Epic battle at WSB Assen leg 2 [SP]

Whoa... this is going to be a classic.
If you have not caught the coverage on WSB at Assen, you're missing
out.

The revised Assen circuit met with skeptical response, but the shorter
track can still deliver great races as was proven yesterday.

After claiming leg 1 with confidence and solid performance, James
Toseland was prominent in leg 2 as well. Together with Troy Bayliss
he was duking it out on the last few laps, as Max Biaggi had to drop
off and finish third.

The maneuvers in the last lap were so spectacular, it almost looked
choreographed. In fact, the moves were identical in all three last
laps,
where Toseland was trying to overtake Bayliss. In all three laps he
was successful initially, but swift counter moves by Bayliss meant
that
James was trailing on the finish line again.

However, on the last lap, James *did* make it stick. Exiting Geert
Timmer
with a lead, storming to the finish. But Bayliss had slightly better
traction. Toseland, on the dirt, was threatened to be overtaken at the
finishline, so he pushed it just a little more..... Toseland's front
wheel
lifted a few inches above ground... Bayliss kept his front wheel down,
and on the finish line.... a 9 millisecond win by Bayliss.

Wow... I don't think racing can get much better than this. Troy, the
reigning champion no less, was moved to tears. James really gutted.
However, James does look set to take Troy's crown at the end of the
season with his rock solid performance so far.

Bram

 

Yeah... that Kenan Sofluogu is amazing.
Some are whispering rumors of Ten Kate going MotoGP next year.
It would be great if Ten Kate could bring Sofluogu and Toseland
to the major league in motorsport.

They are all on pirelli's this year, so tyres should be less decisive?

Bram

 

With the current spec of MGP bikes I do wonder if riders would be
better progressing directly from Supersport to MGP rather than via WSB
(to get more experience). The WSB bikes rely less on corner speed but
more on grunt where as the Supersport are the opposite as are the
800cc MGP bikes relying on higher corner speed and keeping the
momentum going, as such Supersport riders already possess that ability
naturally and haven't been tainted by the different characteristics
and riding style of superbikes.

Paul

 

My VCR screwed up, so I missed it. So despite bad experiences with
video coverage on the MotoGP site, I decided to fork out some cash on
the online coverage at the official superbike web site. Another
mistake. On Monday the only coverage of the Assen races they had was
brief highlights of the race, and the text next to the link for
highlights of race 2 gave away the result of race 1. The full race
videos have now appeared on the site, but I only have until May 3rd to
watch them. On the up side the video quality was better than the
MotoGP site, and you can watch the videos more than once, whereas on
the MotoGP site you only have one chance, which is a bit of a bummer
if you then encounter network problems.

Cheers,

 

Email me if you would like a copy of the Eurosport coverage on DVD.

 

Thanks for the offer. I will try and watch the online stuff tonight,
but if I fail I'll drop you a line. (you see, people can be nice on
this Newsgroup .

Cheers,

 

I did manage to watch the superbike races last night, well worth it.
The first half of the supersport race was a belter as well.

Cheers,

 

I burnt the DVD anyway as it is a keeper.

 

Well... originally I thought it was unintentional, but I must admit...
I saw the footage again, this time on MotorsTV. Unlike Eurosport,
a MotorsTV commentator called it a 'victory wheelie that cost him'.

I now think you may be right.
He was not pushing hard, but celebrating?
That would explain his utter disappointment.

Did JT comment on his loss yet in the press?
Would he admit to showboating?

There is respect for rider skills in this newsgroup, regardless which
country they are from. But you've been told this a 1000 times in
this newsgroup, so I don't know why I bother.

Bram

 

dont tell elias!

 

Champ says:

Watch Toseland's elbows. You can see him pull on the bars.
Trying to wheelie.

Go fast. Take chances.
Mike S.

 

Julian Bond Watch says:

yeabut. Watch the video from that view and it's pretty obvious
a jerk on the bars.

and points to:

Mid jerk. Not sure it really indicates what happened.

Hey, I don't know for sure, Jimmy sure isn't fessing up to anything
other than "got beat it sucks". But looked like a jerk on the bars to
me.


Go fast. Take chances.
Mike S.

 

Well assuming that it is the same commentary that they have on the
video on the WSB web site (and let's face it, how many two times
endurance champions doing commentary can there be ?), the "color guy"
is Warwick Nowland, who I believe is an Australian. And we all know
how the Australians love to cheer on the Brits.

Cheers,

 

Sure, of course, and I think we know that already. But you're the one
who suggested the first possibility...

That you don't think he pulled a wheelie unintentionally is
unremarkable. But that you are so determinedly certain of that is, and
it causes one to wonder why. Your first response back to me on this
included, "If you really think Toseland lost the race trying to pull a
wheelie,
you understand lot less about bike racing than I gave you credit
for", which seems pretty defensive/offensive to me. And given that
Bond is equally as certain and equally as defensive, and that the
other Brits contributing to this thread failed to mention the
situation at all, increases my curiousity. Again, you're very quick to
throw around nationalism accusations at me pretty much anytime I
attempt to counter the onslaught of unreasonable abuse habitually
heaped on Hayden, Roberts, Edwards, Mladin, Spies and anyone else
associated with American racing in this NG, but you seem to get your
back up very quickly when one returns that favor. And I didn't even
say I thought he screwed up there, I said I wasn't sure either way.

Do I think your absolutist position on this has something to do with
Toseland being British, being a guy you've probably followed for many
years, being a guy you're quite familiar with? Yes, I do, and the same
goes for Bond. I don't think you'd be taking this hard of a position
if you didn't have a dog in the fight, as Tom might put it.
Interesting to see...

Also interesting was an enlightening statement you made earlier -
"I've noted several times that Rossi makes mistakes.
It's one of the reasons he's so popular." Think of that, Rossi popular
BECAUSE he makes mistakes - never considered that possibility...

 

Ok. I agree with Champ. I watch it several times at full speed and
slo-mo and I see exactly what JT described: In deep to defend the
first part of the chicane and cocked up his exit from the second part.
I wonder if he could have done more to stop the front popping up but
it looked like he was all caught up in wrestling the thing back into
shape to worry about that.