Kit Palmer | December 18, 2019
Cycle News Observation Check
COLUMN
Another Year, Another Decade
There have only been a handful of multi-time Cycle News Rider of the Year recipients since we resurrected our CN Rider of the Year tradition at the end of 1991. We gave it to three-time world champion Wayne Rainey, and our pick for rider of the year has routinely been featured on the front page of CN on our year-end issue ever since, and only a few ROYs have been pictured there more than once. Ricky Carmichael quickly comes to mind, and he did it three times, two of them were back to back. Marc Marquez now joins the shortlist of two-time CN ROY winners. We also gave Marquez the recognition in 2013.
Most of the time, selecting a rider of the year can be an arduous process, but when it came time to lock in our votes this year, well, let’s just say Marquez made it easy on us. Our selection—the 26-year-old from Cervera, Spain—was unanimous. Not that there weren’t several other deserving riders. We threw out some names certainly worth considering, but no one had the year Marquez had. Even if you’re not a Marquez fan or a huge fan of road racing, you cannot deny what the Spaniard accomplished in 2019. It’s beyond impressive.
The guy won 12 GPs this year, which included the 50th of his career, but what impressed me almost as much was Marquez finishing no worse than second place 18 times in the 19-round championship! And the one race that he did not finish in the top two was a DNF, which came as the result of a mechanical-related crash while leading at Austin. (And I’m not going out on a limb at all to say he would’ve won that race.) Think about that: 18 top two’s in a long 19-round series—none longer in our world—that featured a deep field of highly talented racers. Not just any racers, but the best road racers in the world aboard the best machinery in the world! That’s rider-of-the-year material to me. Hands down.
As I mentioned, there were other ROY candidates, as well, such as Briar Bauman, Cooper Webb and Ryan Sipes. I also felt that Taylor Robert deserved discussion for winning the WORCS Championship, winning his class at the ISDE, and winning off-road races just about every time he threw a leg over his KTM. And, of course, he was a member of the winning U.S. ISDE World Trophy Team.
And then there is Andrew Hines; he had an astounding year in NHRA, as did Kailub Russell in GNCC.
If versatility was the only factor in deciding our ROY award, then Sipes would be on the front page this week. Winning an AFT Singles TT National and a major hillclimb, and finishing in the top 10 in a 250SX AMA Supercross, and, like Robert, being a member of the gold-medal-winning U.S. ISDE team in one year is indeed impressive, stuff riders of the year are made of. Still, even all that cannot trump 12 grand prix victories and 18 out of 19 GP podiums.
Cooper Webb went from not even being invited to the pre-season press conference in January to winning the 2019 Monster Energy AMA Supercross title in May. Had he done a little better in the outdoor championship, there’s a good chance his smiling face would’ve been on this week’s cover.
Bauman probably came the closest to beating out Marquez for his, well, yes, surprising AFT Twins Championship. He came out of the corner swinging and never stopped punching, denying Jared Mees a third-straight championship. No one expected anyone other than Mees to win the title at the start of the AFT season. No one except Bauman, that is.
Still, Marquez.
This issue of Cycle News also brings with it the end of the 2000-teens—another decade of motorcycle racing, which begs the question: Who would be the rider of the decade? My vote? Chad Reed.
Ten years ago, Reed was already well into his racing career and fighting for supercross and motocross championships. In fact, he lost the AMA Supercross title to James Stewart by just four points in 2009 but went on to win the 450MX outdoor championship a few months later, and he was voted AMA Athlete of the Year in ’09, as well. Reed won the AUS-X Supercross Championship in his home country of Australia in 2016 and 2018, and he broke the record for the most AMA Supercross main-event starts in 2018. Reed’s racing career actually covers two decades. He won the Australian Supercross Championship in 1999 (and 2000) before winning his first AMA Eastern Regional Supercross Championship in 2002, his first of two 450SX titles in 2004 and sole 450MX title in ’09. And let’s not forget there was a time when Reed was even a racer/team owner with TwoTwo Motorsports.
Seemingly once every year for the past five years or so, my wife hears Ralph Sheheen shout out the name Chad Reed on the television and from the other room I hear, “Is he still racing!?”
“Yes, honey, he’s still racing.”
Yes, Reed is indeed still racing and is still pulling down respectable results in supercross and continues to maintain a strong fan base. His longevity is truly amazing and remarkable when you take into account that his sport of choice is one of, if not the most physically demanding in the world.
And, of course, there is nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi. His last MotoGP Championship came a decade ago in 2009, and he’s still going strong as a member of the Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Factory Team finishing on the podium twice this year and seventh in the championship. His last win came in 2017, and many believe that he can do it again at least one more time in 2020.
As for this publication, Cycle News is entering its sixth full decade of covering motorcycle racing and everything else in between when it comes to two wheels. As for me, this will be the start of my fourth decade as an editor of Cycle News, which doesn’t include my first six-plus years in the ‘80s and a few years before that as a freelance writer covering local motocross.
Everyone involved with putting out this publication every week is proud of it and has no intentions of slowing down. Perhaps, deep down inside, we are all inspired by racers such as Reed and Rossi and will continue putting in the hard laps to bring you the best motorcycle publication we can every Monday, week in and week out, just like we have since day one more than 50 years ago.
Here’s to another decade of motorcycles and motorcycle racing.
It never gets old, does it? CN