<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (The California Kid @ Feb 15 2009, 05:28 PM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>my opinion is the longer it takes for him to win the more desprate he will get and his skill level will drop. He is going to end up just like Puig not even a "has been" he will be a "never was"
Agree - Dani races the track, and has lost the ability to race his fellow riders. Rossi only has to show him a wheel and he capitulates, which is a shame for Vale, 'cause we all know he loves a scrap. (When Max low sided in front of him in Brno on the YZR in 2001, I remember Vale saying it was like having a large plate of pasta in front of you ready to devour, suddenly taken away from under your nose
) At least Gibbers, queen that he is, wasn't afraid of a fight. What happened at Sachsenring and more recently Philip Island last year, was symptomatic of Dani's imperative to get away.
Much as I don't particularly like the guy he's hardly in danger of being a "never was" or a "has been" with three world championships under his belt. If you've forgotten how masterfully he rode to those championship years, revisit the respective seasons DVD's - it was like watching Steady Eddie. I think he assumed the mantle of HRC great white hope too soon, following the death of Daijiro. If Kato hadn't lost his life at Suzuka, don't you think that HRC would've tried to steer the championship in the direction of these ridiculous pocket bikes in much the same way? Granted, had Kato not have lost his life then we'd arguably still be watching the 990's. Returning to Dani, it's a shame to see such a talented rider have his considerable race craft and race brain desert him and succumb to desperation, yield to pressure, and the evil influence of Darth Sidious
