In part of a long interview with the always honest Chad Reed in Paris, the Aussie gave his unfiltered view on the end of season MXGP title battle as well as World champ, Jeffrey Herlings, and it makes for some interesting reading!
“When you go into the last moto tied up, it’s nerve wrecking,” said Reed who had a similar ending in the 2006 supercross series. “I feel a little bit sad for Romain, the last two races are sand. I mean, at that point you are really pushing. For him to come out and think it was those last two races and the first of the two races, he won the first moto, at that point that’s impressive. Yeah, Jeffrey crashed or whatever. I don’t think it’s a matter of you are lucky or you’re not but I say that Jeffrey was very fortunate to have a lot of teammates throughout the last four races, we see Tony pull over twice, teammates are nice to have in that scenario, because if you take the teammates away, Jeffrey doesn’t win, you know? But you can always say woulda, coulda, shoulda, right?
On his view on Herlings…”(laughs) I agree, he’s badass but when you talk about the greatest in the sport, I don’t know that you put him in that group. Speed wise, yes, but I mean the titles don’t lie, he has two. In my opinion he only has two titles. Lites are Lites, I don’t count them and maybe he wins the next five…he’s getting old now..what age is he? (27). Oh he’s not even old, I thought he was older than that because he’s been around for so long!
“But yeah, when you look at dominance, dominance in my opinion is controlling and understanding how to win world titles or championships. He has not yet achieved that in my opinion, but as far as a badass on a motorcycle and what he can do? One of the greatest at that.
“It’s hard to compare. For me, I’m team Tony, and I’m not against Jeffrey but if you were to put me out there and I was to take a lie detector test, I’m team Tony always. And that’s my era so I am always going to gravitate towards that and I think Jeffrey is part of the new era. So it’s hard, it’s always hard to comment on that without sounding disrespectful because I’m not disrespecting what he’s done, but there’s a category and I don’t know that I put him there…yet.”
Read the entire interview here or listen to the full interview below with Chad on his career, nearly joining Suzuki in 2005, Cairoli, RC, Stewart and more on YouTube or Spotify or iTunes here. MXGP and Herlings at 15m 40 seconds in:
Image: CDS
Interview: Jonathan McCready