Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

bit, and there's certain ways you can pass people and this and that," Carmichael said. "Chad [Reed] put a really clean pass on me. We didn't even touch, but I think if I wasn't as smart as I was, I would've run into the back tire - probably taken us both out. If I just gassed it and run into the back of him, we'd have had a repeat of Anaheim - me and [Travis) Pastrana. " A lap later, Reed passed Lusk in the same place. "I just left the door open. The door was wide open for him," Lusk said. Carmichael wasn't as concerned with Reed as with his own race. "My whole thing is, I try to race the track and no one else," he said. "Chad's [Reed] a good rider, but This pass that Reed (22) put on Carmichael (4) for second was aggressive, but Carmichael insisted there was no contact. Reed then set out after Lusk and passed him In the same spot a lap later for the lead before crashing. been out of sorts. He didn't feel much different in Minneapolis, but he knew that getting out front early would cure some of his ills, so that's what he did. "The holeshot definitely makes life a lot easier: Lusk said. The Georgian held the point for five laps, first over Carmichael, then Reed - who made a strong, and rare, pass on Carmichael exiting a whoop section onto a short chute in front of the mechanic's area. The track announcer whooped that they'd touched, but it wasn't the case. that's not my main concern. My main concern's the track. The races that I didn't win are the races that I fell at, and that's the thing that beat me." So Carmichael tucked in behind Reed and saw that he was pressing too hard. "The lap before he wrecked, in that turn before the whoops there, he came into that turn so fast, and he went into the whoops at an angle, and I was like, 'Go ahead, I don't have nothing for that,'" Carmichael said. "And I was just going to try to get through lap 10 - that was my main focus, because I knew that it was going to be tough for him to go from lap lOon at that pace." Lusk said he and Reed were almost side by side when Reed slid out in a gO-degree right after a whoop section. "He just kind of came to that corner a little too fast," Lusk said of Reed, who only lost two spots in the crash. "It's super flat on the inside before the whoops, and he just lost both wheels." Lusk retook the lead before Carmichael made a pass on the sixth lap. Not long after that, Reed was down again, this time dropping to II th place and out of contention. Carmichael and Lusk now had some breathing space on third-placed Vuillemin, the two settling in to their "I did leave the door open a little Feny (15) rode strong for third place, passing teammate Vuillemin near the end for the position. Vuillemin (12) finished fourth. cue I e n e _ S • FEBRUARY 26. 2003 7

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