Tonights Headline Bout: The Rossi Challenge

I agree on that one.

And that one.

But of course not that one. Gib is Gib not Barros. He's the fastest Honda
guy. Maybe not the ideal one but probably the best they've got.

While I don't totaly disagree (it's a long time ago) I must say it is strong
words for the man that most of all compare riders and bikes based on what
they did, not what they do. There is a development but how were the
statistics for Honda vs Yamaha the year Biaggi got his best result?

/MBE

 

The logic being? Biaggi just melted earlier. Look at the final point
standings. he just got back into it because Gibernau and Rossi got too much
into it. Not through his own merit, but rather through others' mistakes.
Which is legitimate, but casts a big shadow over his ability to truly mount
a chalenge on his own. It's 2 years in a row that he is *not* the top Honda
rider.

Well, that's what I stated, conspiracy theory about Edwards excluded. At
least Edwards did get a chance to show he is one of the top guys in MotoGP,
so it has not been a wasted year for him in the end.

Reality check: Gibernau was in a sattelite team, just like Biaggi. "More of
the same" is thus inaccurate, if Gibernau were to receive de-facto HRC
status, which now it looks like he won't. And once again: my point was that
the best Honda can do is to grant both Gibernau and Biaggi top status, and
indeed give Barros the walking papers HRC wise.

Comparisons between anyone anywhere are always allowed - we just don't
always have access to all the data. But Biaggi was the clear top Yamaha
rider, and declared it a lost cause. Which it is clear it wasn't.

....pablo

 

Nope, he siply never had the speed. His performance were quite consistently
unadequate for a chapionship fight and was so through the season. Add to
that that he _do_ give up in a man to man fight at the end of the fight, but
that's also consistent through the season and consistent with pervious
years.

/MBE

 

No, but then again I don't see any winners in the honda teams. Certainly not
Biaggi.

All history lessons aside. On the first year of MotoGP he made it to 2 on a
bad bike, behind rossi. This year he made third on the best bike two places
behind the Yamaha. How does that make Yamaha a better bike today? How is it
possible that nobody else but Rossi could beat him on his "terrible"
equipment, or is Biaggi a worse rider this year? The M1 was also the first
one to be shown publicly and commonly regarded to be leading the development
(until the first race of cource)

/MBE

 

Hondas problem seems to be lack of direction. They might very well end up
with a worse bike as well. They seem to lack _the_ guy to help them develop
the bike. Yeas they can tune the hell out of that engine but will that be
enough if they cant get the power curve, throttle reponse and handling of
the bike right?

I'm looking forward to see what Edwards can do on the Yamaha.

/MBE

 

In other words, you agree

The Yamaha were the first one to be shown publicly and "everybody" expected
a strong competitor in the M1 in tha autumn '01.

Unless the competition has changed dramatically I find that strange. Well,
all the bikes has changed, for the better but he still got the no 2 place so
how is a third today better?

Rossi's.

In my view he had the a bike good enough to beat any of the other Hondas
(marginal differences) and better than any other bike.
To me that make it close enough to the best bike. There is no way you'll get
me into thinking that those close upgrades made any radical differences.
Mainly ha was on the same equipment as any of the other Honda riders, with
one possible exception; Edwards.

/MBE

 

Re Biaggi,

What is this "bad luck". I'm looking at the points chart for this year.
The top 3 have all had 2 DNFs. When Rossi had a bad race he came 4th.
When Sete had a bad race he was 3rd-4th with one really bad race. When
Biaggi had a bad race he was 8th-10th. Rossi won 8, Sete won 4, Biaggi
won 1. Given all that, I really have a hard time thinking that Biaggi's
luck or machinery has been so much worse than Sete, or that Biaggi is so
much better (now) than Barros, Edwards and Tamada.

Wayne Rainey's take on this. "He can't ride around some of the problems
that keep you from going fast. That's where Sete has been the best Honda
guy. He's been the most consistent with the package HRC provides"

 

This is apt. It's also true of some other guys, like Xaus, but seems
more pronounced with Biaggi because we all thought he had what it takes
to challenge Rossi.

He's losing the mental game, he's defeating himself.

Someone send him a copy of _The Inner Game of Tennis_ or to
Keith Code for a week ;-)

 

That'll be 2 wins and 7 podiums, I think.

 

What did Losail have to do with Luck?

Aha, when Rossi get in the back row, do an amzing start, crash out in one of
those strange incidents it's nothing to do with luck, rather an unforced
rider error?
When Biaggi end up at the back row it's bad luck?
Strange.

Luck, no crashes this year would have been luck. Seems to me they both had
their share of bad luck.

If if if, If the standigs were different the focus would have been
different, the races would have been different.

Marginally different from the two others.
As things played out it's not possible to compare the three and their luck.
Their performance is allways influenced on standings and who knows what the
result would be if we din't have a little bit to confident Rossi going out
the first time, compared to a more defencive Rossi fighting for the lead.

Again If if if.
If Biaggi were a better starter or a better qualifier Lorris wouldn't have
touched him either. so on.

/MBE

 

Call me biased, Im an aussie, but I honestly think hed do a better job in
Motogp than Melandri.

My father and I place bets on what lap Melandri crashes out.

He's getting a reputation as a crasher, just like Carlos Chucka.

Chris