Posted September 24, 2007   Email   Print

Ryan Villopoto sent the motocross world a message by winning the Motocross of Nations overall on a 250cc bike, beating the world's best riders on more powerful machines.

Meet the new king: Ryan Villopoto beats the world's best, despite spotting them 200cc

Commentary by James Holter
Photos by Bill Andrews

Ricky Carmichael has raced his last motocross—the last one that counted, anyway.

"This was the last race that really meant anything, where I had to perform and where I had to do good," Carmichael said after the 61st running of the Motocross of Nations at Maryland's Budds Creek Motocross Park. "I have a couple coming up that are obligations that I said that I would do, but apart from that, it's done."

That, I saw coming, but this I didn't: At least by one measure, Carmichael lost.

In the first moto, which combined the MX1 and MX2 classes, Carmichael crashed in the second turn. Remounting in next-to-last place, he dispatched 36 riders over the next 30 minutes, plus two laps, of racing. Carmichael only failed to catch his Team USA teammate Ryan Villopoto and runner-up Chad Reed. It was one of the most thrilling come-from-behind rides in MXoN history.

For the fans, it was an awe-inspiring show, but for Carmichael, it wasn't enough.

"I know I wasn't my best. I would like to apologize to the team and the guys working hard that I wasn't because I could have easily lost it for them," Carmichael said after the race. "I did all that I could do, all that I possibly humanly could have done."

Although Carmichael ultimately won the MX1 class, with 3-1 moto scores, the overall win went to Villopoto, who won both the combined MX1/MX2 moto and the combined MX2/Open moto. It was the only time in history that a rider in the MX2 class, which features the least-powerful motorcycles on the track, won the MXoN overall.

Lined up against the best in the world, including reigning World Champions Antonio Cairoli and Steve Ramon, current AMA Motocross Champion Grant Langston and past AMA Supercross Champion Chad Reed, Villopoto flat out dominated.

He won his first moto by 15 seconds over Reed and his second moto by more than a minute over Belgium's Ken de Dycker.

"I don't think anyone could say anything more about Ryan," Carmichael said. "He was spectacular. He won both his motos. He has a record that no one can ever beat, only tie."

The details can, and will, be debated by motocross fans in perpetuity. Would Carmichael have won if he hadn't crashed? Would Carmichael have run down Villopoto anyhow if he had been racing and training full time all year? The point isn't whether he would have. The point is that for one of the few times in his career, Carmichael left the door to debate open.

Like Villopoto's record overall win at the MXoN this year, Carmichael was dangerously close to putting the wraps on a career that, in most minds, could never be beaten, only tied.

For once in the history of motocross, it appeared that the reigning king pre-empted any coup by planning an exit strategy that would allow him to hand over his title on his own terms. No hostile takeover necessary. If successful, it would have been a transition that not only cemented Carmichael as the greatest of all time—he is—but left little question that he is also the best that ever could be, in other words, never beaten, only tied.

Instead, Villopoto, not Carmichael, won Carmichael's last race.

"As far as Ryan, I think he stunned everybody. He beat me. He beat everybody," Carmichael said. "I think everybody's going to be scared to death of him, and they should be. He's got that certain something."

Where have we seen this before? A blistering fast red-head on a blistering fast Kawasaki rode his own race, made his own luck and walked away from the best the world could offer.

And he's wearing the king's crown—whether the old king likes it or not.

 © 2007, American Motorcyclist Association