USA Insider No.138: Wearing On The Champ

Welcome to our weekly web-exclusive column, Transmoto’s USA Insider presented by Ipone. Penned each week by our man on the ground, Transmoto’s US Correspondent, Jason Weigandt, the USA Insider presents the story-behind-the-stories of the AMA supercross and motocross scene.

There’s a reason the Olympics only come around every four years. For an athlete, especially in individual sports, it’s very hard to stay on top for that long, and that four-year cycle sure seems to weed out many champions and gold medalists. Some win gold and retire, because they don’t have the desire any longer to fight for four more years, against competition that keeps coming in younger, stronger, hungrier or a combination of all three. It’s hard to stay on top for that long.

Ryan Villopoto has been trying to hold off the challengers in Monster Energy AMA Supercross for four years now, and he’s on the threshold of doing it. It’s a huge grind, though. When I talked to Ryan Saturday night after his win in Houston, I could find little joy. While Ryan doesn’t express much emotion in his normal TV interviews, he’s actually a pretty dynamic guy behind the scenes with the people he’s comfortable with. He has more fun than it appears on the surface. However, this run is wearing on him. While Jeremy McGrath also claimed four-straight, McGrath held such a clear talent and technique edge on the field that he freely admits he was having fun during the week and winning on weekends quite often. For Villopoto, every step of these last four years has been accompanied by Aldon Baker, and nothing is left to chance. Every meal, every workout, every day is centered around business. It’s that extra drive and push that has helped Villopoto win, and he could not have achieved this level of dominance without it. However, surely it has worn on him. I asked him so much on Saturday and could only really get him to repeat that mantra again and again. “It wears on you,” he said, and repeated two more times.

I tried to find the silver lining by asking if he was having fun doing this. All he could muster up is that he likes winning. Winning feels good. But that was all. There wasn’t any volunteering about how much fun it was to race a dirt bike for a living. Right now it’s just business. You know, back in Daytona I talked to Adam Cianciarulo, the 17-year-old who also trains under the Baker system. Cianciarulo is a dirt bike fan through and through, and if he wasn’t racing, he’d be in the stands cheering. Still, even he had to say, “It’s really not a fun way to live.”

It’s not, but it’s necessary if you want to win — Baker and Villopoto’s track record can’t be questioned. I just wonder how long Ryan can keep doing this. Olympians get a huge break in between if they want to stay on top over the span of four years. For Villopoto, he’s had to stay on top the whole time, and that’s the most difficult task of all.