Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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IN THE WIND P28 HAYDEN STAYS POSITIVE N icky Hayden has always been the guy who you can count on to put on a good face and stay positive in the face of adversity. But it's been a disap- pointing start to the 2014 Mo- toGP season with his new Aspar team on the Honda production racer that came with a lot of hype but not much substance. Add a tough race weekend plagued with technical issues at his home Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas and the question was: Would he fi- nally crack? "We can't be happy with 11th place," Hayden said on Sunday afternoon in Texas. "Sure a little disappointing for the home fans to not be able to put up a better fight for them, but at the moment this is about our potential. So it's nice to do a home GP, but of course we would've liked to have been more competitive." Although Hayden was one of the many riders who were af- flicted with front-tire issues in the race, he felt it was still better off than the rest of the weekend where he and the Aspar team had been struggling with some electri- cal issues on one of his bikes. "This weekend we've had a lot of electrical problems on one bike," Hayden said. "It really up- set the rhythm of the weekend. But the bike ran well, ran smooth and no problems there [during the race]. Actually even went a little faster than I thought I could. "But the race was tough be- cause a lot of people had a lot of wearing on the front tire, es- pecially on the right side, and the last laps of the race were really difficult in the right handers to stay on. So I think that's where we saw a lot of crashes." In spite of the challenging weekend Hayden is looking to build on the experience gained each weekend to further develop the new bike. "Yeah, I think in the race you can get some experience and do a full race distance, learn some stuff. For me and for the team it's a lot of data," Hayden said. "It was not an easy race as we men- tioned. We had a lot of front tire wear, especially on the right and made it, especially the second half difficult. "And even racing with [Yonny] Hernandez in the beginning was not easy because our bike was obviously working better than his in the corners, but then he would come right past us on the straightaway. It's tough; I mean I just looked at the trap speeds. It's tough." "Last year this was the worst GP for me, this year, too," Hayden added. "We had some technical issues and I probably had a bad attitude if I'm honest. Probably should have been more positive. But it was tough this weekend. You go out and make it out around a half a lap [refer- ring to Friday's FP1 electrical is- sue]. And like I said, I was only faster than two guys all weekend in a straight line." But Hayden being Hayden, he's going to keep looking for improvement. And not just with the bike, but with himself as well. "So I realize the road's tough and the rider… he's the guy who has to be positive and help carry everybody and this weekend I admit I didn't do a very good job. And I need to work on that and we'll keep trying to chip away at it. And I see areas where I need to improve so that's what we got to do." Andrea Wilson Nicky Hayden is keeping a positive outlook in spite of a disappointing start to the 2014 MotoGP season. PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREA WILSON