Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

race. It's like, I wasn't the best there , but I rea lly made a lot of time in t his oth er section. Everything's a t radeoff, and it's up to me to make t he best of wha t I've got . Q Would you ever r ide a 250 ag ain ? A I suspect not. I haven't rode one since Atlanta, and I ~eally don't suspect I will again. HOW did it make yo u feel t ha t you got so mu ch sup port in the wake of t he Phoenix co nt roversy, including from such name s as Rick Johnson, Bob Hannah and Je remy McGra th? Y eah, it abso lutely mea nt a lot to me . I don't fee l that I did anything wrong, but I'm the guy t hat was making the pass, so of course I have interest in what's going on . To have the fans and a lot of the media - pretty much all of the media - and a lot of th e grea ts of the sport come out and say that it was coo l, t hen that makes me feel a lot better. It puts some validity into what I' m saying. I've heard David Bailey - he' s obviously dow n on wha t I did - but he's David Vuil lemin's tra iner, you know? My trainer 's going to say, "Oh, t hat was a great move, " and his trainer 's going to say it's bad. The facts are that my front wheel didn't hit him, his front wheel hit me , and that's kind of like the rule . A lot of people think that if your front w hee l didn't hit him, t hen you 're good to go. It's all in the eyes of the AMA and everything else now, so I try not to think about it too much and just move on and continue to charge. I do think that a lesso n was lea rned t hat day, and it was that I'm not going to be pus hed around , and that was the Kevin Windham of old. I used to let people do that to me and not do nothing about it, and I re gret that he we nt down , but I don 't regret my agg ressive ness , because that 's w hat it takes to win races, and everyone has to be aggres- Q A sive in supercross. Wha t wa s t he difference betwe e n An ah e im I an d Phoenix? O bV iously, you're not going to change your cond itioning tremendously in one week. I feel like I'm in shape. I've been wo rking hard , and I've been putt ing in a lot of laps. For me, I showed professionalism at no Anaheim I, because I was focused on t he whoo ps, and I wasn't going t hrough the Q A who ops that good. We kind of tuned my bike to a standstill at Corona - I mean , it was working great the re, but we had it kind of specialized for the Corona track . But now, I t hink we have a real goo d setting that 's good everywhere, and that's more or less what we needed . My mind held me back from doing as good as I needed to do at Anaheim, because t here was one whoop sectio n, then you made a turn and there was another whoop section - they were back-to -back - and for me , you lose so much time in that one area that it held me back from doing as good as Ishould've done on the rest of the track. I was very disappointed with myself there for not allowing myself to get over the fact that , you know, we need to get through this weekend as best as we can and go on and make this thing right, which we did. I mean, we did make it right, and I did go win, but Anaheim was a bummer for me . Th is w ill seem a little premature, but in supercross it se e m s like it 's you a nd Chad Reed, a nd outdoo rs it seems like it will probably be you a nd Ricky Carmic hael. How doe s be ing t he commo n denominator in bot h series feel? A It's just, life is great for me right now. You know, I've I""lgot video cameras following me, and people wanting to do interviews, and that's awesome. That means that I'm do ing what I'm here to do - what I'm supposed to do. It's a great feeling. All the work is definitely payingoff, and you just talk so much, I look back, and I think abo ut it, and I'm like , this is just too corny it's going so good . It's almost like rea lity's not setti ng in because things are too good. I guess it's the calm after the storm, because I definitely we nt through the trying times a coup le of years ago, and now being back, that 's just w hat it's about for me . It's abo ut having fun, it's about.. . You know, I do n't think much abo ut winning, because everyo ne's always said, "Hey, you're good enough to win. You're the most talented rider," and all this stuff, but if you' re not having fun, it doesn't matter how good you are , you're not going to do www.cycleneW5.com good. That's the common den ominator for me that wasn't there before . Sure, it's great for me to be a contend er in both series, indoor and outdoor, but the reaso n for t hat is that now the fun's back, and t hat's awesome for me . Wit h RC on t he fou r-strok e o ut do ors now, what do you ex pect w he n the ra cing goes ou tsid e? Well, you know, hands down, Ricky's going to be ~ough to race ; there's no doubt about that . I've had a little bit more time now to come into my ow n with maturity and stuff, so I'll be ready. I know he will, too . I think that , for him, read ing into his mind - not that I talk to him a lot - he has something to prove because everyone always said, '~h , that four-stroke looks like it may not work for Ricky because of his riding style. Maybe he rides a two stroke better." Well, I kind of deal with that same thing week in and week out: "Well, the track was or wasn't a four-st roke track ..." This bike has so much controversy around it, and I think he has something to prove, and I think that he will. Ithink he'll be tough, and Ithink the winner of the whole deal w ill be Honda if things go the way we plan. It's a good machine. I'm happy with mine for sure , and there's no reason to be lieve he won't be with his. Q A Like you said, you' re riding that good wave a nd everyt hing right now, a nd you've sa id you 'll ride as long as it 's fun . Do you t hink your seco nd career will be as long as your first? A Well, I certainly would hope so. That wo uld leave ~bout ano ther 10 years for me , and that wou ld be nice. But I've got to t hink about at some point I'd definitely like to be t here for my daughter... Tha t would be a perfect time for me, actually. Anothe r 10 years , she'd be right at 10, I I years old and starting to get off into some of her ow n stuff, and I could be supportive there as a dad , too. So that sounds like a good idea. Thanks for putting that number in my head . Let's see if I can stick with it. That would de finitely be something that I'd wa nt to do , but we 're going to take t his thing one year at a time. eN Q CYCLE NEWS • FEBRUARY 11, 2004 43

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