early laguna pick

perhaps somewhat optimistic, but i predict a three-peat for hayden
given his recent resurgence on the improved rc212.

 

Though I would put money on it given the way Hayden dismissed Rossi and
everyone else at laguna the last two years

 

Yeah, and I'm Santa Claus

 

Not sure about Germany but I think Stoner will be OK at Laguna, it's
Rossi I think will struggle there.
Didn't Vermeulen learn Laguna in WSB days, I can't remember. Rain
races are part of the challenge no point in implying if it wasn't wet
then things could be different, that could be twisted about too.

Todays race finished as it would have regardless of grid positions,
Rossi had the pace and was always going to challenge, Stoner had the
pace but the wind buffeting the bike paid it's toll on his tyres, he
couldn't have done more, did you see him losing grip in the last laps
giving it everything, Hayden ultimately couldn't close the gap on
Stoner either and was ever so slowly losing time over the last 4 laps.
I think todays result was very fair, no real tyre advantage or bike
advantage, Rossi just had the right setup and ability to win. Good to
see Hayden finally get a podium and look really competitive, shows the
wee bike can work for him.

Paul

 

No, just a *ickhead

 

Nicky would be a good longshot bet; what are the odds right now?

Where can I find the odds? I've done a couple of searches but all the sites
seem to require membership, and since I live in the USA, I can't join
anyhow.

I'd imagine he's 15:1 at least even though he's won the last 2.


--
Andrew
00 Daytona
00 Speed Triple
71 Kawi H1
05 Infant

 

Hey, remind me how "Yamaha" made Rossi crash at Valencia last year

 

Rofl. As opposed to the reaction from you and others when Rossi got beat
last year?

 

Julian Bond denies reality:

Well, OK if you think that. However, even Nicky is finally starting
to make some comments about his rank in the honda garage hierarchy.
Don't know if the rest of the world saw the little interview with
Nicky
(covered by CBS here in the states) where he basically says:
"sorta hard to believe that they made a bike that wasn't built
around the world champion".

Now I'm not denying that Honda has been throwing parts at
Nicky and the midget pretty much equal measure. But certainly
you can't deny that Nicky is not the #1, as befits the world
champion any other year I can think of.

And the pre-podium banter between Cue Tip and Rossi was
pretty cool, as was Nicky's comment on Cue Tip's jacket.


Go fast. Take chances.
Mike S.

 

Julian Bond mentions:

No, the american broadcast didn't show it. What did he do?


Go fast. Take chances.
Mike S.

 

Julian Bond and Champ both missed endurance racing
in the US in the 80's:

Kevin Schwantz. That's what his hair looked like when
he was 18-ish and my team beat his at the Nelson 24 Hour.
I didn't come up with the Cue Tip moniker. It went around
the pits at the races the rest of that year until nobody called
him anything but.


Go fast. Take chances.
Mike S.

 

Nicky commented himself on it on a pre-race interview (Shown on the CBS
coverage) wher he talks about it hurting to be the world champion and not
have the bike built for you - to have the lead engineer admit it.

Also from a Honda press release last race where they stated "Pedrosa is
Honda's #1 man"

as for new parts, how about the pipe? the chassis? come on.

Bruce

 

I saw the same interview and my recollection was very similar. A
statement along the lines of, "It's hard to take when your engineer
tells you the bike wasn't built for you."

 

http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2007/Jun/e/n070620b.htm

The important quote:

From Honda
HONDA RACING INFORMATION
British Grand Prix at Donington Park
22, 23 and 24 June 2007
DANI SHOOTING FOR REPEAT OF 2006 BRITISH VICTORY
Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V), Honda's main man in MotoGP

Note that this isn't an opinion column, or editorial, or a reporter,
or gossip, - it is a press release from Honda, where they openly
state the Dani is their main man.

Bruce

 

And another bloody thing. Will you guys stop mangling the language
with words like "three-peat".

 

Unfortunately, there's just the one weekly in the UK now, the old
Motorcycling Weekly being long since gone. They used to keep each
other in check a little, but MCN has really done what the hell they
want for some time now.

As an example of their standards of journalismn, read about this sting
we pulled on them a few years ago:
http://www.ukrm.net/CLUES/exploits/mcnsting.html

 

Honda is a bif company that manufactures cars, motorcycles, atvs, watecraft,
lawnmowers, and a bunch of other stuff.

I realize English isn't your primary language, but current points leader
and main man have very different connotations.

So what? the press release does NOT come with pictures, soup added the picture.
(Just like on a nother page that start with quotes from Stoner & Edwards
and the picture is of Rossi.)

Yes it is, and yes it does. But don;t let reality get in the way of your views.

Bruce

 

Ummmm, I included a link to it. just click it. (Also mark provided
a second link).


And as for curent point meaning anything, last year when Val had fallen down
a few time and Edwards had more points, did you ever hear Yamaha refer to
Colin as their "Main Man"? did they suddenly change gears and puts the efforts
into his bike ahead of Vals? didn't think so.

Bruce

 

Well, my taste runs more to comedy at dinner. Maybe Pablo and Bond
could do their straight-man stand-up routine on the total support for
Hayden at Honda - except that it's pretty hard to down a steak while
rolling on the floor laughing...

 

Oh, I get your point, but I suspect you're not getting, or are
ignoring, mine. Is there no sport that is contested only in European
countries that refers to itself a a world championship? In 1986 GP was
only run in Europe, and the 500 race winners were two Americans and an
Australian. Last year in the AMA the races were only in one country
but over what I would guess was a roughly equal geographic area, and
all the SB races were won by two Americans and and an Australian. I
seem to recall them calling Eddie Lawson a world champion and not
European champion, while no one has referred to Spies as a world
champion (yet!). So is the distinction that the AMA championship was
run in eight states, while GP was run in ten countries (including
countries as small as the Netherlands and Belgium, geographically
smaller than any of the states the AMA ran in)?

In actuality, a world champion should be the champion of an organized
sport where it is essentially universally recognized that the best in
that organization is the best in that sport. That's certainly true of
the NFL, and in ways that it's not true of MotoGP - which rider had a
100% success rate in MotoGP last year? The WSB champion. And of course
it's absurd to call the 125 and 250 champions world champions, they
are just champions of this world championship's support series.

That said, it is kind of silly to call any champion of a national
series a world champion. But I think it's silly to call any champion
of anything other than a truly open competition a true world champion,
and MotoGP is hardly an open competition.