- Aug 2, 2000
- 13,510
- 19
It started when Ricky Carmichael was lowered from the ceiling during last Friday's THQ U.S. Open opening ceremonies, wearing a crown and cape and sitting on a throne, and it continued throughout the weekend until the podium ceremony presented him as the overall winner: The Las Vegas crowd was booing the current top rider in supercross and motocross.
It's a new, unexpected, and hopefully temporary development for Carmichael, and one with which he is understandably still less than comfortable. "It seems to me that somebody was up to something, but I might just be jumping to conclusions," Carmichael said mysteriously at Saturday's post-race press conference, alluding to more specific speculation he had just made off the record to a couple of reporters. "It bums me out a little bit. I feel like I'm a good person...If I see you broken down beside the road, I'll stop and help."
Presumably, the champ's slip in popularity stems from his lucrative switch from Chevy Trucks Kawasaki to Honda (and from his clear insistance that the red bike is the better machine), though the fire may have been fanned by comments made by Ezra Lusk during a recent Racer X interview with Eric Johnson, in which the former Team Honda and new Chevy Trucks Kawasaki rider made some surprisingly harsh public criticism of his former pal (Lusk claimed that Carmichael no longer wanted to ride with him, and seemed to think that the Floridian would have trouble adapting to the CR250).
"Everybody's entitled to what they want to say," Carmichael said. "I don't know why he said it to the press; I'd have probably been more conservative with it, like talking to me first."
Carmichael is known for letting his riding do the talking (one reason that he doesn't bother running the number one, and that he asked to forego the cape and crown for Saturday's ceremonies), and his performance at the U.S. Open - no matter how strangely unpopular it may have been - appears to have adequately responded to Lusk's intimation that Carmichael would not perform well on the Honda.
Originally posted by super rat
Booing the best mxer ever, I dont get it. Why do these people even go to the race?
Originally posted by dirt bike dave
Maybe the 'fans' were booing because of the crown/cape/grand entrance King of Bercy thing. The I'm-the-Best theatrics just don't go over too well, IMO. But I'll bet the grand entrance wasn't RC's idea.
I'm in awe of RC's skill and determination, and it doesn't bother me at all that he doesn't have the media skills of Travis Pastrana (who is a natural).
RC haters need to realize that if the other rider's had RC's talent and work ethic, they wouldn't have to worry about him winning so often.
Humm. He may be capable of earning the title someday, but to call him that at this point is nothing more than emotional opinion. No doubt he's fast, we'll just have to wait and see how many titles he can string together. His Amateur career has already been surpassed.I'll just call him the best ever.
Former Redskins QB?:thinkOriginally posted by Okiewan
. . . 2) Doug Williams . . .
I dunno. Ask Tortelli his opinion on that one.:thinkOriginally posted by Duneman
RC . . . rides clean.:silly:
'cept for MC. Didn't he win his first 6 SX titles out of 6? Plus an outdoor title thrown in there for good measure... I admit RC is fast and I love to watch him ride, but he took quite a while to get used to the 250, and I think some of the youngsters (TP, Bubba) will be taking over long before he gets close to any of the longevity records...RC has put up more numbers than anyone , no one has put up the wins/titles he has in four years
The old schoolers couldn't take the bikes to their limits? I beg to differ! Sheesh! I wish they'd show some of the old races, where Hannah is cowboying a YZ250 with sacked-out suspension through the whoops!Originally posted by IBWFO
Fact is bikes are better and riders can take then to limits Smith, DeCoster and Hannah couldn't . . .
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