JohnnyKnockdown
I guess I shouldn't oppose you when you argue along these lines as the logical extension of your argument is that he is the greatest rider of all time, which I don't think he is, he clearly didn't have the physical or mental endurance of the likes of Valentino Rossi, or probably Jorge Lorenzo for that matter. Nevertheless his record over the time he was in the premier class is similar to that of Valentino's in the same time period, and will be to JL's with all but 1 of the 6 years of JL's premier class career overlapping, end of story. Riders including Agostini, Rossi himself, and Doohan have done better than him over 6 year periods in their careers, but by far the majority of riders in the history of the sport have not done nearly as well.
It does seem a strange argument that being able to ride a Ducati 1 or 2 seconds a lap faster than anyone else, and winning a championship and 23 races on the thing, when only one other rider in one race where circumstances were quite unusual was able to even lead a single lap on it in his time there, is evidence of failure rather than unusual success.
If you want to go back to sporting analogies Joe Montana "only" won 4 superbowls over a decade or so; I suspect his talent was fairly constant during that time and factors other than his talent may have been influential in his "failure" in the years he wasn't a superbowl winner.
I guess I shouldn't oppose you when you argue along these lines as the logical extension of your argument is that he is the greatest rider of all time, which I don't think he is, he clearly didn't have the physical or mental endurance of the likes of Valentino Rossi, or probably Jorge Lorenzo for that matter. Nevertheless his record over the time he was in the premier class is similar to that of Valentino's in the same time period, and will be to JL's with all but 1 of the 6 years of JL's premier class career overlapping, end of story. Riders including Agostini, Rossi himself, and Doohan have done better than him over 6 year periods in their careers, but by far the majority of riders in the history of the sport have not done nearly as well.
It does seem a strange argument that being able to ride a Ducati 1 or 2 seconds a lap faster than anyone else, and winning a championship and 23 races on the thing, when only one other rider in one race where circumstances were quite unusual was able to even lead a single lap on it in his time there, is evidence of failure rather than unusual success.
If you want to go back to sporting analogies Joe Montana "only" won 4 superbowls over a decade or so; I suspect his talent was fairly constant during that time and factors other than his talent may have been influential in his "failure" in the years he wasn't a superbowl winner.
