Good Noyes article...

http://www.speedtv.com/articles/moto/motogp/33412/?page=1

Just in case no one's pointed that way already.

And just in case the conspiracy theorists pick up too much momentum:
whenever Noyes' talks about HRC favoritism towards pedrosa, he precedes it
with an "I think" and an "I am afraid" - the latter betraying his personal
bias for Hayden, but nevertheless I have to say that I much respect Noyes'
opinion. He is an insiders' insider. He has been wrong before when
speculating, though.

Also, in my opinion it is not so shocking and incomprehensible HRC sees the
future in Pedrosa, should that really prove to be the case. It may prove to
be wishful thinking on HRC's side, but the guy is young, has shown pace from
the first race as a rookie, and potentially his size can be engineered to
decisive advantage should his talent warrant the effort. As well as Hayden
has done this season, his track record is not one that indicates he may be
the one to challenge Rossi one on one. Then again, for all we know it may be
some other of the young guns (Melandri -questionable- Stoner -needs to chill
and mature- or still Hayden -whose methodical progression after all has
brought him to an inch of winning the championship or even Elias -who
knows-) that surpasses Pedrosa within the next 2 years. We shall see.


....pablo

 

I like Noyes a lot. He lived in San Cugat in the early 80s, close to
Barcelona. At the time he wrote excellent test articles for Motociclismo,
among them one that led made me fall in love with the Laverda Montjuic. He
also started to cover MotoGP, where his own US background gave him much
better access to the superstars of the era, of course, and he was the
perfect mediator between a motorcycle crazy Spanish public and the US
superstars. Roberts and Mamola actually ended up speaking very decent
Spanish, Mamola even writes test articles and special GP features for
Motociclismo these days (and excellent one on the BMW R1100S Cup Replica
comes to mind).

In any case, Noyes was a familiar and very approachable sight among
motorycycle aficionados around Barcelona, oppping up at the popular spots
all the time and freely engaging in chats. He is a great person. And in my
opinion the best journalist covering MotoGP. But it's irked him for a looong
time that no US rider has won the MotoGP title. If you meet him somewhere,
ask him what he thinks about how the AMA manages the sport in the US...

....pablo