Here's a few words from RV2 on what he's dealing with at the track ... -- Back to Belgium, we tested for two days and made some good progress. Its tough because our tracks in the states are much different than the tracks here. The speed you can ride is so much different. We can push on our tracks, but on theirs the dirt is very particular and you have to be very aware of when you can and cannot push. Sometimes you have to go slower to go faster, which for me is hard to wrap my head around. The bike settings are much different as well because of the dirt. You have to run a softer fork setting because you don’t have the same load on the suspension. I think we are getting closer each day so we can more or less do some fine-tuning from here on out. The racing itself over here is just different as well. In America, I like to say, we play checkers. While here, they play chess. There is a lot of strategy involved since the races are stretched out over two days (I am on a big learning curve). On Saturday we do two 20-minute practices and a 25-minute race so that by itself is a lot of riding. Then we do another practice plus two more motos the next day! Talk about seat-time. The Starting gate is much different too because of FIM rules. You are not allowed to go to the line with your mechanic, so I have to pack my own gate. Do I build a ramp? Kick some dirt around? Wide? Tight? Again, learning. Didn’t really know what to expect but WOW, Argentina is a beautiful place. I could definitely go back there and do some fly fishing and exploring. It kind of felt like home, or like Mammoth, California. One of the coolest places I have ever been hands down! The track, which was only built for the race was really similar to Mammoth, too but it had fine pieces of porous volcanic rock. There wasn’t a lot of grip yet it was one of the better tracks we’ve ridden so far because it was a lot bigger, wider. And the fans…. absolutely crazy! Never knew people loved moto so much. I had to have guards everywhere I went. It was just that nuts. But it was cool to see people so pumped. -- Think I can understand part of what he's trying to say above ... The racing strategy might be the biggest adjustment ... Stretching the racing over 2 days probably is not as easy as it sounds... That means 2 hard days back to back. The trick will be to not give away race day 2 on race day 1. I'm guessing here, but when the racing restarts, it's back to EU (to stay) and known tracks for the racers... That's gonna put RV at a ~disadvantage for the remainder of the 13 races that are left. Another guess but FIM allows the riders to be moving when the gate is dropped... Big big advantage if you can be moving forward, any, when the gate is dropped. (The starting gate is almost, always, an uneasy place for me.)
