gotti
Bu
t
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
L ,- arco Melandri became
lvl:r"["i.i:'if:;:::
I
-
I th"n'on" race. after a
5
I
French Grand
Prix rich rn
drama.
The Fortuna Honda rider's
win,
after 28 laps of the 2.59-mile
Bugatti Cir-
cuit at
Le Mans, was the
unexpected cli-
max ro the eagerly awaited confrontation
between
the rei8ning star
Valentino Rossi
and the
new.
young pretender Dani
Pedrosa.
For almost
everyone except Melandri,
however, it was an afternoon
of wildly
changing
fortunes.
John
Hopkins took the early
lead,
but
his Suzuki's
iourney
from slowcoach to
front-runner is not
quite
completed
yet,
and he
was riding desperately hard. He
crashed out on
lap l0 after having been
overtaken
by Rossi and
Pedrosa,
remounting
to flnish l5th, after
pifting
to
straighten bent levers and bars.
Rossi definitely
had the edge in the bat-
tle vr'ith
Pedrosa, and
his
Camel
Yamaha
had a
4-3-second lead over the Repsol
Honda on lap 2l when
suddenly he
slowed, and coasted
to a stop for
his
sec-
ond
non-finish of the
year.
He sat on his
silent
motorcycle, the
picture
of desparr
as Pedrosa went on by.
40
MAY3r,2006
.
cYcLE NEWS
BY MTHAE! Scorl
PHoros sY Goro & Goose
M()T(,6P
Round 5
tA.ly 21,
2006
World
Championship
Road Rac€ Seni€s
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to
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