Ricky Carmichael
L
ooking back through
your career, what fascinates
me is your decision to
workout with Aldon Baker.
How did that come about and why
did you pick him?
Well, that was from Johnny O’Mara,
actually - Johnny O’Mara sought
him out. For me, it was the 2000
Supercross series and I’m like, “I’m
just not getting the results I need to
be getting, what I’m accustomed to
getting in the 125 class.” And I needed
to change my off-bike programme.
And when I say off-bike programme,
I wasn’t looking for cardio. I thought
that I had my cardio down, I always
did what I did on the motorcycle for
practise. I just needed a strength
coach at the gym.
So Johnny’s like “hey, I might have a
guy in mind,” and it was Aldo. Long
story short, that’s how I met Aldo.
That’s how I started working with him.
That season, you came in with
quite a lot of pace, got injured, then
struggled. How did you come up
with a strategy, and how did that
make you different as a rider. Do you
think that’s why you’re successful?
Yeah, the older I got the smarter I got. I
won a lot of races and championships
just by being smart, not always
being the fastest guy. To give you an
example, there were times where I
knew I could beat James Stewart, and
times where I knew I could beat Chad
Reed. However, my game plan was
to be the best guy week-in week-out,
and a lot of my race strategy I learned
from Johnny O’Mara.
Why do you think you and Aldo were
so successful together?
I think we were doing a lot of things
that the other guys weren’t doing. I
mean, there were no magical answers.
I think with the work ethic that I had,
how much I used to practise, and then
what he brought to the table off the
bike, it meshed perfectly. u
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