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- Apr 22, 2007
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Marc has only won 3 times at Jerez in MotoGP.
It aint one of his strongest tracks.
With respect to having an "idol", that is an incorrect word for me. It is your word not mine.
I have been watching since the 80s. I have been able to watch and appreciate the talent and skills of a number of riders above others.
Marc stands above them all. He is not my "idol" but his competetive drive and skill on a bike stands above everybody else I've seen. He can stuff a motorcycle into a corner well past the ability of the front tyre to hold that motorcycle up but jam himself into the tarmac with enough force and do it quickly enough to make the damn thing come out the other side. The sheer number of times he has done this places him above everyone else as a motorcycle racer for me.
The power slides, hard braking, throwing the motorcycle around he also manages as well as others. Dancing on the edge of front tyre traction and over it, he can do better than everyone else. Does it pretty damn well with both ends of the bike if you look at his speed on a wet or drying track too.
I am afraid if you can't recognise and appreciated the sublime skill he has so often displayed you either don't watch, or don't watch with an open mind.
I don't see this as anything special as most top riders can do it. Marc is not faster than Bagnaia, for example. The difference between them is that Marc risks a lot more. So much so that all his "skills" you brought up here ended up making him the rider that crashes the most, by far, got his arm destroyed, 3 or 4 surgeries, got out of action for more than 1 year and almost finish his carrer. Indeed, Dovi advised him one day, that there is no miracle in his actions and one day he would broke himself down. Said and done. Was it worth it? You can argue he do this or that but reality tells me he crashes proportionally with the pace he tries to run and collects 0 points, so no, Marc can't do things beyond physics without consequences. There is no magic here. I can admire him (and indeed I do) by his obstination and risks took, but I won't close my eyes and pretend he has been doing incredible things beyond the capacity of any other rider. No, he has not. Then there is no "if marc didn't crash he should have leading the table and bla bla", truth is, he crashed and that's it. Choices made. I don't put Stoner ahead of him because of lap times or speed alone, but because of understading how to imediatelly extract the most out of a machine. As I said, most top riders today knows how to be blistering fast. They just need to feel comfortable. Take Maverick as an example. There are days where he is unbeatable, no matter what. And that is the case with many other riders. The difference is that they accept they're not comfortable enough to push until the limit, but Marc does not. The result? He does some fast laps, make his show, the crowd applaud, and then he crashes.