VOL. 50 ISSUE 50 DECEMBER 17, 2013
P81
"
YOU EXPECT TO WIN AND I DON'T
DO WHAT I DO AND PUT THE EFFORT
IN AND EVERYTHING THAT GOES INTO
IT TO NOT WIN. SO WHEN YOU DON'T
WIN, YOU'RE PISSED!
"
(Above) Villopoto won 18 of 24
motos en route to the 2013 450
outdoor title.
(Right( Villopoto says he's found
that "happy medium" at Kawasaki
and will most likely finish out his
career on green where it also
started.
the Monster Energy Cup for surgery (not a good idea, given his
biggest sponsor).
3) Race the MXoN and the
Monster Energy Cup, but then
miss critical testing and training
time in the run up to the 2014
Monster Energy/AMA Supercross Series.
With those three choices,
the MXoN lost out. Even so, the
MXoN only lost out because it
took place a month after the final
round of the AMA Nationals. If it
were a week or two after the end
of the Nationals, he insists he
would've put off surgery to race
for Team USA.
But here's reality: Professional
motocross racers are rarely completely healthy. This is perhaps
the thing that fans and pundits fail
to understand the most, which
ultimately led to the accusations
that he skipped the MXoN purely
for selfish reasons.
"I mean, we're not healthy
very often," Villopoto says. "You
do definitely get lucky and have
some perfect years or things
like that, but then every little
thing that you do have, whatever nagging injury it is, you feel
it weekend-after-weekend. And
the speeds that we're going, with
the suspension so stiff, it makes
those nagging injuries worse.
And if you don't ride our bike really close to 100 percent, the
thing rides like shit because it's
so stiff. If your nagging injury gets
too bad, eventually you can't ride
the bike at 100 percent, and then
everything starts coming apart.
