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Edited Date/Time
7/5/2017 6:10am
Ive been a woods bro and everytime im at a xc race i always wonder how a top mx guy would fare at a gncc. Quad guys do it usually at te ironman, ive seen Natalie, brown and weinen but they dont have a factory team to tell them no.
My friend who also races woods but is primarily a moto guy swears up and down that if a top tier rider like rv or rd came out they'd yard the field with no woods prep under their belt. I dont buy it. Im not trying to start a passing match about which discipline is harder so let's not take it there.
Sipes and osbourne hsve both done well, and not knocking them ay all but im talking championship caliber rider. I wonder about the difference in fitness level also, i used to think wopds guys had to pace themselves but after seeing kr's monitor pic, i wouldnt call that holding back, pkus I've listened to many interviews and lately xc guys are saying they cant afford to pace themselves that its pretty much sll out to win in today's game
My friend who also races woods but is primarily a moto guy swears up and down that if a top tier rider like rv or rd came out they'd yard the field with no woods prep under their belt. I dont buy it. Im not trying to start a passing match about which discipline is harder so let's not take it there.
Sipes and osbourne hsve both done well, and not knocking them ay all but im talking championship caliber rider. I wonder about the difference in fitness level also, i used to think wopds guys had to pace themselves but after seeing kr's monitor pic, i wouldnt call that holding back, pkus I've listened to many interviews and lately xc guys are saying they cant afford to pace themselves that its pretty much sll out to win in today's game
Pastrana did a couple but dnf go figure.
Here's what I think. The cream rises to the top. If Ryan Dungey would have raced offroad he would have won a lot of titles. I honestly believe if Kaliub Russell had focused on mx he would have done the same. They're the best at their discipline for a reason. They have the heart, desire and drive to be the best.
The Shop
Oh yeah forgot mike brown also raced some gncc. He podium in florda in 2011 i think. Dungey, musquin and kailub are all buddies now after kailub spent the summer at bakers place training.
I always wanted to see david knight run some mx. That guy had a jamds stewart-esque style in the woods, so explosive and aggressive. He would jump any jump in any conditions also. Hes probably the biggest pro rider i can think of
"Townley won the event on debut in 2013, successfully defended it in 2014 and is now a three-time winner of the race.
Third overall was Reporoa 18-year-old Hadleigh Knight (Husqvarna TC250), with Pahiatua's national cross-country champion Paul Whibley (Yamaha YZ450F), Rotorua's Scott Birch (Honda CRF450) and Waitakere's Ethan Martens (Yamaha YZ450F) rounding out the top six finishers."
My answer would be yes.
From what Ive seen, most top mx pro riders would go out and do pretty well in an off road race. They are all in very very good shape so that isn't really a concern.
Also seems like moto skills translate pretty easy over to off road stuff, but not the other way around. I dont hear too much about GNCC guys racing the off round of supercross, although I know some of them definitely have the skills... Haaker, etc
I'd think these would be as tough mentally as they are physically. There's an awful lot of info to process in that amount of time.
The fitness factor would be a major component, as would the idea of riding that blistering pace for 3 hours as opposed to 30min + 2 laps; not to say a majority of national motos aren't a challenge themselves.
Remember Pastrana tried one year; lead for the first hour, then dropped like a rock. Wacko Zacho same thing; blinding speed the first 2 hours, then struggled near the end. Not to say if a guy like a Blake Baggett or Jeremy Martin, two outstanding outdoors riders, couldn't figure it out and win races. To assume they would show up and win all the time? Bit of a stretch.
Sprint enduros would be a better comparison, IMO.
Then rode for Valli-Motorsports in 2011 in 11 rounds, finished as high as 5th @ Freestone. He never rode well in 1st motos, but always put on good rides on 2nd-tier equipment in 2nd motos.
Pit Row
I was actually thinking about making a thread over this after seeing the KR heart rate monitor topic but I know it would have went off the rails quick. So I'll slip the scenario in here. What if...
You take the reigning champs Dungey vs Russell. Put them on a neutral mx track and have them do a 30 min moto (what Dungey trains for). Then take the results and multiply them by 6 to equal the amount for a 3 hour race. Then the following day put them on a neutral off-road course and turn in a 3 hour race (what Russell trains for). Take the difference in times. Who wins?
(I know this is not a perfect scenario having to multiply the mx times but there are a few reasons I thought of it this way. For one Dungey doesn't train for a 3hr race so that would be unfair. Also it would be unsafe to go full speed for 3hrs on a mx track. Finally the reason to multiply the results is again fairness as it would be a huge advantage for KR to get 3hrs at his discipline and Dungey only 30min)
How awesome of a 2 day event would that be if you took the top 5 mx guys vs the top 5 xc guys and combine their times to see who wins, mx or xc?
Edit: Ooops! just saw similar scenarios have been suggested later on in the original KR heart rate thread.
Could they cross over with no training, no experience and dominate races and win a championship their first try? Doubtful...but they are freaks of nature in the talent and drive and focus department...so they'd absolutely figure it out.
There are several genres of off road...GNCC is just one of them...what if they tried National Hare and Hound? Totally different (it's takes a different mentality to hold it wide, in the dust, and over terrain you've never seen before). What about an enduro? Could they maintain their sprint speed while staying on their minute over a three or four hour day on the bike?
The West based off road riders have a different skill set from the East based off road riders. West is desert and dust and rocks (for the most part) and the East coast is trees and roots and mud.
And I think its hard to call any one off road series a true "national" series...GNCC is most east coast...WORC and NHHA are West Coast, and there is very little rider cross over. There isn't really an off road series that has rounds in all corners of this country. (Reasons? much smaller budgets in off road...teams can't afford to criss cross the country...land use issues...it would be hard to find enough land on the east coast to run a 100 mile hare and hound, for example).
It is hard to call any one off-road series a true national series, we do though. If factory support has an effort at the races I think the promoter has a right to call it a national series. WORC's, GNCC NHHA any series of these nature. The small budgets do hurt, kinda good though that the factory's offer support to multiple series and riders instead of one national series with only 2-3 rider on the teams going to each round. Land issue, yes west coast has way way more open land to use.
I understand why they call those series' national series...and I agree that they are. National caliber riders, national caliber promoters, and national caliber competition. They are national championships. Again, my only point was that because the terrain in America is so diverse, its impossible for a off road series to truly compete in every corner of the country (which, usually denotes a national title...why 250 SX are regional series while the 450's are national).
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