Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Briefly··· motorcycle, for manufacturers, riders, for you guys have to say more, for environment, for lV b roadcasts go way up. I heard someth ing's changing over there, They take like 10 o r 15 new engineers . O f course, this will bring some new wind . I think they wilt have be tter bike , sure. I heard , this is w hat I heard, that Toyota's helping them . So Toyota is no t so bad . Fo rm ula O ne , year o ne, the car was so fast ." Biaggi also be lieves Rossi con tinues to be the favorite for th e 2004 MotoGP title. "I believe people have to see him again as the highest po ssibility for w inn ing the title because he won fo r the last three years. He won not even fighti ng. It looks easy. So now he has to repeat what he did . I th ink that 's the biggest cha llenge. I think people don't ge t tired o f w inning. Fro m my und ersta nd ing, riders don't ge t tired of w inning. W inning gives you pleasu re . And if this is happening, some deeper answer must be somewhere . It's no t that you just need a challen ge . Believe me , it's impossible to get tired o f wi nning. I don't believe it. Maybe there can be another reason . Maybe can be moneywise. Maybe th ey wa nt to go same bike for six guys because he wants to be abo ve . so then it's go ing to be han! for him. I don't know. It can be any. Fo r sure he wants some people w ith him fo r winn ing again. And I will try all my best to not make th is happe n." Marlboro Ducat i's Loris Capirossl, a friend of Rossi's, thinks it's a wi n-wi n situation. "For the people, for everybody, I th ink is good. this change fo r Valentino," he said. " For sure everybody knows Valentino w ith Ho nda what is the po te ntial. Nobody knows with Yamaha. For sure Yamaha is good bike, not the worst bike, but anyway he has to work more. Not start the first race and win easy. For sure he has the time to win, but also have to work more. The bike is different. I'm not surprised he left Yamaha because the money Yamaha offered to him is good. We have a lot of job for Valentino as far as fiXing the bike. I know the potential of Valentino is for sure is coming early. He em win races for sure ." (Above) Ne il Hodgson st ruggled a bit in his first ride on th e Duca ti Desmosedici. (Above rig ht) Hodgson's teammate Ruben Xaus fared be"er, though he d id crash th e bike on ce while ge"ing used to the ca rbon-fiber brakes. (Right) Se te Gibernau was extremely consistent at the test, ending up w ith the seco nd-fa ste st time ov erall. D'Antin Ducati's Ruben Xaus didn't hel p his reputation as a faller when he crashed early in the test. The explanation was the carbon brakes. "It was really co ld on the first day, and I was using a 320mm disc instea d o f the 305 that everybody else was using," Xa us said . "I d idn't realize they would take so long to w ann up because I d idn't even cras h on in a corner - I was the straight in between th e sec ond corner and the two rights . I was warming up the brakes every lap fro m co mer to comer, just tou ching the lever to try and get some temperature in them. I was tou ching the bra kes. but I just touched the white line , and I was down before I could do anything about it. I had absolutely no problems for the last tw o days when I switched to the 30Ss." What Xaus really needs is a thumb-operated rear brake. "I've got so used to using it because I raced with it in 24 races in Wo rld Supe rbikes - for the whole of last season. I was having to use my foo t at the test, and I kept forgetting, and I'd start smelling burning or th is screeching no ise, and it was because I was dragg ing my foot on the rear bra ke, because I'm not used to using it. I hope th ey can so rt it o ut for the next tes t , maybe as a late Christmas present o r so me thing." w it h Mich e lins, an d th e y hav e a million laps aro und t he re , and I w as rig ht w ith them . I'm ha p py wi th it fo r s u re ." H o dg son w as be h ind Ro b e rts after a few hect ic d ays . O n the first day his e ng ine pop ped a seal, and on the fina l d ay h e ra n o ff t he track. " N o th ing can prepare yo u fo r what that D ucati feels like ," Hodgso n said after the first day. "The closest thing I've ridden t o that is a 500 two-stroke GP b ike . It's closer to the bike that I rode in 1995 to the bike I rode last year because it just accelerates so q u ickly." Hodgso n said that the acc e le ra tio n is more noticeab le than the speed . "O n my Supe rb ike I was o n ly using fo ur gears on th e m a in s traig ht an d like real like ga p s in b e twe e n th e ch ange s," he sa id . "On t hat "I fe lt really ne rvo us, to be ho nest ," d'Ant in Du cati's Ne il Hodgs on said o f his first laps o n the Desm osed ici. ." was act ua lly crossed be tw een wanting it carry o n raining because I daren't go ou t and actually getting out th ere and getting on w ith it . It was de finitely a case of slowly, slow ly, catchy mo nkey. Bloo dy he ll, I set off o n my first few lap s and loo ked at my lap board after about three laps think ing I'll be about 10 seconds off the pace, and I was about 20. I was thinking those jo urn alists w ho tes ted here after the race were go ing faste r!" Hodgson said he had no feeling for the fro nt , which he expected because he was using 17inch front tires, and you only use 16.55 on the Superbike. "And the bike doesn't have a lot of e ngine braking. so I'm using the bac k bra ke all the time , which I didn't use so much on th e Superbi ke ." Th at said, he th ou ght it was an eas y bike to ride . "The re' s power everywhere. Th ere 's powe r at 8000 rp m, and there 's power at 17,000 , an d it's co nsta nt, so w henever you tum the t hro ttl e , the power is there like you wan t it to be, wh ich is always a good th ing because there is no delay." eN thing you are c hanging gears as q u ick as you can cha nge wh en yo u've go t t he th rottle w ide o pe n. It just feels like I'm ridi ng some body e lse 's b ike, an d it's comp le tely d ifferent to what your used to. It's really t hat al ien . Since 1996 I've r idden fair ly similar bikes, and then I ju mped o n this, and it re ally is that di ffe rent." eN RI CARDO TORMO CIRC UIT V ALENCIA, SPAIN RESULTS: DE CEMBER 12, 2003 LAP T IMES: I. Max Biaggi (Ho n) 1:32.88 . 176 laps; 2. Sete Gibemau (Hon) 1:33.20, 195 laps; 3. Troy Bayliss (Due) 1:3] ,22, 165 laps ; 4. (TIE) Colin Edward s (Ha n) 1:33.40. 176 1 aps1Makoto Tamada (Hon) 1:33.40, 98 laps: 6. Loris Capirossr (Due) 1:33.52. 1)2 laps: 7. Shinichi Itoh (Hon) 1:3<.50. 198 1 "",; 8. Rube n >

• Cover