Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1214301
VOLUME 57 ISSUE 8 FEBRUARY 25, 2020 P121 is a successful industrialist in the South African mining indus- try, and without his support it is highly likely that Brad might never have reached the GPs. But this column is not about how hard it is to get to the top in racing, but how hard it is to leave it. There are currently two very trenchant examples, both cham- pions and race winners of great renown. Most poignant is the case of Rossi. Is it that he doesn't want to stop racing, or that he doesn't know how to stop? It's all very well for fans to take offense whenever I wonder whether it might be time for him to call it a day, but I do so only out of con- cern for his safety. He really has nothing left to prove. Yet he still wants to prove it. Talent, as we said, and determination. More puzzling is the case of his old bête noire and once hated teammate Jorge Lorenzo. Like Valentino, Jorge sought to revive his own motivation by switching to Ducati from Ya- maha. Unlike Valentino, Jorge achieved success (on a consid- erably improved motorcycle). Then, with masterfully awkward timing just as he started winning, Ducati made it uncomfortable for him to do anything but leave. Lorenzo's forced move to Repsol Honda was both brave and intriguing but went horribly wrong, as his butter-smooth style clashed with the bike's need to have its neck wrung. His 2019 season was ghastly to watch, and obviously even worse to experience. Already battered by the Ducati, Jorge's attempts to tame the RC213V bashed him up so severely that the 32-year- old star finally limped to the con- ference table at the final round to announce his unexpectedly early retirement. While he (mostly) maintained an icy calm, it was an emotional occasion. And one of the emo- tions was relief. A crescendo of pain and injury was going to come to an end. He had reas- sessed his life, and explained: "I have always said that life is not only about bikes, but I didn't think yet what I will do in the future. I will have a long vacation somewhere sunny this winter." Lo and behold, after his long think, he got back on a MotoGP bike. It was in a testing role on the Yamaha M1, that he had ridden for nine years, three titles (the last as the only rider to defeat Marquez) and 44 of his 47 wins, which he described as "probably the best time of my career." Of course he was quick: run- ning just one of the three days of Sepang tests at the begin- ning of February, at less than 1.4 seconds off the best time of new Yamaha white hope Fabio Quartararo. On a bike he hadn't ridden for the past three years. Yamaha pounced and scored a coup. They were wise to snap him up (astonishingly, Honda released him from the second year of his contract without a clause forbidding it). His silky riding style is much like that of Quartararo, and his development skills will thus be highly valuable. But there will without doubt be wild card rides during the sea- son, and potentially replacement rides in the case of injury. Not so easy to stop then, Jorge? Over the past 30 years, there have been 10 champions: Wayne Rainey, Kevin Schwantz, Mick Doohan, Alex Criville, Kenny Roberts Jr, Valentino Rossi, Nicky Hayden, Casey Stoner, Jorge Lorenzo and Marc Marquez. Of these, only Criville, Roberts and Stoner have volun- tarily retired. Criville was fading anyway, suffering a debilitating illness; Roberts's decision was rational but also influenced by the lack of a good ride. Stoner's retirement came at just 27, at the peak of his form, and was a character- istically wilful act by a famously stubborn superstar. The rest had their careers ended by crashes (Hayden's, however, not on the track). Retiring voluntarily from the top, it seems, is at least as hard as getting there. CN