“Tough day—this track is brutal as always,” Eli Tomac said after this year’s Southwick National. “I was pretty worn out trying to catch those guys [in the] second moto.”

Wait, wait, wait. Eli Tomac was worn out? Yes, a rugged two-week Lucas Oil Pro Motocross stretch through Florida’s heat and humidity and then Southwick’s brutal roughness even took a toll on the usually indefatigable Tomac, with RedBud serving up more wear and tear the next weekend.

Tomac was far from alone. While his (normally) fatigue-free late-race charges are akin to a cyborg, even a robot would have struggled in these races. With today’s training programs hyper-tuned to push the riders during the week while trying to leave enough in the tank for the weekend, science was put on notice for three summer weekends.