Let's start clearly and concisely here: We learned a lot at Hangtown. This column could take any form, including the confidence a racer like Blake Baggett gets after winning an AMA National at the opener the way that he did it, coming from behind in both motos; or the return of Chris Pourcel and what seems to be his need to race himself into shape; or how smart it was of Ryan Villopoto to not try and force anything since he was so sick for the last couple weeks; and on and on.

But for the purposes of this column, what really happened at Hangtown was that we once again saw that, under the right conditions, there is no adequate substitute for experience.

Chad Reed hadn't ridden a single day of outdoors on his or any other CRF450R all year until the Tuesday after the Las Vegas SX. And while in interviews he was always talking about how he needed more funding to go outdoors - and that was true - his biggest need that had to be addressed in order for him to race outdoors was factory suspension. There are a lot of reasons for this, but in talking to Reed, chief among these reasons was that he didn't want to have to start from scratch with his own testing. He knew two things:1) that Honda had done a bit of outdoor testing with Trey Canard, who was going really fast, so he could hopefully jump right into something that was very well-developed already, and 2) that both of Honda's official factory racers (Canard and Josh Grant) were hurt, and they were going to need riders on red bikes in the 450 class.

Honda gave him the suspension, and along with their notes from every race they race in a year, Honda also took him testing quite a bit to get the factory stuff working the way he wants, and it showed on the very, very rough and demanding Hangtown circuit.

"While the Ryans battled it out, Chad Reed was perfectly content to wait them out. (Photo: CoxMX.com)"

So, reason one why experience won out at Hangtown was that Reed knew he wanted to compete for wins, and knew what the most realistically way for him to do it from the start was going to be to be on the factory stuff.

The second reason experience paid off for Reed was that Reed showed patience in both motos and let the races come to him. It's not his first rodeo, and Reed has a knack of knowing when a pace is sustainable or not for 35 minutes. He's a great judge of this. In the first moto, he lost a spot to Villopoto early in the race, but then seemed content not only to stay behind RV, but to even let him pull away a little bit - perhaps to stay out of Villopoto's roost. But then, four laps later or so, he snuck right back up on RV and snatched third place away. It was too late to catch Dungey, but second is as good as first in the first moto, as they say. In the second moto, Villopoto and Dungey went at it out front tooth-and-nail for seven laps while Reed just sat back in third as if he was watching. But once that battle sorted itself out, he put the hammer down and went after Dungey. It was like watching a fresh fighter fight another fighter who just went six rounds. Reed made short work of him, then took off.

And the final reason experience paid off for Reed was that Reed's line choices were amazing at Hangtown. With a track that rough, it's difficult to find any sort of rhythm, but where Dungey and Villopoto seemed to be going after the track like they were mad at it, Reed was reasoning with the track. He found where he could slow down and take an alternate line that would result in more time gained in the next section, and he exploited these lines to find his way by the Ryans out front in the second moto.

Reed won't win every weekend, because sometimes youthful exuberance also pays off, but at 29 years old, Reed owes his cunning and racing savvy - both products of experience - for his win at Hangtown.