Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

By PAUL CARRUTHERS I'£ARDO WN - Easy Pickins' ike an outdoor National Motocross, the door was slammed shut on this one before we were two minutes into it. There was no arguing, no second-guessing. No other name was even brought up. It was a one-man race the entire time, and thus Ricky Carmichael is our 2005 Cycle News Rider of the Year. In a landslide. Nobody had a racing season like Carmichael did in 2005. For that matter, I don't think anyone has ever had a season that could match what Carmichael accomplished in 'OS. And that's not just in motocross. It's in everything. Who has ever done it better? No one has ever questioned Carmichael's decision-making, desire or work ethic, but it was easy to think that RC had gone the road of gambler by announcing really early (by contract standards) in 2004 that he would be riding a factory Suzuki in 2005. Some critics were even harsher. It wasn't a gamble, it was downright foolhardy. Nobody leaves Honda to go to Suzuki. But in the beginning, the middle and the end, Carmichael showed exactly who the fool was. And it wasn't him. Armed with a new motorcycle, or actually two new motorcycles, a new team, and a new crew, with the notable exception of his right-hand man Mike Gosselaar, Carmichael started the season knOWing exactly what he was getting into. He knew what the rest of us weren't completely sold on, that he could make the move and not miss a beat. In fact, with a little extra motivation, he could be even better. And Suzuki would go right along with him. As it turns out, it was a match L roughly 44 of my 44 years. I've seen the best road racers, I've seen the best dirt trackers and I've seen the best motocrossers, but I've never been more impressed than watching Ricky Carmichael at an outdoor National. You watch it and you can't believe what you're seeing. There is simply no way that a man like that at those sorts of speeds. Lap after lap. Race after race. And it's obvious that he's the only one in the world that can do it that well. All the time. perfect season. In terms of overalls, he was perfect. He lost two motos en route to the title, but he won every single overall. Everyone else was racing for second place and they knew it.. There were 600 points up for grabs in the 12 rounds (24 motos) of the series, and Carmichael came away with 594 of them. It was an effort that made even Valentino Rossi look human. But he wasn't finished. Carmichael has always thought highly of the Motocross des Nations. He digs the event. He likes representing his country, and he always So after winning the Supercross title, Carmichael hopped aboard his "unfamiliar" Suzuki RM-Z4S0, and he did it all again. But he did it better. This time nobody raised their games to match his. Nobody could. Nobody is close enough. They didn't have that sort of game. At least not yet. Carmichael went out and dominated the outdoors like only he has been able to do, very nearly pulling off another puts his money where his mouth is. In other words, he says the event is important and shows that it is by going and giving it everything he's got when he's there. When others opt to take the extra time off, RC does up his chin strap one more time to battle the world's best in the hopes of showing that the U.S. is home to the best motocrossers in the world. And this year he did just that. He ruled the can ride a motocross bike over terrain made in motocross heaven. And it started with the AMA Supercross Series. RC was third in a mudfest in Anaheim, but then he reeled off five wins in a row on his "unfamiliar" Suzuki RM250. So much for the gamble of switching brands in that series. Then Carmichael was beaten, but he bounced back qUickly, winning two more races in a row after finishing second to Chad Reed at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. After that, he didn't win another Supercross the rest of the year, but he didn't have to. Certainly it can be said that Reed and James Stewart raised their games at the end of the season, but you don't win as many championships as Carmichael has won by being stupid. RC took the Mat Mladin approach. He won a ton of races early and then he did what he had to do to win the title. And then he moved on to the outdoors and started allover again. But this time they weren't even close. I~e bf'lf~n~t~1ftorcycle races for 136 JANUARY 4,2006 • CYCLE NEWS event like it was just another AMA motocross. Again, everyone else was racing for second place. Again, they knew it. HBO recently aired a show on Tom Brady winning the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year award. On the program, they interviewed other former winners of the award, including legendary golfer Lee Trevino. In his interview, Trevino was talking about Brady, but he could have been speaking of Carmichael when he said that the great ones simply work harder than the rest. They prepare themselves more - both physically and mentally. They do more than the rest. Certainly there are those who get to the top without the hard work, the fortunate few who have so much talent that not even bad sense can screw it up. But they rarely last. Longevity at the top comes from hard work, desire and, obviously, talent. And a lot of heart. Nobody proves this more than RC. And that can be said of the majority of the champions in our sport, most of whom are featured in this year-ending issue of Cycle News. You'd be hard pressed to find someone who works harder in the AMA Superbike Championship than Mat Mladin. Ditto for Chris Carr and Juha Salminen in their respective championships. In fact, if you look down the list of champions from this year, you'll see that they all worked hard for what they achieved. Put it this way: Even the champion who worked the least still worked harder than the guys he beat. And its not just doing the work. It's doing the right work. Case in point: Valentino Rossi. He doesn't put in the road work and gym time that Carmichael puts in. Not even close. But he doesn't have to. Rossi is obviously fit. You couldn't ride a MotoGP bike for 4S minutes at such a high level and not be fit. You couldn't test the amount they test in conditions they test in without being physically fit. But Rossi's work comes from upstairs more than anything. Ask his crew chief, Jeremy Burgess. Burgess says you could virtually take the computer stuff off Rossi's MI and throw it in the trash. Rossi is the ultimate in diagnostic equipment. He gets off the bike and tells you exactly what it's doing in every single corner, every single lap. Then you check what he says against the computer and it's a perfect match. That's the stuff that Rossi knows is important. He adds that to an incredible amount of talent, and it's a package that is dominant in MotoGP racing. And Rossi was dominant again this year, winning I I times in 17 starts and earning 367 points out of a possible 425. He was good. Really good. But in 2005, Carmichael was better. CN

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