Cycle News

VOL. 51 ISSUE 50 DECEMBR 16, 2014 P249 ever of bringing home the gold. Definitely worth a mention in this column. Also worth a mention is the gold medal that the U.S. Ju- nior World Team did bring home from Argentina this year, just the third time in the sport's long his- tory. Great job, guys. As mentioned, there are a number of ROY candidates this time around, and one that quickly comes to mind is 2014 Speedway GP Champion Greg Hancock. When is this guy going to slow down?! Apparently never. Even if you're not big into speedway rac- ing, winning any kind of champion- ship, especially at the world level, you have to admit is a huge ac- complishment and deserves rec- ognition, but doing so at 44 years of age is simply amazing. Keep in mind that speedway racing is huge in Europe and the competition is tough, and Hancock is compet- ing against riders nearly twice his youth, so he's not just beating out a bunch of "old guys," but kids, too. You might remember that Hancock last won the speedway title three years ago, as well, and was named our ROY. There is Marquez, of course. Not only did he win his second MotoGP title, but he set a couple of records along the way, like being the youngest rider to win back-to-back MotoGP titles, the first to win the first 10 races of the season, and surpass Mick Doo- han's single-season win record with 13. (Doohan had 12 wins but did it with fewer races.) And then there is Jared Mees who we spoke of a bit earlier. Mees is another ROY candidate. He competes in one of the lon- gest and most competitive forms of motorcycle racing in the U.S, so to win the Grand National Championship number- one plate anytime, let alone the third time, is always a major achieve- ment and pretty much an auto- matic ROY nominee. If my memory serves me cor- rectly, Ty Davis is our last (and maybe only) off-road racer to be named Cycle News Rider of the Year and that was, hard to believe, 20 years ago. Kai- lub Russell was in the running to perhaps end that off-road dry spell this year. Who knows what would've happened had the U.S. team actually won the Six Days. As it was, Russell rode so well in Argentina that he was recognized as Top American for accruing the lowest (and that's a good thing) total points score of all American ISDE riders. That's a pretty ma- jor feat, even if you say you don't think it is or like to play it down, which some Top American finish- ers, like Russell, often chose to do. And Russell was the top U.S. rider at the Six Days after domi- nating the 2014 GNCC Series and winning the final round on a 150cc two-stroke. Really! Some argue that he's the best off-road racer in the country right now. The 2014 racing season cer- tainly cannot pass without men- tioning former CN ROY winner Josh Hayes who battled his young teammate Cameron Beaubier to his third AMA Superbike crown. You also can't forget Cody Webb who added another AMA National Championship to his resume, this one coming in a new segment for him—EnduroCross. He already has a Trials National Champion- ship number-one trophy on his mantle. And we can't forget about Antonio Cairoli who chalked up his eighth World Motocross title, and Ryan Villopoto who claimed his fourth-straight AMA Supercross Championship. As you probably know by now, Villopoto sat out the outdoor Nationals to take care of a nagging injury. He has since chosen to forgo a possible record-setting fifth-straight SX title so he can concentrate on taking on Cairoli and the regular MXGP competitors in 2015. Regardless of the outcome, he's calling it a career when the GP season ends in 2015. The Villopoto/Cairoli con- frontation should be a good one. Too bad we have to wait until April for it to get started. But, in our opinion, Ken Roc- zen is the cream of the moto-rac- ing crop in 2014. Riding as well as he did in Supercross and then capping off the season with the prestigious AMA 450 Motocross Championship as a rookie is cer- tainly a job well done in our eyes. So, when is the ISDE next year? I better check. CN

• Cover