Cycle News

Cycle News 2013 Issue 01 Jan 08

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/102325

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 44 of 99

ROUND 1/JANUARY 5, 2013 ANGEL STADIUM OF ANAHEIM/ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA SUPERCROSS P46 MONSTER ENERGY AMA SUPERCROSS SERIES, AN FIM CHAMP Cole Seely returned to action for the first time since his Salt Lake crash last year and finished third. STEWART TALKS KNEE The rumors started not long before opening ceremonies that James Stewart might not race because of a knee injury. But how could that be? After all, the last time he rode, he set the fastest lap in qualifying and did so moments before time had expired. Unfortunately, those rumors proved to be true, that he indeed jammed his knee on the very last lap during timed practice. "After my fastest lap in practice, I came around before that wall jump and lost the front end and stubbed my knee pretty good," he explained. "I finished the lap, but I knew something wasn't right. We debated [whether or not he should ride again] but we went out for the heat race. I went out there just riding; it was hurting pretty good and was super sore. "We waited until the last minute to figure out what we wanted to do, so we decided to just go out and see what we could do. [Before that] we just elevated [the knee] and just went out, there wasn't much we could do. I didn't want to shoot my leg up [with pain killer], because; one, I don't like the stuff and; two, on [injuries] like this, you need to know what's going on. I don't want to tear it all up." Despite the pain, Stewart gutted it out and rode. He led his heat race before giving way to Canard and Millsaps, and did the best he could in the main event after a bad start. "We did it, we salvaged it. It hurt, it hurt all night, but at the end of the day, with Dungey finishing third, Reed fourth, I ended up eighth, and Villopoto 16th, I really couldn't be any happier after what had happened." Despite getting off to a fast start in his heat race, Stewart said the knee hurt from the get-go. "Honestly, the pain was there from the first lap; I just think that's the difference between getting the start and being mid-pack. In the main event, if I would've gotten the same start that I did in the heat race, it would've been the same. I could've led a few laps and just kind of rode around, but I got a bad start and had to come up. Of course, [the pain] got worse and worse and worse, at a certain point, around lap 10, I was kind of mellow. "Obviously, it's definitely not the start [to the season] we wanted, considering how fast we were in practice and how smooth we were,

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Cycle News - Cycle News 2013 Issue 01 Jan 08