Catalunya preditions

Ok guys lets have 'em,talk is cheap....
Is it Sete or Vale or Nicky or Barros or Loris or Troy or Marco or Tamada
or....?
If the weather holds, this is going to be the best race of the year.
Everyone is so very close and we'll see a whole bunch of drafting and not
only on the big straight.(as one has said) Tires will be the big thing with
all the heat. I wonder who Michelin/Dunlop/Bridgestone likes best?


MY picks, Vale, Nicky & Troy(less than a second between them all)... (odds
on that are about 1000 to 1 in Vegas) We'll see........Having said all
that, I put up a buck!!!(who knows, I could get lucky. It would be the first
time!!)



T3


btw- I'll never give away a race again, if anyone thought I did last week.
MY apologies... However, if you haven't seen the race you're kinda dumb to
log on to RMR, wouldn't you think? I mean WTF???? Anyway, let's hope for a
fast and safe race....

 

Tamada is impressive. Of course, he's had the unfair benefit of riding
250ccs...

That said, I keep waiting for Gibernau to be more conservative, but
Catalunya probably ain't the spot for that. Him and Checa are going to be
gunning for top spot, and traditionally one of them's got to go down. The
safe bet is the Gibernau, Rossi and Biaggi trio again. But somehow I don't
think so.

....pablo

 

Gib, Rossi, Barros, Biaggi, Tamada


--
Shane

 

Ok, this time I actually looked at some of the practive & qualifying times
before opening my yap Sete looks like he is continuing to set the bar
pretty high & (in my opinion anyway) if last week would've stayed dry he
would have been at the top, so I'll take him to win again. Caparossi seemed
to have decent practice time (fastest on average, just couldn't put in
a single hot lap), but while he & bayliss will do OK, I don't think the ducks
will be able to run continuously at the pace of the leaders (not sure if it
is riders/bikes or both). I think Checa will charge hard, do well for a while
but crash out (or make a big enough mistake to lose position) before the end.
Rossi will do well as always, but I am calling for a honda sweep, with Nicky
in third and either Max or Tamada in 2nd.

but the most important thing is it should be a really good race, I am really
enjoying motoGP this year as 1) I can actually watch them, and 2) there are
some really good races, last season I could watch was '01 when I was living
in Ireland and that year while the 500s were impressive, it always seemed to
be big gaps & runaway wins with occasional battels for last spot on the podium
and it was the 125 & 250 races that were better. This year it seems for the
most part to have some real close battles for the lead not only in the points
race, but in every event - you can;t watch last week (pre-rain) and think that
any of those guys were being conservative to garner/maintain points they were
going for the win no holds barred & it was great. Here's to more of the Same!!

yeah, my bad. I was one who said something, but I wasn't like really mad or
anything. wasn't planning on reading the group, but subject list was up when
I opened the window - I'll be more careful in the future

bruce

 

Well, well, well,
You are all afraid now to only say Edwards...
What an irony, who could have imagine that 2 years ago???
Remember....Giberneau was the best representative of the JIS theorie, making
the GPs a farce with a bunch of mediocre riders and Edwards was the best of
the "real racing".
I was almost convinced that Colin was the favorite this year; I'm pretty
sure that he has the same material, so what's going wrong???

 

Sete, Carlos, Max, Vale...

no

Max, Sete, Vale, Alex...

no

Vale, Max, Loris, Nicky...

no

Carlos, Vale, Melandri, Colin...

no

Oh, I don't know. Maybe the Spaniards will all fall off under the
pressure and Max will win his first one of the season. Maybe Barros and
Hayden will get a decent start and stay with the leaders. But mostly I'm
hoping for a continuation of the first half of last week. 7 or 8 riders
in a freight train constantly swapping places. Something I'd really like
to see but which won't be on TV is Shakey, Xaus, Hodgeson, Bayliss,
Roberts, Hopkins, Hoffman, Melandri swapping paint 30 seconds behind
them.

The 125s promise to be fun with the long straight bunching them
together. And Pedrosa vs De Puniet will happen again in the 250s.

 

Lots of excuses just to state that Edwards has made several wrong choices on
his bike. Making the right setup decisions is a key part of being a top
rider at that level, so that doesn't wash. It long stops about merely being
fast at that level. Moreover, if that team was only about supporting
Gibernau they'd save themselves the second rider and bike. *That* is a silly
point. They're paying Edwards too well to merely leave him riding crap.
Gresini wants to win the championship, period, and he would not have hired
Edwards if he didn't increase his chances of winning by doing it. Edwards
has had material equity, he just hasn't made best use of it yet, and at this
point it makes sense to give Gibernau the total team support in a pinch -
but this is a top team, and to imply Edrwads is now left there screwing
around himself with old parts is stupid. Edwards still has top material and
top support.

Edwards will still have several opportunities to come around. I think it's
way too early to start making excuses for him. The fact he is struggling
merely shows the talent that rides in MotoGP and how incredibly competitive
things are. Kudos to the guys that manage to consistently stand out. Which
these days in practise is stating to include Hayden - he will become a major
force this year.

....pablo

 

<snip> ...pablo

Colin is running thru not getting Gorst to come from Aprila with him
Set up is not just the rider, it's also the crewchief.
Communication is critical in interpreting the setup choices.More choices
than time.
Why do you think Rossi got Burgess to go with him?
Life is much simpler when your on the same page with the guy turning the
wrenches
Gibernau got Kato's bike not Kato's team.
A good crew chief manages the rider as much as the bike. Good rider can
carry a bad bike.