Re: MotoGP (gone all spoilery now)

On Sun, 30 Apr 2006 19:56:28 +0100, Champ said ...
On Sun, 30 Apr 2006 19:46:52 +0100, Bear <bastardDOTbear@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

On Sun, 30 Apr 2006 19:20:05 +0100, Champ said ...
On Sun, 30 Apr 2006 14:10:21 +0100, Pip
<gingerblokeNOSPAM@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Well

Worth

Watching

That's about it, really.
One bike with eight wheels in the lead, everybody up the inside of
everybody else, three abreast round corners. Fantastic.

Just watched it - bloody unbelievable stuff. And a definite sense of
a "changing of the guard" too.

Indeed so. Although it's maybe just a *tad* too early to be writing a
certain someone off ...

Well, yes. Rossi is still the man to beat. He and Yamaha were off
the pace all weekend, wet and dry, and as such 4th was a result. Next
week he could be lording it again. But, we're 3 races into the
season, and he's only 5th in the points table, 12 points down on the
leader. He's never been this far down before.

I don't think that's a factor, mostly because I got the impression he
was actually getting rather bored with it all towards the end of last
season. I didn't get that impression today, though of course we didn't
see much of him.

But Yamaha were definitely off, as you say. If that just fires Rossi up
more then it's all good.

If I had to bet, I'd still go for Rossi. But I reckon Hayden is
looking really dangerous - he's had 7 podiums in a row now. With so
many people challenging for wins, consistency will really count.
Remember Lawson taking the title in 89, despite both Schwantz and
Rainey winning more races?

Weird; my opinion of Hayden hasn't changed, in that I consider him *way*
overrated; he can't conserve tyres properly, he can't attack and pass
consistently at or near the front without running wide, he can't run in
traffic without coming off second best etc etc. Pedrosa was faster today
and, crucially, tactically better through the midsection of the race;
given Pedrosa's lack of experience compared to Hayden this makes no
sense. Hayden just hoovers up the "best of the rest" position, to my
mind. Of late that's been the podium as many of the others challenging
the front are novices at MotoGP level themselves, but as the youngsters
gain consistently I think Hayden will sink like a stone.

Today was a great day for Stoner, Pedrosa and, to a lesser extent (but
still jolly impressive), Elias. What's odd, but interesting (and not a
little exciting) is that all 3 still appear (to me anyway), to be riding
a 990 MotoGP bike like a 250, in that I can't detect much difference in
style between the way they're lining up and firing out from how they did
it on 250s. Logically, this shouldn't work, but by god it seemed to
today. Elias in particular seemed to be working his bike like a much
smaller machine, and I can't work out why they're getting away with it,
since a 990 should have torn their tyres to bits in seconds flat ...
maybe the tyres have moved on a *long* way in the last year?

In any case, it was a super race and, more importantly, points towards a
season that has the potential to be the best in years.

Oh, and didn't Gibernau look like a man who really CBA to go racing? He
seemed to me to be happy to just give up and go home, whereas (as one
example) Capirossi seemed as hungry and determined as ever. If anything,
a bit of success seems to have calmed Capirossi down a bit.

Shall we do predictions? :)

1. Rossi
2. Capirossi
3. Pedrosa
--
Bear
BMW 740iL - Stately Progress For The Mature Gentleman
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