Mladin and DuHamel are both friggin' warriors. To be such geezers and still out there scrapping with kids 15 and 20 years younger takes huge balls and commitment. As to "moving up" to the WSBK, I have to say that it's a very Eurocentric assumption that the European riders are especially more talented than their American counterparts, simply because they live in Europe. Anyone think Michael Jordan was a wuss because he didn't compete in Europe?
..........I love the whole dynamic of Spies being afraid to fly and Mladin owning his own jet that he personally pilots around the world. That has to stick in Spies craw.
.........One could just as easily say, why doesn't Bayliss come and ride against the AMA riders? Riding in the AMA has it's own set of unique challenges. I've raced at Road Atlanta where Mladin just won two in a row, and I can tell you, the last three turns there are wild and wooly like nothing in Europe. The final turn at the bottom of the steep hill - just before the straightaway is the one that put DuHamel in the hospital. The FIM guys would have a hissy-fit if they were asked to race that section of the track.
........And as far as attitude, I like Mladin's honesty. I always admired Spencer's mellow attitude but felt that realistically, he had to have had much more ego than he ever let on, and the whole church-boy thing got a little tired after a while. Mladin is so much more forthcoming. Whenever I watch him being "interviewed" on the grid, it's just plain painful. The ....... with the microphone asks the same ....... inane, questions and it has to be such a drag to sit there and put on a fake smile and give stupid fan-boy answers to ....-brain questions. That's enough to make anybody grumpy, especially when you've been doing it for so many years. When you're sitting on the grid and you have your race-face on and going through your mental check-list of things and going over race strategy the last thing you want to is have some sappy jerk-wad shove a microphone in your face and ask yet another no-brainer question. This is racing and not show business and who says the riders need to put on phony smiley-faces for the feel-good folks sitting on their couches drinking lite beer. Racing isn't about being a candy-... spokesperson. At some point I'd love to do a poll here to find out how many of the armchair critics on this forum have actually ever raced and had to put up with this ..... And one last thing, (rant rant) when you talk about personality, when I watch Spies, he gives me the creeps. He always looks like a wife-beater, and no, I don't mean the t-shirt.
KD
