Why Can't Americans Succeed?

[neils on wheels]

Yes we have created the best senior riders on the planet with the NATC/AMA experiment but what good has that done?  Without a senior TDN we cannot prove that point.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, you could always enter a TDN team for 1st October in France and prove it!

[mich lin]

Trialsurfer, Chris's World points where legitimate! Don't let anyone or anything take that great effort away from him. Have a look at phototrial, he sits atop a lot of really big names in the year end finals. HE WILL BE VERY PROUD OF THAT IN YEARS TO COME.

If nobody shows, that's their fault, they didn't make the effort, Chris did. At the first ever US world round, tons of middle level European world round riders showed up looking for points, knowing full well that they would have it easier in the USA, they knew the game. Show up and score if nobody else will!

I'm proud of Chris for making an effort to support us American fans and bringing home the first male world championship points since the mid 1980s for the USA. I didn't see Geoff making that effort!

The moral is this, riders show up if they think they can score points, if they don't make an effort, that's their fault. Also remember the 3 rules of championship trials I coined here for you all. Score points, have fun or make a ton of money, learn something everytime you ride. Then you are a success!

Part of my riding the US Pro championship last year was to prove these points! Just show up and you can score if nobody else does, which I did and captured two 8th places. The 3 rules state, Have fun, which I did or make a lot of money, which I didn't. Learn something, which I surely did. Score points, which I did , I was a winner by the 3 rules. Then the NATC pulled the rug from under me, just like they have Chris at this years world round.

US trials riders have forgotten so much about world championship trials. My job back in the 70s was to push everyone and set the standard, which I did and we created a culture that created a world champion. I never figured that I would be in that same position 30 years later but I'm willing to push everyone again if the NATC/AMA want an American team and culture that can produce world champions.

It really gets down to the Dr. Wagner plan for American trials! Does the AMA/NATC insist on keeping on the same path, which is to keep American riders out of the world championship, like they have done this year. Or do they change and expand the NATC/AMA brand to include world championship contenders as well as the excellent sportsmen competiton they now provide?

So you see trialsurfer, it's the NATC/AMA who must step up here. Without their cooperation we will continue to have our young tigers like Chris, Smage and Louise held down compared to the rest of the world's riders. It's clearly their doing!