Monday Gate Drop

Good Morning and Happy Monday! What a weekend it was that’s for sure. My weekend was spent at the Direct Energy Centre with a lot of the Canadian Motorcycle industry for the Toronto Bike Show. It was the first year of the show at its new location on the CNE grounds, for the last number of years the show made its home downtown at the Convention Centre. While I’m not sure of the exact attendance numbers, just by looking at how many people were there, Saturday and Sunday were very busy. Friday’s attendance was hard to judge because from the hours of noon until 2:30, almost every person there was in front of one of the few televisions watching Canada beat the USA in the Semi Final Hockey game. I’d like to take this moment to thank the show, the Honda booth and the Yamaha booth for showing the game, everyone there really appreciated it.

There was alot of celebrating right across this great country on Sunday.

Having said that I would like to dedicate this week’s Gate Drop to all of Canada’s Olympic Athletes. In my mind there is nothing that brings people together like sport. In a lot of countries, governments try to bring people together in various ways, while this works with certain groups at certain times, nothing can compare to an entire country banding together to cheer for its athletes. We’ve seen so much of this in the last two weeks as schools and workplaces have done a great job in allowing everyone to view certain events in Sochi. Yesterday at the bike show I lost count of how many people were wearing Canadian jerseys, it was unreal just how much pride was in that building after our big win versus Sweden.

While we are a very proud nation and there is no doubt about that. We’re also a very humble nation and one that at times almost feels the need to apologize when we do great things. In everyday life this attitude has served us well, I mean anyone who has travelled outside of Canada will tell you that when people find out you’re from Canada they automatically think you’re a pretty good person. This is great and I personally wouldn’t want it any other way, but in sport this kindness isn’t always a good thing as we sometimes underachieved simply because we are too nice and too humble. This has been evident over the years at the MXDN’s as on more than one occasion we’ve sent over a team of world class riders who when based on talent and speed can run with any rider on the planet. They for whatever reason have an off day and don‘t come home with the results they‘re capable of. As I said though, this isn’t just a motocross problem, this has happened on many occasions over the years in many different sports.

Thankfully the Yamaha booth carried the Canada vs USA semi final on Friday.

However, after a great two weeks in Sochi when so many Canadian athletes lived up or exceeded expectations, it all came down to the final of the Men’s Hockey game. I think everyone will agree that we not only beat Sweden 3-0, but we dominated them. From start to finish the Canadian Team executed their game plan perfectly and everything went as it was supposed to. It was a great victory and for everyone from Tofino to St John’s, I included, yesterday, February 23rd felt like the real Canada Day. It was a day for us to be proud and to walk around with our heads held high. It was also one of those days that when you heard our National Anthem, it meant just that little bit more than it usually does.

As I mentioned before I spent the weekend at the Toronto Motorcycle and obviously there was a lot of talk about who might be coming from the USA to ride the Rockstar Energy Drink MX Nationals. With names like Metcalfe, Kiniry, Maier and Chisholm already confirmed, you can add Nico Izzi to the mix as Andre Laurin confirmed to me this morning that Nico will be part of his team this summer. As we’ve seen the last few years Nico has a lot of speed and is capable of winning, his only issue has been staying healthy. With no Supercross and a more relaxed atmosphere, Canada might just be what the doctor ordered for Nico and he should be a real contender.

Of course, another name being talked about is Mike Alessi and his Moto Concepts Team coming North also. After Saturday night I’m sure most Canadian fans don’t even want Mike to come here as the drama that seems to follow him outweighs the positive. Maybe coming to Canada and getting out of the pressured filled fishbowl that is American motocross is also what Mike Alessi needs to bring out his best?  One thing is for sure, after his move in Atlanta, he has put himself once again where it’s the World against the Alessi Family, a position he’s very familiar with. The next few weeks will tell us if he’s coming to Canada or not in 2014.

Honda Canada had their newest rider on hand to sign some autographs this weekend.

Also this past weekend at the Motorcycle show was an appearance by Honda’s new rider, Colton Facciotti. Colton made the trek up from his winter base at GPF to sit in the Honda Canada booth and sign autographs all weekend. After so much disappointment the last two seasons, Colton looks fit and ready to go for 2014 and in speaking with him, he sounds very confident about his new bike and his new team. With all of the Americans coming north this summer, Colton is one of the few Canadian riders who are capable of winning motos in the MX1 class. On a weekend that involved so much Canadian pride, I hope Colton can stay healthy and make this summer a ten round battle that will make us all proud.

So that is it for me this week. In closing I’d like to mention two more items of interest. I think lost in all the Alessi drama and the excitement of Davalos winning his first SX was the great ride put in by Cole Thompson Saturday night. Cole got off to a bad start in the main but he put his head down and charged to 8th, it was a great ride. Each week he seems to be getting more comfortable. Also, one of this industries great guys Andrew McEwan got two sets of good news last week. First he found out that his cousin Dean Wilson will be coming to race the Toronto SX aboard Chad Reed’s KX450, but more importantly he and his wife Steph became proud parents of a baby girl. Isla Janis McEwan was born on Thursday and now Andrew has joined the parent club. Congratulations!! I hope everyone has a great week, try and stay warm as spring must be around the corner

Introducing Isla Janis McEwan