Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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Bossy Rossi T esting's testi ng. and racing's racing. I mention this to ensure that we don't get carried awa y wi th ourselves as we con sider t he case of t he most recent IRTA test in Spain - Jerez this time - after t he previou s weeke nd's travails in Catalun ya. The same name that to pped Barcelona - Valen tino Rossi also top ped the Jerez testing times. It was a somewhat inco mplete res ult, being taken fro m only one day of the two days of testing, and o nly part of a day at that, Inco mplete, but co mprehensive, as Rossi appeared to set mo re fast laps tihan anyone else . Given thos e circ um stan ces , th e performance of t he Yamaha , Rossi and his crew was still som eth ing to crow ab o ut , as all but a couple o f the regular Moto GP powers we re out in force at Barcelona, with new equipment to test o r tire s to run . And a Ro ssi to be outpe rfo rmed by at present. T he rains that had affected much of t he op e ning day's act ion at the final IRT tes t of A the year (de laying the start and fo re shortening the wh ole sce ne by half an ho ur or so) Kenny Roberts Jr. is happy again, the Suzuki suddenly an pace. Entihused by an imp ro ving Suzuki and feeling right at ho me o n the Bridgestones, it seems, Roberts w as a dazzling se co nd-quickest overall, just the o dd tenth slowe r th an Rossi, in a good test for the re turned w ith a vengeance o f biblical flooding ; t he last preseason gasp proved to be a w aterlogged and sometime treacherous on e. Improb able quantities of rain fe ll th roughout t he day, fro m all-o ut clou d burst s to steady drizzle , and th us some ride rs - such as Colin Edwa rds and Neil Hodgso n, o r both Kawasa ki riders, for example - recent underdog machines. A total of IS brave sou ls ve ntured out to the circuit at some stage or other on the sec on d day, and despite the pe rsiste nt and ofte n d re nching rain. there were some imp ressive times posted . elected to missthe action alto- gether. You could har d ly blame them afte r t he wet Barcelona sessions. And in any case each had a litt le highw ate r mark o f his own to ce lebrate from day one at Jerez . Fastest in the early sessions, w he n t he circuit was fully wet, was Xaus, ru nning his 200 3 V-four to a time o f I:54. 90 7 be fore crashing. He was overhauled at the two hours-to-go mark by Biaggi, w ho had enjoyed (or e ndured) a multilap battle, in fullyw et co nditio ns, wit h his countryma n Marco Melandri , the latte r run ning a 2004-spec eng ine in his MI. The increas ingly resilient Melandri passed Biaggi during their duel (t he highlight o f a miserab le day), but no netiheless the more se nior of the Italians secured the top spot on day two with a best of I;S3.834. Bayliss, as clearly frust rated by his new D esmosedici as his teammate Capirossi, exploited Ruben Xaus went well at Jerez but also had a cra sh. Fo r Edwards , a top-three finish on the dry times heets w as good reason to be cheerful; for Hodgson the status of to p Ducati rider (in 13th) was safe after the factory pairing of Loris Capirossi and Troy Bayliss languished - ou t of the po ints , as it were - in 16t h and 17t h, respectively. Ho dgson' s D'Ant in team mate Ruben Xaus was 18t h, riding q uick enough to be second-fastest in the rain, shortly befo re falling and then being overta ken by Biaggi. Xaus does high-paced belligerence excepti onally well and was once more one of the most dramatic riders to watch . w et or d ry. Another man to impress was the ride r many had catego rized as a spe nt Moto GP force , Kenny Roberts Jr. the w et wea ther to his advantage by taking th ird place in the rain, w it h Barros, the top full-factory Repsol Honda rider on display, fourth . He was followed in his wheeltracks by his teammate and ear ly faller Hayden, w it h Ro be rts Jr. sixt h in the wet. Melandri sec ured t he seventh-fastest time . Vittori ano Guareschi, the Ducati Marlboro Tea m tes t ride r, slotted in e ighth, demoting local hero Carlos Checa to ninth . Th e top 10 w as rounded out by the overall faste st man of t he entire test (on aggregate of the two days) Rossi. The second day preci pitation left Mister Bossy fastest overall. w ith the to p times a mirror image of t he day-one version. His Wednesday best o f I;42.6S6 put him in a psychologically boosted position of being fastest man fro m bot h Euro pean IRTA te sts , an outcome few could have foreseen a few short weeks ago . But then again, testi ng is testing; racing is... w ell another thing. Capirossi ended up I Ith , wit h a low sco re o f 13 laps. The Kawasaki team o f Shinya Nakan o an d Alex Ho fman n d id not ve nture out, no r did the Team KR crew, with bike concerns sto pping No buatsu Aok i fro m lapping on the seco nd day. www.cyclenews.com The next test is a race, the season opener at Welkom on April 18 . Rossi, that man again, co uldn't have ho pe d for a bett er off-season o n the previously recalc itrant M I. His undeniab le speed was once mo re at odds w ith his ta lent for understatement. "There's not very much to say about tod ay, excep t that I'm pleased with the way the bike has gone in the wet," Rossi said. "It is still not bad to ride , and the tires felt okay, too. Anyway t his is the e nd o f the winter tests, and I'm very happy w itih o ur progress." BEST LAP TIMES: I. Valentino Rossi (Gaulaises Fortuna Vamaha) 2. Kenny Roberts (ream Suzuki MotoGP) 3. Colin Edwards (relefonica Movistar Honda MotoGP) 4. Carlos Checa (Gauloises Fortuna Vamaha) 5. Alex Barros (Repsol Honda) 6. John Hopkins (ream Suzuki MotoGP) 7. Shinya Nakano (Kawasaki Racing Team) 1:43.386 8. Sete Gibemau (relefonica MovistarHonda) 9. Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda) 10. MakotoTamada(Camel Honda) 1:42.656 1:42.761 1:42.771 1:42.927 1:42.974 1:43.314 1:43.408 1:43.457 ...:.i:w.:::w 1:43.541 Gordon Ritch ie CYCLE NEWS • APRIL 14, 2004 7