Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

World Superbike Champion Colin Edwards II but once I got on it, I just kind of learned the Mich e lins pretty q uickly . I think I had e noug h ti me to actually forget about what the Dunlops felt like, got on the Mic hel ins and then it was good." The RC45 ha d a fatal flaw . As so o n as yo u let the front bra ke off, th e fron t e nd would po p up and , nine times out of 10 , whe n Edwards cra s he d it was by losi ng th e front. Ne w Zealander Aaron Slig ht was his teammate and Slight had de ve lop ed the 45 , so he kn e w to ride ove r th e front wheel. "He was a ll over th e front of it kee ping it loaded. And m y st yle s lowly p ro g res sed into that throughout th e thre e years I'v e been with them , but that' s just a Honda character . You look at Mick [Do ohan ] and th e y'r e all over the front of th e thing keep ing th e t hing loaded a nd I looked an d I lea rne d an d finally I started adjusting my own way of riding to ge t th e thing around th e tra ck ." The RC51 wou ld be s imil a rly pr o ble matic th is year, and it wasn 't un til late in th e sea son th at he got it figu red out. Edwa rds was seco nd to Carl Fog arty in 1998 a nd aga in the next ye ar , thou gh he 'd ho ped for , a nd predi ct ed , better. It was a t the Nur burgring th at his season d is integra ted. "I wen t into that year rea lly read y, det ermined. Pro ba bly t he who le se as on s hif te d in o ne race , whic h was a t Germany." In the first race he had a second -a nd -a -half lead whe n he hit oil in the first corne r an d rod e through a grave l trap . He fell ba ck a few spots, but was on the move when he crashed on the same oil pa tch . Ther e'd been no warni ng , no flag , even th ou gh a tota l of six riders wou ld cras h. "I just th ought , if there's oil there's going to be a fla g. Tha t ' s b a s ica lly whe re my judgm ent wa s wrong . Th e ra ce went o n and I ve nt u red kind of bac k out into th e pack and c ra s he d . I was already pissed, be cause I'd already had th e win tak en aw a y from m e right there . "I lo s t a little fait h in t he whole o rg a n iza tio n there. Here you've got six bikes do wn the road a nd th er e's still not a red flag out. I c ras hed in the o il th e re and I was pre tty pissed off abo ut t hat. I s ho uld ' ve won th at weekend . I was goi ng bette r th a n e ve rybod y a ll weeken d an d I should 've do ne th e do uble a nd it was taken away from me by th e org an iza tion, more or less. I crashed my good bike and I g ot on m y spa re bike and it wasn't what I wa nte d . "Up to th at po int I was 20 o r 25 po ints beh ind Fog a rt y and th en I c ra s hed a nd he won. Th en it wen t to 50 points insta ntly. Hon estly, I think it was just m yself. I just los t faith in the organization and wha t we were o ut he re doi ng . T hose g uys were pla ying with m y life for no reason ." It took a few rac es to get th e co nfide nce ba c k. At Bra nds Ha tch he did a noth er do uble. "By then th e fight was kind of ove r. Fogarty was in." Ent er in g th e 2 000 s eas o n Edw ard s was s up remely co nfident . He 'd had a han d in de velop ing the RC51 a nd he knew ho w good it co uld be . Th e pr e- s e a s on tests had g on e we ll. In th e o pe ning rou nd of t h e s e aso n at Kya lam i, S outh Afr ic a Edw ards gave th e RC51 its firs t major rac e win . Then Foga rty crashed in the second race at Phillip Island a nd the cham pionship was wide open. The sayi ng for th e last fe w yea rs is that if you ca n beat the fa st est Ducat i you ca n win the c ha m pi onsh ip. All of a sudd e n, Fog a rty wasn't the re a ny m o re. Edw a rds ne ver saw Fog a rty at the opening round in South Africa whe re Ed wa rds won one leg . In Australia , he says he felt Fog a rty was struggling . "He jus t wasn 't on like he norm a lly was and you could tell by his riding a nd I th ink he saw th e c ha mpionsh ip going awa y at the seco nd ra ce. He wa s 32 JAN UARY 3 . 2 0 01 • c u e I e n e _ down on po ints already. I th ink he saw the champions hip drifting away in the second race . However he crashed, he crashed . Obv iou s ly, it was just kind of take a step bac k a nd say we got it, win so me more ra ces , keep the th ing on two whee ls an d we'll hav e it. To be ho nest, at that tim e I thought this was going to be a piec e of ca ke, really . Th en a gai n, I'm lea rning. Th er e 's noth ing in th is wo rld t hat's goi ng to be a piece of cake." O ve r t he cou rse of th e 2 000 s e a s on , Edward s wen t thr ough nine or 10 sets of leath e rs . "It just happen ed to be every time I crashed the th ing I was on a brand ne w set of leathers. Th a nkful Iy, only two of them we re in a race." Th e team co uldn' t figure out why he ke pt fa lling. "We 'd d on e pre -seaso n testing a nd e ve ryt hi ng was ha lfwa y dece nt, the bik e was a lot of, as long as you do th e sam e thing yo u'll be all right, bra ke the same pla ce , tu rn the sa me place, bec au se it worked the last lap , it'll work this lap . Basically no t a who le lot of fee l with what th e fron t was doing . And som e times yo u d id the sa m e thing that yo u d id th e la p befor e and it wo uld ju st go awa y. It was just after mid -season that we decid ed we neede d to seriously re- co ns ide r what we're doi ng here. So th at' s when we j a c ke d the thing wa y up and got a whole lot o f weight on the front. We jacked•.it,way up a nd in turn of jacking it up , we got a little bit s tee pe r s teering ang le , a little more weight on the front and we were able to fee l a little bit be tte r what was happening an d that's what reall y turned us arou~d . and we won four of the last six." Th e co ntroversy o f th e se ason di d n' t invo lve Edwards. It involved Yam a ha 's Haga. The J apan ese rider ha d tested posit ive for ephedr ine, a bann ed su bs ta nce that was an ingr ed ien t in the herba l s upplem en t Ma Hua ng , at t he first race of the year in Sou th Africa . It would be three races befo re it ca me to public light , and it would be the final race of th e year be fo re there was a resolution . All seaso n , Edwa rds ra ced as if Haga woul d keep th e points he ea rne d by winning in South Africa . "We- went the whole year. every race, aft er every ra ce , we we re giving him 45 poi nts a nd ta king off five poin ts fo r me ." Th at , like the pun ishment , was si mp le math for Ed wa rds. "When you' re ca ug ht with it in your system, take the points away , whatever , it should ha ve been ta ken care of." Haga a nd Ed wa rds a re friends , a nd when Ed wards sa w the tr immed down Ha g a a t th e firs t ra c e he s as ke d ho w he 'd done it. Haga free ly had admitted th a t he 'd us ed ephe drine to lose we ight. "He sai d he wasn't e ven wo rking ou t a whole lot. Go s it in the sa una a nd do some stuff a nd the weight wa s j u s t fal lin g o ff of h im . " He ' d lo s t a bo u t 2 0 poun ds . Pe o ple don 't un de rs tand that th at in itse lf is a perform an ce e nha ncer. Wha tever t he rat io ma y be , I've hea rd seve n pounds to a horse pow e r, wha tever yo u wa nt to put it do wn to , that in itse lf is a perfor m an ce en hancer. It wa s ig no ra nce , really. He d idn 't kno w t hat it was wro ng, I k no w that fo r a fa ct. He d idn't k no w what he was do ing wa s wrong ." Rumo rs about his punishment were rampant. Initially he was go ing to get his po ints ta ke n away. He was go ing to g et banned for a year. He was go ing to get banned fo r a race . It a ll we nt in o ne ea r and o ut th e othe r. Ed wa rds was willing to win the fight on the track . Yamaha wanted to fight with the FIM. When the races e nd e d a t th e pen ultimate round in Ge rm any, whe re Ed wards d id th e double, he held a 52-point lead. Bar ring Hag a getting his points ba ck , and competing a t the final rac e in Brands Hatch , Ed wa rds was champion . T he final ru ling came down j ust be fo re Br a nd s Hatch. Haga was o ut a nd Edwards, who 'd already celebra ted the title , was indeed World Cham pion. There was little time to celebrat e. By the time you get this, he will ha ve been to England a nd South Africa, teste d twice in Aus tralia , visit ed Thai la nd and the Philip pine s , go ne off -roadi ng in t he Canary Isla nds , an d accepte d his World Champion 's trophy at a ceremo ny in Monaco . The n he heads for a n extended s nowbo a rding vacation in Jac kso n, Wyoming, before the sta rt of serious testing in J anu a ry. Ducat i ha s a new m otorcycle an d will start th e season with a trio of ve ry hu ngr y riders. Ed war d s wants to win m o re races a nd ret ain hi s title, but sees the Ducati team as the main obstacle . Ba yliss , with a full sea son ' s e xpe rience and a fresh st a rt to a full season, will be form ida ble , he believes. "I loo k for [Ben] Bostrom to come around . He knows the tracks , he knows the c ulture , he knows the people. He's defi nitely got talent - he's go t loads of ta lent. I just don 't think he was ev er reall y happy. Th e one race of th e year th at he was happy was La gu na . He had a ll his friends a nd fam ily there . He just seemed to get alo ng with the tires insta ntly a nd get a long with the bike , get alo ng with the tra ck . I look for him to turn it ar ound ne xt yea r. He 's go t a lot of p ressu re as wel l." Bostro m was occasionally cri ticized for his off-track be havior , the fanc y leath er s a nd cowboy hats a nd disco ball in th e m otorhome. Edwards isn 't bu ying it. "He knows whe n it's time to switc h into a differen t mode ." In o ne way, the sea son m a y be less difficult. Ha ga has gone to GPs a nd Yama ha has pulled o ut of World Supe rbi ke , whic h was a bo dy b low to th e se ries . Ed wa rds is a sta unc h s up po rte r of Superbikes, be lieving th a t the y dra w nea rly e q ua l or bigge r cr ow ds in m ost places , with so me o bvio us differences . In Spain and Holland the GP's ar e mu ch mo re popular, while in Eng land th e oppos ite is true. "In my m ind , Grand Prix has alwa ys been th e pinna cle . I'm not go ing to d en y tha t at all. It's a lway s been th e dream , the 5 00 Grands Prix. But, at the same tim e , S uperbikes hav e grow n we ll beyond m y exp ectation . I first ca me to Superbike as a st epping s to ne to get t Grands Prix, lea rn some tracks , lea rn th e Europe a mind fra mes , but it' s grown to s uc h a cali ber tha t thin k it' d be silly to g ive it up to go to a lesser packa g that you ' re not su re you ca n win o n." Hon da has a four-stroke Gra nd Prix m ach ine in th wo rks . It will likely de but in 2002 a nd Edwards kn ows it Should he succe ssfully de fend his title , his ascent woul be a lmost gu a ranteed . "I'll ha ve nine yea rs ex pe rienc racing four-st ro kes. If four -strok es do come into Gran Prix, who better to ride it th an me? "

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