Packed all my necessary magazines, loaded the iphone with PulpMX and Racer X podcasts, got all my AGV and Dainese necessary info and off we go, I'm on for another transatlantic return trip. Going via France to Italy for the yearly sales meetings and presentation of the new 2010-2011 Dainese collection. Exciting. Are we going to "AIR" it out? ;-)
Crossing finger that the special one will be part of it this year.
So, for those who never check the internet and don't read magazines :-) the AGV Dainese guys have been doing well lately, even though, because I had to prepare this trip and take care of my clients before I left, I didn't attend 3 important race events on the US soil: the opening round of the AMA Motocross National series at Hangtown/Sacramento where AGV's Davi Millsaps score a 3rd overall with 3-2 moto finishes and a 2nd overall for Ashley Fiolek in the AMA Women MX race; the FIM Motocross US Grand Prix at Glen Helen/San Bernardino this past weekend, where both AGV/Yamaha Rinaldi riders had a challenging time with David Philippaerts finishing 15th overall in MX1 and Gautier Paulin going 10th overall in MX2; and finally the World Superbike Championship U.S. round at Miller Motorpoark where Dainese's Max Biaggi scored two perfect race wins and took over the points lead in the 2010 WSBK series.
Instead, I enjoyed great time with the family and friends, riding my Triumph Tiger 1050 to work, spending time on the Fox River playing with wave-runners and riding our MTB's in the forests of Wisconsin. It has to be fun at times and not always "work, work, work."
Sitting in the Air France lounge at ORD right now, waiting for my flight to Nice, France, then it'll be a short one to the beautiful city of Venice and 3 days of hard, but fun, work at Dainese in Vicenza.
OK, I'll try to remain the moto-tourist that I am and will try to update as much as I can.
Cool pic of Gautier at Glen Helen, by Michael Rigdon.
37,000 ft above Nevada with Charlie Winston’s Hobo playing some great tunes on my iPhone, here is a quick post I wanted to write since the 450 (SX) Main Event ended, last night at Angel Stadium. I am not going to come back on the racing part of the opening round of what looks like a promising-to-be-exciting AMA Supercross season, because it is going to be covered on all media websites and in all publications around the world of motorcycling. This is the first pro race of the season and all eyes of the world of motocross were on Anaheim yesterday. Photos of the new bikes, the riders, the track, the racing, the Monster Energy Girls, Muscle Milk Girls (hi Janelle and Casey!), Jaggermeister Girls and other Spike TV hostesses will be all over the Internet by this evening when I land in Chicago.
Photo by GuyB/VitalMX.com
This is always a busy round for the industry of SX/MX, the managements of most companies attend this race, lots of hand-shaking going on, lots of deals still taking place, lots of partnerships being built. For me it was a mix of taking care of different sides of business for AGV helmets, from sales & marketing to the rider-support part of my job. It is an important round because it was the first full-on race day with our new riders, Gautier Paulin and especially Davi Millsaps. Although we have spent time working things out before the race, it is very different on race day and it is important to learn the habits and needs of the riders on a race day so that everything works smoothly and the guys have to worry about nothing else than just racing. The first few races and the first weeks could be a bit challenging for the rider as well as the helmet brand as both try to find the right fit for the former. A very important point to keep in mind with DM is that he has been wearing the same helmet for over 5 years, a helmet that had not changed in shape nor fit since he started using it as a young amateur rider. Therefore it takes a bit of time to get things how they should exactly be.
Photo by TWMX.com
Before I get to the point of this blog-post, I have to say that I was very impressed with Gautier Paulin and his abilities. The kid is not only super nice, very humble and hungry to learn; he is also fast and will get faster. There were some high and lows for both GP321 and DM18 yesterday, from great Heat races to disappointing Main Events (and yes, only the Main Events really count) but overall it was pretty good for AGV and the return to the off-road market with the introduction of the AX-8.
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So, if there is one of two persons that read my blog they must be laughing at what I wrote about Kevin “K-Dub” Windham a couple days before Anaheim 1. All those things I said got shut down in flame by the #14 himself and with class at that. I really didn’t think that Windham could hang out with the young guns and not only race them, but more so go after them. Last night, after a decent start in 6th, passing Millsaps by the end of the first lap, he chased down Brayton, Villopoto and Short, passing them one at a time to grab the 3rd podium spot. Amazing performance and amazing racing by the #14. In 20 laps he proved I was very wrong to count him out already.
Of course he was on the to win that same race last year before connecting with a downed Stewart in the whoops and led A2 for a good while letting the same Stewart by.
A1 thought:
Amazing Dungey
Bubbalicious is on it
Nike goes 1-2 for their first SX race
Shorty is actually looking fast, even if old man K-Dub got him towards the end.
Kevin Windham: Fantastic!
The 450 class is packed with a big group of riders who are on the same speed: Josh Grant, Short, Hill, Brayton, Villopoto, Millsaps, Tedesco, Reardon.
Bad night for the Monster Energy Kawi team.
Bad night for Chad who leaves A1 with a 25 points deficit on Stewart. You can’t count him out but can he come back like JS7 did it in 2009.
I see Nike’s arrival in MX as a very positive thing for the sport.
Mega Crash of the Night Award goes to Dan Reardon. Scary!
No Phoenix for me, I’ll concentrate on sales this week while preparing A2. Video-conferencing with Italy tomorrow, to tweak some things on the AX-8. We also have to work on our ad artwork for the MT-X helmet which is supposed to hit the market in a month.
Now listening to the Cold War Kids’ Loyalty to Loyalty
Thinks are getting heated. We are 5 days before the first SX races and still rumors are flying around. Apparently Josh Grant crashes hard this afternoon while praticing for A1 and was sent to the ER.
Yesterday the Nike MX boots finally came out in the open with confirmation that both Ryan Dungey and James Stewart will be wearing them at A1. very surprising for JS7 since he was under contract with an Italian brand until 2011.
On our side, we are getting there Davi Millsaps' AGV helmets are being painted and Gautier Paulin has received his. GP21 has actually been giving us some good exposure recently with a mag cover in France, a video and a few super good shots from French photog Stephan Lebig.
Here we are at the dawn of 2010, a new year that I hope will bring a ton of positive things to people, my family, friends and me included, as well as surely some very exciting racing in all series. MotoGP and WSBK are going to offer some good racing with new riders, new teams and the same for the FIM World Motocross and the AMA Supercross and Outdoors Motocross series. The only championship that is looking bleak right now is the AMA Pro road racing series. Unfortunately things are not looking very good there. The second year of DMG's control of the series is bringing more controversy than Tiger Wood and the almost extinction of purse money in the Superbike class is not going to help things, to the contrary. At this time, only about 12 riders are confirmed in the AMA SBK class, including Yates and Zemke, the 2 Michael Jordan Motorsports riders and Dainese's Blake Young on the Yoshimura Suzuki team. Things are looking worse for what is actually supposed to be the new #1 class, the Daytona Sportbike where 5 riders are kind of officially in. Of course despite the pull-out of Kawasaki from US road racing, adding to the departed Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki is not helping but like every year, a lot of last-minute decisions and entries will take place in the weeks leading to Daytona.
But the most important right now is that we are 2 weeks from Anaheim 1, the opening round of the AMA SX series. Things are actually looking good, especially in the 450 class, with a lot of healthy, fast, riders. This could be a very good season with a lot of possible podium contenders lining up behind the fast James Stewart and Chad Reed. Lots of question of course, will Ryan Villopoto beat any of those two aliens on a regular basis? will Hill, Shorty and Millsaps step up to the plate? Will Dungey be the 4th fastest guy, will he battle for 3rd on a regular basis, will he win his first Supercross race? What about Reardon, Ivan "I'm a Yamaha Privateer" Tedesco, Jake Moss, Matt Moss, Josh Grant, JGR's Justin Brayton or Jason Lawrence?
I believe that it won't be too hard for JS1 and CR22 to get to the front but it is going to be a very hard fought battle from 3rd to 15th, with the starts being more important than ever.
The Lites class is going to be good, lots of very fast riders, lots of title contenders, East like West, even if the Pro Circuit and Factory Connection teams should squat the podium spots, we should count on Suzuki's Stroupe and the Yamaha boyz to shake the establishment. Pourcel, Barcia, Stroupe, Weimer, Canard, I will bet some money that those 5 will win races.
I have been a bit busy with AGV and Dainese sponsoring matters in the last couple months as I tried to bring some good names to our team. Although we have not really produced a competitive off-road helmet for a few years, as a leader in the manufacturing of helmets and a brand with a strong off-road past, we decided to get back in the mix. People will say it is pretty bad timing in view of the economical crisis that hit the world and our industry in particular (leisure don't always do good in time of financial difficulties), some even advised us not to do it.
As a helmet manufacturer though, and a proud one, with very strong roots in racing, we couldn't stay out of such an important segment of the motorcycling world. And a really cool one at that. MX and off-road rocks! We know that.
So from the time I was hired, almost 2 years ago, we were working on the MX lids. The aim was always to produce a "price point" helmet in polycarbonate and a high-end one in carbon/kevlar/fiber. While we were making strides in R&D I swas asked to start working on potential pro riders for the AMA SX and MX series. Snnoping around the '09 races I started looking at guys that could work with us, riders who had the right exposure but more so the right personality to work with a new helmet and a renowned brand like AGV.
I was also helping on the Euro/FIM side, brainstorming with my Italian colleagues on potential riders, pushing for who I thought would do well for us and would be great partners to work with.
It took about a year to come with a final team. A year of building up relationships, meetings, traveling, endless phone calls, visits, meetings again, more late phone calls, testing, etc, etc.
Then I received the first production models of the MT-X and the AX-8. I was pumped with the way the helmet turned out and how good they are. Now I wanted to go ride MX again! I knew it would work very well for our team riders.
In the last months we have scrambled to get the necessary helmets delivered on time for the painters (AirTrix and AP Designs) to get the riders' lids ready on time for A1, while contract negotiations were still ongoing for some (just for minor text amendments).
At Anaheim, Honda Red Bull's Davi Millsaps and Yamaha Rinaldi's Gautier Paulin will go racing with the AGV AX-8. We are pretty excited to be teammed up with DM18 and GP21 and I will have a small tear of pride when the gate drops for GP's first race, the first at that level, for an AGV MX helmet in many years.
In Europe along with Gautier (who will be using the Star Racing Yamaha rig as a base for the first 4 SX Lites West) the second AGV MX rider will be 2008 MX1 World champion Davide Phillipaerts.
In US, along with DM18 (who is looking good right now) the other AGV riders will be Honda Red Bull's Ashley Fiolek with whom I have always wanted to work again. I appreciate and respect Ash and her dad Jim a lot and believe that they are great people to work with, on top of the fact that Ash will be a great ambassador for AGV. A 3rd rider, a Red Bull off-road legend, should be signed in the coming days.
I'll try write more things as the season goes on.
Photos of GP21 during a photoshoot for French magazine MX Mag by Stephan Legrand, along with the cover of the mag's last issue. Pretty cool!
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