Flipping the script when the ball is rolling downhill.
Flipping the script when the ball is rolling downhill.
As I was typing that opening teaser line it struck just how ironic it is. Typically when something is related to be going downhill, that sounds like a bad thing because apparently, you never want to be at the bottom of the hill. You want to be the KING of the hill. You really gotta bust your ass to get to the top of the hill and as we are all well aware in this day and age; work is bad. Nobody likes to work hard anymore, it’s all about what can you do to help me reach my potential… whoa, I’m digressing again. So yeah, getting a ball to roll downhill is dead simple. It just does.
Now I’m not saying last year that Ken Roczen wasn’t working his ass off en route to his impressive 450 MX title but considering he beat the penultimate series badass, Ryan Dungey, even when he was on a bike he admittedly wasn’t real stoked on, we all thought it was crazy to change his whole program up for the 2015 season.
Kenny signed on with RCH before he had secured the 2014 MX title, before the bike Ryan Dungey has been stellar on through 2015 had seen a lap under the carriage of one of the Factory riders and before he had even considered parting ways with the legend, Aldon Baker. Ken had to know that when Roger learned that he wasn’t returning for 2015, there wasn’t a chance in Hades that he’d let Ken throw a leg over it and get a glimpse at the improvement he had personally played a huge part in bringing forth. Some may argue that Roger was custom designing that bike for Dungey but you can bet your ass that if Ken hadn’t made it clear he wanted to get back on Suzuki, he would have had all the influence on that thing he wanted during development.
I’m a big believer in that Suzuki. It was solid as hell in 2009 and it only got better over the following years. I still think Chad Reed looked the best I’ve ever seen him on it in ’09 but even he spun some laps on a more recent RMZ and was surprised himself that it wasn’t the supreme ride he had remembered it to be. Perhaps Ken is dealing with some of that himself? I don’t for a second think that the RCH team is a weak link in this scenario; they have the best equipment with the staff on hand to bring the best out of it.
Certainly Ken’s injuries and health this year have played the starring role in his 2015 episodes of coming up Just Short but I don’t think the separation from Aldon Baker can be discounted. Aldon is definitely not a miracle worker but looking at his track record, you’d all but swear he could walk on water. It’s just crazy, the results speak for themselves. Look at Ryan Dungey leading up to and now after joining Aldon. Everyone is in agreement that Ryan Dungey in 2015 is better than he has ever been; even more than that, Ryan himself has admitted that simply knowing that Aldon can make sense of what he has done for years, is a huge validation of his work. Ryan has always been an A- in terms of training but now that he’s joined Aldon, he’s an A+.
Aldon is the guy who knows the answers like Ryan but Aldon actually knows the formula’s to reach those answers too. That matters. Imagine if you could look at a complex math problem and you could guesstimate a close answer but couldn’t work out the formula which would guarantee your answer was correct. That was Ryan. Aldon walks into the program and says “here’s the formula which guarantee’s the correct result”. It’s inarguable.
I know, I made a long story… well, long; but the point is illustrated now: why would Ken part ways with Aldon and switch not only Teams but bike brands in one fell swoop?! Hindsight is certainly 20/20 but that doesn’t change the fact that we’re all scratching our heads over these decisions now with 5 rounds left in 2015, just like we were when there were 4 rounds left in 2014(other than the Aldon separation which came after SX started).
I can’t ever remember Kenny looking more shaken than following his Red Bud TV interview after the first moto. The usually upbeat and honest K-Roc came off looking a little like a deer in headlights. It was almost as if the doubt he usually keeps tucked away in the far reaches of his brain were knocking on the backs of his eyeballs, desperately wanting to say their piece.
Last year Ken looked indomitable on a bike he wasn’t stoked on, this year he looks like a podium threat on the bike he thought was going to make everything click. I would love to be a fly on the wall if Ken were able to get a couple laps in on the bike he forfeited when he signed with RCH. This could all be in my head and in 2016 he could be healthier and back to the top of his form but unless he teams back up with Aldon, I see untapped potential. We’ve seen in the past, it’s not just about knowing Aldon’s program and replicating it. The target is in perpetual motion and Aldon just know’s how to radar-lock on it and produce inarguable results.
