W orld Cha mpio ns hip Road Race S er ies
ACK
INTHE
WINS A WILD AND
CRAZY GERMAN
GRAND PRIX
ax is back. Th at was the
message , to Va le nt ino
Ross i an d m o re than
93,000 sun-baked fans at
>.::'-::-_~~'" the short and twisty Sachsenr ing. Afte r a fears o me race , with a
galaxy of big names biting the dust, Max
Biaggi claimed his first win of the season in
the German Grand Prix.
Biaggi's ye llow Camel Hon da sta rte d
from po le and led t he first ha lf of t he
race , Rossi's Ga uloises Yamaha breathing down his neck all th e way. Then the
defend ing champion po unc ed, and it
seemed all was done .
With erstwhile points le ade r Sete
Gibernau ea rlier crashing his Telefonica
MoviStar Honda out of second place, it
looked like another sunny day for luckyguy Rossi. But Biaggi was biding his time,
knowing his setup would be better later in
the race .
And by the time they'd finished 30 giddying laps of the shortest track of the year,
with its never-endi ng succession of slow
and medium-speed corners, not only had
Biaggi left Rossi to eat his dust , but both
factory Repsol Hondas we re also ahead of
the now- struggling Yamaha rider, with Alex
Barros second and Nicky Hayden third.
Rossi had the consolation of gaining the
points lead, with Gibernau 's second sue-
Early in th e race Max Bia ggi (3 ), Valent ino Ro ssi (46) , Sete Gib ernau (1 5) a nd Ken ny Roberts Jr. (partially h idden)
b aH le at the fro nt.
14 JULY 28, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS
40th Anniversary
