Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

"Everyone's been getting aggressive, so I figured I had license to get aggressive," McGrath said. "This race, you're going to get that. It's a lot like this in Europe - you've got to push guys around to make passes." Carmichael didn't have to push anyone around, but he did have to fight off an early attack from Windham, before the latter rider faded slightly at the one-quarter mark with arm pump. Then he became the attackee, as Pastrana was looking for a way around. While Carmichael pulled away, the two teammates went at it lap after lap, and Pastrana finally tried a new line in the whoops on lap 14 that nearly got him around. Unfortunately, another near-crash ended the bid. "I feel like I've got A.D.D.," Pastrana said. "I get out there, and I'm just so impatient. I knew Jeremy was coming, and I just went for it. I've got to get patience. There was a line that was worn out where we could jump into [the whoop section). I jumped in where it was pointy." McGrath was indeed coming, having dispatched with the bulk of the field in efficient fashion. He took advantage of Pastrana's mistake to assume third, and block-passed Windham to begin the final quarter of the race. Carmichael was long-gone at that point, so McGrath followed him to the finish in a distant second. These two photos pretty much sum up the weekend for Jeremy McGrath, as starting woes and rough-tiding competitors plagued him both nights. Nonetheless, McGrath was remarkable at the Open, posting Impressive lap times as he blitzed through the pack to second overall. "I'm just out there doing what I love," Carmichael said. "It's a shame to see what happened to Jeremy, but it was good to see Timmy up there." "At least I'm keeping him honest," Ferry said. SATURDAY The first heat of night two marked the only time Carmichael didn't get a holeshot, but he put an aggressive pinch-pass on Ferry at the threequarters mark to post that win. LaRocco capitalized on Windham's bent rear-brake lever to pass him for the heat-two win (but only after taking McGrath out with a hard block pass), and the top gate-picks were set for the main. Carmichael was three from the inside, while McGrath was three from the outside, so it was no surprise when the red number-four bike popped out of turn one with the lead. LaRocco and Ferry had actually started inside of Carmichael, but they tangled handlebars on the start straight and went down in a heap, ending the four-stroke rider's shot at the overall win. "It's too bad, because I felt like we were two of the fastest guys out there," Ferry said. "I'm more pissed off about losing the race than about not winning the money." "I slowed down for the turn, and he kept going," LaRocco said. "That was pretty much it." McGrath had once again been pushed wide, actually going onto another portion of the track and catching a Tuff Blox as he popped back over in 10th (with only the fallen Ferry and LaRocco behind him). Tired of being on the short end of the block-passing stick, McGrath put his head down and mounted an aggressive charge, making a few block passes of his own in the process. It started when Ricky Carmichael was lowered from the ceiling during Friday's opening ceremonies, wearing a crown and cape and sitting on a throne, and it continued throughout the weekend until the podium ceremony presented him as the overall winner: The crowd was booing the current top rider in SX{MX. It's a new, unexpected, and hopefully temporary development for Carmichael, and one with which he is understandably still less than comfortable. "It seems to me that somebody was up to something, but I might just be jumping to conclusions," Carmichael said mysteriously at Saturday's post-race press conference, alluding to more specific speculation he had just made off the record to a couple of reporters. "It bums me out a little bit. I feel like I'm a good person... lf I see you broken down beside the road, I'll stop and help." Presumably, the champ's slip in popularity stems from his switch from Chevy Trucks Kawasaki to Honda, though the fire may have been fanned by comments made by Ezra Lusk during a recent interview with Eric Johnson of Racer X, in which the new Chevy Trucks Kawasaki rider made some surprisingly harsh public criticism of his former pal. "Everybody's entitled to what they want to say," Carmichael said. "I don't know why he said it to the press; I'd have probably been more conservative with it, like talking to me first." Carmichael is known for letting his riding do the talking (one reason that he doesn't bother running the number one, and that he asked to forego the cape and crown for Saturday's ceremonies), and his performance at the U.S. Open - no matter how strangely unpopular it may have been - appears to have adequately responded to Lusk's intimation that Carmichael would not perform well on the Honda. c U a • _ n _ _,. • OCTOBER 24, 2001 7

• Cover