Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

([iID~ VOICES Ame rica's weekly motorcycle newspape r LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Volume XXXIV Sharon Clay ton. Presi4ent Micha el Klinger, PublL~her Ed itorial Paul Ca rru thers, Editor Kit Palmer, AssociateEditor Scott Roussea u. Ao;5OCiatt' Editor Mark Hoyer, MiU Ulging Editor Keith Bush, Assistant Editor/Co1!Y Editor Cameron Coa tney, Ai.<;i..o;tant Editor Alan Ca thcart, EU'f!J1t'tltJ Editor David R. Hc lther, copy Editor Ad vert ising Terry Pratt , National Accounts Manager Mar k Mitchell , Ea... tern Accounts Manager Mark Thorne, Wl'Stern ~des Ma'Ulger Thomas Ce nter, Western Sal sManag" e Forrest Ha yashi, Wt'Strrn Salt'S Manager GIl. g Mitchell. Ea " .t,,", Sules Manager Rick Matheny. Eastern Sah-s ageT Rhonda Cra w ford, Wt'Strrn Ad Coordina tor Bridgett Bobrofsky , A..sista nt CarL1 Allen, Eastern Ad Coordinator Tina Fa rr, Assistmrt Mark eting &: Promotio n M ark Th ome, Dm:'Cfor Porn..-st Hayashi, MarlaXt.. 7 Deal er Sales ' Kelly Branscome. Dea lerSuitS Representatiue New Media Development Mark Mitc hell. Din'ctor Rick Matheny , Wcbmastt7 Steph .. ie Leamon, Ass;slafll m Cla ssi fied Ads Laurie Torstensen Graph ics a n d A View From the Fence Mr. Eric Johnso n, I don 'tthin k you have a clue (vie w) abou t mot ocross from a ny fe nce. Wh o s ta r te d m oto cross ? Th e Euro pea ns! So Why w oul dn 't t he i r courses fa vo r their stvle? We are the ones who changed course design and brought in doubles. trip les, etc. If your excuse for the Americans ge tting beat in the Mo tocross des anons IS th e overwateri ng of the track a nd the course design (favoring Belgium), then why were we beaten by seven countries and not just one? I think what Eric John so n forgets is it's the same for t:=veryone, and nobody likes a crybaby. We had our cha nces. Emig faded from second to 12th; Lamso n fell an d Dowd's bik e wen t south . The bot tom line is .we had a very un lucky day. We will be back on any track and in any country . We don 't need to race at the L.A. Coliseum to beat the rest of the wo rld . and the only person wh o should stay hom e might be Eric jo hnson. Mark Coo k Place rville, CA Poor losers? Production R~ johnson, Production Supervisor Mand y Loo, Production Manager DennisGreene. LAb. Tech, Amanda Wollny, Gral'llic Artist Robyn Light Graphic Artist Admin istration Jud y Klinger, Coor4i~liltor . . . Leann e Sims , Administratioe A....'>lstant Accounting/D ata Proces sing . Donna Brva n-Dia mo nd, A/If Coordinator Geneva Repass, A:>sistunt Herlane Lewis. Credit Circu1.Jtion Rhcba Smith. Manager . Aim . Anguiano, Proc~smg Coordinator Keshena Dawson, Billing Coordinator Ca rol Maggio, Dt'a/cr Coordinator Service and Support Doris Rice, Rt"Ct'ptioni..t Michael Swedberg, Seroiceand Support National Headquarters 2201 Cherry Ave.. Long Beach. CA 90S06. P.O. Box 498. Lo ng Beach. CA 90801-0498 (562)427-7433; (213) 636-8844. FAX (562)427-6685 Eastern Office 4188 First Ave., Tu cker, GA 30084; mailing address P.O. Box 805. Tu ck er , G A JOO R5-080S. (770) 934-7850. FAX(770) 934-311 2 e-ma il t. Jitor@cyde ne ws.com . subscn bedcyclcncws.com It seems to me th at the Ame ricans are grea t at winning. but they are very bad at losing. I have seen my share of racing. an d if Davey Coombs and Eric johnson think th e Americans did n' t like Nismes (the site of the Mot ocross des Na tions), then they s ho u ld ha ve also talked to every othe r rider at the d es Nations. I d o n't th ink the re was one r ider w ho liked it. Joel Smets was fu rious when he fou nd out the event wou ld be he ld a t Ni sm es - a track w here he co u ld o nly manage a ninth-place finish in a Belgiu m Champ ionship round ea rlier in the yea r. All of the Belgians wa nted a thick, sa ndy track - on wh ich th ey pro babl y would have also won . I'm an Australian and , while I live in Europe. I have traveled to America 15 ti mes for my lo ve of you r co u n try. I d on 't fee l I have a real favo rite tea m, makin g m y o nly bia s to Aust ralia (of w hich o u r team is n o t co m pe tit ive) . Sure, it's exciting when the Ame ricans lose. Just like it was exci ting when Jeremy McGrath sta rted losin g last yea r th e crow ds in Am er ica lo ved i t. It ' s so me thing abou t our sick mentality. If the American s lost the des Nations sever a l times, yo u co u ld co u n t o n th e m being crowd favorites ag ain . Coombs men tio ned that the Europeans ha ve gone back to th e drawing board of o ld -sc hoo l motocross . Has Davey been to any o ther mot ocross in Europe besides th e d es ' a tio ns? Why would the Europea ns go back to the d rawi ng board? They' ve won three of the pa st fo u r Mo tocross des a h~ns, twice o n tracks th at we re nut te rrible, like Nis mes. Sure, Nismes wa s a shi t fight and the ·watering of the tra ck affected the America ns . But it shoul d also be pointed out that Smets was the fastest ride r o n th e tr ack in practice before th e track was watered . Eric Johnson men tion ed tha t the 1999 des Nations was ta k e n away fro m America. but I rea d in Cycle News that th e AMA did n't want it. Davev m en tioned tha t next year's des Nations will be ru n on a trac k tha t will aga in favor the Europeans . Davey. Foxhi ll (the site of the 1998 des Nations) was p ic ke d because it ' s o ne of the m ost p op ul ar tracks in England - it had nothing to do wi th poli tics. If the Americans go to Eng la nd wi th your a ttitude, th en th ey will aga in go wit h a negative attitude. Sure Aus tria (1993) was handpicked for an American tra p. as was the Slovakian tra ck in 1995 - b u t Spain a nd Nisrnes d idn't pro vide an ad van tage f?r the Europeans. The rumors I heard m Nismes about the tra ck-w at ering w as p la i n a nd s im p le. as told by fo r m er World Cha mp ion Dav id Thorpe: "Whoeve r did th is is sick. It's a simple matter of professional riders and teams coming here to race. then old farmers doing the track - this is bad for everyone:' The Belgian riders - Everts , Bervoets and Smets - were appalled by the track. These guys are not cheaters . As Eric's wife said, they a re c ha mpio ns an d deserve to be trea ted as such . The thoug ht of America not being involved in the Mo tocross des Na tions would totally ruin the event. America is. and will be for a long time, the country wit h the best riders in the world . Send . five tearns and it's possible that the five wo uld all finish in the top 10 (maybe eve n the top five). But when it ':'lmes down to it. the Motocr oss des Na tions s tarted m 1947 (no t 1981), and witho ut an American team . life in the des Nations will go on. The onlv loser will be America. I ha,:e total re pect for Davey and Eric. s and th e America n riders are the focal point of the des Nations. But belittling the Belgian riders and European motocross doesn' t give America the trophy - it just leaves a bad taste in the mou th of the motocross world . Geoff Meyer Erp, Ho lla nd Down but not out I'd like to exp ress my deepest g ratitud e to all those people wh o helped me while I wa s bedridden in Ital y at th e recent !SDE. . For those who are curi ou s: On Frida y af te rnoo n, dur i n g the ISD E. I wa s in vo lve d in an accident while o n my way to check eight tha t resulted in me having a broken left fem u r. I was first hospitali zed in Lu mezza ne a nd la te r transferred to the Uni versity of Brescia Hosp ital where I had an opera tio n to insert thr ee screws to repau the brea k. Th e o pera tio n was p erform ed o n Wed nesday. August 27, and I remained i n th e h o spita l until th e follow ing Th urs day afte rnoon. Afte r being released from the hospital , I wa s taken to Albino where 1 was a llo we d to s pe nd the n ext fo ur da ys recuperati ng at an apartment belon ging to Ace rbis Italia. I fina lly returned home o n Thursd ay. September 9 - 15 d ays after 1was supposed to be hom e. Aga in . th anks to a ll th ose who helped m e o u t in m y predicament. I would especia lly like to th a nk Mark G ross man. Madeline Stahl. the Piggott family. Tita Rivas, Eric Cleveland. Dave Dahmer a nd. above all. Fran co Ace rbis a nd hi s s taff - w ith o u t w hose help I mi ght s till be in the hospital. Fran co too k an inord ina te amou nt of time to see to it tha t I received the bes t care possible, and anything else that I could have wa nted . I will be forever in his debt. All in all, it isn' t the best way to have experienced my 12th ISDE. bu t I guess you can cha lk it up to more life expe rience. Cong ratulations to all those riders who finis hed this n nd event. Anyone who man ages to finish the 1SDE. und er conditions in whi ch the Americans compe te. deserves a rous ing roun d of ap plause, Dan e Leimbach Vermilion, O H Lette rs to the ed itor should be sent to Voices, Cycle News , P.O. Box 498, Long Beach, CA 90806-0498, faxed to 562/4276685 o r e-mailr editorfscyclenews.com. Published letters d o not neces sarily reflect th e po sition of Cycle News, Inc. Letters should not exceed 200 words and all lellers are sub ject to ed iting. Anonymous letters will not be considere d for pub lication. All le tters shou ld contain th e wri ter's name, address and dayti me phone num b er .. . Editor. advertisi ngeecyclcnews .com Internet http:/ /www.cydenews.com Cvck> N~( Usrs 141 ) ~ pubw.hlod wet'llyexaopt ~ -J.W ~ two Wl"f'bof Uwalt-nd.t.r Yf'arforSSO.OOf'l"r Yt."arby Cyclc ~ews. Inc 22 Cherry A venUt'o I..Dng: Beach. CA9lIlO6. .. (H Periodic:aJ5 Posta~ Pi

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