WORDS: JASON WEIGANDT
PHOTOS: ALIGN MEDIA

It was supposed to be this simple. Ricky Carmichael and James Stewart won just about everything from their earliest days, first on minicycles, and then on bigger bikes as amateurs, and they kept on winning as soon as they turned pro. The success continued into the premier class, and really their stiffest competition came from each other. Seemed like an easy model to follow, except it wasn’t. The Mike Alessi/Ryan Villopoto flip-of-the-script created a new narrative. For every high-profile phenom winning everything at a young age, there’s someone else in the wings, frustrated with watching it all, building up motivation, and learning from their failures. Eventually, that dam bursts and you get the underdogs like Villopoto, or Ryan Dungey, Cooper Webb, or Chase Sexton winning when it matters most.