He’s not the fastest man on the planet, but Eli Tomac is possibly the fastest man on a supercross track in America.
The Kawasaki rider from Colorado finished 1-1-1 in the Monster Energy Cup supercross at Las Vegas at the weekend, taking home the giant trophy and a $1 million pay cheque.
His cry-baby performance after the Motocross of Nations in the USA a week earlier is now quietly forgotten and Tomac is all smiles again after beating fellow Americans Jason Anderson (3-5-4), Joey Savatgy (5-6-2), Justin Barcia (4-2-7) and Malcolm Stewart (7-4-6) to the huge prize pool in Las Vegas.
The riders now go into practice and test mode ahead of the start of the 2019 AMA Supercross Series, which kicks off an Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California, on January 5.
Tomac, along with team-mates Barcia and Aaron Plessinger, were well beaten at the MXoN on home soil at Red Bud, Michigan, a week ago … Team France winning the event overall (for a fifth straight time), while Italy and The Netherlands rounded out the podium.
The top riders at this event were two Dutchmen, Glenn Coldenhoff and MXGP world champion Jeffery Herlings.
Team USA was sixth at the MXoN and all the excuses in the world were spouted out – “the (USA) track suited the Europeans”, “We’re tired after a long season” (although the GPs run longer and had their final round only the weekend before the MXoN).
“I wish we raced those guys more than once a year. I wish we could get another swing at them and keep the conversation going as to who’s better,” said Tomac in an after-MXoN interview. Well you can Eli, you just need to travel outside of the USA.
We had hoped the Americans would show some good grace and manners after the MXoN humbling, respect their opposition, admit they were beaten by the better men on the day, give credit where it’s due and just be good sports.
The GP guys are the best in the world. Have been for years. That’s why it’s called the world champs. Full stop.
In saying that, however, it’s almost certainly true that the Americans are the best at the off-shoot sport that they invented in the 1970s, Supercross, and the Monster Energy Cup was certainly an entertaining spectacle from some of the world’s most incredibly talented and fast supercross racers.
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