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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1542397
r\
Krnny tohr Jr.
(lol
wor competitiv! in ltoly,
finishlng eighrh ofiar
loring ord to Toni Elios
(24|
on rhc finol lop.
,I
rc
I
Colin Edrvords didn't hovr
o
good
weekend.
c
I
\
,f
\
l
I
combination.
From then on, the leading trio was on its own, with Pedresa
also losing touch slightly.
Wttat a fight it was: Hayden never did lead, but he came close and he
never
gave
up, showing a level ofend-of-race aggression that has
been
absent
in
previous yea6.
Rossi
produced
a final lap to secure victory that everyone
watching knew was a masterpiece. He
is,
without
question,
back as The Man.
But the overall
quality
of the race was so high that even riding like that could
win him only the
narrowest
of
victories.
Pedrosa was still only
two seconds
behind,
and he said he
was
happy:
"Because
this track
is very tirinS to ride, and I was
expectinS
to lose more
time on the leaders."
Gibernau
regained speed once he'd worked out how not to scr+e his
now naked toes, and he was
just
a second away. Then came Melandri, and a
gap
of seven seconds to the next
group.
Kenny Robens
Jr.
had
got
to the front of it in his best race in ages, but on
the final lap Fortuna Honda's Toni Elias managed to nose ahead, with Konika
Minolta's l''lakoto Tamada, Rizla Suzuki's
John
Hopkins
and
fast
starter
Nakano all up close.
"lt's
like the
first
race
for me," Roberts.lr
said.
"We
got
a
decent
start, and
the bike
is
a big
improvement."
Advice from HRC chassis
people
in China had helped them to arrive at
further modifications at the front.
"We're
finally on the right track,'' Roberts said,
''and
the bike will do what
I want.''
Hopkins had overtaken Nakano on the
last lap,
blaming an
unusually
bad
star.t for not being able to
fiSht for a
befter
position.
Colin Edwards concluded
a dire weekend with a distant l2th, after
switching to the new chassis on
race morninS- At the start of lap two, he was
punted
off
by
Tamada, reioinin8 right at the back.
'After
that,
the race was
iust
a test session for me, really, with the new
Continued lro,fl
pase
39
ride ,or
the rest of the season. The Ig-year-old
Welsh rider was at Mutello, and he
did
not know
until th€ day before practice
sEned that hir trip
was
in vain, Because of a shortfall in
promised
sponrorship lrom Swiss intemet company Ticino
Hostint, the team had r€placed him wkh former
250cc
rider
Franco Battaini, who brought money
for his ride. "l
don't know what will happen next,
but Doma have told nre not to make any quick
decisions, so
perhaps
they can son something
out," said Davies, the
youngest-ever
poinB
scorer
in th€ 250 class. Davies sacrificed chances of rides
in other series in order to stily in GP racing. A
chance of
replacinS inj!ry
victirn Dirk Heidolf in
the Kiefer-8os t.am for Mugello .ame to nothint
when German rider Franz As€henbrenner,
20,
took th€ spot.
Defending l25cc World
Champion Thomas Luthi
dented hi! chanaes
even
further
when he broke
his left collarbone for the second rime $is
,,ear
in
tess after
the French GP
Luthi
suffered the same
iniury in preseason
testing and opted at that time
for natural healing, which spoiled his rGsults in the
eart rounds.
Only at the
fifth rdce,
at Le Mans,
was he
back
to his old form,
with
his fi6t win
of
the
year.
Thre€ days larer, he