Slawservations: Ironman

Welcome back to Slawservations, my weekly column on whatever I feel like spouting on and on about.

Back in the Hunt

Well, well, well. I’m not one to toot my own horn (haha, kidding, I love it), but Slaw never led you astray in regard to Eli Tomac and his title chances. Prior to Ironman, this is what I wrote in Slawdictions:

I might be in the minority here, but I don’t think Eli Tomac is out of this title chase despite being 40 points down. If Tomac goes 1-1 and Zach Osborne goes 2-2 over the remaining rounds, Tomac wins the title!!

That was mainly to piss off our pal Weege, but I think Tomac picks up a 1-1 this weekend and closes the gap.

Yeah, yeah, he didn’t go 1-1, but he did go 2-1, won the overall and picked up 13 points on Osborne. He’s 27 down now, and while we are racing a shortened series, I still have faith he will make this interesting down the stretch. I think this goes the wire between Tomac, Osborne, and Marvin Musquin. Let’s not count out Justin Barcia, either. Barcia is good at RedBud and we have two races coming up at the venue.

This Whip

Speaking of BamBam, my goodness, this whip! When Barcia is riding like this—revving the piss out of his bike at all times and just throwing it around—you know he’s feeling it.

Anyone else catch this Bam Bam whip⁉️ ???? ???? pic.twitter.com/stcGT19VoE
— Pro Motocross (@ProMotocross) August 31, 2020

Don’t Count Out Marv

Nearly a year to the date after a knee injury that would cost him all of Monster Energy Supercross, Marvin Musquin was back in the winner’s circle on Saturday—at the same track he initially sustained his injury. Musquin held off an insane challenge from Tomac in the first moto and finished sixth in the second moto for second overall. After three rounds, Musquin is just 13 points back of Osborne and right in the thick of the title chase.

“Coming into that new season, I was just questioning if I was going to be able to be out here and be competitive and fight with those guys, and that’s the case,” he said in the post-race press conference. “I’m pretty happy.”

The focus is squarely on Osborne and Tomac now, but don’t dismiss Marv.

Stop It!

Adam Cianciarulo is just three races into his rookie 450 Pro Motocross season and we already have people questioning his “fitness” wondering about “arm pump” blah blah blah. All because he dropped from first to fourth in the second 450 moto at Ironman. Stop it. He got passed by three-time champion Eli Tomac, previous 450 race winner Justin Barcia and current points leader Zach Osborne. Oh my god, fire off the panic alarm. He’s done!

Or, and hear my out, he’s THREE races into his 450 season! Three! And he’s been great to start the year. Let’s all calm down a bit, ok?

I thought AC answered it perfectly in the press conference:

“Physically I’m probably not where I was at this time last year. Plus it’s just tough to go that fast. Those guys are really good. I always pride myself in giving it my best. I think it would be easier for me to go out there, for example, today I was sitting behind Zach, and maybe I didn’t want to look like I was going to fade at the end of the moto, so maybe I just ride at 80-90 percent the whole time and look like an iron man. But I want to win races and I’m going to do everything I can to do that. So I kind of made that decision in my head. I’m going to try to get Zach and then try to do the best laps that I could. I did it for as long as I could and then about five minutes to go I dropped the anchor and that’s just the way it goes sometimes. I think for me, I can be technically better. I can be more efficient. I’ve been using a lot of energy at the beginning of the first moto, just kind of being excited. So that’s just stuff I can work out on my own, and also just as the season goes on I’ll continue to get stronger and build.”

Martin vs Dylan

I wrote about this yesterday but I love where Dylan Ferrandis is at mentally. Being mad at second when you know you should have went 1-1 is the championship mentality every rider should have. You think Slaw is cool with firing off a fire blog and then it not being the most-read thing on Vurb? Hell nah. Slaw is ready to throw.

Anyway, despite Ferrandis being on fire, it is Jeremy Martin who has won two straight overalls and is just four back of the Frenchman. I’m honestly a bit surprised Martin has done this well considering his how bad his back injury was. Many people thought he’d never race again. I think as the season goes along, Martin will only get stronger—and that’s a damn good thing for us fans, as I want to see these two slug it out over the next six rounds.

Drago

Have we ever seen these two in the same room? Nah, didn’t think so.

Helluva a ride for the Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull KTM rider to claim his first career Pro Motocross podium. I’ve heard his deal is up at the end of the year, so these next few rounds are huge for Drago.