Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

iUn de respecto, por favor! (A little respect. please!> Bv DENNIS NOVES PHOTOS BV GOLD & GOOSE f you missed "the good old days" in the late '70s when Kenny Roberts took on Barry Sheene and opened an era of American domination in 500cc Grand Prix racing (with Americans winning 13 of the 16 titles between 1978 and 1993), those days might be coming back. Kenny Roberts Jr., last year's runner-up on the works Suzuki, is currently breaking lap records, talking the talk and walking the walk during pre-season testing. I pOCO Respect is something that you shouldn't have to ask for if you are 500cc World Champion, and Spanish fans, very mindful of this, are seething at what they rightly recognize to be a lack of respect for the first Spaniard ever to win the 500cc title. They are proud to have finally seen a Spanish rider win the world's most prestigious motorcycling championship and to have seen Criville's cerned about keeping the news out of the Spanish press. "If it got to the papers in Spain they'd say I had an amputation," Roberts said. Comparing and contrasting Roberts and Criville requires an understanding of just how important it is in Spain to be a 500cc World Champion. Unfortunately, we are all too well aware of just how unimportant winning that honor has been in the United States outside the narrow confines of the specialist press. The U.S., for example, has had ing through into the highest level basically that he was in GP racing because his dad had put him there. After all, he had never won a major race when he suddenly got a 500cc ride on his dad's team. What a difference a year makes. In one of the greatest interviews that was ever quickly edited out of the delayed feed to the United States, Kenny Roberts the elder responded to a question asked by Randy Mamola on live TV just after young Kenny's first ever GP win at last year's season opener in Malaysia. The uiet Catalan and the confident CalifornIan Reigning World Champion Alex Criville knows that the most dangerous challenges to his bid to defend hjs title will come from Roberts and from Italy's Max Biaggi, the fourtime 250cc World Champion who looks like Yamaha's best hope to bring back the 500cc title last won for the marque in 1992 by Wayne Rainey. And then there is Japanese veteran Tadayuki Okada, winner of three rounds last year, and the rider with the best chance of becoming Japan's first-ever 500cc World Champion. After five years of a dominant Mick Doohan, this will be the first time since the start of the 1994 season that the year has opened without a clear favorite. The Honda NSR, however, still seems to be the best package. Although it's not always the fastest in a straight line (that honor went to Yamaha last year) nor the easiest to turn (the Suzuki seemingly taking that distinction), the general consensus at the end of 1999 was that the Honda put its power on the road more effectively and was the most user friendly. The ali-conquering NSR Honda V-four has won the last six 500cc titles in a row, and was ridden to victory an amazing 68 times in 77 starts (88 percent) over this half a dozen years of Honda domination. The man to beat has got to be the man with the number-one plate and, although Biaggi, Okada and several others certainly deserve to be considered serious aspirants, I think the rider who most deserves to be ranked as the top challenger is Roberts. Let's compare and contrast the 29-year-old Spanish World Champion and the 26-year-old son of a legend. Kenny Jr. finally won his first GP in 1999 and then won three more over the year, putting together a strong late-season run that, with a bit less bad luck, might have earned him the crown. 28 FEBRUARY 23. 2000' cue win in 500cc GP racing accompanied by Emilio Alzamora's win in the 125cc class - but they are angry to see opinion poles on the internet that show Roberts as the rider considered most likely to win in 2000. This is to be expected on English-language websites, but what was especially galling to Spanish fans was the top 10 rankings published in Britain's Motocourse annual which placed Criville third behind 500cc runner-up Roberts and 250cc World Champion Valentino Rossi. Because of his quiet demeanor, Criville is easily under-rated, but he has the world's most rabid motorcycling fans - all 40 million Spaniards behind him, he rides the flagship number-one Honda NSR, and he won the title by 47 points in 1999. Fame in Spain, anonymity in America Although true motorcycle fans in the USA and Canada have closely followed his exploits, the truth of the matter is that Roberts is infinitely more famous in Criville's home country than in his own. With that being the case, you can imagine the aura of fame that accompanies Criville wherever he goes in Spain. Criville and Roberts have both recovered quickly from post-season operations - Criville's much-publicized wrist operation and Roberts' treatment to the right thumb. It is interesting to note that while both riders were in considerable pain coming down the home stretch in 1999, Roberts managed to keep not only his injury, but also his operation a very close secret. The fact that Roberts could prevent the world press from knowing he had a problem highlights the difference in media scrutiny in Spain and the United States. Criville could not, as Spain's leading sports hero, keep a hangnail a secret whereas Roberts, as evidenced by his statement to the press, was more conI • n e _ s five 500cc World Champions and none of them have even been invited to the Jay Leno show - and Leno is a biker! Criville, by stark contrast, has had two monuments built in his honor since winning the title, has had two books published about him, has had a royal audience with King Juan Carlos I, and has been on every major TV program in Spain. (Would President Clinton have noticed even if fellow Arkansas boy John Kocinski had won the 500cc title last year?) The pressure on Criville is intense. The Spanish GP in Spain is bigger than the NFL in the United States, and the Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez is bigger than the Super Bowl. No American motorcycle racer of any generation has ever experienced the fame, the fortune and the constant pressure that Criville has lived with since Doohan's crash about 20 minutes into the Friday qualifying session for last year's Spanish GP. "I was aware that I was the focus of the attention of so many millions of my countrymen and that I would never be forgiven if I failed to accomplish something that would become a legend in Spanish sport," Criville said. "That historic urgency was overwhelming, and it seemed to make time stand still as 1 spent the days waiting for the next race. When 1won, I felt as much relief as happiness. Now I can race again for the fun of racing, and maybe the pressure will be less and I can enjoy doing what I love again." It must have been like that for Hank Aaron as he closed on Babe Ruth's record. That's how big GP racing is in Spain. Perhaps the one thing that Alex and Kenny most have in common is that, up until last year, they have both been very much underrated. It is hard to believe now that it was only a little over a year ago that it was frequently written that Roberts did not seem to be capable of break- "How does it feel?" Mamola asked, with the three-time 500cc World Champion and two-time AMA Grand National Champion beginning with a few conventiona I statements before looking down the barrel of the camera and adding, "One thing for sure, a lot of people are gonna have to eat a lot of s**t!" Although I imagine he was referring to decision makers in Philip Morris and/or Yamaha, there were certainly a lot of print journalists who must have felt alluded to. Nowadays, however, it is hard to find any scribe out there who doesn't claim to have known it all along. Criville and Roberts have both paid their dues. This is how they started. CrlvlUe - from 80cc mopeds to the NSRSOO Criville had to falsify his age to get into this first road race, but when he was a legal 16 he won the Criterium Solo Moto in 1986 on a Honda Hurricane MBX 80, and moved right into GP racing with a works Derbi ride in the 80cc category. He was third in the European 80cc Championship in 1987 and runner-up in the 80cc World Championship in 1988. But, after a controversial refusal by Criville to obey team orders, he quit Derbi and joined the JJ-Cobas team owned by the late Jacinto Moriana and directed by Antonio Cobas, the man who devised the twin-spar frame which is now the "default setting" GP chassis. Traditionalists in Spain thought he had ruined his career because, from the earliest days of Angel Nieto, the road to glory ran through Derbi. But in 1989 Criville became, at the time, the youngest ever World Champi'on, winning the 125cc title in his first attempt. He moved immediately up to the 250cc class, joining the Marlboro Yamaha Agostini team. Once again, he found himself in the shadow of

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