CN
III VOICES
W H A T Y O U A R E S A Y I N G
When we die the most golden thing that we
leave behind is memories.
Empire Of Dirt: Take
Out Isn't For Dinner
Great overview of the Tomac
Musquin event.
While I respect both riders for
their incredible skills, the only
thing that I would add is that
both riders were fully committed
to the turn, with Eli in the rut and
not knowing where Marvin was,
and Marvin, with his speed and
trajectory that was headed just
in front of Eli's path to block him,
there was no way of stopping;
he was airborne as his bike
hopped up as he entered into
the turn, which did not allow for
much in late braking. Aggres-
sive, Yes! T-bone, no.
Also, had Eli's throttle not
twisted on by dragging on Mar-
vin's seat, the block pass would
have been a bit less spectacular,
but still aggressive. We saw the
same thing happen with the Os-
borne/Savatgy block pass [last
year at the Las Vegas Super-
cross], where Savatgy received
an aggressive push and smack
by the side of Zach and his bike.
Savatgy himself held onto the
throttle as his bike got away from
him sending it off.
Both lead riders left the door
open on the last lap and they will
learn.
Riders have always had a way
of settling these issues them-
selves, generally without the
poor sportsmanship of punch-
ing someone like we saw with
Weston Peick on TV, very bad.
Great commentary!
Robert Reisinger
Steve, I'm in agreement with
everything you've written except
one thing—protecting the inside
line.
Eli was in the closest inside
line. If he were to have gone
to the flat apex, a much slower
line, and Marvin were to have
taken any other faster outside
line, Marvin surely would have
a much faster exit speed and
blown on by him. So yeah,
protect your line is a good say-
ing, but the inside is not always
the best way or place to protect
your line.
Your personal memories
brought back a lot of fun ones
for me, too.
Gregory Eddinger
Archives:
Legend Mamola
Well said. Randy Mamola will
be remembered as a legend of
world road racing and revered
as co-founder of Riders for
Health in Africa.
Bruce Scholten
When we die the most
golden thing that we leave
behind is memories. He truly
is a legend; his mark on the
world is golden. He will never
be forgotten.
Well done, Randy.
Walt Gretsky
Thank you for this great story,
Larry Lawrence, absolutely no
doubt about his legend status
and his level of accomplish-
ment.
I won't dignify his comment
by naming him, but one of the
young (overpaid) guns in the
current GP paddock did not
think he deserved this. I think
that young man needs to keep
riding hard, and keep chang-
ing his diapers, and we'll check
back with him when he is ready
for his first pair of underwear.
Bob Close
Anderson' Pit Stop
I cringed watching that "wheel
change." These are the very top
bike mechanics, and I expected
them to do that extremely sim-
ple task in under a minute. Their
off-road race teams can change
a wheel in 30 seconds.
SX/MX teams need to prac-
tice these very basic proce-
dures. Championships can be
won or lost in the pits, if Jason
Anderson loses this one, who is
to blame?
Neal Hamilton
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