Didn’t he literally quit Baker, start eating pizza and win an outdoor title? Or am I off on the time sequence.
Ken Roczen, his training partner, chimes in with, “It’s cause for the first time you’re working with a trainer that actually knows what he’s doing.”
Burn, baby, burn. That’s another shot from Roczen toward Aldon Baker, the trainer Roczen and Cianciarulo used to work with. Kenny hasn’t missed many opportunities to rub in his post-Baker success, and with good reason: when he left Baker, he was immediately criticized by many as making an either dumb, or lazy, move. As fate would have it, Roczen parted with Baker while holding the 2015 Monster Energy Supercross points lead, then just days later, tried to jump a triple from the inside line at the Oakland Supercross and cased it spectacularly. He hurt his ankle, and thus began a downward spiral in results that he really never pulled out of all season long. He was soon out of supercross with the ankle problem, and couldn’t get his bike working right in Lucas Oil Pro Motocross, which led to some more drama.
Ahem, meanwhile, Ryan Dungey—who took Roczen’s spot with Baker—took both 450 titles that year, indoors and out. Dungey was already a proven champion, so it’s not like Baker worked miracles on some dude off the street, but Dungey has seemed to ride, act, and generally perform better since joining Baker’s program. The Baker’s Factory has certainly worked for him. That’s a key point, as then evidenced by our own David Pingree, who jumped into the Instagram fray with:
“So the rider who handled you in supercross the past two seasons is working with a trainer that doesn’t know what he’s doing? Interesting.”
I’ll just leave this here.
