I have abstained from this thread for a week in the hope it would die but if there is a determination for it not to do so then so be it.
Even if it is an affirmation of "neo-bopperism" I have to agree with barry again. It is ludicrous if you wish to compare stoner and rossi to choose a 6 year period other than the one during which they competed against each other. Nevertheless it is also true that rossi's persistence at the very pinnacle of the sport for more than a decade is the true and almost unique mark of his greatness as mick doohan said last year, btw pretty well conceding rossi's superiority over him. I do think there is a chance of him ending up in a similar situation to roger federer in tennis though, with him retiring statistically and probably in reality as the GOAT but with an inferior head to head record against a couple of perhaps (I do say perhaps) hungrier younger competitors with whom his career overlapped at a time of change in the nature of the game and the equipment. Even if stoner does not get injured or supplanted by a current (ie jorge lorenzo) or future better rider during his career, I think he will retire well before any imbalance between ambition and talent. He is a cussed/contrary bloke as we are continually informed though, and the way to motivate him to continue and possibly make the comparison of him and rossi moot is to continue to "taunt" him as povol puts it.
I agree with dave also. The jerez thing infuriated stoner, understandably to me at least because it also infuriated me, momentarily anyway, and for the reasons dave gave; his chance of proving everyone including rossi wrong had been severely disadvantaged, possibly by as much as 30 net points in regard to jorge, by rossi himself who wasn't really in the contest, for that championship anyway.
As for his behaviour I don't approve of all of it as I have said, but quite approve of some behaviour which has annoyed non-fans, including his reaction to laguna seca 2008 and jerez 2011. What was the risk from him slow handclapping rossi btw roger, was valentino in peril of dying from embarassment?
The fact also remains that his behaviour, "arrogant and impertinent" (as gpone has put it concerning one practice incident) although it may have been at times, has not resulted in any material adverse effect for any other rider in the last 5 years, even with the practice incidents iirc, justified in taking offence though such riders may have been on occasion. To me it looks as lex said some time ago that he winds himself up very tight to race, to which there was little alternative if the ducati was to be ridden competitively, and reacts once crises have passed whilst acting very appropriately actually during crises.
At the risk of causing further aggravation, valentino rossi while in all likelihood the safest rider in history over the entirety of his career, has been involved in a few incidents where the red mist may have supervened to the actual disadvantage of a competitor; 2 of these which come readily to mind were well after max biaggi's departure from motogp. And yes I think rossi is relevant to this discussion, given that he is actually a motogp rider rather than a kart racer, and one held up by some as a paragon against whom stoner fails badly in comparison.
And btw surely bsb is the best national superbike championship in the world, with significant participation in by, and unearthing of, talented riders in recent years.
