Leib Out at CLS Kawasaki Before He Even Began

What a roller coaster for privateer Michael Leib these last few months. The Southern Californian privateered the 250 west SX series for the first time and until getting hurt at San Diego, was a real surprise. Leib was coming off two years over in Europe racing the MX2 class for the factory Husqvarna team to mixed results but in a real stroke of good fortune got the call to race for the Bike-It Yamaha team filling in for Zach Osborne and in what was a real out-of-nowhere ride, Leib scored a second overall in Italy and immediately jumped to the top of teams radars over there.

In fact, as it as announced right here on Promototalk.com, Leib signed a deal with the powerful CLS Monster Kawasaki team for the next couple of years. Before Michael could capitalize on his Italian momentum, Leib contracted mono and after struggling through some races, came home to America to recover.

On my recent trip to the MXDN, I was speaking to a CLS team member and mentioned that they’ll have Leib on the team next year along with Arnaud Tonus, another up and coming Swiss rider. The official just shook his head and said “No Leib” and this surprised me, as Michael himself confirmed to us here at PMT that he had a deal. I couldn’t get anything out of him more but it did strike me as weird and upon getting back, I just let the rest play out.

And the rest is now here. Leib is indeed out and we’ve learned that the team cancelled his agreement because of fears of Michael being sick. The whole thing is though, Leib’s been in constant contact with the CLS team and has sent them all his reports from three different doctors stating that he’s cleared and ready to start riding. His CLS deal didn’t even start until January 1 but understandably, the team wanted to make sure he was feeling fine and there wasn’t anything else up with Michael.

We’ve reached out to the CLS team for comment but haven’t heard back yet but basically, despite their being a signed deal between the two parties in early August, the CLS team used Michael’s illness and maybe some signing-regret to get out of the deal. Leib did make it back for the Great Britain GP but was still not feeling well and struggled at that race, scoring no points.

So to recap kids, once again in the professional sport of motocross- you have a ride when you have a contract unless the team decides that your contract isn’t actually a contract. Then you’re effed. Sucks for Leib big-time and from what he hear, he’ll be back at Anaheim 1 as a privateer trying to make his mark once again.

Leib's out before he was ever in?