Ryan Dungey was kind enough to give us some time at A1 to talk to us about his very successful career -and he gave some interesting insight including incredible humility in saying that Ryan Villopoto was just better!
Read what he had to say about working with Aldon Baker, his rollercoaster MXoN experience and RV below:
Aldon Baker: I really trusted in Aldon’s program. His program was good. I think it was the right amount. I tended to overdo it all the time prior to Aldon. Do too much, wear myself out, burn yourself out. Just with the training and the load, just trying to do too much. Maybe I was a little bit insecure, like I wasn’t doing enough. But with Aldon and his program, I trusted it. The workload was good, it was the right amount and the recovery was good. It was just fine-tuning those areas. I didn’t have to think about it either, because he was putting together the program for me. It was proven, and I knew it worked just looking at his history, his track record. It brought a lot of confidence, and it really relaxed my mind from thinking about it all so much. Wondering, am I doing enough to do the right thing? Now it’s like, I wasn’t guessing anymore. So, taking the guesswork out of it really brought a lot of confidence, and relayed it even onto the track too.
I knew I did everything I could, and I was prepared. I didn’t leave any stone unturned. It brought a lot of confidence. When the gate was ready to drop, it was like, no, I did everything I could. Mentally knowing that, like I said, brings a lot of confidence.
Ryan Villopoto: Villopoto was tough to beat. He was a tough competitor. Even if you could beat him one time, he’d come back even harder the next round. So, it was tough to get that edge on him. But Villopoto, he was a better rider. It was good for me because I was always trying to get better, I was always trying to prove myself. He pushed me to be a better rider. I think once he did retire, I was able to take that… he was that guy in the sport, and I was able to come in and be that next guy, it prepared me for that. Had Villopoto stayed, it would have been a different story but he retired, and it was a good opportunity for me to capitalize on that and be that guy for the sport.
MXoN: I was just trying to take it like another race. Obviously, it was important and I wanted to do good. I tried not to put too much pressure on myself. In 2009, 2010, and 2011, we won. Those were great years. In 2012, 2013, and 2014, I just struggled. I struggled with the tracks and I struggled with the bike setup. I struggled with Lommel… Lommel was just a unique, deep sand, it was crazy. I just felt like a fish out of water, I can’t really blame the bike on that – that was more me!
We really chased that. The first model with KTM, we really chased the setup a lot at every race we went to, and it really wore me out. 2014 was actually a good year. We had a good finish in the first moto, and we were on track to almost winning it. I actually went down the second moto and Jeremy Martin broke his foot. Me going down in the second moto really put a damper on and that was on me. We had three good wins in a row, which was awesome then we had three losses in a row, which was not awesome. It was never fun to lose. We gave it our best.
Watch the full interview below: