Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 24 JUNE 18, 2013 (Top) Crutchlow crashed out of fourth place early in the race. (Bottom) Bradley Smith had his best MotoGP finish to date when he passed Dovizioso late in the race to earn sixth place. Rossi was now a couple of seconds adrift of the leaders, and while he could more or less match their pace and the gap grew only a little by little, he could do nothing to close it. Before the race, he'd jokingly said he'd be prepared to try a repeat of his audacious 2009 overtake, "if Jorge will wait for me." All too true, although he was able to add: "Race by race we are growing up." Nicky Hayden was another casualty of treacherous front grip. Strong in qualifying, he was hoping for a best-yet result; but he was stuck behind Stefan Bradl's LCR Honda for the first five laps, and felt he was being held up. No sooner had he forced his way past and was setting off in pursuit of Rossi than he crashed at the same corner as Bautista CHUMP OF THE WEEKEND Alvaro Bautista earned opprobrium last year when a firstcorner lunge took Jorge Lorenzo out of the Assen race. He did it again two weeks ago at Mugello when he took Valentino Rossi out on the first lap – admittedly that was judged a no-blamer. Then he narrowly missed a repeat on the 10th corner at Catalunya. "I felt I was faster, and I didn't want the leaders to get away," he said. Rossi, whose opinion of riders who try to win races in the first lap is not high, was voluble. "Not very clever," he said. "In Mugello he made a mistake and f&%ked my home GP. One mistake can happen, but to do the same at the next race, again with me, is stupid. If I hadn't gone wide he would have taken me again. When he sees the top guys in front he become a bit crazy." For the second race in a row, Alvaro Bautista crashed out. And he almost took Valentino Rossi with him. Again. P63 Briefly... Spencer and Marc Marquez met for the first time under the auspices of sponsors Alpinestar, and the result was an exchange of mutual respect that had the stamp of authenticity on both sides. Marquez has had to brush up on his history, not having been born until almost a decade after Spencer's glory years. "Riding at the very top level is certainly about belief," Spencer told MotoGP.com in a video report. "That's a confidence and I can see it in his riding. Many people ask me, 'How do you feel about somebody coming along and breaking your records?' I think it's great!" For Marquez: "Meeting Freddie was important. When he was a rider he had the same mentality as me." The new-generation 1000s finally broke a top-speed record set by Alex Barros's 990cc Honda in 2004. It stood at 210.8 mph and was first equaled in practice by Nicky Hayden's Ducati, then bust by Marc Marquez (212.1), Hayden again (211.8), Bradl and Dani Pedrosa (210.7) and Alvaro Bautista (210.4) Nobody has got anywhere near Ducati's 2003 unofficial testing record, with a strong tailwind, of some 213.2 mph. Ben Spies hopes to return in three or four races time, at Laguna Seca or Indianapolis. The American is having a second attempt at recovering from shoulder injuries and post-season reconstructive surgery: Michele Pirro will run in his place at Assen and in Germany, using the Ducati "lab bike" continued on next page

• Cover