I think Barcia has really matured as a rider. He has really smoothed out, and good-or-bad he has stopped riding nearly as aggressively as he used to. Is it respect for the 450? Respect for the established 450 riders? Who knows but the lack of aggression has tamed his charges to the front somewhat. I think he's going to be a handful this year in Supercross. Watch those insides, boys! View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vQegCHZXI0
There is no doubt that he is fast....but can he be fast consistently. We will get more data in January.
These 2 guys might have a friendly honda feud going? They raced pretty against each other a few times last yr ... I still remember TC41 as a rookie making so much progress before the crashes ... With one good yr finally under his belt, he can maybe push up towards the Ryans' level this yr ... -- I'm not sure all the bashing will work up at this level unless it is executed at a very high professional riding level ... Anything else and we might get the js7 / cr22 crashes that ended seasons for both these riders in the past... -- After seeing how the 250s thumped on the 450s at MXdN, I'd say these bikes are a hand full for all the riders ... This might have something to do with his riding ... This is only JB51 second yr on these sized bikes so he should have room to improve.
Well here is the opinions of a bunch of the top pros in US supercross and Nationals..... So was it dirty? Was it just racing on a tight track? I know I have four Manitoba titles and raced pro very briefly (and slowly) but I thought I’d send out the video and text a bunch of riders in my phone to get their opinion. You know, actual pro riders who actually race or have raced against Barcia and Canard before. I promised them all anonymity for their replies to me—but these are real quotes from real pro riders. As I said, these are all riders whose numbers I have in my phone, so I suppose you can rule out Ryan Dungey and that’s about it. “I saw it and I thought it was just Justin riding like Justin does. He got close and that’s how he rides. It was also for the win.” “I have been watching a lot of 2013 supercrosses and Canard has been getting cheapshotted by Barcia all year. Time for him to not be so nice. It was a dick move but it was for the win…” “I thought it was ok, it was for the win. I think anyone that really wants to win would have done that BUUUUUT because it’s Barcia and he has a history, it makes it worse. But bottom line I think it was ok and he at least hit him as they were side by side and it’s not a T-Bone move.” “Yeah, wow! For an AMA SX win I get it but a bit aggressive on a teammate in a race that doesn’t matter IMO. JB will get his one day by someone.” “I would say it was a very aggressive move. It looked like Canard really left the inside WIDE open and with a few laps to go and Barcia behind you, you have to be ready for that.” “It’s definitely a bit much given the situation. Justin knows that this is a pre-paid start money, non-points paying race and the other guy is his teammate. Racing hard is fine but I think in this particular case, it was too aggressive with a teammate.” “The way I look at it is, Barcia came into the corner with 100% intention of making that pass whether Canard went down or not. He cut the corner basically in half and used Trey as a berm. I say slightly dirty with an attitude.” For his part Canard seemed steamed after the race but he bit his tongue and said he’s got to be smarter than that and know who he’s racing against. But in my opinion he was actually pretty upset at the rider that was five feet over from him. As Barcia told me after the race “The tension is high here…”
I understand the typical SX pass when its a 'real' race...but that stuff with your teammate in a non-points race strikes me as a combination of out-of-control and a**hole
Yep ... Good journalism mostly ... -- Anyway, these 2 are gonna battle ... Same as ET3 and KR94 ... Someone is gonna have to deal with js7 & js7 has to deal with himself... Yep, its just about over the top in the 450 class.
