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/128375
By IN "HE PADDOCK MICHAEL SCOTT A Tale of Two Kinds of Heroes he MotoGP season has started off as exciting as you like. Two races, two different winners. Yet, with Valentino Rossi claiming an early lead by one rough bruising ride and one shQw of class in damp conditions, there is still a certain sense of inevitability. Max Biaggi notwithstanding (as usual, you might sigh), the real rivalry of 2005 is the same as the real rivalry of 2004. There were strong early signs that the result will be also be the same. This is as the oracle foretold. Or as the Fates wrote in the stars. The constellations glow brighter with the message: Rossi Rules the Universe. A genius is at work, and woe betide all who try to emulate him. In this case, Sete Gibernau, grandson of Don Paco Bulto, scion of motorcycling royalty. Gentleman Gibernau, the Best of the Rest, and Victim of the Best of his Age. On a less grandiose scale, paddock folk prefer to fall back on racing's timeworn dictum that "you make your own luck." The trouble is, in the case of Italy's rampant favorite of the gods, the proverb doesn't stretch far enough. For sure (as Rossi himself prefaces every sentence), Valentino makes his good luck by good skill. Over and over, we've seen his anticipation and magical touch save situations that would scupper others - especially when it rains. In spite of his earlier reservations, Rossi has become consummate in the wet. All this is the measure of his stature. Race-craft and intelligence are as much a necessity as throttle control. The sort of luck I mean is way beyond his control, best exemplified at Brno a couple of years ago, where there was a plague of wasps. A couple of riders were rushed to Dr. Claudio Costa, for his customary life-saVing treatment against the imminent perils of anaphylactic shock. Rossi also picked up a wasp, in the race, inside his helmet. He opened his visor and it flew out, proving that even the insects are on Valentino's side. There are other examples. You have to ask yourself, for instance, why it is that every time Rossi makes contact with another rider, he comes off better? There's got to be at least as much luck as skill in the chancy business of bumpercars on two wheels. More remarkable is how the opposite effect seems to apply to Gibernau. Now for the first time an official HRC MotoGP T rider, Sete has had his strokes of good fortune, as in a remarkable history of inheriting top factory bikes from riders who suffered career-stopping injuries mostly from H RC. To be fair, there is something else to be remembered alongside this schadenfreude. Every year in the 500cc class, he has been better than the year before. Now we come to the real Luck of Gibernaus, displayed in the opening rounds as so often before. Because it seems that as Rossi cannot turn his hand to anything that will not go in his favor, Sete right now is the opposite. Every ploy he takes, every tactic he adopts, goes against him. Thus at Jerez, where he played the gentleman racer on the final lap, when he could as easily have batted the highly impetuous Rossi off onto the dirt both at the final hairpin and later at the Nieto corners. He received no such courtesy in return, and it cost him the race. In the final analysis, he shouldn't have expected it from the Urchin of Tavullia, either, but until Sete proves he can be as ruthless as Rossi, this is a weakness. Then it happened again at Estoril, where Gibernau seized a strong lead, giving the lie to his grimaces of pain and dubious prognostication the previous day - strong-man stuff - only for it to sour. He paid the penalty of pioneer when he fell victim to the damp patch in turn one... his tumbling bike and yellow flags warning Barros, Rossi and Biaggi behind him. Sete, articulate and multilingual, saw fit to complain that the leader would always be the fall guy of the new flag-to-flag rule. This is correct and was self-evident, but to hear it from Sete sounded like whining. Imagine how the same statement would have sounded from Rossi, whether or not he had won, even if he too had crashed. Methinks the assembled multitude would have nodded in sage agreement. Because this is another aspect of the Luck of the Gibernaus against that of his rival. You see the same effect when one or the other plays drama queen. When Rossi play-acts, everyone applauds. It doesn't matter how contrived and cod the performance (I mean to say, Robin Hood at the British GP. near Nottingham, or convict-in-irons a few years later at Brno), he gets praised, and anyone who raises an eyebrow is seen as a spoilsport. When Sete play-acts, as with a seemingly overindulged shoulder injury after the Jerez incident, people sneer instead. And if they don't, Rossi soon does so him- self, just as soon as he sees a TV camera. The bottom line, however, is that Gibernau now tails on points and in psychological warfare. Rossi's brutal Jerez barging may have triggered another of FIM president Francesco Zerbi's admonishing "more in sorrow than in anger" letters, but he is still the one with all the advantages. Somebody's family luck is going to have to change for it to be otherwise. By the way, what a pleasure to see a real 2S0cc race at Estoril. Does this, after years of sterile domination, mean a return to the good old brawling days of the past? Probably not. Estoril is one of those rare tracks that rewards riders as much as machines, especially in iffy conditions. Thus, John Hopkins was able to exceed the true potential of his Suzuki in the MotoGP class - until he fell off. Thus, also, Daniel Pedrosa was for once engulfed by brash enthusiasm. It was a fine ride, especially from class rookie Andrea Dovizioso, of whom much can be expected. (Does he remind anybody else of Tazio Nuvolari, Italian motorcycle and later car racing legend of yore?) He, winner Casey Stoner, and the rest are going to need some more help from the tracks or the conditions if they hope to do this on a regular basis. eN it CYCLE NEWS • APRIL 27,2005 95