Tipping Point

I’m gonna’ say it right here since I’m not sure if anyone else in the sport has said it this year. I’m going behind enemy lines and bringing out major intelligence here. Ready? Go mark 2008 down as the tipping point from hard training to hard partying. This sport is cyclical. We had a “super-training era” in the 1980’s where guys like O’Mara, Ward, Bailey, Glover etc. would run full sprint on a SoCal Wednesday afternoon in July while wearing black sweatshirts and then measure who puked the hardest. That eventually yielded to the good old days of the 90’s, when MC, Fro and the gang tested a lot of parts in Lake Havasu. Then Carmichael came along and started this whole “training” thing again as if he was the first racer to ever actually train. The Carmichael training era had two effects that are lasting beyond RC actually racing. A) Every racer has to have a trainer now. B) Every racer must say “work hard” at least once in their interviews. Those two factors have masked the truth, and that is that hard work isn’t quite as hard as it used to be. Okay stop right there. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Don’t go anywhere. I’d like to explain that this isn’t a problem. This is not a bad thing. The only real problem is that we’ve all gotten so conditioned to think that the hardest working guy wins that we can’t possibly see what good could come of this changeover. That’s why I can’t tell any stories or give up any names, because I’m not going to become the NARC of SX. But I can tell you that some really, really good racers are no longer afraid to have a good time. And you know what? They’re getting good results! I’m not talking about L’il Hanny here, I’m talking about guys who are having career years, banner years. It’s cool and it’s okay, and I think most fans would have even more respect if they knew these guys were real guys who do real guy things. Does anyone hate Ron Lechien? Does anyone hate Jeff Emig? In fact, there’s one guy out there now who could probably grow from hall-of-famer to legend if anyone was allowed to publicly discuss his deal, which is going wide-open during the night life, making big money and winning all at the same time. But I’m actually scared to even post this right now for fear of becoming the NARC. The world just isn’t ready for this, even though it really is.

And if you hate it, we’ve got Golden Boy Dungey and 200% Canard in the wings, and down in Florida there’s a kid named Adam Cianciarulo who can work on his multiplication homework by totaling up all the pushups he does. Of course, any of these kids could get caught in the same game some of the current crop riders are in. But that’s not a bad thing.