Catalunya (spoiler)

MotoGP yesterday was pretty good, though it's apparent that several things
are now becoming predestined:

1) If Sete makes an early break, he will not be able to extend.

2) Rossi will pull out a late race pass and break the passee's will with a
couple of unmatchable laps.

3) Max will finish off the podium 90% of the time.

4) Melandri will finish on the podium 90% of the time.

5) Hayden will show great promise, then fall just short of delivering.

6) Edwards will be slower than Rossi.

Even so, the racing is much more exciting to watch than the MS domination in
F1 of the past several years (this year's F1 excepted).

-Dirt-

 

Melandri is having a very good season so far, but I can't help feeling
that his decision making needs some maturing. On more than one
occasion this season I've had the distinct impression that Marco would
rather dice it up with whoever is around him while the riders just
ahead disappear into the distance. At times he seems intent on making
a lot of spectacular passes which just slow him and the others down
when he should be concentrating on drafting with someone to catch or
keep up with the leaders. He even put the moves on Sete while the two
of them were at the front when they should have worked together to
pull away from Rossi. If it were just one occurrence I wouldn't pay
much attention but it seems like I've noted this tendency during
several races this year, however I can't cite many specific examples
since I don't have the races recorded.

 

That was kind of my point if I didn't say as much.

Those two were meant to be at least partially tongue-in-cheek. It just kind
of feels that way sometimes.

-Dirt-

 

Something occured to me when they flashed the tire choices during the race.
Hayden ran a soft front, Sete a medium and Rossi a hard. Since Nicky came
from a dirt tracking background and is, generally speaking, fond of riding
the thing on the back end, do you suppose he doesn't use the front of the
motorcycle enough? Sort of the way Max has always been characterized as
using the front too much, Nicky maybe uses it too little. If he really
expected a soft front to last the race on a known tire-abusing track, can he
really be pushing the front as much as he could? I can't remember him ever
really sticking it up the inside trying to make a pass the way some of the
other riders do. Maybe his larges improvement could come from learning to
push the front when required to.

-Dirt-