cliché guevara
If anyone is positing Rossi's final position at the end of 2013 on a couple of days at Sepang in February, they are deluding themselves. He is the great unknown: Has he lost the speed and the cutting edge? Has he lost the desire? Has he lost the head games?
It isn't that much of an unknown - the answers are: no, no and no.
He will bring the entire ball of wax - the head games, the showmanship, the ruthless positioning on track, the 'worked-from-6-corners-back' move that gets his wheel in front at precisely the right time in the race. He is on a very competitive bike and he is very, very motivated. I don't believe he has lost as single centimetre of pace or skill - he might have to work a little harder on his fitness than he once did, he might have to watch what he eats and be more careful on his dirt bike than he once did, but I believe that physically, he has the measure of any other rider on the track.
His star has been eclipsed by two years of ...... Ducati and he is out to remind people of exactly why it is they pay him the big bucks and of why exactly he is the most successful, most popular and most highly-paid motorcycle sportsman of his era.
In a way I am sad - this would have been the final showdown between Rossi and Stoner, the chance for Stoner to either put up or shut up and show that in a fair fight, he is as good or better than Rossi, with no ambiguity, no asterisk beside the title... but one of them ...... off and we never got to see it.
When they were both racing at the same time, there was always a reason why they weren't both at the top of their game at the same time - be it bike, tyres, health, we never got to see them go mano-a-mano on competitive bikes at the same time.
And we never will.
If anyone is positing Rossi's final position at the end of 2013 on a couple of days at Sepang in February, they are deluding themselves. He is the great unknown: Has he lost the speed and the cutting edge? Has he lost the desire? Has he lost the head games?
It isn't that much of an unknown - the answers are: no, no and no.
He will bring the entire ball of wax - the head games, the showmanship, the ruthless positioning on track, the 'worked-from-6-corners-back' move that gets his wheel in front at precisely the right time in the race. He is on a very competitive bike and he is very, very motivated. I don't believe he has lost as single centimetre of pace or skill - he might have to work a little harder on his fitness than he once did, he might have to watch what he eats and be more careful on his dirt bike than he once did, but I believe that physically, he has the measure of any other rider on the track.
His star has been eclipsed by two years of ...... Ducati and he is out to remind people of exactly why it is they pay him the big bucks and of why exactly he is the most successful, most popular and most highly-paid motorcycle sportsman of his era.
In a way I am sad - this would have been the final showdown between Rossi and Stoner, the chance for Stoner to either put up or shut up and show that in a fair fight, he is as good or better than Rossi, with no ambiguity, no asterisk beside the title... but one of them ...... off and we never got to see it.
When they were both racing at the same time, there was always a reason why they weren't both at the top of their game at the same time - be it bike, tyres, health, we never got to see them go mano-a-mano on competitive bikes at the same time.
And we never will.
is - if possible - even more spoiled than Peddles. And unlike Dani, he often attempts to kill his fellow racers. Not cool.
