Page 16 - ISSUE-SIX

16 THE PULSE • ISSUE SIX
to the glory days of David Bailey, Rick Johnson, Jeff Ward, and company in the 1980s and early 1990s. From 1981 to 1993, Team USA went on a thirteen-year win streak that still stands as the longest consecutive winning record in the his- tory of the event. 2011 marked the end of a seven-year win streak and the American’s have yet to find their way back onto the top step of the podium, but things were a lot differ- ent then. Ricky Carmichael, James Stewart, Ryan Villopoto, and Ryan Dungey intimidated the competition with their su- perstardom and trounced the competition with their skills on the track. In the third and final moto at Saint-Jean-d’Angély, Villopoto actually slowed down just before the finish line so that he and Dungey could cross the finish line in tandem, celebrating the victory with pumping fists as they rolled past the checkered flag.
In the seventy year history of the event, the United States is the winningest and most successful country
with a total of twenty- two victories to their name, but the last time they stood on the top of the podium at the Motocross des Nations
and hoisted the Peter Chamberlain Trophy was back in 2011. They did so in Saint-Jean- d’Angély, France with Blake Baggett, Ryan Dungey, and Ryan Vil- lopoto at the helm. At that time, the American riders still carried an air of invincibility likened