Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128355
pe ns - he's t hinking so far ahead . Y see it ou w hen he gets a bad start. It does n't seem to affect him t hat mu ch. And his abso lute co nfide nce in exactly w hat he's going to do . I think it was at Qatar. at the start of the race, when he had to start in the back and the positions he made up o n the first lap - he was committed to exactly what he needed to do. Unfortunate ly, he had the crash; it wou ld have been o kay. and he can just O at-o ut ride the motorcycle, and that's a testament to his ab ility, but also his ability to be able to adapt to the motorcycle . And also, another thing, is his ability to set up the bike . I th ink an indication of that is they don't make a lot o f changes. Do n't know 100 percent of th is, but I know wh en he was on the Ho nda. some of th e settings he ran. they didn't change that much . That's on e of th e things when I rode, the same th ing. Once we got the bike working, we may chan ge rebound, compressio n, eve ryt hing' s adapted to th e track, but pretty much it stay ed the same. And I thin k Valentino has the ab ility to be able to get th e bike the way he likes it, and the n he makes the adjustments. Kevin Schwantz His race management is better t han I've seen from anybody in qu ite som e time . Wayne [Rainey] was always good at , really good at , sticking in some flyers in the very beginning wh en everybody had some shit on , wh en everybod y's tires w ere st ill re ally good. It w as like th e guy would just de mo ralize you. It was like, "My stu ff hasn't go ne off, his st uff isn't any better. He's just beatin g my ass right now." And so me times you could catch him in the seco nd half of the race , but most of the time you cou ldn't if he got that distance on you at the beginning. And Valentino seems to do it so d ifferentl y. He goes out and he might put his head do wn for a lap or tw o, and if he do e sn't get t hat distance , he th en settl es in, gives eve rybo dy I0 o r 15 laps, de pending on wh at it is, ge ts to abo ut half distanc e and th en t ries again, sees w ho can go w ith him and just e liminates them by numb ers . Kenny Roberts Sr. I noti ced o ne race , it was in Malaysia, w here he was using the clutc h - actually pulling t he clutch into the handlebar after apex . Th at' s just like, "Wow," bec ause t he clutch doesn't work pro perly. He needed to do that to get thro ugh tha t corner. Tha t's th ings tha t you have to improvise to make wo rk, and that 's something tha t he wa nts to do and has the ta lent to do . Because you 've got to have t he tale nt to do it, and you 've got to have the wa nt to do it, and he has that . time he re , th e re . th e re . th ere - and t hat's the differe nce. Thi s ye ar I got like T-I. If t he World C ham pionship w as on T- I at every track in t he world , I w ou ld've wo n t he Wo rld Champion ship easy, but you 've got to ge t all fo ur sectio ns right. He squeezes eve ry little bit o ut of everywhe re. Kevin Schwantz I w ish I knew [why he rarely falls]. I really do . I always attributed the cras hes that he's had t his year to just plain everyday, ordinary be ing mad . "O kay, t hey 're going to make me sta rt at t he back of this pack , I'm going to lead this sum bitch by lap 10 and I'm going to lap the field" is the mindset he took go ing in. And I th ink tha t's what bit him in the butt at Q atar. Rio I didn't eve r sec, so I do n't really have an o pinion o n tha t. To me it just seems like no matter what the situation, and I'm not going to compa re him to me, but t his was my att itude : I never sta rt ed a race th at I didn't think so mehow, so me way. by some str etch of t he imaginatio n - we'd made an adjustment or we 'd found a tire - t hat even starting fro m the t hird ro w, I'm go ing to be able to w in this th ing. Wayne 1 - Freddie Spencer Nicky Hayden He is good when th ings are changing or just anything a little bit w et. He picks up on st uff quick. And a lot of confidence, too. You can see that when he rides. Kevin Schwantz I know Nicky [Hayde n] would just kill to be running with those guys, but I th ink he's got to figure o ut what it is and w hat he has to do to better himself. I think the eq uipment he's on is as good as anybody 's . I think he 's got to want and work that a litt le bit harder. Just saying you wa nt it isn't e nough . You've go t to get the work ethic and the mindset to get it done. That's what Valenti no has, I th ink. [Rainey]outqualified me by two seconds. You know , Sunday mo rn ing when I sta rt e d that race, I still thought so me how, some way I was going to find a w ay to w in. Something was going to click, something was going to be different. It was going to happe n. A couple of times it did, but most of t he time it ended in me making a mistake and eithe r crash ing or falling or run ning off the t rack, or having a really bad resu lt. Colin Edwards Honestly, he seems to ma ke tim e everywhe re - not like one se ction. He just sq ueez es eve ry single bit of Rossi, the early years: The Ita lian won his first 125(( GP in 1996 . He won the title in 1997, then switched to 250s in 1998. In 1999, he was 250(( World Champion. Freddie Spencer Each and eve ry lap, his effo rt level is high, and I think that co mes t hro ugh with t he way he approaches the race. He kno ws the pass he's going to make a lap befo re it hap- CYCL E NEWS • JANUARY 5 , 2005 31