Ryan Villopoto is the rightful champion of the AMA/World Supercross series. The red headed Washington native had the ultimate combination of speed, intelligence and performance under pressure of all the title contenders.
Just like the GOAT Ricky Carmichael, RV did what he had to do when he had to do it. And just like Carmichael, after two years of frustration in the Supercross class, Villopoto hired Aldon Baker to take his program to the next level. It is hard to understand just what Baker does in comparison to other trainers… but clearly his formula works even if maybe part of that is the rider believing he has the best trainer on board.
Which begs the question, why did James Stewart let Aldon Baker go? Even if it didn’t affect his own fitness, letting Baker leave and help one of his biggest rivals proved extremely costly. Stewart effectively gave Villopoto the missing piece of his puzzle.
Villopoto’s ride in Salt Lake City was epic and was the clutch performance that won him the championship… all four contenders had their chance at that race, but it was RV that rose to the occasion the most, and the race in many ways summed the whole championship up.
James Stewart had the speed, was in the lead but wasn’t pulling away from his title rivals and crashed out by pushing to hard…Chad Reed was there the whole time but came up just short, and Ryan Dungey started behind the contenders and couldn’t catch up in time. RV started in the mix, made his move and held on strong making the least mistakes.
Vegas again bore testament to the excitement of the series, yet again James Stewart crashed out impressively, this time taking the fan’s hero Kevin Windham with him. Windham was on fire copying Stewart’s quad jump and putting the pressure back on Stewart for the lead, then a flustered Stewart crashed in the whoops leaving Kevin nowhere to go. Windham has as much talent as Stewart, and at 32 he can still hang with the best when he puts his mind to it. Hopefully this performance will give Kevin the self belief that he has maybe been missing to make a run at the title before he retires…his silky smooth and effortless riding style deserves another couple of years at the front for the fans to marvel at.
Chad Reed won the race after a battle with Ryan Dungey who yet again started the worst of the main contenders. Reed impressive all year in running his own team, was left rueing Stewart taking him out earlier in the season and Dungey was left rueing a mechanical DNF at an early round… with the points from either incident they would have been the champions. But this is supercross and these are the things that happen. In the end it was Villopoto who put himself in the best positions and made the best choices throughout the year that allowed him to cruise home to third in Vegas to take the most glamorous dirt bike title in the world by four points over Reed.
The most impressive aspect of Ryan’s title winning season was his mental strength. The last two years Villopoto has not raced all 17 rounds of the series, that was his first challenge. His second was coming back from a serious leg injury, Villopoto had not raced since April 2010 when he came into the opener in Januray, but it didn’t affect him one bit and he took a resounding win. For practically the whole season he was leading the points and despite not even qualifying at one round Ryan stayed strong in spite the craziness of the season and huge pressure on his shoulders.
Maybe that is Ryan’s best weapon in his arsenal - his speed is phenomenal, his riding style a unique mix of controlling the bike with his legs, twisting the throttle hard and steering with the rear, but to me the most important aspect is he does not crumble under pressure. Ryan Villopoto doesn’t want to be a rockstar, he doesn’t really want the fame, he just wants to win. He rises to the occasion and has done it time and time again. That is the true indication of a champion, and something Villopoto did that more than anyone in 2011.
You could say it was third time lucky for Villopoto.. except it wasn’t luck, it was brilliance.
Now, does anyone really fancy taking on a fitter, more confident Villopoto in his preferred series, the US Nationals!? ….
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