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/1063250
with the bike that we're trying to complete. It's kind of a mix of everything right now, but that's where we are at right now. Long days of bashing out countless laps, the unglam- orous part of being a high profile supercross racer, I suppose? [Laughs] That's right. I mean some of the days are long, but putting in the work and putting in the time makes the racing easier. When you go to the race, you know what you've got underneath your belt. There's no questions left in your head. If you're putting in the work it just makes every race weekend that much easier. Supercross is done, moto- cross is done, the Motocross of Nations is done and the Monster Energy Cup is done. All things considered, what did you think of your 2018 race season? Well, it's kind of a replay of the year before for me. When I look back to supercross, there were a lot of wins. I felt like we were the most dominant rider, but we didn't get the championship, so that was a letdown for us and the team that way. We had a lot of domination in our motocross series with winning the title again. Des Nations? Well, that was not a great showing from us. That is something I obviously want back. We'll just try again next year and see if we can do better. And at Monster Cup, we know how that went; that was pretty unbeliev- able. There was a lot of good close in the stadiums of Amer- ica to out-and-out dominate the 450MX classification in the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship, winning nine of the first 12 motos of the season, ultimately winning his second consecutive outdoor title. The 2018 racing season was, well, the best of times and the worst of times for America's fast- est motocross racer. While he won another title as well as $1 million and the curtain-closing Monster Energy Cup (again in Las Vegas), Tomac, as well as the people around him, were still bit- ter about losing the AMA Super- cross title, and the performance Tomac put in as team captain of Team USA at the Monster Energy Motocross of Nations, still keeps him up at night. Nonetheless, Eli Tomac is a brilliant motocross and supercross competitor and if any- thing, creates storylines wherever he races. Cycle News spoke with the 450MX Champion just as he was about to dive head first into relent- less testing and training in prepa- ration for the opening round of the 2019 season set for Saturday, January 5, at Angel Stadium. What's been going on in Colorado since the Monster Energy Cup? We're cranking-up our off- season routine, which is basi- cally just putting in the heavy days of laps and training and trying to build up a good base again. We're here in Colorado on the supercross track and there is a little bit of fine-tuning AMA PRO MOTOCROSS 450MX CHAMPION ELI TOMAC P136 Interview This crash while leading at Anaheim I most likely cost Tomac the 2018 Supercross Championship.