"I'm Not Used to Being Straight-Up Slow and That's Where I Was" | Adam Cianciarulo on Rebuilding

Adam Cianciarulo came into the pro ranks as one of the most dominant amateur riders of all time. Throughout his career he has consistently been one of the fastest riders on the track. The problem has been injuries time and time again setting him back. Coming into the 2023 season after another injury, AC had to make a mental reset to get things back on track. He came on a recent episode of the MotoXpod Show to discuss that and where he is in his program currently. The interview was conducted by Jamie Guida, Scotty Thomson, Lewis Phillips, and Doc Smith.

For the full interview, check out Ep267 of the MotoXpod Show | Ft. Adam Cianciarulo, Cade Clason, and Marshal Weltin. Also, if you would like to watch the video version from the MotoXpod Show click the link below.

Jamie Guida – Vital MX: First of all, let’s talk about the Heat race. You were very lucky to walk away from that. Watching that thing in slow motion, it could have been bad. Thankfully, it worked out well and you went on to what I think was a good ride.

Adam Cianciarulo: Yeah, I thought it was a productive weekend. Obviously, I got lucky with the Heat race crash. It was kind of a stupid move on my end. I got off of the wall a little quickly going into the whoops. I was actually hitting those things in fourth gear and lugging coming off of the wall, and it just really hooked up. The whoops had a lot of traction there and I ended up skipping one and they were already a bit edgy. When you skip one normally if you're going straight, you can just reach to the next one and figure it out. I entered a little bit crooked, so when I tried to reach for the next whoop, I hit an edge with my back tire. The rest was history, but definitely a pretty brutal, scary crash. I took an uppercut from my Renthals. I was able to get up and feel good about my recovery and that it didn't compound any mistakes the rest of the day. I managed to have a good day. All in all, everyone hits the ground but we're all healthy and it's all good.

Jamie: I was going to ask you if when Coop (Webb) was coming up on you that you said, “Nope. You're not passing me.”, and then you stepped outside of that comfort zone that you've been talking about. Sounds like that was not the case.

AC: Well, I'm not going to deny that there was some of that for sure. You always want to stay in front of the guy that's behind you, but I think it was more a case of that section. When you're practicing, even in qualifying practice, it's easy to stay in your process and do what you like. You can stay within your comfort zone. I haven’t been near the front in a while, my starts haven't been great, and I haven't been up there. So, I was really excited about my pace for the day. I qualified P2 and I was close to Chase (Sexton) and just felt good on the track. I wanted to battle for that Heat win and yeah, I got a little bit, I wouldn't really even say ahead of myself but just got a little bit cocky, I guess. It bit me. But yeah, it was good entertainment, I guess.

Lewis Phillips – Vital MX: Are you starting to believe that Heat wins are possible, and podiums are possible? Are you starting to walk around with a bit of a spring in your step because you can see the light at the end of the tunnel? I feel things are so encouraging right now.

AC: I'm going to be real with you guys. At the start of the year for me, I’d never been in the position that I'm in right now. You know, I've been dealing with a lot of health stuff. Coming back after so long off I lost a lot of pace. The last few years, I really haven't ridden Supercross much at all and it's really difficult when the pace keeps getting faster. It was November when I was getting ready for the season. I was looking like I was an 18^th-place guy. I had to build myself up from scratch and at the start of the season, being as far off as I was, it hurt. It took a bit to wrap my head around what I needed to do to get back there. It was small steps and being really patient. I'm not used to just being straight-up slow and that's where I was. I kind of had a breakthrough mentally when I had my little wrist aggravation and missed a couple of races there. Since I came back at Indianapolis, I'm in a really good headspace. I feel confident and positive about what I'm doing. On paper, it's a lot of sixths and a lot of sevenths, but my pace that I'm showing and qualifying, how the pace is coming to me, my comfort on the bike, and even my days during the week has gotten substantially better. I'm feeling all that pace come back, all the sensations that I used to feel come back. It takes a lot of work to get that stuff back. I'm proud of myself for clawing my way back to where I am now. It's no easy task. These guys are really good and world-class. That's the name of the game for me now to try to not get too far ahead of myself. As you said, you do start setting these little goals for yourself. You're like, I can win this Heat race or maybe get a podium and stuff like that, and you can start skipping steps. You start focusing on the result more than you focused on the process of what you're doing, and that's where you can get yourself in trouble. I always have to stay grounded and stay intentional, and that's kind of my mantra.

Lewis: You had a couple of weeks off there and it's rare for someone to miss time and then come back better than they were before. So that was like a mental breakthrough. It gave you a chance to reflect on what you had learned through the first seven rounds, apply that, and come back with a fresh outlook.

AC: Exactly. With what I was doing before at these races, I wasn't happy. I didn't feel good about what I was doing. I was being super hard on myself and wasn't in a good place with it all. I needed to have fun and I needed to check myself, be intentional with how I'm being, and celebrate the small victories. You guys saw that bit of emotion after Indianapolis where I got my season best. That's where that emotion comes from, doing a lot of work mentally to get myself to where I'm at right now.

Scotty Thomson – MotoXpod Show: Going back a couple of years to when you were consistently the fastest guy, how do you think that compares to the pace now of guys like Chase Sexton?

AC: That's tough for me to say. The big thing for me this year is my roll speed, and my turns haven’t been what it was then. I’ve been lacking a bit of upper body strength and some of the things I do really well such as pushing the lanes. I'm getting back to that now, but certainly, at the beginning of the season, I was being cautious. Being away from the game, I wasn't sharp in those areas. It’s tough for me to say pace-wise, but how I was getting my pace was never going to lead to long-term success. You have to evolve, and I think you guys have seen that with Chase over the last couple of years. It's not necessarily the speed that's been tough for me. It's harnessing it. You can’t go out to the track and try as hard as you can around the whole track and just give it a bunch of gas. It's understanding the limit, and that's why there are not that many champions. That’s why there are not that many consistently dominant race-winning guys like (Eli) Tomac and Cooper Webb because it's difficult. It's really hard to crack the code. I guess I've kind of started from scratch and feel like a rookie again. I can tell you I am a smarter racer now. I’ve matured. I think I have everything I need to accomplish my goals long term. It’s unfortunate that it's taken everything that's happened to get me there. Maybe that's what I needed, not only for racing but for life. I'm in a content place right now, and really happy, really stoked to be doing my job. Yeah, man, just all-around good vibes.

Jamie: You mentioned that previously you weren't as happy as you are now. You had to reassess your mentality and rethink things. I definitely think that's going to be a key to your being more successful in the long term.

AC: Absolutely. Yeah. One thing I would say is this mentality we all have growing up as athletes, you always want more. You hear these guys talk. Guys like Ricky Carmichael and Ryan Villopoto won championships all the time. It's on to the next one every time, and all we're trained for is to want more and more and more. When you retire, that doesn't end. That doesn't go away, and it can leave you feeling a bit empty. It's been pretty publicly publicized about athletes that struggle post-retirement. It's because you're not tending to all these areas of your life and you're honed in on 1 or 2 areas to make you the best athlete you can be. I guess you're not very well-rounded and you don't know how to be content with what you have because you just need to be ambitious. You need to have that to work hard and do everything you can, but it doesn't really translate to the rest of your life if you don't have the tools emotionally to figure it out. I can say that if these past few years hadn’t happened and I kept on going and I ended up winning championships and accomplishing every goal I've ever had, these are things that I would have to go through when I'm 35 or 40. Who knows how long it would take me to learn? The fact that these struggles forced me to find a place mentally where I do really see a lot of value in myself as a human, it's really difficult to describe. but it's just a lot of things that growing up. It's been a rewarding experience.

Jamie: You also mentioned how fast everything happens on the track and that you've been noticing the difference since coming back. Have you noticed that speed is slowing down as things have been happening over the last few weeks? Has it been a significant change or gradual?

AC: It's been pretty gradual, I would say. Sometimes it's the track and how comfortable you feel on the track. If a track suits you a little bit more and your riding style. You just can't emulate it in practice. Even this off-season, to be honest with you guys, I didn't do a lot of laps. I was really under the gun. It was difficult at first to get all those sensations and those feelings back. I would say it's been gradual, and it's been a lot. If I had to put a number on it, it would be 5 to 10% slower than the last few weeks. It seems to be getting better really every week. I think a lot of it is just that mental switch that I flipped to be a bit more positive, be a bit more encouraging to myself.

Lewis: I've asked you this a few times this year, but I like tracking it. If you had to put a percentage on where you're at this moment compared to your peak being 100%, where would you put it? Riding wise, but then also separately to judge your mental state.

AC: My mental, my mental state, I can't. It's impossible for me. We could sit here and talk for three hours about these last couple of years. I think if you had a camera on me these last couple of years, I don't think you'd believe it. Some of the stuff that I've gone through that's even off the record. I can't even describe how much I have grown. It's astronomical. I feel like a completely different person. With all this stuff that I've done the past few years, I really feel like I can get the pace back if I can get the strength back and continue building like I am now. I really feel that I can be better than I've ever been before because of how much stronger I am mentally. I think about that when it comes time to be patient and it comes time to not just pin it to get a result that's right in front of you. I think I've unlocked a lot. I definitely don't think you've seen the last of me up towards the front of the race, that's for damn sure.

Scotty: It's got to be encouraging to see (Eli) Tomac, (Justin) Barcia, (Ken) Roczen, and (Jason) Anderson that are successful and still riding longer than we've ever seen. Does it encourage you to see that the career of a rider is extending in congruence with your finding this happy mental state?

AC: Part of the reason we get a rap for retiring early is you get the guys at the top of the sport like Ricky, Ryan Villopoto, and Dungey that always have the pressure of a championship and they're always on these crazy programs where they just get burnt out. They stop liking it and when you lose the love, the risk becomes way more apparent. When you truly love something, you tend to see the positive in everything. When you lose the love, the risk is right there at the forefront. For me, I always feel I can race a long time specifically because I do, it's probably a bit overstated by me, but I really do love this sport so much. More so than even just riding and racing. I love my coworkers and I love going to work. I love being at the track and I love the industry. The mental burnout factor is what I think gets people to retire more than physically. The love that I have will carry me through even in my mid-30s, maybe.

Jamie: With outdoors right around the corner you must be looking forward to the reset.

AC: Yeah. Obviously, I had some success outdoors. In my rookie year in 2021 I had some good rides and I think I'm still getting a lot better. Supercross is my focus, but I think we're going to start riding one day a week outdoors sometime in the next couple of weeks to get ready for that. I think it's the same thing I talked about before with what I'm doing now being intentional and staying within myself and just continuing to build. It's no secret for me, this year is all about that, all about getting the laps in. I have a lot of confidence in myself out there and it should be exciting to get up near the front and have some good battles. To get roosted by Eli Tomac, the legend maybe one last time.