P116
CN
III IN THE PADDOCK
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
M
otorcycle racers suf-
fer all sorts of inju-
ries – strain, sprains,
arm-pump, broken bones and
wounded pride among them.
The one most likely to afflict
Marc Marquez at the moment
is a stiff neck. From looking
over his shoulder and seeing
what's coming. And it's not just
his teammate, Jorge Lorenzo,
whose bowling-ball action in
Catalunya took out Dovizioso,
Rossi and Vinales, and only
missed the back of the leader's
Repsol Honda by millimeters.
Marquez might be more wary
of something that only six years
ago he represented himself. In
spades. The tide of youth. And
while the current dominant rider
is, himself, only 26, he's not too
young to be feeling a bit jaded.
The example of the rider
whose "youngest-ever" records
he took might be taken as salu-
tary. Freddie Spencer had won
three titles by the time he turned
23, and thereafter never won
another GP. Marquez shows no
sign of running out of steam, but
then neither did the sublimely
talented Freddie during 1985,
when he secured a unique 250-
500 double.
Actually, this is just scare-
mongering, particularly two
weeks after writing about the su-
per strength of the newly mature
YOUNG BEFORE HIS TIME
Is a tide of youth coming
up behind Marc Marquez?
PHOTO: GOLD & GOOSE