Rossi vs. Ricky
In the new issue (July/August), Road Racer X editor CJ compares Valentino Rossi and motocrosser Ricky Carmichael, arguing that Vale is the greatest rider of all time (including all forms of motorcycle racing). Here, Racer X Illustrated editor DC takes the opposite viewpoint.

Next month, the man many consider to be the best motorcycle rider on the planet—one fellow journalist has even taken to calling him “the GOAT,” as in Greatest of All Time—will be in California to accept yet another challenge from his frustrated competition. I’m not talking about Ricky Carmichael returning to Glen Helen, but rather road racing god Valentino Rossi’s first visit to Laguna Seca for the reborn United States Grand Prix.

Everything that Carmichael is to motocross, Rossi is to road racing, as Road Racer X editor Chris Jonnum often reminds me. Rossi is a fierce competitor, a supreme talent, and the overwhelming favorite every time he sets wheel on a racetrack. Valentino is also similar to Ricky in the way he draws his motivation to win from the most unlikely places. For instance, after several championship years with Honda, Rossi felt unhappy, so he joined another team desperate to return to the top—this should sound familiar—and took his inner circle with him. There, against seemingly insurmountable odds, he scored the championship. Once again, every time it seems like someone else is ready to take over, Rossi just keeps winning.

There are differences, too. Rossi is a flamboyant champion with rabid fans whom he rewards by playing up to them. Carmichael, on the other hand, struggled for years to earn the respect of the fans, many of whom simply did not want to let go of the Jeremy McGrath era that Carmichael single-handedly ended in the spring of 2001. And while the globetrotting Rossi is known to enjoy celebrations in far-off party places like Ibiza or the Indian Ocean, the only way to get Carmichael to leave his humble Tallahassee home is to hold a race or schedule a bike test. RC recently sold the big home he bought from another professional athlete, electing to return to his first, modest home and build an additional room for all of those trophies he keeps bringing in.

Rossi’s MotoGP racing circuit is much different than motocross and supercross, so it’s hard to compare pure numbers. Ricky has twice as many chances to win on the 28-race AMA circuit as Rossi does, which explains why RC’s 116 race wins is almost double the Italian’s total (and his 12 championships are twice as many as Rossi’s half-dozen). But while the risks of catastrophic injury in road racing might be greater than in motocross, the wear and tear on one’s body over so many jumps, berms, and “hoops” (as Ricky likes to call them) in motocross makes road racing look like a Sunday drive.

And that’s why I think Carmichael is greater. Whereas road racing requires a great deal of precision, instinct, and courage, motocross takes all of those plus stamina, perseverance, and outright strength. The grind of the nine-month-long AMA racing circuit is much more taxing on the mind and body than road racing, which is why no one ever argues that MotoGP is the second most physically demanding sport in the world, as they do with motocross. The physical challenges Carmichael faces every weekend of his long season—and what he does to prepare for them in the off-season and between races—requires a much better and more disciplined athlete.

Don’t get me wrong here: I do not mean to berate the extraordinary Rossi or his sport in general. I have a great deal of respect and admiration for him. But I do feel that the racing at which Carmichael excels is a much different animal than that of Rossi. In other words, Valentino plays a sleek cheetah when compared to the ferocious lion that is Carmichael.

Finally, Ricky is simply more dominant. While he may have taken a few more losses in supercross recently, he is still the champion for the fourth time in five years. (He sat the ’04 series out with a knee injury.) And when it comes to pure motocross, he is the absolute champion. He’s never lost a motocross series in his eight-year professional career, he has put together two perfect seasons, and even now he’s working on the longest moto-winning streak in history—an astonishing 29 in a row after his Hangtown sweep on his brand-new Suzuki RM-Z450. Rossi has done some amazing things, but nothing comes close to Carmichael’s AMA Motocross records.