Steve Cox | June 13, 2019
Cycle News Empire of Dirt
COLUMN
The AMA Was Right
At the Thunder Valley MX National, a bit of controversy sprung up after points leader Adam Cianciarulo went off the track in the second 250MX moto while chasing moto leader Justin Cooper. Cianciarulo got cross-rutted behind Cooper and went flying off the right side of the track and landed on the Red Bull repeater banners that lined the track all the way through the inside of the next right-hand turn. He got back on the track (still having to jump over banners, but in a place where that was possible to do) as Cooper went by, then waited a couple seconds before he resumed the chase and got back on the gas.
Justin Cooper understandably feels he was cheated out of a victory at Lakewood but was he?
Now, to start with, this is what the AMA Rulebook says about this type of situation. First, the offense itself of leaving and then re-entering the course:
A rider leaving the course may continue the race by properly re-entering the course at the closest point to where the rider left the course, without gaining an advantage. If a rider leaves the course for any reason, the rider must immediately slow down to a safe speed so as not to endanger life or limb of other riders, crew members, officials, or the public. It will be the responsibility of the Race Director or his designee to determine whether the rider gained an advantage upon re-entry or failed to slow down after leaving the course. A rider may be determined to have gained an advantage without gaining a position.
And second, here are the rulebook’s reasons for a penalty being handed down:
Failure to re-enter the track at a point as close as practical to the point at which the rider left the track or slow down after leaving the course, and in so doing gaining an advantage.
That’s the rulebook (which varies in wording, but not really in policy, from the supercross rulebook).
Considering that those repeater banners continued even well past the point where Cianciarulo re-entered (and considering the terrain surrounding those banners previous to that spot) it is definitely “as close as practical” to the point where Cianciarulo went off the track. He did slow down after leaving the course, and he did not, in the end, gain an advantage by going off the course, as he rejoined the chase farther behind than he was when he went off the track.
Case closed, right?
Well, not if you’re Justin Cooper. And that’s what I’m going to concentrate on here. A lot of people are coming down on Cooper for what he said after the race, and for his insistence on protesting the result, and also appealing the result of that protest. He says they’re going to be “drawing it out.” People are angry at Cooper. Some people agree with him, but most that I’ve seen just seem to put it up to sour grapes. He’s a sore loser.
Of course, he’s a sore loser! You don’t get to be a competitor at the top level of any sport like that if losing is just no big deal to you!
We’ve been BS’d by PR training that helps athletes suppress their real feelings when they lose. Losing sucks. It hurts. And for the most part, the “aw shucks, I just did my best” thing is an act. It’s not real.
From Cooper’s perspective, he probably thinks he was right because all he knew is that he came around a turn and Cianciarulo was jumping a banner right next to him. He didn’t see how close Cianciarulo was before he went off the track, what he did off the track, where the banners were strung, and that Cianciarulo joined in behind him and stayed off the gas for long enough for Cooper to recuperate his previous advantage. All Cooper saw was Cianciarulo joining back on the track as he went by, and then hearing Cianciarulo back there again from that point forward. If you understand his perspective, it’s easy to see why he felt so righteous about everything.
But Cooper made some crucial mistakes that should be teachable moments for him in his career as we move forward: First, he allowed the situation to rattle him and take his focus away from what he was doing. Second, after he made a mistake and went down (either due to being flustered, pressure, or some combination), he rationalized that he didn’t have to beat Cianciarulo to win, because he (third mistake) counted on the AMA officials determining things in his favor after the race.
The first one that might just come with time, but focus is something most top racers struggle with at one time or another, and this was a weird circumstance. The second one and the third one, those are the most significant errors, in my opinion. It’s always dangerous to count on other people outside of your control to see things the way you see them, and you never, ever want to leave a race result up to the race officials. If Cooper could have caught Cianciarulo but gave anything short of 100% effort to do so because he thought Cianciarulo was going to be penalized, it was a major error in judgment.
Cooper has a chip on his shoulder now, and that’s okay. It might even be good. From here, though, there are a couple of ways this can likely go, and they depend on Cooper’s mindset: If the chip on his shoulder is that he feels cheated, there’s a possibility he could make further errors out of anger and/or a feeling of desperation, and that could just make an unfortunate situation worse.
If the chip on his shoulder is that he came closer than ever, but he lost again, then his anger should be pointed inward. And if he’s willing and able to take that on-board—take the blame for his own failure at the last round—he will undoubtedly end up a better racer, and a better person, because of this incident with Cianciarulo in Colorado.CN
