http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2006/Oct/061016c.htm
It got so bad I finally had to stop operating motorized vehicles.
By mid-afternoon yesterday I found myself unable to think about little else but the incredibly stupid move by Dani Pedrosa that took a machete to Nick Hayden's championship lead. I'd describe my then mood as disappointment sprinkled with lapses into complete astonishment. I went back and watched the incident several times on my DVR, unable at times to really believe that what had happened had, indeed, happened. I went for a ride later in the afternoon and had to turn around after ten minutes because I wasn't concentrating on the ride and my surroundings as much as I was thinking about the incident that saw Pedrosa throw a perfect strike into Nick Hayden's game. I rolled Soup's tricked-out Ducati S4Rs back into the garage and sat down. I tried not to but, in a few minutes, I was back watching the footage again, freezing every frame before the two Repsol riders tumbled into the gravel.
I don't know about you, but my heart stops when riders and bikes tumble into the gravel that close to one another. Yasutomo Nagai was moments from getting up when his bike landed on him and killed him at Assen in 1995.
Clearly, and obviously, Dani Pedrosa's actions were careless, dangerous, ill-conceived and simply stupid. The championship lead once held by Hayden is, of course, the biggest victim in all this, but looking at the footage, Hayden was fortunate not to have suffered grave injuries in the collision and resulting crash. I don't know about you, but my heart stops when riders and bikes tumble into the gravel that close to one another. Yasutomo Nagai was moments from getting up when his bike landed on him and killed him at Assen in 1995.
Dani Pedrosa is human and just as fallible as you or I, but his blunder yesterday had an edge to it that led me to believe it wasn't just simply a mistake. Pedrosa has been quoted widely after the incident as saying he wasn't trying to make a pass when he crashed and took Hayden out. I think you either have to be delusional or a seriously accomplished serial liar to actually mouth those words after an incident like that, caught on video tape no less. Pedrosa met a fork in the road when he entered that corner too quickly and he had the choice of either picking the bike up and running wide or pointing his bike inside Hayden and going for the impossible pass. He kept his bike pointed on the inside line, a clearly suicidal attempt to gain position.
Pedrosa's immediate response was what I found most telling. Normally, when a rider makes a monumental and costly error like that and takes another rider down with him—his teammate no less—his immediate concern is the welfare of the rider that he just put into the dirt. Especially when you have just taken your two existing brain cells, wired them together in parallel and eviscerated your teammate's championship points lead with one round remaining in the championship. When you have screwed up at that level, you walk over, make sure the other rider is okay, or gets the help he needs, and plead for forgiveness.
Pedrosa did nothing like that immediately after the incident. He stalked off, seemingly angry (with Hayden?) and tending to his broken finger. Sure, maybe he was frightened by the enraged Hayden and worried that the American was going to knock him right out of his Garanimals. Fairly dripping with possibility that threat but, you know what? Not really relevant. When you pull a move like that, when your idiocy costs someone his dream, you walk over, apologize, wait for the hit...and you take it. Period. Pedrosa never even ran over and tried to help Hayden re-start his bike.
Pedrosa did come to Hayden's motorhome later, reportedly, and apologized in some fashion. I'd like to think that he did this of his own free will and because his conscience dictated it, but I really wonder if he wasn't goaded into it by higher powers because of the impending public relations disaster he was the focus of. I really wonder at what point he realized the magnitude of the mistake he made and what it has cost Nick Hayden. Hopefully, he was able to discern this on his own and didn't have to be told.
Assuredly, it's important to note that all is not yet lost, that thanks in part to Toni Elias defeating Valentino Rossi yesterday, Nick Hayden still has a decent chance at winning the title at Valencia. And if not ...This incident, in some small way, almost strikes me as quasi-Biblical, in that it may very well cost a good man what he values most in the world through seemingly indecipherable circumstances.
Whatever the outcome, Nick Hayden can ground himself with the knowledge that it's important to know who you are and who you aren't. I've said it several times here before— the Hayden clan are one of the nicest, most honest and forthright families in the paddock. They are unlike many, many people in the paddock.
What are the main differences between Nick Hayden and Dani Pedrosa beyond nationality and background? Well, the major one is that, if Dani Pedrosa had been leading the world championship, Nick Hayden would never have done to him what Pedrosa so casually inflicted on the American.
ENDS
It got so bad I finally had to stop operating motorized vehicles.
By mid-afternoon yesterday I found myself unable to think about little else but the incredibly stupid move by Dani Pedrosa that took a machete to Nick Hayden's championship lead. I'd describe my then mood as disappointment sprinkled with lapses into complete astonishment. I went back and watched the incident several times on my DVR, unable at times to really believe that what had happened had, indeed, happened. I went for a ride later in the afternoon and had to turn around after ten minutes because I wasn't concentrating on the ride and my surroundings as much as I was thinking about the incident that saw Pedrosa throw a perfect strike into Nick Hayden's game. I rolled Soup's tricked-out Ducati S4Rs back into the garage and sat down. I tried not to but, in a few minutes, I was back watching the footage again, freezing every frame before the two Repsol riders tumbled into the gravel.
I don't know about you, but my heart stops when riders and bikes tumble into the gravel that close to one another. Yasutomo Nagai was moments from getting up when his bike landed on him and killed him at Assen in 1995.
Clearly, and obviously, Dani Pedrosa's actions were careless, dangerous, ill-conceived and simply stupid. The championship lead once held by Hayden is, of course, the biggest victim in all this, but looking at the footage, Hayden was fortunate not to have suffered grave injuries in the collision and resulting crash. I don't know about you, but my heart stops when riders and bikes tumble into the gravel that close to one another. Yasutomo Nagai was moments from getting up when his bike landed on him and killed him at Assen in 1995.
Dani Pedrosa is human and just as fallible as you or I, but his blunder yesterday had an edge to it that led me to believe it wasn't just simply a mistake. Pedrosa has been quoted widely after the incident as saying he wasn't trying to make a pass when he crashed and took Hayden out. I think you either have to be delusional or a seriously accomplished serial liar to actually mouth those words after an incident like that, caught on video tape no less. Pedrosa met a fork in the road when he entered that corner too quickly and he had the choice of either picking the bike up and running wide or pointing his bike inside Hayden and going for the impossible pass. He kept his bike pointed on the inside line, a clearly suicidal attempt to gain position.
Pedrosa's immediate response was what I found most telling. Normally, when a rider makes a monumental and costly error like that and takes another rider down with him—his teammate no less—his immediate concern is the welfare of the rider that he just put into the dirt. Especially when you have just taken your two existing brain cells, wired them together in parallel and eviscerated your teammate's championship points lead with one round remaining in the championship. When you have screwed up at that level, you walk over, make sure the other rider is okay, or gets the help he needs, and plead for forgiveness.
Pedrosa did nothing like that immediately after the incident. He stalked off, seemingly angry (with Hayden?) and tending to his broken finger. Sure, maybe he was frightened by the enraged Hayden and worried that the American was going to knock him right out of his Garanimals. Fairly dripping with possibility that threat but, you know what? Not really relevant. When you pull a move like that, when your idiocy costs someone his dream, you walk over, apologize, wait for the hit...and you take it. Period. Pedrosa never even ran over and tried to help Hayden re-start his bike.
Pedrosa did come to Hayden's motorhome later, reportedly, and apologized in some fashion. I'd like to think that he did this of his own free will and because his conscience dictated it, but I really wonder if he wasn't goaded into it by higher powers because of the impending public relations disaster he was the focus of. I really wonder at what point he realized the magnitude of the mistake he made and what it has cost Nick Hayden. Hopefully, he was able to discern this on his own and didn't have to be told.
Assuredly, it's important to note that all is not yet lost, that thanks in part to Toni Elias defeating Valentino Rossi yesterday, Nick Hayden still has a decent chance at winning the title at Valencia. And if not ...This incident, in some small way, almost strikes me as quasi-Biblical, in that it may very well cost a good man what he values most in the world through seemingly indecipherable circumstances.
Whatever the outcome, Nick Hayden can ground himself with the knowledge that it's important to know who you are and who you aren't. I've said it several times here before— the Hayden clan are one of the nicest, most honest and forthright families in the paddock. They are unlike many, many people in the paddock.
What are the main differences between Nick Hayden and Dani Pedrosa beyond nationality and background? Well, the major one is that, if Dani Pedrosa had been leading the world championship, Nick Hayden would never have done to him what Pedrosa so casually inflicted on the American.
ENDS
