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Rossi comple ted a race simulation in buffeting winds on March I I wit h a best time of 1:30.8, the exact same time he'd tu rned w hen the previous tes t ende d on Feb ruary 19. His be st time from the first of the two -day tests was a I :30.72. By cornparison, Camel Honda's Max Biaggi left the goo d level and are read y to see w hat happ e ns whe n we move to a differe nt circuit." Rossi and the rest of t he Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha team next head to Catalunya fo r an allteams IRTA tes t at the Montmelo circuit at aga I'm quite satisin, the end of March. "The IRTA tests Carlos Checa improved his lap time s from an earlier test at Phillip Island . are going to be interesting for this reason, with the bike." as we've only tested with this setup and Next fastest was Italian Marco Melandri engine spec at two circuits, and Barcelona on the Fortuna Gauloises Tech 3 machine. and Jerez are difficult because of their hard Melandri's best was a 1:31.92. braking," Rossi said. ''I'm quite happy with how things went Carlos Checa significantly improved his today; I felt much more comforta ble on the prev ious best, dro pping to I:3 1.3 from bike," he said. "We consistently made an I:3 1.96 in the earlier test, though he felt improvement every time we we nt out , fied with this test," there was more in it. earlie r test w ith a mark of 1:30.27, followed by Telefonica MoviStar Honda's Colin Edwar ds at 1:30.45. "Overall, once "Overall, once again, I'm quite satisfied with this test." -Valentino Rossi Rossi said in a Yamaha te am release . "Today was a bit of a struggle "That was quite a good race simulatio n; we 're stilla bit behind where we should be , but we 've red uced the gap qu ite a bit du ro against t he strong winds, making it harder tha n last time we were here. But terday," Checa said of his first-day time of I:3 1.5 1. "I th ink we w ill have quite a good level for the start of the championship. I'm looking forward to going to Barcelona and we 've made some good progress wit h tires, seeing where we are now against our co m- With not much time left in the off-sea son, Va lentino Rossi and Yam aha still have some catching up to do to match the fact ory Honda s. ing this test , and we've imp roved since yes- auloises Fortuna Yamaha's Valentino Rossi finished the three-day tes t at Phillip Island in Australia, barely improving and I was comforta ble with the race slrnula- petitors. We've mos tly focused on the the time he'd run ove r three weeks ago tio n this afternoon . It wasn't as warm as we chassis this w inte r and will concentrate and without app roach ing the time of the best Ho ndas. would have liked, abo ut 68 degrees outside temperatu re, but we have found quite a more on the e ngine in the near future. But G Lykke Squeaks Out Cherokee Enduro W in Preparations are being finalized for Duca ti's scorecards. but when the seconds were added up, Ly kke came out on top to post his second win of the ser ies. Third place we nt to Kawasaki Team Gree n's Chuck Woodford, followed by Am-Pro Yamaha's Randy Hawkins and Gas Gas-mounted Russell Bobbitt. Barry Hawk Jr., Fred Hoess , Robbie Jenks, No lan Knight and Trey Wellborn rounded out the top 10 overall. In the series point standings, Lykke is on top with 8 1 points, followed by Hatch with 62 and Hawkins with 61. KTM's David L k ke took his second y win of the year at the Cherokee N atio na l Enduro in Georgia. MARCH 24, 2004 • C Y CLE N EWS Nor ick Abe, Melandri's teammate, was the pace on the final day, his best effort a 1:33.69. "Today it went a little wrong, " he said. "I thought I was doing quite well, I felt very comfortable everywhere, but then I followed Checa and saw that in most places I was do ing okay, except the slower corners. Here I'm losing quite a bit more than I expected. I guess we still have some more work to do ." 0(( World Ducati Week Revving Up The third round of the AMA FMF Natio nal Enduro Series in Greensboro. Geo rgia, on March 14, came down to the tie-breakers. KTM's David L ykke and Throttlehead.com/ Kawasaki Team Green 's Steve Hatch both finished out the enduro with 17 point on the ir 16 w e are conscious not to change too much which is just how I need ed to finish this test." fourth inte rnational meeting, World Ducati Week 2004, scheduled for May 17-23 at the Santa Monica track in Misano, Italy. WOW 2004 is a full week of activity ded icated to the passion for sport motorcycles. Tens of thousands of Ducatisti are expected, but lovers of sportbiking in general are also invited. The event is open to motorcycli sts of all ages, tastes and abilities. For those witho ut a Ducati, WOW 2004 gives them the op por· tunity to test the bikes that have made Borgo Panigale• the home of Ducati . world famous. The follow ing activities have already been scheduled : - Track Area: An exciting aspe ct of th is year's event is the use of the track for the entire week; part icipants w ill be able to ride the track on all 7 days. . Test Ride Area: From Tuesday to Sunday, participants will be able to try out the new Ducati 2004 range of motorcycles on the test ride track. • TechnicalArea and Sales Area: A technical area willbe created in the track pits to sup- 40th Anniversary port events on the track itself. Furthennore, a I 100 square-meter sales area for Ducati products will be provided, with the entire range of Ducati accessories and apparel on display . . Relaxation Area: In conform ity with the principles of Zen philosophy,a re laxation area will be provided where participants can listen to chill-out music, relax on Stokke ergonomic chairs and enjoy free massages by professional masseurs using the "fast massage" tech nique. The massages will last for arou nd 15 minutes, using traditional Chinese micromassage, reflexo logy, decontraetion, antistress and shiatsu tech niques . A gym will also be made available for all participants, with the most modern Technogym equip ment. . Ducati Riding Experience: The first day, Monday, May 17, w ill be a Ducati Riding Experience (ORE) day, dedicated to the motorcycle riding course org anize d by Ducati. Participation depends on purc hase of a WOW week ticket at a special rate. On subseq uent days brief basic and advanced co urses will be held to give everyone the opportunity to experience the unique sensa-