VOL. 51 ISSUE 40 OCTOBER 7, 2014 P77
said for the success that greats
such as RC and The Hurricane
had in racing, but for Canard,
racing takes a back seat to life.
"I feel like a lot of people have
won a lot of different things in
life and then failed miserably at
everything else," Canard said.
"There've been a lot of great
champions, whatever sport it is,
that have just completely been
miserable parents, or husbands or
wives. I feel like if I'm not succeed-
ing in life, then I'm not succeeding
at all. And I think that you can live
the right way, in my opinion, and
still be successful. It's just a mat-
ter of doing it for your passion and
enjoying the process. And I think
that you're much better to go at it
that way than any other way. But
what do I know? I'm not much of a
champion."
And this is where Canard's
genuine modesty kicks in. He's
won two professional champion-
ships, which is two more than
99.999% of pro motocross rac-
ers, but this isn't false modesty.
He doesn't see himself, current-
ly, as any kind of champion. He
sees himself as someone who
hopes to become a champion.
"I just feel that there's a stan-
dard that says you have to do
certain things to be successful,
and a lot of those things involve
putting other people down to get
what you want, and that sort of
thing," Canard said. "I just think
that there's so much more for a
real champion to strive for than
that. I think there's a lot that peo-
ple can do if they just enjoy the
process. If they love what they're
doing, and are successful at it
that way, it's so much more fulfill-
ing. You'll enjoy it far more than if
you go the other way."
But even Canard knows it's
not easy to keep that mindset in
a cutthroat sport like professional
motocross and Supercross.
"It's one thing to know it," Ca-
nard said. "It's another thing to
do it."
>>BARCIA'S DEPARTURE
As mentioned, some of the great-
est champions the sport has ever
seen came at the sport from a
somewhat negative perspective,
and it worked for them. It worked
really well. Is Canard doing it the
"right way?" That's not for us to
decide. But it's safe to say that
his now-former teammate Justin
Barcia is more like Hannah and
Carmichael than he is Canard.
Canard and Barcia have been
teammates basically since 2009;
first, at the GEICO Honda team,
and until this year at Team Honda
Muscle Milk. But Canard and
Barcia have had their fair share of
run-ins, one of the most notable
of which was at the 2013 Bercy
Supercross, when Barcia tried
to take Canard out for the race
lead. It's notable because they're
teammates, and it wasn't a race
for points, or even for money, as
they got paid "show-up money"
to race Bercy.
Barcia has left Honda for the
"
IF I'M NOT SUCCEEDING IN LIFE, THEN
I'M NOT SUCCEEDING AT ALL.
"
Suspension changes late in the year
may have sparked Canard's late-
season success.
