Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Sete Gibernau, who is tied fo r first with Rossi in the championship, crashed in the same corner as his rival in a separate incident. a close pack. One lap later, Porto was ahead of him, but on the third he crashed out, punching himself angrily as he stalked away from his Aprilia. This left a group of five, with Fonsi Nieto dropping back behind it but de Angelis closing fast after being pushed wide at the first comer. By lap four the class rookie was ahead of Nieto and setting the fastest laps as he moved up to make it a sextet. By now Poggiali had displaced Pedrosa from the lead, and on lap six Elias also pushed past Pedrosa for second . It only lasted three laps, however, before Pedrosa swooped past on the straight and once again set about Poggiali. But the Aprilia rider, with a new exhaust and engine mapping, was setting a fast and steady pace for the first time this year was cruising toward retirement. and was not about to give way. Pedrosa had one last card to play - closThe first upset came shortly afterward ing right up as they started the last lap and as Elias ran wide, giving the leaders a gap slipstreaming Poggiali down the straight to of almost a second without losing his own try to outbrake him at the end - but the third place. Porto was now behind him champion was inch perfect, and though and pushing; de Angelis next - because de Pedrosa never gave up, he was still behind Puniet had slacked off and was about to (though by less than a tenth) at the flag. drop away. Almost four seconds away, Elias man"I had some problem with the back tire aged to stay ahead of de Angelis, for and almost crashed several times," was his whom fourth was his best yet finish in his explanation for a massive loss of pace. first 2S0cc year. After half distance, Porto managed to Fifteen seconds behind, Nieto and his get by Elias and started to work on closRepsol Aprilia was narrowly sueing the gap. But :;~~~~~!"'!II"~~ cessful in holding there wasn't Hiroshi much he could do about it, and it never got below nine-tenths . Then suddenly it doubled, and Elias was back in third. Porto's Aprilia had gone onto one cy linder , and he Con linued 'rom page 21 was challenging. "I really enjoyed it, but it wasn't all easy he said. "I've wanted to dimb Cor," covado for awhile." He and a guide/friend d imbed four stations. Action-man Checa planned to stay on in Rio after the race for some hang-gliding and tr ekking. Fast Italian teenager Mic hel Fabrizio , some thing o f a revelation on t he ill-favo red WCM , was out of t he Rio GP after break ing a bone in his ankle when he crashed at Assen the previous weekend. His place was taken by ex -Proton and ex-WCM ride r David de Gea. "I've been racing a 1000cc Honda in the Spanish championship - this bike is very different," said de Gea , who previously raced the three-cylinde r Proton in the 500c c class. Jo rg e Lore n zo's wi n in Ho lland made a record 29 races in the 12Scc class w ithout a back-to-back w inner. The last one came in 2002, when Arnaud Vincent won successive races at 5achsenring and Donington Park. T here have bee n 15 different winners in the 29-race run , wit h seven of them going to last year's champion Dani Ped rosa. European lV schedules on a busy weekend for sport meant a major reshuffle of the GP program for the Brazilian GP. For the first time ever the main race of the day was scheduled to run first, with the curtain-raiser smailer dasses shifted to the aftemoon. The Moto G P race was scheduled for II :30 in the moming - 16:30 in Europe. This meant it could slot in between the French FI GP earlier in the aftemoon, but before the Euro 2004 football cup final, at 20 :45. What the generally late-rising local Brazilian bike racing fans thought of this disruption was not recorded. The hec tic m ids eason schedule - six GPs in eight weekends - drew criticism from Valentino Rossi, an attitude re flected among fatigued riders, team members and other racing hangers-on. "This year's calendar is not very good fo r us - for the ride rs or fo r anyon e, " he said at a pre-race briefing. "It is very hard to keep your concentration and give 100 percent with so many back-to-hack races, and also travel ing to Brazil In the middle o f it . Espec ially since this is an importan t part of the championship." O n the other hand , mov ing the Rio race fro m its usual late-season date (it was in Sep tembe r last year) to the middle of th e Braz ilian winter proved hugely beneficial. Spri ng is the rainy season in Rio , and almost every event at the Nelson Piquet circuit at jacarepagua has had at least some rain. The w inter weather by contrast is settled and calm - and still warm enough to go to the beach. Glorio us sunshine and temperatures approaching 86 degrees greeted the GP circus as it arrived from rain-soaked and chilly midsummer Assen, and it stayed that way throughout the weeke nd. The bumps and ri p ples of the o therw ise att ractive and inte resting Nelson Piquet circuit caused their usual pro blems, with several cras h victims induding 125 ace Hec to r Barbe ra, who suffered a neck injury but still went out later that afternoo n to claim his first po le position. The surface is a headache for .11, with no easy balance to be found between suspension soft enough to ride the bumps but firm enough to offer stab ility in the comers. As Carlos Checa explained after practice: "W he n we get rid of a problem in one are a, we find another problem in another area. It' s difficult to find a good compromise here without losing something impo rtant somewhere else ." The tric ky surface aside. the track is wide and has long, fast corners as well as a long back straight. In spite of th is straight, where t he fastest bikes were running well over 200 mph , the techn ical difficulties o f t he rest o f the 4.933km track switch the balance back toward bikes with better handling. Kenny Ro berts [r, claimed his first pole pos ition he re since 2000 , but he was almost 10 mph down on second-fastest Max Biaggi. The latte r 's Honda docked 204 .9 mph; Roberts'Suzuki 195.9 mph . "Wh en Max comes past me down the straight, he 'll blow the stickers off my bike," said Roberts. Rio's special characteristics always make this a unique eve nt. On the one side, there were several mugging victims. On the other, it afforded early arrivals with a rare opport unity to enjoy the beautifulbeaches. At least two people were robbed, including Kawasaki medhanic "Bee fy" Bourginon. who was assailed on Copacabana beach by a man who mayor may not have had a gun under his shirt. Beefy didn't bother to find out, handingover the cash. Troy Bayliss was also assailed by a man demanding money, but he was not so willing. "I told them to r-.- off and go and get a job," he said. Apparently they took his advice. O n t he plus side , McWilliams, Bym e , Ho pkins and Ho fmann enjoyed a day of surfing on Barra beach , and the n stoppe d off to watch a game of Brazilian beach volleyball, in whic h the hands are not used. "They were all pretty good at it, but one of t hem was espec ially skilled," said Ho pkins. "Th e n Je remy said he thought he recognized him." It was famed world cup and Barcelona player Ronaldo, having fun with his mates. By now Chaz Davies had joined the grou p, and they introduced themselves to the player. Nobu Aok i hadan unusual problem on the first day of practice, when the two-way radio that the team uses for communication in the noisy pit gave trouble. "I prefer my numberone bike , but all through the session that was parked, and I used the number-two machine. Afterwards I asked my crew chief Nick Davis why we didn't use my better bike - was there some problem? He said no problem, but because Iwas sayingthe second bike was corning better, he thought I meant I preferred it. We need to get that radio worf

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