Chad Reed on Ricky Carmichael and James Stewart

IIn an interview with our colleagues from Gatedrop.com, Chad Reed talks about his battle with Ricky Carmichael and James Stewart. The three have had some tough duels and Reed talks us through the differences.

Was Carmichael your toughest opponent? The matches in 2003 and 2004 were quite tough. Who was the most intense?

They are so different yet similar I would say. The big difference is that James had slightly more weaknesses than Ricky. Ricky never really seemed to have a weakness. Just like a fighter, when you feel like you have him on the ropes, and just when you're ready to try to knock him out and win, he finds a way back – always. He just came back stronger and found something that was another level and you said, 'where did that come from?

James had the power, his speed was unbelievable. There were days when you just had to admit that you just couldn't go that fast. You simply didn't want to die going so fast! And on some of those days I had to settle for second place. And sometimes he made the mistakes.

Was it Stewart's concentration that sometimes faltered?

Yes, and that was his weakness. Sometimes you would go lap after lap and I would be like, 'I don't know if I can go that fast' and sometimes if you just let him go and almost gave up, he would crash a moment later. It didn't always happen, but you kept him in mind that he would end up on the ground. But more often than not he won the race rather than losing out. Somehow there was that weak concentration that Ricky didn't have. And when Ricky crashed, he rarely got hurt.

Yeah, sometimes I feel like Ricky always crashed at the right times. He crashed on press day, he crashed in practice or he crashed in the heat race and he always found a way to do well in the main race. On his bad days he was still second or third. You had to be damn consistent to beat him in a championship.