Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

~. IHI~tl!:l' S top class and the 125c c cla ss are now distinguishable only by th e lap tr at eg y . Rac ec raft. T ak ing yo ur bra in along . inste ad of the c us tom a ry p rac t ic e of leav ing it in t he Th is wo ul d seem the perfect model o f an environmen t wi th no time for tim es... and the no ise. Bu t it has not been a voluntar y ac t . Wh at has forced Ros si to thi nk agai n is th e bik es. He was ofte n effortlessly tactics . No t so , how ever. In fac t it's superior o n a two -str oke, and th ough he al ways had the best bik e, it wa sn't n ec essari l y tha t m uch bett er th an m om ent - stri p li ng Spanish teenager much different from th at of his rivals, anybody else's. Th e tru th of the ma t t er is that all th e tw o - st r o k e 50 0s prob ably win the champio ns hip this in a series of such cl ose battles , and the first to go h is way for five rac es. were ext remely difficult to rid e to the limit. A real handfu l. And he wa s bet - yea r. It ' s important nev er to forge t th at T he di fference? As he explai ned, it ter at it than the others. Th e 990 s ar e ju st so mu ch les s Rossi is a vete ran of th e 125c c wars, toolbox in the pi t. Th is is the hallmark of the h igh est lev els of racing and of the g rea te st ch ampio ns . In the wo rds of Mike Hailwood , th e art is to wi n at th e slowest pos sibl e speed. Now , c o nsi de r t he mos t re cent Grand Pr i x , w on b y barel y a b ik e length by Val entin o Rossi , the lat est was bec ause he had decided to st op thinkin g too much . It only led to trou ble, to plans that might go wrong . He had decided th at he was just go ing to overta k e eve ry body , and if anybody o vert o ok him , h e' d t ry to o ve rt a ke th em back at the ne xt corne r, T ro y d em andin g . Th e throttl e resp o n se es p ec i a lly , o ffe ri n g m arsh m a ll o w han d co ntrol ov er a huge am ou nt of even- te m pered to rque and horsepower , across a wid e rev rang e. An d th ey are heavi er , of co urse. Clumsy things , c ompared with th e lig ht ning respons - Ba y l i s s - st yl e . N o n o n se ns e abo ut waiting for the tires to go off, or plan nin g a move a lap o r t wo in advanc e. J ust goo d o ld -fash ion ed b rain -in -the- es of a t wo-stroke . Resp on ses t hat o f te n c a ug h t o ut r i d er s who were m erel y exce llent offere d a n extra toolbox racing . di me ns io n t o th ose of real p latinum T he c o n seq u enc e w a s a cla ssic b ike race. Rossi didn't look perfec t. In fa ct, the re we re so m any occasions wh en he fluffed his line, entered cor- qu ality. Clearly , and th e Duc ati is the per fec t exa m ple , th ese MotoGP bik es aren't ac tually "easy" to rid e, in any sen se of th e word . It is true, tho ugh , that c om pa red wit h the old strokers, th ey a re pu ssy c at s - in all but tw o ners to o fa st and otherwise m essed up that he lo o k ed d i stinc tl y ragg ed and eve n som ewhat fluste red. Hi s last lap ga ve the li e to th is: It wa s th e performanc e of a true champ ion , breaking th e lap record to cl ai m the pe rfec t place fo r clever rid ers to prove t h e po in t. T h ere is o ne such st rategist in the 12 5cc class at th e D an i e l Pedrosa . His bik e i sn 't that but his bra in is . Th at is wh y he w ill winning his first GPs and his first title in th at cl ass bac k in 199 7 . He knows as well as anyone that whil e it m ay ap pear th ere isn 't much forward plan n i ng a mo n g th e tidd l e r s , o nl y th e time fram e has alt ere d. The strate g ies t end t o be reser ve d fo r the l as t lap and tem pered by th e knowledg e that rid ers must at th e same time be pr ep ared to c o u n t e r t h e st rategi es o f th eir rivals. In other words , the pl ans have to b e flex ib l e. But it do esn 't m ean th ere isn' t any p la nning. Qu it e th e reverse. It's a different k ind of fi nesse, but as is alwa ys th e cas e, in the br oader pattern of thi ngs, the riders who w in cham p ionshi ps never really d id st op respec ts. They can be a bit of a handfu l und er br ak ing . And they are much faster. Th e wa y th ey ra ce is getting m o re and more li k e the frantic actio n in the t hat n ow ren own ed hoo ligan Set e Gibernau . It wa s also a landmark in top class ra cin g , if we are to take hi s statem ent at face value . The ye ars of fi nesse are ov er. For now and fo r a wh ile yet , it' s balls -to -the-w all raci ng inst ead . Th e d on in g rac e pl ann in g , eve n making J 25cc cl as s, wh er e m ach in e perfor m an c e is so close and t he thru st of yo uth so ove rw hel ming th at th e track act ion te nds to invo lve br awls wi th 10 o r m ore hungry c an di d ates for t he win in a paint -swap ping ga ng. th e race by barel y a b ik el eng th fro m thin k ing about wh at they were do in g. you hav e to wond er wh eth er his ru n- In an upcDmlng issue of Cycle News T hus wh en Rossi says he is aba nt hat state ment mu st b e see n as a k ind o f st ra te g y . In th e sam e way , nin g -w id e b lunder s were pa rt o f th e sam e gam e. And t o wonder wh ere th e pla y -acti ng stops. I th ink it is only in the split second be fo re he goes past th e chec ke red fla g. Maxxis U.S. Open of Supercross Malaysian MotoGP 108 O CT OB ER 8 , 2003 ' cue I e n U vv 50 eN 30 YEARS AGO•.• OCTOBER 16, 19 73 Kenny Ro ber t s g r a c ed t he co v e r of ( .I 'lil t 'J " E i' 0 r.. Issue 11 4 0 stan d i n g ~~~-.l.:J al ong side a preo c c u ... .. p ied trophy girl wh il e he sniffed his winner ' s le i. Roberts w o n th e seaso n -fi na le Ascot Ha lf Mile over R o n Moore (T ri) and Randy S co tt ( Yam ) ... Rog er DeCost er (Suz) sco red the ov era ll win at the Lex ingto n, Oh io, Tr ansAMA event, toppi ng th e likes of Hakan And er sson and Willi Ba uer to a 1-3 score in the two 45mi nut e m oto s... John Hateley topped th e A scot TT, th e last pro fessio na l TT of the ye ar at the Southem Califom ia track... Gus Paull (Hus) top ped the Califomia City Hare and Hou nd over Mik e McElfresh (Hus) and Allan Gillum (Hon ). -_._----- - 20 YEARS AGO.. . OCTOBER 19, 1983 The new BMW K 100 stylishly glided acros s the cover of Issue 1140 a s BMW said it w a s " St e p p i n g ove r th e thresh old into a n ew era of m otorcycl e m anufa c t ure ".. . Ge o rg e H olland ( S u z) swep t the 125cc Pro cla ss at round three of the CMC Trans -Cal series in Hollister , California , over M ike F i s h er ( Y am ) an d R odne y Smith (Yam ) . Bry an Myerscough ( Hon) did likewise in th e 2 5 0cc Pro cl ass over Je ff Hicks (Hon ) and A .J . Whiting (Yam) , and Joh n Finkeld ey (KT M ) topped t h e 500 cc Pro cla ss ... Gary J o n e s ( Hus) topped the SCO RE Rive rsid e Grand Prix over Dan A shc raft (Hus) and Bryan Breker (Hon) ... We interviewed Do nnie Hansen , who was inju red before the 198 2 MX des Nations . He sai d that at firs t he couldn't even wa lk , and he was afraid he was never going to be good ag ain . He also said he wants to be able to be proud and act like a cham pio n should. 10 YEARS AGO... OCTOBER 13, 1993 Ou r first rides of the 1994 Kawasaki KX125 and 1994 Husqvarna WXEs were featu red on the cover of Issue 1140. Retailing at $4 099, the Kawi was considered a co ntende r in the 125cc cl ass , es p ecially after performing a few simpl e mods to the airbcx, side- pa nels and seat to allow it to brea the easie r. Of the WXEs , our tester li ked the WXE250 the m ost , as it offered the best co m bina ti on of power and maneuverability in t h e t e st.. . Ke v in Schwan tz ( Suz) cl inc he d the 5 0 0c c Wo rl d Road Racing Cham pions hip at the series ' final round in J arama , Spain. Wayne Rain ey fin ishe d seco nd in po ints . Tetsuya Harada topped th e 250cc World Cham pionship, and Dirk Raudies topped the I 25cc Worl d Cham pi on shi p .. . S a m Er mole n ko won th e US Nati on al Speedway Champion ship at th e Co sta Mesa Sp eed way over Ch ris Man chester and Charlie Venegas.

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