INTERVIEW
RYAN VILLOPOTO
P66
impending move means radi-
cally different things to different
people. For every action there is
a reaction, and to the men who
run the sport around the world,
the 26 year-old's new quest has
left some excited, some disap-
pointed and many perplexed.
Nevertheless, it now is what it is
and the series of events required
to bring the complex undertak-
ing to life have now been set into
motion. Why the move to ride the
Grands Prix? Why now? What's
left to prove? Key questions and
questions only Ryan Villopoto
can address.
First of all, why do you do
this? Why do you race moto-
cross?
It started off as a hobby and I
got good at that hobby. We start-
ed doing the amateur nationals
and then it went from there. It just
kind of snowballed, you know? I
never thought it would ever get
this big. For me, it was just some-
thing we did. It was in the family. If
you talk to Adam or Alan Ciancia-
rulo, for instance, they'll tell you
Adam carried around that Bar-to-
Bar 2005 video and watched it all
the time. That's all he wanted to
do. My path was different. There
are things in the sport that I dis-
like. It's not just this industry, but
being in the limelight of any sport
can be rough. That's not why I
do this. There comes a point in
time when you're 16 or 17 years
old and it changes. Everybody
knows that schooling isn't a big
"
THE SPORT
AND I HAVE
GREAT FANS IN
THE U.S. THEY
HAVE SUPPORTED
ME THROUGHOUT
MY CAREER, SO
YES, WHAT THE
FANS THINK IS
IMPORTANT.
"
Ryan Villopoto
won't try to
defend his
Supercross title
for a fifth time.
