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I went a little hard on DC I guess, but there has been a definite attempt by the US industry to split SX and MX into two different distinct sports since the MXON, and highlight that US riders are better at SX and make us all feel better.. My point was that SX probably doesn't attract people to the sport- it's seen as more of a gladiatorial freakshow.
To me, it's like...
Brooks Koepka might be the top ranked Golfer in the world but we have this thing we like to call Mini-Golf over here in the USA. It may not require as much endurance and strength but it's way more technical. So yeah, he might be the best "pure golfer" but....he'd get smoked trying the putt through a windmill....
All of this makes me wonder how we ever managed to dominate the MXdN in 1996, on a one-off track built inside of a road-race course, with a SX specialist on the team (and that's just one of many such examples). Was anybody having the SX vs MX discussion back then? Was USA the underdog that year because of our focus on SX????? Suddenly this is an issue in 2018? Did Jerez resemble any of our AMA National tracks?
You forget about this DC?
But thats not supercross.. thats a sandy mx track that happens to be indoors.
Pit Row
You forgot about this Lucifa?
After the MXoN race Roger DeCoster literally said we (AMA guys) are falling behind in motocross because we spend 70% of our time (and most development time) working on SX gains and technique, and it hurts when we race extremely good guys who focus entirely on moto and make gains on their bikes year after year (and gains that don't always translate with AMA counterparts). Jeffrey rightfully won Ironman and WW Ranch and RedBud MXoN, but he will tell you he would not be anywhere near the front at Anaheim, Indianapolis, Dallas, Seattle.... though Herlings-vs.-Tomac at Daytona would be the Race of the Year, but I worry Assen will be way sandier than Daytona could ever dream next September, and the Dutch fans will be expecting a team win and a Herlings romp.
But in case you still don't understand my wording, or believe me, here is exactly what Jeffrey and I talked about a couple weeks ago for the article (and he was thrilled to be named 2018 Racer X Rider of the Year, and was also on the cover the month before)....
Has Herlings ever thought of following his former rivals Marvin Musquin and Ken Roczen to America?
“I did for some time, yes, but I also knew that I would probably be homesick if I did go,” he admits. “I was over in the U.S. in 2011 because the plan then was to win the MX2 championship and then go to the USA. I was there for, like, four weeks, but I crashed my brains out five times in the whoops, so I was scared of the whoops at that point! But seriously, after those three or four weeks, I was very homesick. I knew if I was ever going to live there, I was going to have to bring my whole family, but they didn’t really want to leave Holland, or even Europe, to move to the U.S. So I would have had to move alone at the age of 18, but I was already really happy in Europe. I stayed and won a championship, then I won the next championship, my contracts were all good and I was enjoying. Pretty soon you’re getting older and older, and I thought, All right, I’m just going to stay in Europe.”
Supercross is not easy to learn when one lives in sandy Holland or Belgium, explains Herlings. “We have a lot of sand here so you have to go south to France to find the kind of dirt you need, and that five or six hours’ drive just to get to some little supercross track. It will be all dry and slick, not all well-prepped and watered and perfect dirt like you have in California and Florida. And that’s why you have all of the supercross racers that are coming from Europe are from France—they have the dirt and the tracks that the rest of Europe doesn’t.”
I like Jeffrey Herlings a lot, I was not discounting what he did as a motocross racer. He did about as much as anyway ever has in a single season of motocross, and we rewarded him with the honor of being the 2018 Racer X Rider of the Year because he did more in MX alone than anyone else did in SX and MX combined in 2018.
DC
Racer X
Many riders workout how to ride SX. Yes it's very high stakes, but if your a pro level rider your work the timings out. Nowadays all the riders hit the triple, dragons back etc. On a well prepped SX track lap times are similar between the top 15 or so.
Now switch to a track Lommel, or Leirop. How many pro level riders can get anywhere near the lap times of a sand specialist ? Hardly any. Working out how to find the rhythm Jeffery does in the deep sand is close to impossible for 99% of pro riders.
So if you were Herlings & have that world leading talent, ace card why would you switch to a country where there is no deep sand for you to exercise that skill ? Why would you switch to SX where almost any pro rider can work it out & go a similar speed ?
Being a MXGP world champ is the pinnacle of dirt bike racing because the tracks separate the men from the boys to the greatest degree.
SX has the marketability, it has the most extreme jumps, but its certainly does not require most talent to win. That is with MXGP & always will be.
EDIT: Just saw DC's post above. He's scared of the whoops and gets homesick.
Oh, and remember this: the last two U.S-born FIM World MX Champs, Bob Moore and Donny Schmit, were 125cc AMA Supercross Champs first. It's part of the culture here. Full stop.
DC
Racer X
The aptitude to be a great supercross rider is there. It just comes down to his choice.
Post a reply to: The newly invented sport of "pure motocross" (Racer X)