The number of times that I’ve written, “Can Chad Reed rebound?” is ridiculous. My computer can probably type this sentence by itself at this point. Reed’s near the end of his career but he’s still got more lives than Jason Vorhees. The last memory of Chad Reed in 2015 were some horrible outdoor motos and him folding up his TwoTwo Motorsports team. It wasn’t the farewell a legend like him deserved, that’s for sure.
But there was that win last year. Ah yes, the win in Atlanta that showed everyone the #22 wasn’t quite done yet. It’s really, really hard to win a 450SX and Reed got one—he also threw some guaranteed podiums away with some, for him, weird crashes.
This year, his Monster Energy/360fly/Chaparral Yamaha team was thrown together at the last minute, putting Reed back with the OEM that he started with in America. What should we expect really? Leave it to a guy that’s bucked the system and done things differently throughout his career to actually have his 2016 Monster Energy Supercross season go the opposite of what we thought.
With the late start came minimal testing for Reed so the prevailing theory was that he would start slow, get some testing done, get a bit more familiar with the bike (even though he had been practicing on a Yamaha for months before the season started) and then produce solid results.
Errr, scratch that. Reed started strong with two seconds behind Ryan Dungey in the first three races and looked to be on point. Reed’s renaissance was amazing and another notch in the “He’s Chad EFFING Reed, bro” book he’s been writing since 2002.
And then, right when we thought he would get better and perhaps win a few races, he got worse. He got a fifth at round four in Oakland and then progressively worse from there over the next three rounds cumulating with his ride in Dallas where he finished outside the top ten.
"Kind of talked to myself and looked in the mirror this week and made changes to myself a little bit."
But the stadium where he had success last year proved to be a turning point. Reed grabbed third early in the race and comfortably stayed there the entire race. It was his first podium since round two and now we’re all confused again on where to place the #22.
“(I’ve been) Disappointed the last few weeks, the last four weeks since Oakland really, to be honest” Reed told me down by the podium after the race. “I felt like we’re a podium guy. Just haven’t been riding well.”
Reed’s notoriously finicky when it comes to the set-up on his machine but he really couldn’t point to a change on the Yamaha YZF450 that propelled him to this finish. I asked him about changes to the bike assuming that this finish was due to something, but he remarked that he hadn’t done much—the bigger change was the one to himself.
“Kind of talked to myself and looked in the mirror this week and made changes to myself a little bit,” he said. “A little bit to the bike and here and there but honestly it’s just me.”
Very few riders could turn a series of 5-6-8-12 finishes into a third by simply flipping the switch mentally. But that’s something Reed has specialized in.
Want some of that irrational confidence that Reed’s used throughout his career? He had it on display in Atlanta.
“Even though we’re on the podium I still don’t believe that that’s my 100 percent,” he said. “When the track is tough like this, I’m still better than that.”
You want some more? “Those guys were right there and weren’t really doing anything amazing. I still felt like there was a lot more in the tank.”
And that’s just it with Reed. Not matter how bad it gets, no matter how bad he gets worked at the races, one podium finish for him and he’s back! Ryan Dungey and Marvin Musquin weren’t, “doing anything amazing.”
Want to bet that this Atlanta third place gets him back to being a podium guy some more? With Daytona this weekend, I wouldn’t take that bet. Think he can’t win? I’d say there’s no way you can write him off from doing that again either. He’s always good at that track.
That’s why you can never, ever, ever count out Chad Reed. Go and try but he’ll make you rethink what you thought you knew every single time.
