Biking....my first passion.
Spring is here and that means the bike racing season is upon us. This means Motogp, WSB, BSB and such delights as IOM TT and Northwest 200. if it has 2 wheels and an engine and its televised, i watch it.
i have been a biker for 10 years this year and have had the pleasure of watching Valentino Rossi thorought his MotoGP career and i truly believe he is the Greatest of all time (GOAT). I have never missed a GP in ten years and this season will be no different.
For many years Rossi has always had it his own way with many big name contenders falling by the way side in his wake, Capirossi, Biaggi, Gibernau and Pedrosa. some huge stars with equally big ego's and all have ridden for teams capable of beating him, but none succeeded and all fell foul of the Rossi's mindgames and dropped from grace with the top teams for not producing the results they wanted.
7 world titles speaks for itself in the record books and some riders, Gibernau in particular have actually beaten Rossi fair and square in a straight fight on equal machinery but never went the distance when it went to down the wire and folded under the pressure.
This was until a young Nicky hayden came of age in 2006 riding for Honda and won the title without winning a race. the following year a very young Casey Stoner in only his second year in the top class won on the Ducati that no-one else could ride or still can't ride to this day.
It looked like Rossi was a has been and on the slippery slope to retirement. Anyone else would have gone this way but Rossi is different and came back stronger than ever with back to back titles in 2008 and 2009 on his Yamaha M1. That made him world champion 7 times, 3 for Honda and 4 for Yamaha.
2010 was a year to forget for Rossi.....
But lets go back to pre-season 2010...Rossi injures his shoulder in a moto-cross accident in training and said it would take 6 weeks to heal, not a good start to the season when a new young spanish team mate at Yamaha in the form of Jorge Lorenzo enters the scene and blows the world away with his outright pace and never say die attitude and arrogance.
Lorenzo is the teammate Rossi wishes he would never have. Rossi has always had teammates that he could carry and develop the bike for but never an actual threat to his number 1 status in the team, Lorenzo would prove over the season that he was more than a match for Rossi on equal machinery and Rossi not only struggled for pace (shoulder?) but was so obviously being outridden at every circuit upto and including his home round in Italy.
5th June 2010...a date that will go down in history in Rossi's career...a poor outlap and the tyre cooled too much and the bike spat him off at over 120mph and Rossi flew into the gravel trap.
Result: one compound fracture of the right tibia and effectiveley his season was over. leaving Lorenzo to romp away an easy victor even before the final round was raced at Jerez.
Rossi missed 4 races because of the injury and it would be the first time since march 31st 1996 that Rossi was not on the grid.
So, with a shoulder that needed surgery and a leg not fully healed, Rossi still managed a respectable 3rd in the World Championship 150 points behind the runaway victor. Rossi was cornered for the first time in his career. a teammate who can regulary beat him on the same machinery, a teammate who is as flambouyant as himself and a teammate who for the first time demanded to be the number 1 rider. who could argue? he was world champion and world champions deserve the best machinery and the biggest salary.
Was Rossi pushed out? or did he make a move before it became inevitable? who knows? but the world waited with baited breath for him to anounce he was moving to Ducati.
A match made in heaven or out of the frying pan into the fire?
why sign for a team who had a record of 1 world title and only 28 wins? and with the added fact that only 1 rider had won on the bike (stoner)....I'll tell you why?
An Italian national on and Italian bike wearing Italian leathers and boots and gloves and an Italian crash helmet manufacturer. Could it get any better? a promoters dream and millions of euros in sponsorship is definitely the right way to end an career.
Unless the final 2 seasons are a struggle because of a shoulder injury that is worse than he is letting on.
So what of 2011?
Pre-season testing has proved difficult to say the least. Combine a shoulder injury and jumping on a bike that has been developed around Stoner (and no-one else can ride) it was always going to be an uphill struggle. Add into that a factor of the the worlds press expecting big things like he did when he jumped ship from Honda to Yamaha and won at the first outing in Welkom, the pressure would be really on.
During the testing Rossi found himself 2 seconds off the pace of Stoner who jumped ship from the bologna bullet straight onto a Honda that had been delveloped for Dani Pedrosa and went like the wind in every test.
even upto the final test in Qatar, Rossi was still 1.8 seconds off the pace of Stoner and wasn't even the quickest Ducati on track.
How things have changed...is the old man of the class on borrowed time? will the shoulder injury ever recover to 100% fitness? Will he be able to turn the Ducati into a race winning bike for himself? Does Ducati even have the Millions to develop the bike like Honda and Yamaha previously when the world is in recession and big money sponsorship is hard to find? will the young guns such as Stoner, Pedrosa and Lorenzo finally force his retirement?
Only one man is capable of doing the impossible and that is Rossi.
Only time, will answer these questions and i for one will be glued to my armchair for every round and screaming at my TV for Rossi to come good and go out with a bang.
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