Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Edwards Back Home and Happy Colin Edward s (right) is reunited with his old boss, Yamaha's Davide Bri '0 . C o li n Edw ards made an impressive Yamaha debut at the Valencia. Spain, test as he began to get accustomed to life on the opposite side of Valentino Rossi's garage. Riding one of Rossi's 2004-spec Mis in plain black, carbon bodywo rk, Edwards logged a best time of 1.33.9 to com fortably beat the best lap he had ma naged during the 30-lap Vale ncia GP just th ree days prior. building up the database. I was going softer and harder just to get that feeling so you know what the bike feels like when you are We changed the balance to make it wrong so I understand what it fee ls like. It would have mac hine. been easy to come here and just run around on Vale ntino's settings fo r two days, but I nee d to understand the com me nt I nee d to give w he n someth ing does not feel right." fifth lap of the second day, as he began the process of shrugging off a somewhat disappo inting and frustrating season with Honda. Suffering from a severe hea d cold that had badly inte rr upted his sleep the night added , "His stuff was perfect, it worked perfect . We did everything, tried this and that and came full circle back to his race setup. But I had to do that to understand the bike and build that database. That's the best setting. Obvio usly for him it was the best setting his new teammate Rossi, Edwards made several changes to his M I to build wha t he called his "database," but he always came back to the settings that worked so devastatingly for the Italian en route to his ninth win of the season in Valencia. Edwar ds said: "I'm happy. I was just never been greater. not least because his MotoGP career has yet to properly scale the heights many expected it wou ld. It was like a homecoming for Edwards on the first day, as he was reunited w ith G auloises team director D avide Brivio and other staffwh o he worked with in his Yamaha World Supe rbike days in the mid-'90s. because that' s what he ran to wi n the race, "I'm mo re motivated than ever," Edwards said. "It feels like I'm back ho me , back w here I started . I've got go od relationships w ith the guys already after on ly two days. Everybody at Yamaha U.S. I still talk to . Yamaha's race boss [T m Halve rso n] in the U.S. comes skio time . had and still have goo d relationsh ips with those guys. I neve r had that with Honda. Shit, I don 't eve n know anybocly's name at Ho nda U.S. I co uldn't te ll yo u anybody. I'm Edwards made no direct comparison betwee n the four-c ylinder M I and the Honda RCV he rode to two second-place Biaggi Breaks Leg tures in a Supermoto practice crash in Italy on November 7, an injury that will likely put the Italian ou t of action for up to two months. A fter crashing at the Latina circuit near Rome in Italy, Biaggi con sulted with Grand Prix med ic Dr. Claudio Costa, w ho the n re ferre d the former Wo rld Champ ion to a specialist in Lyon, France. Biaggi was slated to undergo surgery o n Tuesday, November 9 to repair the bro ken bones. Biaggi recentl y inked a deal that will see him compete in ne xt year 's Moto GP World Nicky Hayde n, both o n Rep so l Hondas. 8 He is testing at Sepang late r this month, but Yamaha engineers con firmed only Rossi would try the 2005 machine. Edwards added that his motivat ion had and for me it was the best by a long wa y." Edwards had ample o pportunity to gather as much data as he possibly could , the former two-time Wo rld Superbike Champion staying out on track fo r several long stints that varied between seven and 10 laps at a Hond a's Max Biaggi suffe red multiple leg frac- Champion ship as a teammate to the seven-week winter ban, in Malaysia befo re he will get his chance on the new Commenting on Rossi's race setup. he ly o n the pace, and having completed 75 laps on the first day, he se t a time that matched his best race lap - a 1.34.59. Starting off using the identical setu p to finishes in 2004 because he has been gagged by HRC as part of a deal that got him re leased early to test for Yamaha. But he did say, "It' s got two w hee ls, and It doesn't feel completely off the chart. Two wheels is two wheels, but yo u're dealing with the same weight , the same brakes, the same wheelbase. Jump ing from a 250 or so mething yo u'd say, 'f&#%,' it's wa y different and it's not. It's not drastically different. I'm smiling. Every bike has goo d things and every bike has bad things. Racing is just a compromise. In my opinion , they have done a great job of exaggerating the good bits. Sune, when they started there were some things that were bad about it and they just made it a lot bett e r." Wh ile Rossi was getti ng in the first crucial deve lopme nt o n the new 2005 M I, Edwards will have to wait until testing res umes on January 21, after running too soft or too hard front and rear. The Texan set his best time on only his before his debu t, Edw ards was im med iate- Edw a rd s and the M1: Sa far, so good. NOVEMBER 17, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS ing wi th me in the mountains. so I've always just happy to be here, and the thing about Yamaha is they wanted me to be here." Edwards said there is a real feel-good fact or around Yamaha at the m ome nt. which comes as no surprise considering Rossi hande d the m a first pre mier class World title since Wayne Rainey collected the 1992 Wo rld Ch ampi onship. And he seemed finally teaming up w ith Rossi had felt like he'd completed his destiny, as he'd always harbored ambit ions to be alongside the mercurial 25-year-old . "It's exciting and awesome," Edwards said. "Y u can sense a buzz when you walk o in the garage. I don't know why, but when I rode for Hon da in 1998 and did a cou ple of years in superb ike and Valentino came on board with HRC, I always envisaged climbing that ladder and being his team mate at Honda. Tha t was always my plan. But I got ousted for Nicky Hayden at the end of 2002 , so I'd obviously lost that opportunity. But now it's come full circle; w e're at a different factory but here we are at Yamaha, where, dare I say it. there are some real people ." Matthew Birt Lange Does It Again Defending Arenacross Champio n Darcy Lange posted three mo re wins and padded his po ints lead following ro und the week ea rlie r. Lange won three of Lange and TUF /Honda's Branden Jessemen. In the 250cc main event, Lange got back to his winning ways by ta king the victory, followed by Honda rider Marco Dube and Laughridge. On Saturday night, Lange picked up right where he left off by winning the the four main events . and he did it again first in Albany. The first I25cc main event o n Friday night saw Lange 's Richm ond Shogu nlYamaha team r ider Josh Demuth and Yamaha rider C had Johnson. In the 250cc main event , Lange again took the win, followed by Demuth and Jessemen. two of the National ArenacrossSeries in Albany, New York, November S-6. At the series opener in Des Moines , Iowa, Racing/Ka w asak i tea mmate Evan Laughridge take the win, followed by 40th Ann iversary 125cc main event ove r

• Cover