r'r.'ali,
RE
Now coming
up to his fourth
year
as a full factory Repsol
Honda rider, 24-year-old
Nicky has been
"promisinS"
for
iust
a little longer
than his supporters expected. He did
8et
a
win last year,
and that might have
helped with his stronger finish
to the season.
The cheerful American is team leader
now and needs
to show that he can raise his
Same
to that next level. where he is still fast at rhe
end ofthe race. Last year,
he wa5
get-
ting there.
Early tests left Nicky a little
confused about
development direction,
preferring
the
'05
bike to the
'06.
This was not a
good
omen for
the man leading
the way for all the
Honda riders.
I
rL
a
I
T
5/r,i,
NICKY HAYD€N
R€psol HRC
Honda
5€T€
GIB€RNAU
Marlboro Ducati
The
Spaniard has taken to the role ofthe "nearly
man" rather
too smoothly for
comfort. Fastest overall
last
year
by the measure
ofaccumulated
practice
rimes, he
somehow forgot how
to translate that into race resuks.
He was helped in this by Rossi's
devastating last-corner
altack at the fimt race ar
Jerez.
From then on,
Sete seemed to
take
himsell
apart
gradually
to pieces.
When
he
iumped
on the Duaati, he went extremely fast
jn
testing. He'll need a
lot
of help to turn that into rice wins. From
the machine to
the tires
-
both will
need a st€p forward
from last
year.
Along wirh his new teammate Gibernau, 33-year-old
Capirossi is the oldest rider
out there
-
unless
some miiacle
brints
Jeremy
McWilliams
back on the currentt out-of-action WCM.
He
also has three fullyears ofexperience on the Desmoredici.
lf only those pesky entineers
wouldn't keep changing it.
The most refreshing thinS
about Loris is that he still rides like a teen€e lunatic.
The best thing
about that is that it sometimes pays oll Don't rule
out another race win.
COLIN EDWARDS
Camel Yamaha
-'V.;:11\,
CYCLE NEWS lvrARCH
29,2006 35
t
/.',
J
I
)
H
\,1
I
"/l
Ir
li
I
s.
i
\
.)
I
I
rt
n
a
a
v
l
u
r
e
(
t
I
L
B
I
\
I
\\qa$
LORTS CAPtROsst
Marlboro Ducati
The "Texas
Tornado" has
something new for his fourth MotoGP
season. For the first
time,
he's on the same bike and in the
same team as the
previous year.
So it realt is time for
the double Superbike
champ to deliver.
His GP results have
been
patchily
brilliant, but more
often downbeat. There's still
room
for faith, but no more room for excuses.
But if he does
get
everything ro add up
right, his legendary
consistency could
be
very
valuable.
r a
E.
,W
