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/128385
often create someone that's going to come back and bite you very hard, because that guy then gains confidence. As Kevin Schwantz says, confidence and a good machine and a good team and you can do anything. So the last thing you want, and I think Mick Doohan was the best at this, was never letting anybody - perhaps Wayne Rainey to a degree - beat you or out-qualify you. The times we used to fight to put Mick on pole position, and then have him enter the first corner in sixth place, I used to wonder why the hell we bothered? It gave him some strength or perhaps gave the opposition some doubt or some thought as to when's he coming, because he's going to come because he was fastest. In the psychological part of the race weekend, that pole position was very important for that very reason, irrespective of where Mick entered the first corner. So it was very important. Have we seen the best of Valentino? I hope not. I would like to see Valentino maintain his current dominance of the sport and retire when he wants to and walk away from it. I don't know how much JULY 6,2005 • CYCLE NEWS better he can get unless people come to challenge him. I think that's really where we have to look. Who is going to challenge him? We're not giving anybody enough chances are we? We're hanging onto people who raced against Mick Doohan. If you've been in this MotoGP or 500 Grand Prix for 10 years and you haven't won more than two or three races in that period, you're not good enough. I just feel that things have stagnated a bit. I think a lot of guys have probably missed out from lesser classes. And we don't need to be hanging on to the old blokes, no disrespect to any of them as individuals. What you need to create is competition within the team first, so if you don't have a good team, put a couple of young blokes in there and keep the pressure on them. Dohn] Hopkins needs somebody to push him the next level now. He's not going to get there from just behind Kenny [Roberts Jr.] or in front of Kenny. He needs somebody who can push him. It's easier said than done. There's just not that many good riders around. I think this is where we've let ourselves down a bit as a series. What we should do is between the major factories take the top four 250 riders who are used to racing each other for several years, and every couple of years we take the 250 guys up. And if we only get two out of four that are any good then we bring up the next four, and hopefully these guys who come up into the class are pushing up the older deadwood that's not Winning. Unless we give guys a chance on these bikes, we're only hoping the guys are going to be any good. It's our job to take these guys onboard and train them. Nobody seems to see that argument. They always hope they can make a miracle out of something. I hope Nicky [Hayden] has a better year this year. But Nicky's used to winning, and sometimes if you don't do a lot of winning, it becomes more and more difficult to get back to that winning. What you need to see, and history has always sort of said it, is consistent podiums the year before, then win two or three, and then the next year you've got a real shot at the championship. So he's got to win a couple in 2005 and beat pretty much the 5ete Gibernaus or Max Biaggis of the series - and it's eN important for him, it's important for Honda.