As we begin to move towards the mid-season swing on Monster Energy AMA Supercross, the landscape of both the 450SX and 250SX classes really begin to take shape. Though we are only two rounds into 250SX East, we are starting to see a trend of where riders fit in with the group and the 450SX class is also starting to see some consistent trends. Ken Roczen, Adam Cianciarulo, and Chris Blose, all found themselves in similar positions to where they’ve been to start the season, and each of them had some good and some bad to take away from their nights in Tampa. We caught up with each of them to hear what they had to say.
Ken Roczen | 4th in 450SX
Racer X: Ken Roczen, take us through your night.
Ken Roczen: My night ended up really good. We had a really tough week, the team and I. We have been putting in some hours, like really. I mean I want to say it paid off, but it’s not like we necessary got everything handled on our bike and everything. But when it came to the night show, we really turned it around. And I’m really happy to get away from here with a fourth place. It was huge. Just after one of those tougher weeks over the last few months, you know what I mean, it’s just one of those weeks where I was really scratching my head, so I really didn’t have the greatest feeling coming in here. But we only get points for the main event, and that’s what really matters. So, I think we did very well here, and we turned it around. So, I was pretty stoked about it. I can’t wait to get back to work. I’m going to take a couple of days off after a long week and then some of the team is staying and we’re going to continue working.
Obviously fourth is not where you want to be, but you did gap [Eli] Tomac there, so are there positives in things like that even on a night like tonight?
No, absolutely. He’s normally out front, like I don’t know what was going on there, but we all have our off days. It was a bummer for us to not be on the podium, but again, for what it all was, to end up with a fourth place, and not really sure what it did with all the points but I had a lot of the top guys also behind me so that helped us out a lot. And yeah, of course, leaving Eli a little bit and having a cushion towards the back and after a long week like that, there’s a lot of positives to take away.
Adam Cianciarulo | 12th in 450SX
Take us through your day today and take us through everything from the racing tonight.
Adam Cianciarulo: Yeah, much better day for me overall, probably my best day practice wise so far. I felt like I had a lot more pace and it didn’t feel super-fast to me kind of like it has the first few races. You know, you take a long time off of these events and the intensity feels like everything’s coming at you pretty fast. So, it’s starting to slow down for me a little bit. Got the bike in a great spot, the guys are doing great there. Obviously, main event, started out front. I was stoked where I was at. I think I was P4. Just was a little indecisive in the whoops in terms of jumping and skimming. I felt pretty dialed skimming the whoops today and just started to jump and got in there a little hot and a little forward and crashed. And, yeah, it dropped me back. Then made another little mistake and ended up crashing in the whoops again from the other lane. [Laughs] Obviously that was not part of the gameplan, just sometimes the mistakes compound like that. And I definitely don’t feel like it was from like overly pushing or anything like that. It’s just like, shit happens sometimes. It’s unfortunate but much better day overall. And a lot more of those to go.
Not that you are happy with the result, you want to get better results, but I guess are you satisfied with it given where you are at feeling physically and mentally on the bike?
Yeah, obviously, I’m not super stoked because I didn’t maximize what I had in me tonight. If I would have been up there and super smooth and hit all my marks, I think I could have been top five this evening. But we’ll never know because I made those mistakes. And that’s what I don’t want to do, that’s what’s not acceptable for me, to make those mistakes. So, I’m disappoint in myself there. Obviously, it’s not from a lack of effort or lack of intention. But overall, I think I am much more pleased with my day overall and my riding overall.
Chris Blose | 13th in 250SX
Just talk us through your night from qualifying to the main event. How did it go today?
Chris Blose: Today wasn’t a good day. Definitely very frustrated with myself and my riding right now and I know that I’m better than what’s on paper and that’s 13th tonight. Heat race, I got in a first turn crash and then I crashed in the sand in that sand turn. I made my way back up to ninth and qualified through the heat race which was nice not having to go to the LCQ. Then the main event came around, I think I worked my way up to eighth or ninth and then of course I crashed in the sand again. Yeah, just very frustrated with everything and we’ll get there.
I’m sure it’s got to be tough because you’re not pumped on your riding but you’re on this great bike and want to deliver more. How do you regroup from this with the weekend off and go at it again? What’s the approach going forward, are going to change anything, or just keep on doing the same thing and trying to be consistent and hopefully better results will come?
Just keep plugging away at things. Obviously, we got a late start. Everything was so last minute. I think we got the bike dialed in. Everything is good on that part, but I’ve just got to work on myself and get better. That’s really just the realistic expectations of myself and what I feel like I’m capable of. So yeah, kind of just go back and put in more work.
