Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Adam Cianciarulo started his 450 career with a bang, taking the Monster Energy Cup in his first shot on the bike, and then nearly winning Anaheim 1 in his debut. He also battled for the 450 Pro Motocross Championship that year. Then trouble started to catch up with him, namely in dealing with a nerve issue in his right arm/wrist, Finally, 2023 will be a true complete season for AC as he only missed a few supercross races in the middle of the season, and will have completed the full Pro Motocross campaign by the end of the Ironman National. He, Chase Sexton and Aaron Plessinger have competed in the most races of anyone in the 450 class this year. It's all part of a long rebuild to get back to 100 percent.
Slowly but surely, he's making progress. Cianciarulo is finally back to working out his upper body and will have a very solid foundation built underneath him from 2023 as he prepares for 2024.
Ahead of the final round of AMA Pro Motocross this Saturday, we spoke with Cianciarulo about his progress down the stretch of the season.
Racer X: Alright, Adam, we are at the final round. I feel like the last couple of weeks for you have been better. What has been kind of the difference for you that you felt?
Adam Cianciarulo: I think just confidence. I mean, with the whole injury and everything, it's just been slowly kind of trying to gain strength. I wasn't able to do much upper body stuff in the offseason because it would basically, it would hinder me practicing, you know. That's obviously the primary focus is getting time on the bike. I really do think that stem cell procedure I got at the end of supercross is starting to help me and I'm able to do upper body stuff in the gym without compromising the bike stuff. So, I'm just getting stronger. My fitness feels great, which it's hard for me. Like as a man, I ran in a Wil Hahn at the airport last week and I was telling him this, but like as a man, it's hard every weekend [when] I hit that one point in the moto [and I lose grip strength] where I'm like, “Dude, I could die for this if I wanted to,” but I end up going a little bit backwards. Like last weekend, I had a great 25 minutes and then people assume I get tired and I'm like, “Dude, I'm a professional athlete, I'm not getting tired 25 minutes into the first moto.” I actually feel like I'm in the best shape I've been in my life. It just helps obviously racing and having that base fitness, but it's really just confidence and, you know, I still got it. So that's nice.
Getting a little bit into that upper body work again. I'm sure with Nick [Wey], you changed a little bit about your riding style to compensate for the arm injury. Have you been going back to some old things that you were doing or is it still sticking with like more your lower half? I always rode with my arms like too much. I think that was just kind of, I guess my toxic trait on the bike. Always leaning back and stuff and that comes for me because I was so small for so long. When you have so much weight [from getting taller] and you're throwing it around all over the bike, it becomes difficult to ride. So, I'm just trying to be a bit more neutral, a bit more center. It's really difficult for me, you'll see me in turns, especially with this right side to keep my outside elbow up. So, I'm having to kind of Tomac it and try to kind of pivot with my hips, which I can still be a lot better at. So, just trying to perfect it. I can still go fast, and you don't want to overthink it. You know, a lot of the things I've done are why I'm here. So, it's just fine tuning.
With that kind of like pivoting rear steer mentality a little bit, have you... I mean, we talked a lot about the Kawasaki maybe being a rear steer bike. Ryan [Villopoto] obviously, years of steering with the rear. Have you ever leaned on him for advice with how to kind of control it with the rear a little bit like that?
Ryan is a special case, you know, I don't ride anything like him. Yeah, he was always steering that thing and I'm more of like a roll speed type guy, you know, lean angle, things like that. So, no. I think one thing we do have in common, I really like my forks really stiff because entry speed is normally my thing. I think that's where the primary difference between like 2020 and 2021 to now is I'm struggling kind of on entry with this. Some stuff with the bike that we worked on and got a lot better. But I definitely like those forks pretty firm.
I know they showed on the board that you're still third in SMX standings. Jett’s right behind you. But when you look at that, I mean, you're third best on the season in terms of you did the most races, you got the most points of all these guys. Is that a little bit of a consolation for you to be like, “I needed to get a good season, clean season,” and this is what you got?
I've accomplished every goal I've had for myself so far this year. I mean, of course, when I do have a lot of speed, I'm never going to be content losing. My goal isn't to be seventh place guy the rest of my life. So, it feels like it's a part of the process for me getting back. This is what I had to do. I had to show up and do every race and I've definitely been a bit on the cautious side, but it has paid dividends for me. I'm still here, like you said, I'm fourth in points overall. And I think I know, and a lot of other people know, I can be better than that, but it's just about getting all the races in. It's funny this year, it's like, I do well, I'm good in points, and it's like, “Oh everybody's hurt, everybody's hurt.” But when I'm hurt, it was, “You gotta show up, man, you gotta show up!” [Laughs] It's been fun and yeah, the fans, everybody's been really encouraging and man, I'm just so happy to still be here at the end of the year and I just love racing.
Lastly, any supercross testing in the last couple of weeks to get ready for SMX or you all the way to the end with Nationals and then get on SX?
The week after Washougal, I think I rode one day of supercross just to kind of shake the cobwebs out. We took out the whoop pad and made some rollers. The old Suzuki track, we call it K4 [Kawasaki's fourth test track] now on the top of the hill in Corona there, we kind of made that our SMX track. So, we got one good day of testing. Still some work to do there, but mainly just been focused on this.
