Cycle News

P146 BY STEVE BAUER CN III FRIENDLY FIRE I swear I thought the motocross world had shifted on its axis when American rider Ryan Villopoto had the audacity to not win last weekend at the open- ing round of the MXGP World Championship. In the opinion of some American motocross fans, the four-time Supercross and multi-National Champion let down God and his country when he carded 8-9 finishes in the two motos. I mean, come on, it's not like he had to beat anybody good…just a bunch of Euros that aren't fast enough, or are too skeered to come race in Ameri- ca, where men are men, right? If you are noticing a hint of sarcasm, well, guilty as charged. I cannot for the life of me under- stand how people can let Nation- alist pride cloud their thinking to the point that they act like little children, or worse yet, religious zealots. The tone of some of the moto message board rhetoric was vicious during the weeks leading up to the opener, with some of the USA whack jobs predicting RV would win every moto by half a lap and sweep the series. Stamp it. On the other side of the coin, and ocean, the Euros were remarkably restrained in their responses, although they are not beneath throwing out plenty of bloody chum themselves, usually resulting in hooking a few good ol' boys for some mutual patriotic mudslinging. It's all in fun until somebody loses an eye, right? Or, in this case, until somebody loses—namely, Villopoto. People were astounded and seemed shell-shocked that their hero, who had not raced outdoors since August of 2013, didn't wheelie away from those foreigners. Forget about the fact that RV is living in a strange country, eating strange food and is surrounded by people that talk funny, he is an American—not just an American, he's an Ameri- can Champion, the best we've produced since that Carmichael guy quit and Stewart—well, we won't talk about him right now. I guess my point in all this is that people need to remember that we are talking about hu- man beings riding dirt bikes very fast and every one of them puts their riding gear on one leg at a time, whether they are from Tallahassee or Tunisia. Anything can happen on any given day and when it comes to racing motocross, there is not much difference between the fast guys over here and the fast guys over there. I realize that is a hard concept for some of you more patriotic types to wrap your red, white and blue minds around, but you need to get used to it and embrace the fact that there are countries besides ours, with very skilled riders who will often beat our own very skilled riders to the finish line. It is nothing new; they beat us in all kinds of other motorsports, including Hard Enduros, MotoGP, World Superbike and ISDE. Heck, the USA has never won the big prize at the ISDE, or even the indi- vidual overall. Yet no one seems to be too worked up about it and people don't start hurling insults at each other—at least not that I know of, but then again, I don't even know of any ISDE message boards. Something I do know is that Ryan Villopoto is attempting to do something that no rider in history has ever attempted to do, and he deserves our respect and admiration, win or lose. It is a monumental task to up- root your life and move halfway around the world; just ask Chad Reed, Greg Albertyn, David VILLOPOTO: TOO HIGH EXPECTATIONS?

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