Adam Cianciarulo will return to action in Indianapolis in Round 9 of the 2023 Monster Energy Supercross season after missing two weeks due to a wrist injury.Adam Cianciarulo and Ken Roczen ride in Press Day at Indianapolis. – Feld Motor Sports

“It wasn’t one thing; it wasn’t a crash,” Cianciarulo told Motocross Action Magazine during Indianapolis Press Day. “It wasn’t anything I did specifically that said, ‘Oh man, I hurt my wrist; I can’t ride.’

“It was getting worse and then I showed up in Press Day in Dallas and couldn’t do it safely. I had to make that call, which is a really tough call to make. I’m pretty proud of myself because for me in the past, I would have tried to go out there and probably would have done something silly.”

Last December, Cianciarulo told NBC Sports he was entering 2023 with a new attitude. After missing sizeable portions of his last few SuperMotocross seasons, he contemplated retirement in no small part because of the nagging wrist injury, which makes it difficult to grip the throttle.

“It sucks to miss a couple of races, but it’s better than missing the rest of the season,” Cianciarulo said while sporting a brace on his right wrist. “I’ve been doing a lot of rehab on it. Everything you can possibly do on it. Rode on Wednesday and it felt pretty good. It’s not fantastic.”

Cianciarulo knows more than he wants about riding hurt. He began the 2022 season despite still recovering from a shoulder injury. His time on the bike was not long as he crashed in Round 3 that season in San Diego and suffered a knee injury that sidelined him for the remainder of the year.

One week earlier after a disappointing ride in Oakland, Cianciarulo posted on Instagram: “Sometimes your best looks like first to 12th.”

He did not credit his San Diego crash to overriding or his shoulder injury, but he apparently took the lesson learned from the crash to heart.

“I haven’t really pushed that hard this year,” Cianciarulo said. “Just trying to take is slow and let it come to me. You kind of have to learn how to race again, and race up front. That’s been my goal to not have this crazy expectation on myself.”

Cianciarulo began the season with four results of eighth through 10th. In Round 5, he slipped to 12th and was 15th in Oakland.

Cianciarulo’s return to racing will once more test his new attitude as he resets for a second time in 2023.

Some events matter more to certain riders and four-time Women’s Motocross (WMX) rider Ashley Fiolek is finding a home and building her own unique community in events like the Red Bull Day in the Dirt Down South, in Dade City, Florida.

Basically, Fiolek is “just a girl who loves to ride.”

Fiolek already had accomplished so many feats in her 25-year-career as she entered the 2023 edition of the Day in the Dirt Down South, from gold medaling in the 15th X Games, to earning multiple factory rides, to her crowning glory as a four-time WMX champion. And all of this was accomplished at a disadvantage. Fiolek was born deaf, which led her to rely on different senses and physical cues than her competitors. 

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“Honestly, Red Bull Day in the Dirt Down South is one of my favorite events,” Fiolek told NBC Sports. “It’s all about having fun and sharing a fun experience with families and friends. I can’t miss this opportunity.”

As a result of being deaf, Fiolek is forced to run a different race than the rest of the field. She can’t hear when other riders are gaining on her, so she has to race full throttle the whole time. On the other hand, she can’t hear someone racing behind her, revving their engine and trying to get into her head. 

“I just learned by feeling the vibrations on when to shift and when not to shift,” Ashley said. “I hold my lines very carefully, so I won’t cut anyone off. I do look for other riders when I turn to make sure I’m in a good spot.”

Events like the Day in the Dirt take riders like Fiolek back to their beginnings. The focus is on competition, but it is also steeped in community and fan engagement. 

“Fans are awesome,” Fiolek said. “This is why I’m doing it. Seeing them cheering me on and that they want to be part of my racing experience. Itʼs also fun to hang out after the races and do autographs and photos.”

Fiolek has the weight and privilege of representing the deaf community in these events. On one occasion, she was cut off by a young girl flying by on a 50cc while cruising in a golf cart after the race. 

“I was at a race,” Fiolek related. “It was the end of the day and I was driving my golf cart around and this little girl on a 50 flew by me and I almost hit her. Later, my dad brought her over to me and said, ‘This little girl wants to meet you, she is Deaf!’ We became friends and she was a racer too so we eventually raced together.”

The Red Bull Day in the Dirt is made up of several events and results in individual races are less important than the overall feeling of success.

This past weekend at the Day in the Dirt Down South helped her get familiar with her new Yamaha 125. After a tough start on Saturday, Fiolek found her groove when the course got rougher on Sunday.

“The track was brutal on Sunday,” Fiolek said. “But I think I did better than [I did on] Saturday on a smoother track. I love rough tracks.”

She’ll take this experience and prepare for a few rounds of GNCC Racing (Grand National Cross Country) and attempt to race in in the Loretta Lynn Nationals, one of the traditional feeders into the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Series.

With the disbandment of WMX, standalone events like this are some of the few chances that Fiolek has to race and when asked if WMX could come back, Fiolek was realistic about the chances and obstacles.

“That is hard to say,” Fiolek said. “I hope so. That would be amazing. It had some issues when I was racing and hit a lot of rough patches so it would need to be thought out better the next time, if it came back.”