Good points damo, and that one overtake at Laguna round the outside was one of the best.... My one counter though mate, is stoner had that duke flying and totally spanked vr in qualifying at Laguna so the bike was working better than the yam either way. Rossi knew he had to keep infront of stoner by putting huge passes and taking massive risks just to keep stoner from dissapearing.. We all know what happened, Rossi beat a faster guy because he took it to him and stoner fell off under pressure and cried his eyes out. As for slowing down, dicing with a rival and then mentally breaking them in the last two laps, that's what Rossi done with biaggi and sete years ago, which was awesome to watch and why he has so many fans now.... Can't wait for race one! Until the second lap when stoners peed off into the distance and the race is already over....
If they weren't all good racers I doubt they would have survived the hair, fur and eyeballs punch ups of the feeder classes, let alone shone sufficiently to to selected for, so called, higher things. I suppose a true, technical description of racing contradicts everything I said above and that the actual point of it is just to lap consistently faster than everybody else for lap after lap an then to win by the best margin possible, with none of the one on one, or more, battles that, traditionally have separated bike racing from its financially over endowed and indulged four wheel counterparts. In that respect, 2011 worked according to plan. The demonstration of reliability, or otherwise, the set up of machines, the incredible acrobatic riding of some and the, sometimes unaccountable mistakes by other of the riders was an excellent test of technology and talent and in the proper definition of motor racing must have been a success. I cannot feel too much guilt, though over the part of me that understands the barbarity of a boxing match but still enjoys seeing two geezers beating the crap out of each other. I'm not proud of it, I just refuse to beat myself up over it (see what I did there). It's the gladiatorial aspect of sport, all sport, that keeps me coming back, whether it be Mano y Mano or technologically enhanced. Twisted? Perhaps, but from the Colloseum onwards that's what it's always been about. I don't watch F1, even as a confirmed petrol head and techno geek I can't accept a motor race which can be decided by strategy revolved around when and how long the car is stationary. I do watch Touring cars. I do watch MotoGP, but more and more recently with a book on my lap at the same time. BSB gets my full attention. Sport is still gladiatorial, whether we like it or not. We want our gladiators to be a bit naughty, both on the track and off it. I always thought Damon Hill had a huge shadow hanging over him. It was that of his dad. I think that while he was racing he was hugely concerned that we didn't love him like we did his father, no matter what he did on the track. And that was the point, Graham was loved for being Graham Hill, Damon was just World Champion. This is all probably wrong too, but I've been into Motorsport since the days of cork helmets and hungover drivers and I don't think it, or why we take part in it has changed all that much really, we're just expecting it to have because it's safer and technologically more advanced. We still want to see Sheene blast past Roberts while flipping him the finger and laughing so much he misses a gear, except in 2012 he'd get fined for it and Roberts would get some kind of counselling. Right. Flame on.
