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I'll start this by saying I've always like RJ but man he throws a fair bit of subtle shade at Geico for the past couple of seasons, both toward the bike and team management. Not calling anyone out specifically but more than once he complains about the team and bike.
I'd like to see him maybe reference his own inability to avoid crashing and making bad racing decisions along the way because for as bad as things might have been at Geico, Sexton rode pretty well, Lawrence rode pretty well. Maybe take a bit of ownership for his own failures. He's had 5 seasons on a factory program and not won a Supercross. One moto win outdoors and one overall.
IMO Hampshire will be a great test of the Aldon program. If he can get this guy to stop crashing and actually execute races to his full potential then I'll be the first to give the Baker program full kudos.
I'd like to see him maybe reference his own inability to avoid crashing and making bad racing decisions along the way because for as bad as things might have been at Geico, Sexton rode pretty well, Lawrence rode pretty well. Maybe take a bit of ownership for his own failures. He's had 5 seasons on a factory program and not won a Supercross. One moto win outdoors and one overall.
IMO Hampshire will be a great test of the Aldon program. If he can get this guy to stop crashing and actually execute races to his full potential then I'll be the first to give the Baker program full kudos.
Similar to Webb this year. I think Cooper was riding way over his head trying to make up for the Yamaha's shortcomings and his lack of race fitness.
The Shop
Excellent
The generation model before his last Geico bike had plenty of power in Supercross and Outdoors hell even Mookie Who at the time was way too heavy for a 250f won a SX title on the bike, Barcia won a SX Title on the Geico bike that didnt make tons of power revving it to the moon like the current one does.
Eli and Trey both won outdoors as well as indoor titles.
Chase Sexton won a SX title on the current platform and he's bigger than RJ Hampshire.
RJ would benefit most from sucking it up and not blame the bike and team for his shortcomings as a professional sx/mx racer
"im lookin at the man in the mirror, I'm askin if he'll change his ways…. Oh yea. If ya wanna put your racing career in a better place, take a look at yourself and make the chayynge. Sha'mon whoo yea"… .haha
Almost all of the time a rider is still able to win a race here or there if he's truly capable even if its on a bike that may not be the best of all the factory 250f bikes but its ONE of the best and the riders are asking for a little more low end torque and power which I think Honda achieved this year, if that even affects the factory team that runs stuff as far as 3 years ahead of production but at that level, how BAD could that engine possibly be if the stocker can hold its own pretty well against all the other stock 250f's from this year and last?
From everything I've read about it, this latest glen CRF250 handles quite possibly the best of ANY 250f available, came with great stock suspension and Geico runs A-kit that cannot be bottomed (lol)
Were talking about Honda here, they're got some of the best engineers, technicians and motor building Wizards in the world and they cannot build a package capable of not holding RJ back?
Reminds me of the Justin Hill interview, they didn't need to go on and on about how he has a renewed fire and hunger to win again because he's FINALLY (sarcasm) on a bike "That suits my style"… ."oh yea uhh no definitely yea no for sure I was 100% comfortable on the bike the first time I rode it. "… ..
Straight up, both guys went full-on-Ron with the blame game/pie. If they dont have drastic improvements THIS year, they'll end up needing an all you can eat buffet full of crow…. Because they're gonna be eating a lot of it….. me thinks
WITH THAT SAID, if I had to choose whom I think may garner better results than last year it would for sure have to be Justin Hill, based on last year he has basically got nowhere to go but up right?
As for RJ I'm really skeptical he will all of a sudden become this race winner and odds on championship favorite bec in almost positive he's professionally raced 3 completely different generations (redesigns) of that Honda CRF250 and none of the bikes changes or evolution from year to year has had any overwhelmingly positive or negative impact on his results, they've roughly stayed the same. Now, jumping on a HusKTM will be very interesting to see if he can back up the shade he cast over his former Bike & Team. Time will tell and I'll be the first one to give him props, not a fanboy but give credit where credit is due and munch on my own plate of crow.
On a side note…. RJ looks similar and his career including results have been so similar to Matt Bislegia, only for reasons unknown to me, Matty B didn't really get picked up by anyone after his kind of short, well much shorter than RJ's tenure as a rider for Geico. Anyone know why Matt Bislegia has all but disappeared from professional racing? He was a sought after amateur, rode for Geico straight out of amateurs… .had some fill in rides on RCH and another Suzuki team but what happened to him and his racing career it looks like he never got another ride (correct me if I'm wrong) after Geico and if he did, I'm talking contractually for a full 1 or 2 years not fill in rides
Lastly just curious what happened to Matty B
Anyone noticing these kinds of things from these guys in their podcasts?
Lots of 250 guys having a change in scenary this year, I feel like for most of them this is make or break as they have all had long enough on good teams to make it happen.
There was a few questions in particular in this latest interview with RJ where he's giving the blan answers and Anton is padding his answers in his questions providing all the details he sort of knew about Aldons program id say between the 10min - 14min mark.
Im not crapping on you guys or Weege but these interviews using RJ for an example since its fresh. They just seem to sound like they're not sitting 100% in the media chair it sounds like he's spending 30% - 40%as RJ's pr/media guy helping him answer and pokish his responses but when Anton feeds him a good chunk of the answer rolled into his extended question, RJ responded with "yea exactly" the questions and 60% - 70% doing the interview like he's jumping from both sides. It gives off the "bro'ing down effect" as opposed to a direct interview.
Just offering some critique, I like what you guys are doing with SML. The more legitimate moto media guys we have providing a consistent amount of content but not necessarily flooding the moto podcast market.
Not backpedaling here, nor do I want to come off like an interweb troll here. However, now that we,'ve established a direct connection here lol…… Lets dive right in 😆
I feel like the questions asked at 41:15-ish and the one at 43:45-ish youre expressing that you want to ask your interview questions in black & white but when the questions start "leading the witness" its become the gray matter and im not saying that you're directly answering questions for him but some questions give off the impression you're nudging him through the answers and unfortunately, he doesn't have anything more to add. Its not every question and I'm trying to make sure I don't come off like I'm singling you out at all.
I'll take an interview like that any day over no interview. I like many others, only express these thoughts to see of you can get these riders as unplugged as possible. When he says having to give a PC answer to some topic near the 43 minute mark it makes me cringe… .its a rider crawling back into his comfort zone providing no REAL(ity) answers.
One thing that I think a lot of people that religiously listen to these podcasts from SML to Pulpmx, Main Event Moto, and Racerx exhaust would really like to see the media work towards is (and ALL OF THE RIDERS say or preface this before their answer at least once in an hour long interview) when you asked him about his brain injury he responds with "Yea a lot of people don't really know the severity of it or how BAD it was" then its usually followed by rider x spilling their heart out about how upsetting it was getting all of the criticism from the media but mostly from their fans and when RJ gets on his soapbox about not wanting to read anything written about him on vital of all places and those hurtful comments he gets on social media…… they really have nobody to blame but themselves. Hiding injuries or hiding the severity of an injury and going from a standout top 10 guy to a 20th place backmarker doesn't help your case if you choose to not inform AT LEAST the media.These riders leave me baffled sometimes, rather than try to help their fans understand whats going on they go full on radio silence and can't seem to connect the dots as to how they can easily alleviate probably 90% of the criticism from fans, media, etc. by just informing the right people.
Back in the day before everybody was fully connected i.e. the dark ages where we as a people lived and survived in the years marked B.I. like 1990bi (before internet) lol 😆 but then it was almost expected to not get the full skinny on a riders current happenings simply because they'd do an interview for cycle news that's at least a week or more old by the time anyone other than those on the team would get to read an interview from the rider and a couple months old when its printed in MXA back in the day. Nowadays in this futuristic modern world its been widely discussed on pulpmx on here etc that the keeping secrets game is almost detrimental to a rider more than keeping the secrecy is being beneficial. When they all of a sudden start dropping back and finishing way out of where they are normally competitively finishing and don't provide insight EVEN when asked, so fans AND the media assume they're not giving a full effort or slacking off, not training, or just aren't trying. Fans and media are disappointed and have NOTHING to help understand whats actually going on with rider x which is when the vital-ionos reach for their pitchforks and its now fire and brimstone…… fast forward to something like 2 years later and FINALLY they let the cat out of the proverbial bag starting with "Nobody knew what I was going through or how severe my (injury) was I'm getting all this hate and criticism and nobody really knew the real story……
Well hey there rider x maybe just maybe it would've helped back then when (yourself, pulp, swap or weege) asked you repeatedly and you chose to not inform your fans so they were calling for your head on a spit.
Anton, I really hope you were bored enough to read my overly long (again) comment here bec if really like to hear if you have put any thought into getting the riders to BE more open and informative in their interviews helping eliminate said incidents or AT LEAST via their social media. The days are long gone where that information would be used to injure another rider same as were not sponsored by Camel smokes and coors light. I mean IF the rider publicallt put out info ℹ about an injury before the races and then another rider purposely tries to further injure the injury you're nursing, the whole viewing SX World 🌎 knows about it and so does the sanctioning body. Don't you thing ANY rider that deliberately gies for a riders weak point to "finish them off" if fans know and the AMA or FIM or FELD knows about it beforehand then the rider that went in for the kill would not only receive a considerable hellfire of backlash from all fans, his team would get some horribly negative press and the sanctioning body can THEN take serious action and suspend the rider if its shown to be a deliberate move which is the common excuse for the secrets. This isn't the dark ages anymore and even when other teams know this till be MORE of a benefit to the rider having it out there so when they're shopping around for a deal there not overlooked or dismissed because of their dismal results simply because "A lot of people or nobody knew what was really going on with my issue/injury"… .I mean I said an earful but am I out to lunch on this and what are your thoughts in getting a rider to understand the benefits of putting the right kind of information out there to keep the fans, media and potential employers informed enough so the riders don't have to deal with this AS much or even avoid it entirely . They have all the tools they need on that electronic device in their pocket people still call a smart phone. Side note…. Can we as a people drop the word smart from smartphone? There really arent any "dumb" phones anymore… ..
Appreciate any and all feedback you want to dole out on these topics…. Keep on keepin on!
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