Ryan Sipes A2 Recap
Hello all…hope you guys are having a great week. Wish mine were going a little better, but I’ll get to that later. So, Anaheim 2! I was excited for this race for sure. I always like Anaheim, it’s just a fun venue for me. I felt like I had some momentum going from the last race in Oakland, or at least something to build upon. Practice went great for me and the team as a whole, as my teammate Nico Izzi were 1st and 2nd place in both practices, and my other teammate Gareth Swanepoel had a season best in his qualifying time. We have all been working hard and it is starting to show. I get to see what these guys do day in and day out, and believe me when I say that we are all putting in the work! I got to work with my trainer Steve Hatch last week as well, so I was feeling good. In my heat race, I spun bad off the gate and got a horrible start (what’s new?). My mechanic said he counted me around the first turn around 16th, and I went to work passing as many guys as I could. I felt really, really good. I ended up coming all the way back up to 2nd place, and almost made the pass on Dean Wilson for 1st on the last lap, so I was pretty happy with my ride. I felt like I definitely had the speed to win. In the main, I adjusted my technique off the gate because I knew it was slick, but I think I compensated a little too much, because I wheelied a little bit this time. Not a terrible start, but not great…I think I was around 9th. I felt good moving up, and by lap 10 I was into 5th and gaining on Wilson for 4th. I got it down to just three bike lengths before falling in the sand section. I was so mad at myself! My brain was way ahead of my bike…I knew I was faster and just wanted to pass him so bad that I wasn’t concentrated on what was right in front of me. Staying in the present moment is so important in what we do, just a split second brain-fart can cause a mistake, and that’s what happened. So I ended up 11th, far below the result I was looking for. It’s frustrating to ride a great race and throw it away with a lap and a half to go. But, live and learn. Now for the bad news…I had a crash this week resulting in a broken hand and separated shoulder. I am getting surgery on both tomorrow and will be out six weeks. The only good thing about it is I will only miss one race, that being the one this weekend in San Diego. I will be back in plenty of time for the last two west SX rounds and the finale in Vegas. Bad news: now I won’t be able to race the 450 on the east coast. I was really looking forward to racing the Yamaha 450! It’s a great bike. But the focus right now is on getting better, and I will be doing therapy 3 times a week to speed up the recovery time. Looking forward to getting back to winning races and getting back up where I belong. I want to wish the rest of the Star/Valli Yamaha team good luck this weekend. Kill it guys! Thanks for reading.
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