Posts
43
Joined
1/19/2014
Edited Date/Time
2/3/2014 10:32am
He isn't having any fun. Beaten by a Kawasaki "non-factory" rider AND by his youthful training partner. He's still the points leader, but he's got to be second guessing himself on taking 94 on as a training partner. The way Villopoto was talking when he was first asked about taking Kenny on as a training partner was something like "it's his first year on the big bikes and it will be good for him to have someone faster to chase in training" or something to that effect.
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That wasn't a track you could push the edge on, RV knows 3rd > crash and whatever.
We are just getting to see some great racing and different guys stepping it up accordingly.
It was clear to me that he was just trying to conserve the second stewert and dungey weren't behind him any more and he dropped off the lead pace by A LOT!
“I watch Ryan, and I can tell he’s in the same situation I was,” said James. “It’s expected from a lot of people. And when it’s expected from that many people around you, it’s hard to be like, ‘Oh my God, I just won a race again!’ when everyone around you is just like ‘It’s expected.’ Trust me, my team expects me to win races, but they also understand that it’s harder to come by. They’ve seen me have success and they’ve seen me have failures, and they’ve seen me not change. I put in the same effort I did winning Atlanta and having a DNF on the starting gate in Dallas. I came back to the test track Monday morning and put in my work.”
But as James says, don’t confuse his new attitude with being complacent. He still wants very much to climb back up to where he was, and win this title. “But I can see it in Ryan’s eyes, that’s he’s probably not enjoying it as much as he should, and I hope he doesn’t [laughs]! It’s my job to make sure he doesn’t!”
great racing.
https://youtu.be/8tSo4IICBTY
He waxed everyone something fierce the next weekend and 2013 seemed to work out just fine- nothing new
Ask Cole Seely how slick the track was, by the way. He was leading the 250 main and probably would have won it, but washed out his front end in one of those slick corners. Guess who was watching that race. Do you think he made note of that? I guarantee he did.
So he sees that Stewart and Dungey have gone down behind him, and that Barcia is not going to catch him. 3rd place was his for the taking. Or he can push it on a track that was not conducive to pushing, and gamble 20 golden points toward the big goal he has his sights set on.
A few questions:
1. Do you think his fitness is the reason he slowed on those last few laps of the race? Why? Can you name another time that has ever been the case?
2. Do you think Reed and Roczen's pace was so much faster that they "gapped" him? If so, why was he able to run their pace for 17 laps or so?
What we saw was a champion with talent, skill, fitness, and heart ride a very smart race. Very hard to beat that combo. He was a rookie in 2009. Broke his leg on that terrible jump in St. Louis in 2010. Since then, good luck beating him for the championship.
Pit Row
He is dangerous because he has the raw speed and some dense tissue between his ears IMO
I can't wait until they get out of drought ridden Cali, so the CHAMP can get to work. It will be lights out for those fools and Reed will be drawing on his 401k...
I wouldnt nescesarily change this, given the success he's had, but you look at the other guys chopping and changing to perfect the set up and it seems like RV just has his pet tyre and runs it everywhere no matter what track conditions.
RV
JS
CR
KR
RD
We all know, if you like to steer with the rear wheel, you can't have slick conditions.
But on the other hand, his current win percentage since 2010(?) is a lil' higher than 50% and... since he just lost,
it'll be his night next weekend!! I'm not "stamping" anything or preDICKting a win, jus' being a statistician for the fun
of it
Whatever happens, the racing has been awesome with surprises everywhere and great heat and semi races. All
you can ask for, really
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