First Runner Up
2014 was a season of revelation in MotoGP for many reasons, some of which will be discussed here. From seeming career implosions to fractured domination and resurgent legends, and all of the gradations in the middle, the year was filled with enough ups and downs to fill an amusement park. The tempo as the season unfolded could easily be made into a feature film, with an explosive start that settled into an easy rhythm then picked up again at the end (even though many in the audience could probably guess at the ending). When it was all over there were only two people who could realistically lay claim to even be considered Rider of the Year. In all truth it is an easy toss up between them, and fans in either camp can make good points for each to take the laurels. However some times you have to put on your big boy pants and step off the fence. One rider has to win and one has to be the runner up.
And that rider is Valentino Rossi.
With Rossi's command of his 2014 season, it should be anti-climactic that he would be one of the top two riders for the year. His disastrous years at Ducati have been bemoaned to the point of ubiquity, so we move on instead to his 2013 "comeback" aboard the bike that he once dramatically kissed goodbye. While much was hoped for, the reality of Rossi's return to Yamaha was somewhat lackluster. Somewhat fast during off-season testing, Rossi seemed to have found something when the season opened under Qatari lights where he finished second to teammate Lorenzo after a spirited battle. Race 2 at Austin's Circuit of the Americas however damped any burgeoning hope as Rossi finished a disappointing 6th, followed immediately by a 4th place finished at Spain's Circuito de Jerez behind the entire Spanish armada that invaded the paddock. France was even worse with a 12th place finish and the nail in the coffin seemed to be a DNF on home turf at Mugello. A third of the way through the season, and the speculations about Rossi's imminent retirement were queued up again.
Then came Assen. If you could look back at any single point in the past 2 years, no the past 4 years, and select a moment to argue that Rossi's fortune definitively turned it would be Assen in 2013 where Rossi picked up his first win since departing for Ducati in the winter of 2010. There are those who tried to put the feat down to luck, but ultimately the paddock had been put on notice. Rossi would not see the top step of the podium again in 2013, but he made another 4 podium finishes by year's end and entered post-season testing on a decided high.
That high carried into the 2014 season in spectacular fashion. While he didn't win the season opener at Qatar, Rossi was very clearly a man on a mission. With Marquez fresh off a rookie-championship win and bristling with confidence Rossi was the only rider able to take the fight to the newly crowned champion. They battled like younger, support classes riders - changing position and paint with enough frequency that it was somewhat of a surprise that they hadn't swapped sponsorship decals by the end. From there the season just got much, much better. Rossi would rack up two wins and a further ten podiums before crossing the finish line at Valencia to close the season.
Yet as impressive as this resurgence is on paper, what really pushed Rossi over the edge to claim 2nd place is the way the veteran simply out performed his younger teammate and rival both on and off the track. If the infomercials are to be believed, a common sentiment is that great abs are built in kitchen and not the gym. The inference here is that the long, hard trek of a specific diet pays greater dividends to create the pleasing display of sculpted muscles than a few minutes spent in sweaty exercise. In that vein Lorenzo made a telling statement early in the season that he was struggling with fitness, which prompted a mid-season shift in both trainer and regime that saw the former champion dropping weight to increase his competitiveness. In contrast, Rossi had been working since the off season to do that and more. Not only had he increased his already manic exercise routine, but he had begun adapting his riding style to match the younger generation.
This combination of demonstrated adaptability and renewed focus on winning made Rossi the man to beat for 2014. That he managed to add even more records in the twilight of an already illustrious career only add icing to the cake.
Rider of the Year
Which leaves the one man who actually did beat him. That Marquez is the only other rider to challenge for rider of the year. While his award of the title may come as an anti-climactic pronunciation to some, the truth of the matter is that this acknowledgement was far from a fore-gone conclusion. With arguably only 4 bikes on the entire grid capable of challenging for a win unless weather or some other act of God turns the established order on its head, you almost have to try not to be a standout (or to stand out for all of the wrong reasons). There are plenty of competitors who had very gutsy rides over the course of the season. Lest we forget, 2014 marked Bradley Smith's first ever podium aboard the Tech 3 Yamaha semi-open bike. Unlike many podiums for non-factory riders (or non-Yamonda riders more accurately) this one occurred in the dry and under extreme duress. Then there was Aleix Espargaro constantly pushing the NGM Forward Yamaha to the front time and again, race after race, until finally scoring a podium for the team in the wet at Aragon. Then of course there was Rossi's ability to come back from the desperate and dejected posture that he adopted for the better part of two years to best an entire field of younger - and some had argued more gifted - riders on equal or "better" machinery.
That Marquez managed to top them all put him at the head of the championship standings by the end of the year. However, as indicated above, Rider of the Year is about more than just who managed to accumulate the most points. A simple glance at the standing would be all that was needed for that, and a mere retelling of that factoid would be rather boring. Instead the how of Marquez's win is what allows him to claim the honors for this year.
In 2013 Marquez wrapped up the premiere class championship in his very first year in the class. This is no small feat in and of itself, and that he did it without any of the wild card entries typically afforded to aspiring contenders in the past make it all the more remarkable. Entering into 2014 there was a heavy blanket of expectation on the Spaniard on how to follow such an auspicious start to his tenure in the premiere class. That he was fast was obvious - see: Championship 2013. That he was fast for his age even more so - see: any of the "youngest ever" records that he set for 2013. That he would be a threat was a foregone conclusion that he beat into... well, everybody, from the very first off-season practice. So by the time that the lights went out in Qatar we, the motorcycle spectating community, were expecting something special.
What we got was something much more. Qatar marked the start of the strangest oxymoron in motorcycle racing - the most exciting and simultaneously most boring season possibly ever for the premiere class. It happened like this:
Round 1 Qatar - Winner: Marc Marquez
Round 2 Austin - Winner: Marc Marquez
Round 3 Argentina - Winner: Marc Marquez
Round 4 Jerez - Winner: Marc Marquez
It only takes 2 events to form a pattern, and by the 6th and 7th it was getting a little ridiculous. Marquez won by starting from pole and keeping the lead. Marquez won by falling to mid-pack and fighting to the front. He won at home and away, on historic tracks and tracks so new the asphalt was still drying. He won from a comfortable lead and after running off the track multiple times.
Sound repetitive to read? Imagine how it was to watch! Absolutely, agonizingly repetitive. I can only imagine what it must have been like to live through as one of the competition. Yet that repetition is exactly what made it so exciting and highlighted Marquez's brilliance on a motorcycle. There was simply nothing anybody could do to stop him. He was the unstoppable force and the immovable object. He was the pan and the fire; and where that left everyone else was in quite a pickle. You couldn't get out front and interrupt his rhythm. You certainly couldn't shove him mid-field and let the pack swallow him; and punting him off track only seemed to make him ride even more aggressively. So what could they do?
That question, above all else, earns Marquez the title of rider of the year. Tying the record for most consecutive wins in a single season (if the number of rounds had remained the same he would have had a perfect year), breaking the records for most wins in a single season.... Marquez didn't just set the bar for performance among the world's elite racers, he redefined it.
That is what makes him Rider of the Year for 2014.
