Cycle News

VOL. 55 ISSUE 31 AUGUST 7, 2018 P115 grand prix weekends. His 1999 championship season got underway with most pundits seeing little hope that anyone could prevent Doohan from win- ning a sixth-consecutive FIM World Championship. Doohan was, after all, coming off a dominating 1998 where he'd won the final four rounds of the season to pull clear of his nearest challenger, Max Biaggi. Criville had been solid in '98, with seven podiums, including two wins. He'd finished third in the standings. The final season of the first century of motorcycle racing got underway with Kenny Roberts Jr. taking victory in the opening rounds in Malaysia and Japan. Criville had actually beaten his Honda teammate Doohan in Malaysia, but Doohan moved up to second in the championship standings after a runner-up result to Roberts in Motegi. After Japan, Criville was fourth in the series, just a point behind Carlos Checa. Then came Jerez and the crash in practice that ended Doohan's career. It had been wet earlier that Friday. It was drying, but paint lines were still slick when Doohan hit one and was high-sided, suffering numerous bone fractures, includ- ing his wrist and again the right leg he'd shattered to pieces in a crash at the '92 Dutch TT. Surprisingly, Criville stepped up and actually seemed to relish the opportunity to be Honda's lead rider. Starting in Jerez, he immediately went on a four-race winning streak, pulling clear in the title chase. Two more wins in the second half of the year sealed the deal. Spain finally had a world champ. Criville had beaten Rob- erts Jr. by 47 points. But then Criville's magic seemed to go away almost overnight. He would win only one more GP in his next two seasons with Repsol Hon- da and finished ninth and eighth, respectively, in the 2000 and 2001 championships. Roberts got his title in 2002 and then the Rossi era began. After being dropped by Honda, Criville planned on returning on a support Yamaha squad, but he had a mystery illness that resulted in fainting and his doctors advised him against racing, so he stepped away. To this day Criville's legacy remains mixed. On one hand is the popular theory that but for Doohan's accident, he would have never held the number-one plate. But then there is the undeniable circumstance that he did, in fact, become world champ and a flood of inspired Spanish youngsters would become the generation who kicked off the ultimate Spanish conquest of MotoGP and its sup- port classes. Perhaps long respected racing journalist Michael Scott sums up Criville's career best when he said: "Of course, Criville was overshad- owed by his teammate Doohan, who was one of the true greats, one of the top five or so in all of history. And, of course, he was given a lot of support by Dorna, as well as Repsol (and by extension Honda), anxious to have a Spanish champion. "He was (is) also a quiet, mod- est and likeable character, who did little or nothing to promote his own fame and image. He left the big talk to others, who more often than not finished behind him. His title defense foundered on an arcane medical diagnosis, which some might prefer to disbelieve, but in his year, he was the best rider on the track. "To win the championship, you have to beat the people you are racing against. Was Doohan less of a champion because all his titles came after Rainey was out injured, and Schwantz a spent force? I don't believe so, and I think Criville deserves the same courtesy." CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives World Champion Criville (right) shares the cover of Cycle News in 1999 with 250cc World Champion Valentino Rossi at the Brazilian GP.

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