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/1268930
we had a muddy race, so even though we were stuck in one sta- dium, we had different surfaces and environments, so I think as a whole, it all went about as well as it could have. What did you do in between races? You didn't have a lot of down time with two races every week. Day to day, it was a really good city to be in. We could do so much outside. There were great trails to go riding bicycles, and that's what we mostly did. That was the unique situation with Salt Lake. I never did any practice laps because those race efforts were so big. I was like, 'I'm going to keep myself fresh for the race days!' I never felt rusty on the bike that way. And with the elevation, with us it wasn't too bad. We have some of that in Colorado here, so I was able to do deal with that. For what it was, I think Salt Lake went really, really well as a whole, and I'm really glad we were able to finish those rounds off [there]. Your consistency, be it in Utah or throughout the en- tire 2020 series, was really remarkable. You won seven races and strung together an average finish of 2.5. You said earlier you were calmer and steadier this season, right? Yeah, calm and steady, that's what I really focused on this year. I didn't want to have those huge swings, you know. I would be in those bad situations and not be able to recover, and this year I was a lot better at recovering in those situations. There were a few races there this year where I had to get back to the front, and we were able to do that and just maximize those bad race days. That's what makes a difference. I mean you have to be so con- sistent to win the Supercross Championship now. There were never really any bad nights for you this year, was there? No. No, I look back and the only race I didn't feel great at was Anaheim 1. After that, man, it was solid from there on out. Anaheim 1 was probably the only race where I kind of felt stuck and I couldn't go forward. After that we kind of just got on a roll. Round 10 at Daytona was a big win for you. How important was it getting that victory just before the pandemic kicked into high gear? For one, I love that race. It's just so cool. I look forward to that race every year. It's one of the best races to win so there is always that motivation there to win that race, and it was good for the points swing, too. That was a big night between me and Ken [Roczen] and we came out on top in that one. That was an impor- tant moment. That was before we went on the delayed schedule. Daytona was a good moment at that point. Then, almost immediately upon leaving Florida, everyone got sent home to ride out the 2020 MONSTER ENERGY AMA SUPERCROSS CHAMPION ELI TOMAC P78 Interview I WOULD BE IN THOSE BAD SITUATIONS AND NOT BE ABLE TO RECOVER, AND THIS YEAR I WAS A LOT BETTER AT RECOVERIANG IN THOSE SITUATIONS.