The Prado Mystery

Mavetism
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7/21/2025 4:03am
Mavetism wrote:
CPR wrote:

That must’ve been after Millville.

Yeah it was, but what JT saw and described at moto 1 there is pretty much what happened this weekend. Prado was literally just riding around. 

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kijen
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7/21/2025 4:17am
Herr Lich wrote:
The best motocross/supercross rider in the world is an Australian. And in terms of the most popular sport in the world by far - football (soccer as...

The best motocross/supercross rider in the world is an Australian. 

And in terms of the most popular sport in the world by far - football (soccer as you call it) - you're ranked 15th. 

Any Americans in F1? Ah...no. 

Howabout MotoGP? Ah......no. 

US owns all other countries when it comes to athletics. Olympics, all stick and ball sports, most MXdN wins. We have the best athletes by a...

US owns all other countries when it comes to athletics. Olympics, all stick and ball sports, most MXdN wins. We have the best athletes by a mile. If we actually cared about soccer we would be the best at it. You can type a whitty response but you know its a fact deep down

Herr Lich wrote:
All stick and ball sports? Well, notRugby Union; Rugby League; Cricket; Tennis (two Americans in the top 10)...As for saying you'd be the best in football...

All stick and ball sports? Well, not

Rugby Union; Rugby League; Cricket; Tennis (two Americans in the top 10)...

As for saying you'd be the best in football 'if you cared about it'. Do you not think the decades and decades of dedication to football and the way it's weaved into the fabric of the countries that excell at it would have any bearing on that? You think you're going to suddenly 'care about it' and start beating Brazil, Argentina, Germany, England, Spain, Portugal...and on and on - being that it is a truly global sport. Not like baseball where the World Series is...ah...only for American teams. 

Put baseball in context, yes it is American teams,  with a pretty high percentage of international athletes. So the worlds best players WANT to play in the best league.

Same as golf, the PGA is amercian, with a lot of international players.  For Soccer, look at the demographics of America, for better or worse,  the most diverse population in the entire world.  To think America does not have the potential to excel in soccer is funny. Some of the issue may be  many of folks in the US have not embraced the country and still support their native leagues and teams?

To end.. facts is, every country can or has produced a world champion of some sport.

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Mavetism
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7/21/2025 4:48am
dirtcan wrote:
Man if he barely finishes the season and goes straight back to the gp’s, could this be considered the biggest bunt in motocross history?His gypsy interview...

Man if he barely finishes the season and goes straight back to the gp’s, could this be considered the biggest bunt in motocross history?


His gypsy interview didn’t exactly aged like fine wine.

I think Thomas Covington was also a big one, was never the same after going to the US. SX completely broke him, tried one more MXGP season after that and then retired, went from a top three guy in MX2 to battling way outside the top 20th.

But it's hard to compare a top three MX2 guy to a literal four time world champ who was winning since he entered the pro scene pretty much. The whole situation is just weird man.

 

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Indy mxer
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7/21/2025 4:58am
EAmato88 wrote:
Ive said it before and ill say it again. 5-8th place finishes, yeah we can have a discussion about bike issues. Jorge Prado isnt fooling anyone...

Ive said it before and ill say it again. 5-8th place finishes, yeah we can have a discussion about bike issues. Jorge Prado isnt fooling anyone, Mitch Harrison clapped his ass on the same bike built by a privateer team. Bike problems dont run out front for a few laps then deploy a parachute..... I know Kawi has their internal management issues, but cmon. If you believe Prados failures are 100% on the bike, youre blind as a bat.

You're correct!! Getting beat by a privateer on the same bike shows he's putting out zero effort. He's stealing money at this point.

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2

The Shop

SlackBoy
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7/21/2025 6:08am
US owns all other countries when it comes to athletics. Olympics, all stick and ball sports, most MXdN wins. We have the best athletes by a...

US owns all other countries when it comes to athletics. Olympics, all stick and ball sports, most MXdN wins. We have the best athletes by a mile. If we actually cared about soccer we would be the best at it. You can type a whitty response but you know its a fact deep down

Herr Lich wrote:
All stick and ball sports? Well, notRugby Union; Rugby League; Cricket; Tennis (two Americans in the top 10)...As for saying you'd be the best in football...

All stick and ball sports? Well, not

Rugby Union; Rugby League; Cricket; Tennis (two Americans in the top 10)...

As for saying you'd be the best in football 'if you cared about it'. Do you not think the decades and decades of dedication to football and the way it's weaved into the fabric of the countries that excell at it would have any bearing on that? You think you're going to suddenly 'care about it' and start beating Brazil, Argentina, Germany, England, Spain, Portugal...and on and on - being that it is a truly global sport. Not like baseball where the World Series is...ah...only for American teams. 

kijen wrote:
Put baseball in context, yes it is American teams,  with a pretty high percentage of international athletes. So the worlds best players WANT to play in...

Put baseball in context, yes it is American teams,  with a pretty high percentage of international athletes. So the worlds best players WANT to play in the best league.

Same as golf, the PGA is amercian, with a lot of international players.  For Soccer, look at the demographics of America, for better or worse,  the most diverse population in the entire world.  To think America does not have the potential to excel in soccer is funny. Some of the issue may be  many of folks in the US have not embraced the country and still support their native leagues and teams?

To end.. facts is, every country can or has produced a world champion of some sport.

America has the potential to dominate Baseball worldwide.....but don't. Cos they are too busy playing in their massively overpayed clown show. Thats why it draws international players, who doesn't want the payday.
And the best soccer (male) players in America...errr aren't American.

 

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Justthefacts
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7/21/2025 6:37am

Anyone have the video with Mathes? Sexton was saying that interview was worse.  Would like to see it. 

8500rpm
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7/21/2025 6:48am

It's very unfair maybe, but Prado is a bit like some F1 drivers and it hurt to say this as a Nordic region citizen... Valtteri Bottas, Mika Häkkinen and some others, they were really fast, unbeatable when the car was PERFECT to their style of driving, but they dropped quickly when the car was not perfect. The total opposite we see in Verstappen and Charles LeClerc, they seem to be able to extract everything and drive on the limit even if they find the car not exactly to their liking.

Maybe Prado has been lucky for a long time, had the perfect team and perfect bike for him....  Doesn't make him bad, he is a Champ, but still far from the best in the world.

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soggy
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7/21/2025 6:59am

He’s barely going to be top 20 smx at this pace. Luckily for him some riders in front aren’t racing currently. 

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motomike137
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7/21/2025 7:06am
SlackBoy wrote:
America has the potential to dominate Baseball worldwide.....but don't. Cos they are too busy playing in their massively overpayed clown show. Thats why it draws international...

America has the potential to dominate Baseball worldwide.....but don't. Cos they are too busy playing in their massively overpayed clown show. Thats why it draws international players, who doesn't want the payday.
And the best soccer (male) players in America...errr aren't American.

 

Overpaid clown show? This gentleman would like a word with you... When will Tarik Skubal pitch for the Tigers vs. Guardians in ALDS?

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Nairb#70
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7/21/2025 7:07am Edited Date/Time 7/21/2025 7:10am
Mavetism wrote:
CPR wrote:

That must’ve been after Millville.

Mavetism wrote:

Yeah it was, but what JT saw and described at moto 1 there is pretty much what happened this weekend. Prado was literally just riding around. 

JT absolutely naied it. After experiencing absolute domination.anything less is considered failure.

7/21/2025 8:04am
crusty_xx wrote:
How in the world did we go from this  to this? 

How in the world did we go from this

 

image 1872.png?VersionId=uME9edX8cOWx1TrzEPMfKwN

 

to this?

 

image 1873.png?VersionId=Wb0g gsg42FSJH1mnsODfz

He might hv it in his head it’s a sx chassis, who knows. Everyone is using there imagination to come with ideas, including me.  He’s a nice guy & rose above the comp at many levels , that takes energy.  In 125 emx it’s serious most of the  riders  looked stressed out , I think he dominated that . Not sure if he did 250emx but he’s 250 world champ.  It’s just another level here to learn .  I,m going threw a ton of injections & respiratory system is bad I had to see a fill in dr . Woozy head 1/2 way to the track I felt like sleeping.  But I did the drive changed shock springs b4 I left 5.0 to oem 4.7 finished sag at the track . Burn 4-5 laps on sand sx track then adjust suspension.  I got the back to stop kicking up & side to side .  Still a bit off but had to adjust riding positions etc.  but I got it to 4th gear clipped the tops of the whoops with 2 slight turns in them.  I can clip a angle hard square in a whoop & it dances the rear side to side real quick . That takes energy but more times fast& smooth in them.  I adjusted more sag in I need a little more . But I figured it’s close & get the heaters in, adapt to the bike.  In a hurry in aprox 2.5 hrs I got the bike to handle . 

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erik_94COBRA
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7/21/2025 8:11am
aeffertz wrote:
That Roczen interview was awesome. Without saying it directly he basically said “I’m winning on a bike that’s nearly a decade old. No 450 is short...

That Roczen interview was awesome. Without saying it directly he basically said “I’m winning on a bike that’s nearly a decade old. No 450 is short of power.”

Larry450 wrote:
But didnt Kenny have his shit show at rch back in the day? He was way faster on stock bike than rch zook. His dad gave...

But didnt Kenny have his shit show at rch back in the day? He was way faster on stock bike than rch zook. His dad gave a interview to some german mx magazine and blamed the team.

https://www.vitalmx.com/forums/Moto-Related,20/Roczens-Dad-on-RCH,1290565

The german mx magazine "Cross Magazin" just came in the mail and they did a interview with Heiko Klepka on RCH. It was stunning to see what he said... I'll just translate some key things from the interview, I'd have never thought that it was THAT bad. (Sometimes I ran out of translation talent and changed the exact wording, but the key facts are still right)

About the team
"The RCH Racing Team is not a team, but a randomly mixed bunch of self promoters. In this so-called team there is no team spirit, because everybody just works for his own interest. It's about money. There are people on the team, that obviously have no function, but they're getting payed. For example there is Mark Johnson, who was brought in by Carmichael from the Indycar series. This man is just superarrogant and he has no clue about suspensions. That affects the mood of the team and the performance of my boy. It's purely about sponsors and money at RCH, Ken is just a playing ball. I have never experienced something like this in all the GP years."

About the management
"I'm sure Ken would leave the team immediately. But that isn't easy, because his management is also involved with the team. [...] If he violates the contract, he'll have to pay 2'000'000$ fees. Also, his manager Steve Astephen has no clue about the sport. For example, at the beginning of the outdoor season, he told Ken: "Tomac doesn't ride in your league, why do you let him pass you?" When I heard that, my jaw dropped (Original german saying: 'blieb mir die Spucke weg- my spit stayed away). [...]
There is already a little Clique that developed around my boy and success in the sport is only a small part. He has no control, not over the bike and not over the team. Of course Ken noticed this too. Actually, the vibe was gone after 2 months, because the people in the team already tried to part him and Kelly Lumgair. These people never were in the workshop, and Kelly was a real confidante for Ken and it was a really hard decision for Kelly, to go with Suzuki. He gave up the best job in the world then. And now he goes back to KTM- any questions?"

About Ricky Carmichael
"Of course Ricky isn't a bad dude, but as a team chef, he is an insult for Ken Roczen. It's hard to believe, but he shows up a couple of times during the year, waves and lets out some cool patters. You want a tasting sample? 'Everyone has problems with the air forks. We can't make the shock that good, or else it wouldn't work with the fork.' I know that he doesn't even watch Kens races, but he rather drives out with his boat. Other than that, he seems satisfied with how everything is going."

Did they lie to Ken from the beginning on?
I'll shorten it up a bit here: They don't get the suspension working because nobody cooperates with each other, for example, in the workshop they just rebuild the complete bike. The 19th place in the first moto isn't the result of his back, but of a completely unrideable bike(!!!). They didn't even start preparing for Supercross so far.

Roczen searches for solutions himsel
"We tried to clarify that internal, and tried to bring a german suspension specialist, that Ken trusts blindly, into the team. Of course that was rejected. Then we tried to get a stock Suzuki, but ended up buying one ourself. The german suspension guy came and was completely ignored by the team. Ricky knew who he is and why he was here, and just asked if he was spending his vacaction here. We then tested with the stock bike and Ken was 3 seconds (Hell yes, 3 effing seconds!!) faster than with his factory bike. With stock suspension and a stock engine."
Shortened ending: They tried to contact everybody, Geboers, sports boss of Suzuki in Japan, but they couldn't help because RCH is no factory team. Only Suzuki USA offered help by the factory team, but that was rejected by RCH. At the middle of the season, they wanted to test, but RCH said: 'No, we only can next week'. They had their guy, but RCh brought 7, which all didn't help. They were allowed to ride Baggetts suspension later, which RCH worked on after 1 race- with result of Ken not liking it anymore. Then they wanted to see the contract with Showa, if they could get a new one, a 10 year old one or the old one of Baggett. But RCH didn't show it to them. He also said, that if the air forks won't work, they will go back to the traditional forks, which they did, as we all know.

What could've solved the problems?
"At the middle of the season, they should have fired all the incapable people and replaced them with our confidante. Then we would've had a unstoppable Ken Roczen on Suzuki. But because of the arrogance at RCH, only escape remains for Kenny.

So that's pretty much it. I would have never thought that it was THAT bad at RCH... But I guess Heiko didn't lie right here. I'm sorry for all the grammatical mistakes, my English is obviously still not perfect. But I hope you guys can understand everything!

 

Maybe somebody should ask prados dad whats up. Prado himself doesnt seem to know anything.

Amazing that Ricky was a dickhead back then also.  /s

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EuroGuy39
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7/21/2025 8:45am
US owns all other countries when it comes to athletics. Olympics, all stick and ball sports, most MXdN wins. We have the best athletes by a...

US owns all other countries when it comes to athletics. Olympics, all stick and ball sports, most MXdN wins. We have the best athletes by a mile. If we actually cared about soccer we would be the best at it. You can type a whitty response but you know its a fact deep down

That's one of the most obnoxius and arrogant comments I've probably ever seen here. Love it, that's the good old 'merican spirit right there.

You have only one current "soccer" player that is worth even mentioning about, Pulisic. MLS is a second tier league and it wouldn't be even that without the foreign players.

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Hcallz5
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7/21/2025 8:54am

Is Prado on a 2 year deal? 

280driver
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7/21/2025 8:55am
Hcallz5 wrote:

Is Prado on a 2 year deal? 

I believe it’s a 3 yr deal with an option for another yr.

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KurtJ99
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7/21/2025 8:59am
CPR wrote:

Six pages of people mostly mistaking opinions for facts.

Fact is none of us here know what's really going on.

1000 Vitards speculating one of them will come on it randomly.

My money's on Pro. 

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2
7/21/2025 9:15am Edited Date/Time 7/21/2025 9:17am

too lazy to dig it up, but there's a YT short taken right after the race. Prado is sitting on the ground taking off his gear and the team is all around him. He's clearly defensive and holding his hands up in a WTF type fashion and then you can clearly him say "I tried my best!! I tried my best!!" - I'll look for it in a bit...

FOUND IT: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7laNMRy5Ij0

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7/21/2025 9:40am

The guy oozes talent and enough to run way nearer the front, maybe not with Jett and Chase but certainly in the group immediately behind and within touching distance in the event of a crash by the front runners but personally I just don't think he looks the same rider as on the Gas Gas, sure he can rip a start and run fir a few laps but it's uncanny that ha drops off the planet

Guillod, Paturel, Cairoli on a stock bike prove it's not too much a difference in level of talent it's more of a mystery, just look back what a genuine champ could do when Herlings made the switch just for a weekend, the difference being he was on something mire akin to what he was riding in MXGP whereas Prado has changed pretty much everything you could change... the mystery continues but hopefully something will click soon

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gt80rider
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7/21/2025 9:52am

how did this start??  by forcing Jorge into the 450 SX class.. can u even imaging your very first ever SX race being in the 450 class? SUPER STOOPID rule by the Nephilim running this chit... so you give him a super bad taste of racing in america, by having him nearly crash himself to death through the entire SX series.... then it's time for a full national/Superstupidcross season to start!!! 

i mentioned before about how in my Jr and Sr years in HS i could nottt wait to go to the college i had selected.. full ride and all!!!!...  however, once there, it Fn suckedddd.... i hate everything about it.... that's where Jorge is right now... he's riding like he put in his 2 week notice, over a month ago... LOLLLL

Key take away- Don't force guys that have only raced MX their entire life, into the 450 SX class...!

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14
7/21/2025 10:03am
too lazy to dig it up, but there's a YT short taken right after the race. Prado is sitting on the ground taking off his gear...

too lazy to dig it up, but there's a YT short taken right after the race. Prado is sitting on the ground taking off his gear and the team is all around him. He's clearly defensive and holding his hands up in a WTF type fashion and then you can clearly him say "I tried my best!! I tried my best!!" - I'll look for it in a bit...

FOUND IT: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7laNMRy5Ij0

Bloody hell. Looking at that video, and with him nearly crying in the interview with Lewis Philips, you have to imagine he's absolutely done mentally. 

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2
NickoBrap
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7/21/2025 10:07am
BAD10 wrote:
Before the start of the season, Prado said in a couple interviews that he had been eyeing the Kawasaki all along and it was the bike...

Before the start of the season, Prado said in a couple interviews that he had been eyeing the Kawasaki all along and it was the bike he wanted to ride. He also said if he if he didn’t sign with Kawasaki he would have stayed in MXGP. The Kawi was it for him.  Well wtf happened!! No doubt he rode the bike before he signed. Now that he’s here it’s shit? I really wanted to see him do well, but damn, this is as bad as it gets. I can’t remember any other time a World champ has come over and done this terrible. Not a good look. To me it was very telling in the Lewis interview when he said “I don’t know what the future holds”. At this point I can’t see any other team wanting to hire him. 

280driver wrote:

He also said in one of those interviews that he was happy with the engine package.  Go figure.

I haven't seen many other people mention this. In that Gypsy interview he was talking the bike up BIG TIME. He was talking about wishing he had it in GPs. What even happened?

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soggy
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7/21/2025 10:15am
US owns all other countries when it comes to athletics. Olympics, all stick and ball sports, most MXdN wins. We have the best athletes by a...

US owns all other countries when it comes to athletics. Olympics, all stick and ball sports, most MXdN wins. We have the best athletes by a mile. If we actually cared about soccer we would be the best at it. You can type a whitty response but you know its a fact deep down

EuroGuy39 wrote:
That's one of the most obnoxius and arrogant comments I've probably ever seen here. Love it, that's the good old 'merican spirit right there.You have only...

That's one of the most obnoxius and arrogant comments I've probably ever seen here. Love it, that's the good old 'merican spirit right there.

You have only one current "soccer" player that is worth even mentioning about, Pulisic. MLS is a second tier league and it wouldn't be even that without the foreign players.

Not to mention the best basketball players and many of the best mlb players are foreign

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mx691
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Fantasy
7/21/2025 10:17am Edited Date/Time 7/21/2025 10:22am

Surely not the reason for Prados lack of performance, but i think his handlebars look a couple inches (!) wider than Jetts and for sure Elis look supernarrow.

Im sure he knows how he like them…?

Am i right or is it a illusion?

Sometimes i think he looks like a little boy riding his dads 500. 🙃

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Kenny Banyan
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7/21/2025 10:24am
mx691 wrote:
Surely not the reason for Prados lack of performance, but i think his handlebars look a couple inches (!) wider than Jetts and for sure Elis...

Surely not the reason for Prados lack of performance, but i think his handlebars look a couple inches (!) wider than Jetts and for sure Elis look supernarrow.

Im sure he knows how he like them…?

Am i right or is it a illusion?

Sometimes i think he looks like a little boy riding his dads 500. 🙃

See if you can find some pics…… That’s a point no one has brought up. I’m interested in looking at what your talking about.💯👍🏻

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mx691
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7/21/2025 10:37am
mx691 wrote:
Surely not the reason for Prados lack of performance, but i think his handlebars look a couple inches (!) wider than Jetts and for sure Elis...

Surely not the reason for Prados lack of performance, but i think his handlebars look a couple inches (!) wider than Jetts and for sure Elis look supernarrow.

Im sure he knows how he like them…?

Am i right or is it a illusion?

Sometimes i think he looks like a little boy riding his dads 500. 🙃

See if you can find some pics…… That’s a point no one has brought up. I’m interested in looking at what your talking about.💯👍🏻

Dunno… Maybe ML can sneak out the tapemeasure

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mx691
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7/21/2025 10:40am

Elis sometimes look like a 1990’s XC mtb… 

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Sigmund
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7/21/2025 10:58am
too lazy to dig it up, but there's a YT short taken right after the race. Prado is sitting on the ground taking off his gear...

too lazy to dig it up, but there's a YT short taken right after the race. Prado is sitting on the ground taking off his gear and the team is all around him. He's clearly defensive and holding his hands up in a WTF type fashion and then you can clearly him say "I tried my best!! I tried my best!!" - I'll look for it in a bit...

FOUND IT: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7laNMRy5Ij0

He is doing what he can. He is in the best shape of his life. Have you seen his VO2 max? If he had a bike that was competitive, he would be at the top, but with this bike – and it's not just power issue – that's the maximum.

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7/21/2025 10:59am

Why hasn't anyone mentioned an illness?

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alphado
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7/21/2025 11:09am

Banged up?

1

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