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Long camp t: 'd to the likes ofWayne Rainey, M
and Eddie ~'Q, son, Valentino Rossi now may be
- surpassin
e likes of even Mike Hai/wood
By MICHAEL ScOTT
PHOTOS BY GoLD & GoOSE
s the Rossi Phenomenon the biggest and best there
has ever been?
Back in 1998, to celebrate the 50th year of the
World Championships, I ran a voting sheet among
pretty much all the surviving champions and serious contenders to find the riders' most respected rider
of all time.
There was no question about the winner. Mike
Hailwood.
Mike the Bike was spe cial, to the likes of multichampion Angel Nieto, not only because of his skill, his
courage, his personality and his obvious enjoyment of
motorcycle racing, but because he'd displayed these
I
34 JULY 28,2004 • CYCLE NEWS
attributes in so many different classes on so many different motorcycles.
Even though he was beaten, narrowly, by Giacomo
Agostini's MVAgusta in Honda's first attempt to win the
500cc class in 1966 and 1967, nobody could get more
out of a motorcycle - any motorcycle - than Hallwood.
Only six years later, the issue is no longer so certain .
Valentino Rossi is a serious challenger. Like Hailwood,
Rossi has prevailed, very convincingly in every GP class
,
he has contested. Likeclockwork: one year to learn, one
year to win. The rhythm broke only when the big fourstrokes arrived and all the other riders were also learning. This time Rossi won at his first attempt.
40th An niv er s a r y
like Mike t he Bike, Rossi has now demonstrated a
further sense of adventure. There were many reasons
for his dramatic switch fro m his safe haven at Honda
to the deep and potentially lonely waters over at
Yamaha, many of them personal. There was no question that he was moving to an inferior racing motorcycle. The MI is patently just not as good as the RCY.
The only question was how long it would take Rossi,
and by now world-renowned crew chief Jerry Burgess
(nine titles to his credit, with Wayne Gardner, Mick
Doohan and Rossi) and his hand-picked ex-HRC crew
to turn it into a w inner.
The answer was - just one race. And even four wins
