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VOLUME 58 ISSUE 43 OCTOBER 26, 2021 P121 undermining of his overweening strength. Nor Wayne Rainey. But career-ending injuries imposed a higher price of their own. Other past masters managed it philosophically: Eddie Lawson a prime example, enjoying his twilight years shepherding Ca- giva to eventual maturity. More recent history brings us Rossi, once basically just unbeatable. For the past 10 years, however, the decline has been slow but unstoppable. It's hard to imagine a rider resisting the decay with quite so much determination, and the results have only recently undergone a catastrophic slump. But at the same time his last (his 89th!) premier-class win was four years ago. Rossi's long-extended purple patch allowed him to be casu- ally arrogant towards his rivals. The likes of Max Biaggi and Sete Gibernau were particular targets for scorn, which was enthusi- astically echoed by the grow- ing army of Rossi fans. The fit was not so good when Lorenzo arrived and started to beat him, although the Spaniard's quirky persona worked against him for those faithful yellow-clad sup- porters. Marquez, in contrast, proved more intractable—and for the fans, even more polarizing. Rossi's attacks, however, lacked the confident superiority of the past, and lapsed into serious indignity in the 2015 affair. Rossi unaccountably accused Mar- quez of conspiring to support Lorenzo's championship—by beating both of them in Austra- lia (eh?), attacked him publicly prerace in Malaysia, and then forced him off the track in the race. The subsequent back-of- the-grid penalty effectively cost Rossi the chance of an eighth championship, Lorenzo winning by five points. Missing from the above list—King Kenny Roberts, who decided to quit with dignity intact while still at the top of his game, but whose hope of a fourth and final championship was denied by an irony that has only achieved full force this year. This is a tale I never tire of telling, for I feel the injustice every time the FIM Stewards Panel penalizes a rider for sometimes quite minor last-lap transgressions. Kenny was battling against fast stripling Freddie Spencer, and finally lost the 1983 crown by just two points. The key moment was the last lap of the Swedish GP, where Spencer's attack on the penultimate corner put both of them off the track, with Kenny suffering more than Freddie. Spencer now heads the FIM Stewards Panel, in charge of applying sanctions, and one of several rules applied without an inch of flexibility applies to exceeding track limits on the last lap. Unless you were forced off (as Kenny was), you automatical- ly lose one place. Had this ap- plied in Sweden in 1983, Fred- die would have been demoted to second, and Kenny would have won the championship. Ah well, although Ozymandias might not have agreed, all good things come to an end, and Freddie's own brilliant career came to a premature and still puzzling end barely two years later. CN Maybe it's time to think not about the rise of the new, but the end of the old. Unless you were forced off (as Kenny was), you automatically lose one place. Had this applied in Sweden in 1983, Freddie would have been demoted to second, and Kenny would have won the championship.