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Let's try this again-Wordnerd on Alessi...
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Mike Alessi is a great motocross racer, and he’s the best starter in the entire world, but what he has there is often offset (and then some) by the possibly thoughtless things he sometimes says or does. For example, the whole Ivan Tedesco incident at Glen Helen a bunch of years ago. No one knows exactly what he was thinking – maybe not even Alessi – but it happened regardless.
And the crazy thing is, after a year basically away from racing, Alessi still lets his emotions run rampant with no filter between his brain and his mouth. After an absolutely masterful performance in the second moto at Hangtown, where he got the holeshot and just left everyone behind on his sleek new KTM 350, Alessi rolled up to the podium and essentially moved people out of the way because they (understandably) weren’t expecting that. As he revved his bike on the podium, his competition was dumbfounded. His former teammate Chad Reed didn’t know what to make of it, and Alessi’s longtime rival Davi Millsaps just thought it was hilarious.
Then Alessi was informed that he didn’t win the overall. Chad Reed did. A 1-3 beats a 4-1 in any motocross series in existence. But that didn’t stop Alessi.
In the press conference, Alessi had the opportunity to be humble but, as usual, missed the mark. "After the second moto, I wasn’t even tired," he stated. "I mean, this is my helmet from the second moto, and it’s not even dirty." Later, he said that he didn’t even break a sweat. He went on to talk about how coming back from Europe to race at REM was the best thing he had done, because it exposed a lot of flaws in the bike. "We learned a lot on the motorcycle from being in Europe for a month and made the bike better, and then we came back to America and made the bike even better. I mean, honestly, the best thing that I did in the last month was racing the pre-races that I did at REM…. We learned a lot about the motorcycle: we had fuel-boiling, we had electronical [sic] problems, we had a shock blow out…. We had just different stuff. And it just shows that those races – those meaningless races that we did – proved that we had work to do, and for the last month we’ve been working hard to make the problem better. And it shows. The bike was frickin’ awesome today. It couldn’t have been any better…."
So if you’re buying a bike, would you want one that has all of those problems when it’s not a completely dialed-in factory bike? This is why most riders are tight-lipped about bike problems – because they’re being paid to sell bikes.
He went on, with a similar question, to end an answer with "We made some big improvements in the last couple of weeks and came here and just demolished them today." Of course, Alessi didn’t demolish them. He actually finished second.
Chad Reed was really funny when he got up, getting giggles from the entire audience when he immediately said, "I won, right? I won the overall? I was almost confused by listening to that…."
Two motos into a twenty-four-moto series, #800 has already managed to offend and anger most of his competition, including the guy who beat him last Saturday, Reed. And Reed is exactly the wrong kind of guy to give motivation to.
The amazing thing is that Mike made his professional debut at Millville in 2004 (compare that fiasco to what we saw from Eli Tomac). That was six years ago. But nothing has changed. That either means he’s incapable of changing or that he simply doesn’t recognize the need. But if fueling Chad Reed’s fire this summer doesn’t make him realize that he needs to change his way of thinking, nothing probably ever will.
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If you piss some dude off and he doesn't talk to you, you don't get the story or the interview or whatever. You do that enough times and soon, you're writing without getting any real info or scoops. Then there's a Vital thread about how so-and-so sucks balls cause their site/story or whatever has no real info.
So you have to play the game here and there. I text and talk to an incredible amount of riders during the week (we all do) and they give us info, answer questions and we pass it all on to you guys. You think Tiger or LeBron are answering texts and calls from nosy journalists? No. We're lucky we're still small enough that these guys do that.
Almost everyone tries to look at things with a critical eye but you have to do your best to remember that it's possible some rider won't talk to you or you'll be blackballed by a team or whatever.
Also, keep in mind that there aren't too many journos in the sport making a lot of money. Times are tight, I have a couple of other gigs as do some other guys to make ends meet and when you're mortgage depends on getting a story from a guy, maybe you play nice.
p.s. nice crib
I know you have been left in the cold a couple of times, but it seems you survived, maybe you survived just because of that?
Just saying of course...
And I mean, just a bit...
Critique makes us improve mentally. Their loss really...
His emotions dictate his behavior, in contrast to someone like Christophe Pourcel who uses the muscle between his ears, keeps his cool, methodically thinks things out, and strikes like a shark!
I'm totally convinced intelligence has a lot to do with how fast someone can go on a bike. Riders coming up with unique creative lines is an example of intelligence, but judging by Mike's behaviors, I honestly think he might have one of the lowest I.Q.'s on the track. Just as some people can judge I.Q. by a persons writing or behavior, I'm pretty confident I can get a decent idea how smart someone is by their riding and podium speeches, and it wouldn't surprise me if Mike had an I.Q. somewhere around 90. He's obviously extremely fast, just not smart. I think the biggest threat to Mike's chance at a title this year isn't other competitors, but his mind. I'm not trying to be rude, just realistic. Just as Mike has worked on his bike to become faster, I hope he can work on himself in the same ways, to improve his performance.
I'd say the contact with BT101, is another recent example. That could come back to bite him in the ass later. Look at how clean RC raced people. He also always gave tons of respect to lapers, and look at the respect RC received in return from his competitors. Mike really could benefit from learning a lot.
Pit Row
Let's see what Grandal has to say.
There's nothing smart about making guys want to beat you specifically. Everyone wants to win, but when guys go out there and don't really care where they finish as long as Alessi finishes on the ground, then he's being stupid. "Us against the world" is Tony's battle cry, but of course Tony doesn't have to do any of the fighting.
"Everybody knows I was the Champ last year"
Enough said.
If that's the "dumbest" thing you can dig up on the guy, try again. There's really nothing dumb or stupid about what Christophe is saying, from his perspective. From your perspective, and nearly everyone else, it may be dumb because Dungey was the one holding up the trophy. CP just believes had the bike not broke he would have won, and odds are, he's probably right - but that's racing.
I think Mike's behavior is a reflection on the fact that he is a 22 year old man with essentially no education, minimal social skill, and that he is basically not even in control of his own life.
Since Mike isn't doing SX anymore, if I were Tony I would do a helpful thing for my son and send him to college over the winter. Would help the boy immensely.
Watch this, respectful clean racing. Even David Bailey comments on how nice they were racing each other (that's just one race tho).
Mike's move on BT is going to come back to bite him in the ass. Don't think for a second BT won't remember that when the roles are reversed and he has a chance to give MA800 some heat. Don't get me wrong, I'm a MA800 fan.
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