The Monday Gate Drop Presented By Yamaha Motor Canada

Well, if you’re keeping track we’re officially just under three weeks until Christmas. Are you ready for the big day? I hope so as Santa will be here before we know it. With winter setting in right across the country, I hope everyone had a great weekend. My weekend was challenging but a lot of fun. On Saturday afternoon my son and I made the two-hour trek to Gopher Dunes to complete a PerformX fitness test. Thankfully Derek Schuster allowed us to use the gym at Gopher Dunes as we needed a Concept 2 rower, a ski-erg as well as a bike-erg. Todd Schumlick’s gauge for this test is mostly measured in Watts so we needed all three Concept 2 machines to get consistent readings. The fitness test was tough but we also had one of Todd’s top moto athletes Tanner Ward come and help us out. Tanner is currently recovering from major knee surgery that he had a few weeks ago and so far he’s doing really well. While we were doing our fitness tests Tanner was going back and forth between helping us and doing his own workout. He mentioned that he hadn’t worked out since his surgery so it felt great to get the blood flowing again. Anyway, stay tuned for a story on our fitness tests and how we ended up doing. In the meantime, if you want a comprehensive training program for the off-season please visit www.performxtraining.com.

So let’s talk about Cole Thompson and the year that he had in 2022. To begin we have to go back to exactly one year ago when Cole had just begun training for the Monster Energy Supercross Series aboard his new Yamaha. As you know, up until October of last year Cole had been a member of the KTM Canada Factory Team and in his time there he gave the Orange Brigade an outdoor 250 title in 2016 and multiple SX and Triple Crown Series Championships. However, in recent years it wasn’t all roses as Cole battled through health issues as well as a back injury. Finally, after two challenging summers, Cole was able to get his health back last year but his desire to race the full outdoor series had reached an all-time low and when it came time to talk about the future Cole and KTM couldn’t come to an agreement on a hybrid schedule for 2023 and beyond. So with no ride, Cole grabbed a couple of Yamaha’s and headed south to both clear his head as well as begin training for the 250SX West Series. Cole also set out to help change his brand and within weeks he was a regular on Social Media with daily Instagram and TikTok posts. In fact, he became so popular on Social Media that when he arrived in Australia two months ago he already had a good following of fans down under and they referred to him as “the TikTok guy”.

We all know the saying about lemons and lemonade and how basically you just have to make the best out of any bad situation. Well, that is what Cole did a year ago and with the help of Parts Canada, he showed up at Anaheim 1 earlier this year and gave us all something Canadian to cheer about. Through January and early February Cole improved with each race and before he got injured at Round 5 he and his mostly stock YZ250F were inside the top ten. It was a great start to the 2022 season for CT16 and then after taking his first summer off since he was a child Cole came back this fall and led the Triple Crown Series SXTour points through the opening three rounds. Then unexpectedly Cole announced that he was packing his bags and heading down under to compete in the Australian SX Series for the Serco Yamaha Team. I say unexpectedly because the announcement of Cole’s deal came out of nowhere and he even commented that it came up at the last minute. Nevertheless, Cole was headed to Australia for two months and I think this experience perhaps demonstrates how far Cole has come as a professional athlete and the appreciation he has for his talent to ride a dirt bike as well as the opportunities that come with those talents. I would even go as far as to say that if the chance to fly around the world and compete in a series for two months came up a few years ago I’m not sure if Cole says yes to it. I mean, let’s be honest, as you and I sit here in the early stages of winter if our phones rang and someone invited us to race in Australia we most likely say ‘hell yes.” However, just like when Dylan Wright headed to Europe last fall for six weeks to race the final MXGP rounds it’s not easy for these guys to pack up, leave their daily routines, and travel around the world to compete in an unfamiliar series. These riders are creatures of habit and they have a certain way of going about their lives. Not to mention the personal risk they’re enduring by travelling to a new country and riding and training every day. But Dylan did it last year and found success and this year it was Cole’s turn to fly across an ocean and find success of his own. After a couple of up and down rounds to kick off the 2022 Australian SX Series Cole found himself on the top step of the podium this past weekend at the final round in Wagga Wagga (what a great name for a city) and, second overall in the SX2 Series. As you can tell I think this is a great result for Cole and Canada on the world stage. And like Dylan Wright last year, I hope Cole’s results and his experience overall in Australia encourage more of our riders to chase down a ride during the off-season and do some travelling. We have a bunch of talented SX riders who are more than capable of competing on the world stage and I hope more do in the future. Anyway, congratulations Cole and now we can look forward to him once again lining up next month at Anaheim 1 in the 250SX West class. Life in Tommy’s World is pretty good right now!

In other news, Parker Eales clinched the 2022 Future West AX Championship over the weekend so congratulations to him. Parker did not have a good second half of the Triple Crown Series as he was injured at Round 4.  It’s great to see him bounce back and win a title before the year is done. Parker is one of nicest guys at the track and considering he works full time and still finds time to race the nationals, is very impressive. Also in the big picture the final round of the Future West AX Series marked the final race of the 2022 season. What a season it has been in all parts of the country. We saw a return of the Triple Crown Series to Western Canada and even with sky high gas prices this summer, we saw a plethora of families travel from the west to big eastern events like the ECAN and Walton TransCan. We concluded the season with some exciting indoor events in Ontario, Alberta, and BC. Thank you to everyone who made it possible and congratulations to every Canadian rider out there who courageously lined up behind a starting gate in 2022. In closing, I know I speak for everyone when I say bring on 2023! Thank you for reading and if you have any questions or comments please email me at chris@mxpmag.com.