Big Lew Gets the Dozer Treatment

He’s been treated with kid gloves his entire career and now that the media and fans are asking what’s wrong he’s getting irritable, grumpy old man syndrome 

Eli might want to listen to Ian's interview with Lewis before he gets pissed off at Lewis about this one. If that's what Ian told him on the record it's not hard to figure out what he might have told him off the record beforehand. 

Also telling that Eli says these conversations all took place in the bus after people stopped by. Assuming that's his motorhome. So they had to come to him. And according to Ian Eli basically told him he didn't need anything and to trust him. 

So not a stretch to say Eli is barely talking, and Eli getting this defensive about it is just weird. 

Love Eli, but maybe he should worry less about what reporters are hypothesizing and more about not making an absolute embarrassment of himself every main event.

Nailed it.

Especially as long time fans have grown thoroughly disgusted with the dumbed down style of broadcasting.

Damn, how I wish we had a simulcast to turn to during the races. 

Was watching the Birmingham RDL show at our cabin. We had a few outdoor oriented friends who sat down while it was on.

Two were even fellow mt biker's.

With rider's on the track, it held nobody's interest.  And after a few minutes the conversation waned. 

So this whole bullshit about appealing to  "new fans", is a frikkin joke. 

If you ride, or have ridden, you're a fan.

If not...

This was touched on in another thread but this is an example of what I was saying about what happens when you don't want to talk about things. I get it that it's Eli's right to not talk about a potential injury or bike issue, I respect that. But if you go that route then it does open it up for fans and media to speculate. I don't really care enough to watch every single interview but it didn't sound like Lewis just made that up, based on the Vital interview with Ian. I also think for a guy that stays pretty low-key on socials, Eli picks weird times to respond and be defensive. I'm a big Eli fan, so I'm not talking bad but just giving my opinion.

Imagine being Eli in this situation and having 'the Dunge' come by for words of wisdom...

Probably one of the only opinions he would respect enough to consider. 

Vital complains that the media in this industry doesn’t report on slightly controversial or secret things because they don’t want to piss off their friends, yet when a media member does so they complain that he should have checked in with Eli first despite clearly having a source that (possibly incorrectly) gave him that information.

Not taking away anything from Dungey, just would be awkward to have another rider with some history giving criticism.

Good on them if they've mended fences, though.

It’s okay. Lewis is best friends with Chase. #unbiasedreporting 

I see Ryan Dungey being supportive and reassuring. Probably more of a “you got this” conversation rather than a technical breakdown.  They have both been under championship pressure. Ryan is one of the few people in the world who can relate to the emotions Eli must be going through.

Tend to agree with you, but the childish tweet isn't really reporting on the situation, especially with the 'haha' sign off.

I think that’s what upset him. In the interview with Ian he says they all talked it over but Lewis’ tweet kind of suggests that he just stormed off after the race without saying anything.

Prolific and any moto journalist name don’t belong in the same sentence.

Lew does ask some good questions, but the media disdain for Eli is getting old. He doesn’t give you a lot of information, oh well he doesn’t have too. 

and the takes are all the same and given zero thought. ‘We don’t believe him he has to be hurt’. ‘The bike set up is bad’. 

This is so fucking lazy it’s pathetic. And it ignores probably the biggest factor when it comes to racing. The 6” between your ears.  Now I doubt Eli would answer any questions about this but if your mentals aren’t in line it’s going to be very hard to perform at the highest level. You could have the best bike and be in the best physical shape ever but if your head isn’t in it you don’t stand a chance. 

Tell me you have no emotional intelligence without telling me. 

They touched on it briefly on the post race Vital pod. If he loses, I tend to think he will, this one is worse than 2017. What a blown opportunity. Jett out, he's riding great, Hunter crashes out in the whoops and finishes 18th. And just mediocre results from Eli. Jett back next year, the emergence of Hunter, and Deegz moving up, are we watching the last sx races from Eli?

I like Lew, he's been a nice addition to moto media.

I just find this whole "investigative journalism" stuff pretty gay and a waste of time and energy. Just enjoy the racing, I don't know why we need answers to all the hypotheticals. 

The amount of time spent each week on podcasts, social media, etc. making predictions and assumptions that usually don't become reality literally a few days later is kind of weird. There's so many variables in motocross, those predictions almost never come true. They spent Sunday - Friday talking about what's going to happen, almost none of it happens on Saturday, then they scramble to find more talking points about it the next Sunday - Friday and make more predictions. 

IMO, we need more discussion on the bikes, videos and photos recapping the racing itself, and letting the riders speak on their race without the "tough questions" that these guys are desperately chasing for answers for. 

Heraring these grown men talk to a teenager and trying to pry information out of them to justify their job is kind of weird. 

In my opinion, there's a sense of entitlement to this information that I don't think is deserved. Motocross is a tiny sport, no one actually cares in the grand scheme. 

The moto media has gotten pretty bold. There seems to be a lack of respect for the riders to a certain degree that I don't agree with. 

I think there is a bit of tongue and cheek behind Eli's tweets. Also, it's possible that he is having a bit of a slump as he says and it tired of everyone speculating and giving him a hard time about hiding something. Just maybe, he's telling the truth?

Eli is human, with human emotions...and probably a bit of a head case, like many top-level riders are. He's had some really poor performances recently...no matter the reason (injury, bike setup issues, poor tire choice, track deterioration, whatever...), and that has to weigh heavily on him. We all tend to either clam up and not communicate at all or get really thin-skinned when things aren't going our way. Tomac has all but admitted that he made some poor choices at Nashville. Maybe give the guy a break?

Reading between the lines it sounds like Eli went straight to the motor home and Ian and others popped in to check on him. Eli told them just leave it to him. I think in Eli's mind there was a de-brief and in Ian's mind Eli isn't talking to them. Semantics.

Tomac's social media post is petty and small, but I can see why he'd be a little pissed about that interview. Lewis seemed to work a little jab at Tomac into each question and Ian entertained it. Not to mention when Lewis brought up making room for the Coenen's Ian quickly pointed out that Tomac is on a one year contract. Ouch.

Man it would suck to have to deal with people who talk too much. Just blabbing on 24/7 meaningless drivel, addicted to the sound of their own voice

Might be time for big Lew to head back the MXGPs. We’re good here. 

Completely agree that it could’ve been phrased differently. But this is the type of information this sport has been asking for, the amount of people here saying or implying that he shouldn’t be reporting this at all isn’t helping the media move away from the industry bro circle of trust

If I wanted to get my confidence back, I'd like to see the sport's all time great that started 1-2 with me in a moto before I put a minute thirty on him

Yo Eli, welcome to MX/SX where you really are only as good as your last race.  When Elis winning,  the media just swoons over his “beastmode” and talk about how “you CANT LET ELI GET ON A ROLL…”. He “has finally found his mold” with, well at first Yamaha and now KTM…but when Eli loses its “whats wrong with his head?” “Mental case”. 

What does Christian Craig have to do with this?

You just described listening to any race discussion or bike test.   

That’s modern day life mate. Everyone, everywhere, all the time getting on social media and making a big deal out of absolutely fuck all. 

Life before the internet and all this childish bullshit was so much better. 

I agree with you about everything but I do think this is a bit of a different situation entirely. He’s not even mentioning all the speculation around what’s been going on, he’s just saying that he did talk with the team and Lewis saying he barely did apparently isn’t true. Could just be a difference of opinion with the way the post race discussions went. Maybe someone on the team told Lewis that they think he could’ve been more informative while he maybe feels like he shit the bed and it’s all on him and there wasn’t anything more to be said? Who knows. I kind of wish he stayed off social media though, some of these tweets make him look a bit foolish and petty IMO.

More likely, he’s at a point in his career where he doesn’t have to hold back.