get the in- side on a racer he was trying to pass and then check up and not take the line, seemingly afraid of making contact with the other racer. And then he got a massive dose of wet sand deposited into his eyes. The one thing that winning teams don't do is wait around behind other racers. They pass people often before they get their first opportunity. It really struck me that Team USA's racers looked afraid to fail. Plessinger seemed to be afraid that if he forced the pass, he might crash. Same with Tomac. Justin Barcia looked aggres- sive all weekend, but got a flat rear tire in the final moto. Most guys run bib mousses in their rear tires, but apparently Barcia hasn't been doing that this year, and the flat came at the exact wrong time. And if that's not enough, in the final moto of the day on Sunday, nobody on Team USA (or any other team) noticed that there was an open gate left on the inside of the starting gate. The thing is, the FIM sets up the start lines at these events so that the inside gate is usually the best gate with the shortest run to the first turn, and they get worse as you move out toward the outside. This allowed The Netherlands' Jeffrey Herlings and Glenn Coldenhoff to line up side-by-side on the inside of the gate and they ended up going 1-2 in the moto. Nobody noticed the gate! As I detailed in one of the aforementioned August col- umns, it's the toughest gig in motocross to race for Team USA no matter where the race is be- ing held. Team USA is expected to win by default. That means winning is expected, and if Team USA wins, it's not that big of a deal. But if Team USA loses, it's a really big deal. This means the risk outweighs the reward, significantly. And when the race is held on U.S. soil (where Team USA had never lost before), this is doubly true. I spent quite a while after the event thinking that Team USA was overconfident coming into the race. This struck me dur- ing their introduction on Friday before the event, as they draped themselves in the flag (which is a personal pet peeve of mine; guys, please don't wear the flag like clothing, getting your sweat and mud on it, just put it on a pole!) and seemed to be celebrating before the first gate dropped. I still think this was part of went wrong for Team USA at RedBud, but ultimately I think it was actually the pressure that did Team USA in. It was the pressure of not just racing for Team USA, but doing it at RedBud, with the best riders the USA had to offer. I think it was the fear of failure that ultimately cost Team USA a chance at winning the 2018 Motocross of Nations. Team USA expected to win the RedBud Motocross of Na- tions, and their actions on the track indicated that they were trying to prevent mistakes rather than win the races. I have no doubt everybody involved is carrying a chip on their shoulder after that event, and they should. Luckily, pro- vided they're healthy, they'll have another shot at it in a year. This time, in The Nether- lands. CN

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