Decal Works Presents Monday Gate Drop

Hello and welcome to this weeks edition of Monday Gate Drop presented by our friends at Decal Works. There aren’t too many riders out there who don’t throw a set of custom graphics on their new or used bike. If you haven’t tried them already then you should give Decal Works a try for the upcoming 2015 racing season. Just visit them at www.decalmx.com and in minutes you can design your own graphics and place your order. It’s that easy to make up your order and within a few weeks you’ll have a set of the best quality graphics on the market.

Well after yet another exciting weekend of racing in beautiful British Columbia the 2014 Future West Canadian Arenacross Series in now a part of history. Like any great series, both the Pro Lites and Pro Open class championships went down to the final race on Saturday night in Chilliwack. When all was said and done Monster Energy Thor Kawasaki’s Teddy Maier took home the Lites title and Cycle North Honda rider Ross Johnson won the Open class.

Even though they ride for different teams there are certainly a lot of similarities between these two riders. First of all they both call America home and were both brought up by their Canadian teams to do battle. They both are relatively new fathers which always bring a new and exciting perspective to life. Finally, both from my point of view are just nice guys, maybe not all the time on the track but from my dealings with them they both deserve all the success that comes their way. Having said all of that I want to extend them both a big congratulations from MXP and I hope there’s a chance that we see them at the 2015 Rockstar Energy Drink MX Nationals.

Teddy Maier and Ross Johnson put on quite show this weekend in Chilliwack.

Finally, I’d like to extend a few more ‘great jobs’ to all of the champions from the 2014 AX series, as well as Ryan Lockhart who took yet another Dash For Cash title. You know it’s funny when you look at the evolution of some riders. Back in 2006/2007 when I was helping Ryan with his riding one of the things we worked on was his speed in the early part of each moto. Although he would get good starts in those days, for some reason it would take him ten minutes to warm-up and get going. Because of this he would have to play catch-up and use a lot of energy in the middle part of the moto and thus he wouldn’t have much left for that late moto push.

Now at 30 years old and through a lot of trial and error, Newf has his “sprints” mastered. This was not only evident at all eight rounds of the AX series but also at the Parts Canada TransCan this summer when he dominated all of his motos and showed incredible speed. Newf’s story is actually a great lesson for any rider out there in that just because you can’t do a certain thing on the bike right now, this doesn’t mean you won’t eventually figure it out. You just have to stick with it and not give up!

Cash Lockhart took home the Dash For Cash title once again.

Talking about Newf’s career and resiliency is a perfect segue into the next thing I want to talk about. I know everyone who is reading this probably spent the weekend either racing in BC or Christmas shopping, so you might of missed this piece of news. Obviously everyone loves a comeback in life and in sports. In just motocross alone we’ve seen a bunch over the years, this summer we got to watch our own Colton Facciotti revive his career after two injury plague seasons. Last year we also got to witness first hand Brett Metcalfe’s return from serious injury as he won the 2013 MX1 title here in Canada.

Comeback stories are everywhere and this weekend skier Lindsey Vonn in her first race back from not just one, but two reconstructive knee surgeries, won the Women’s Downhill race in Lake Louise, AB. While I’m not a skier, just watching the sport makes my knees hurt so I can only imagine the forces your legs and knees have to deal with when doing it. At her level the margin of error seems minuscule and whenever they crash it looks like a complete yard sale. Knee injuries in that sport are common and when she blew out her ACL in 2013 few people thought she could come back. After months of rehab and effort Lindsey did come back to the slopes but reinjured the same knee while training for her first race back.

Everyone loves a comeback..or two!

After yet another surgery to rebuild her knee she hit the comeback trail again and worked even harder. This time the rehab was even more strenuous as she had very little muscle left around her knee. However, like Colton, Brett, Newf, Ryan Villopoto or all the other athletes who refuse to give in to injuries Lindsey worked extremely hard to return to the sport she loves. Whether you like skiing or not, her story is a great one and certainly one that we can all take something from as we approach the new year.

This past weekend over in Geneva we saw another potential Lindsey Vonn type story unfold. Adam Cianciarulo in his first race back since tearing his shoulder apart in Toronto back in March had another hard crash. While there are no definitive reports as to what AC’s injuries are this time, early reports suggest that he injured his shoulder again. If it is his shoulder again then it’s back to the drawing board for this fast and likeable kid. To have this many injuries at his age is obviously tough both physically and mentally, however as I mentioned earlier, AC has a lot of success stories to get inspiration from. He will certainly need it this time!

Although Kaven Benoit had a good weekend overseas, his race in Geneva did not go as plan.

Our own MX2 champion Kaven Benoit was also over in Geneva racing and although he didn’t sustain any serious injuries, his weekend didn’t go much better than AC’s. After a good practice session Kaven crashed in his heat race and his footpeg cut him up pretty badly. Since Kaven was pretty shaken up he decided to call it a night and return home to Quebec. He will have a few weeks to recover before he heads south to begin preparing for his 2015 MX2 title defense.

Well that is it for me this week. I don’t want to alarm any of you late shoppers out there but this coming Thursday will mark two weeks until Christmas Day!, that’s 14 days if you’re counting. It’s not too late to order those Decal Works graphics, or to head out to your local dealer to make some timely Christmas purchases and help keep our Canadian motocross industry rolling. I hope everyone has great week ahead!.