Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

go the other way," Hayden said. "But one of our biggest weaknesses is with the clutch I'm using now, which is real heavy in the backshift." When he saw Edwards go down, he knew that the luck had turned his way after all. Asked if his main emotion was relief or something else, he fought back the tears. "Winning races... you just forget how good it feels," he said. "That hurts, when it's all you think about." Edwards took some time to cool down, but when he did speak to the press, he was philosophical. "I really thought I had it won," the Texan said. "Coming into the last corner, I wanted to block the inside line, and I braked where I wanted. He tried to come around the outside, and I let the brakes off again." After that, he lost sight of Hayden, and expected him to come around the other side instead. "I just wanted to get to the line first," Edwards said, "so when I hit the Astroturf, I hit the gas." That's when it all went wrong. "It was win or nothing," he continued. "I wasn't going to give up. But I gave it to him once when I ran off the track the lap before, and I gave it to him again at the last corner." It was a day of other heroes, with injured riders bravely ignoring pain and fatigue in the quest to salvage title points. Catalunya victims Marco Melandri and Loris Capirossi were seventh and 15th, respectively. No one was more heroic than Valentino Rossi, whose response to any and every situation only seems to enhance his stature. He broke a bone in his right wrist on Thursday morning, struggled through practice, and had to be helped on with his helmet for Saturday's race. His wrist was carefully strapped, and he was full of painkillers and meso- therapy injections. At first, he was tenta- tive from the back of the grid. "[But] after the adrenalin and the injec- tions started to work, it was possible to ride - not to the maximum, but close," Rossi said. He was soon lapping close to the pace of the leaders and picking up places steadily - although he also ran off at the end of the back straight, in the same place as Edwards, on the third lap. "It was because I didn't have enough power to brake," he said. By the finish, Rossi was eighth, for eight points that might prove very valu- able, although he is now 46 points behind Hayden. "It's a lot, and it will be difficult, espe- cially against Hayden," Rossi said. "He made a great race today - but he also showed his limit. In the last lap, he lost a second to Colin, and if Colin hadn't crashed, he would not have won." Shinya Nakano was second, his own as well as Kawasaki's best-ever premier- class result, after qualifying in the same position, and this time avoiding inadver- tent penalties with a clean start and a strong run all race long. He had been short of pace to stay with the leaders, but he gave his Bridgestone qualifying tires much of the credit. "I had to use a hard front tire, because it was warmer, and I had some chatter early on," Nakano said. "Then it improved, and I could chase down John [Hopkins] and pass him. But if it hadn't been for my qualifying position - if I'd been on the third or even second row - it would have been a different story." There was a strong fight for the final rostrum position, which was narrowly won by Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa, ahead of LCR Honda's Casey Stoner and Kenny Roberts Jr. and his KR211V. "I lost a lot of time at the beginning of the race on a full tank - I have to improve my performance then," said Pedrosa. Stoner, who had gotten ahead on the last run to the flag, commented: "Dani was a little slower than me, but it was hard to pass. Then I made a mistake on the final lap that allowed him to get ahead again." Roberts was right there, waiting for a chance that never came. "I had a little bit more pace than them, but every time I tried to put a move on them, they were putting a move on each other, too," Roberts said. "But we were closer to the leader than last week." John Hopkins had started well from his career-first pole, holding a strong second for the first eight laps. But both Rizla Suzuki riders ran into grip problems, Hopkins dropping back to sixth, just a sec- ond ahead of the injured Marco Melandri and his Fortuna Honda. Chris Vermeulen climbed to fifth early on but then dropped to 10th, behind Rossi and Carlos Check's Dunlop-shod Tech 3 Yamaha. Edwards preserved his perfect finish- ing record by remounting for 13th. Jorge Lorenzo took a pole-to-flag vic- tory in a stultifyingly dull 250cc GP, which was made more so by a crash the first time through the ultratight left-hand hair- pin that eliminated five riders (including new factory Honda rider Martin Cardenas), and put other fast men from front to back. These included second-row qualifier Yuki Takahashi, and both Aoyama brothers, Shuhei and Hiro. Lorenzo was chased for a while by Alex de Angelis and Andrea Dovizioso, but by the finish he had left them miles behind and scrapping over second; they finished in that order. "I knew that I was fast, but at the begin- ning it was difficult to open it up, until the tires went down," said Lorenzo, who closed up the gap on points leader Dovizioso with his fourth win of the season. Mika Kallio avenged his recent bad luck to win a remorseless 125cc race that ended in a three-way display of pure aggression on the final run through the chicane. The C Y C L E N E W S • JULY 5, 2006 19 Valentino Rossi's famous luck was stretched again to breaking point on the opening practice session for the Dutch TT, when he became one of three riders to open the MotoGP crash register at the new circuit. The consequence changes the whole complexion of the World Championship bat- tle. Rossi crashed heavily on the old section of the circuit, losing control at 185 kph on the entry to the Ramshoek corner before the final chicane. The fact that it is one of only four left-handers left on the emasculat- ed new circuit was certainly a factor. So, too, was that the tire he was using was "on the hard side," according to his crew chief Jerry Burgess. It had done five laps previously before a shower caused an interruption, and now he was on his second lap of the next run. "When I started again, I felt I didn't have enough grip on the left side," said Rossi. "I tried to do another lap to see if the grip would improve." It didn't, and he was caught out at the fastest left-hander on the circuit. "[Looking at the data] the suspension had pressure on it, so it's just a matter of the tire not coming up to temperature," said Burgess. The unfortunate rider lost the rear, and was sent into a tumbling highside into the gravel; after rising, he slumped back, heavily winded, but eventually walked to safety. "It was a big highside, and the first time I hit the ground very hard," he said. He was diagnosed with a small fracture in the pisiform bone in his right wrist, and another fracture in his left foot. He was out again in the afternoon, running 23 laps and placing 12th. "When I give gas or brake, it's really hard," he said afterward. On the second morning, he ran just four laps before pulling into the pits, shaking his wrist in pain and withdrawing from the session. In the after- noon, he qualified 18th and last after 14 laps, and then withdrew from the rest of the ses- sion, saying he would decide after race- morning warmup if he would race or not. If he withdrew, it would be the first race he has missed in his GP career. It would also open up the World Championship, at a time when Rossi was threatening to close the gap again. This again illustrates the folly of a jam- packed calendar, with five races over six weekends - giving riders little chance to recover from even relatively minor injuries. Assen has a habit of providing pivotal moments, in spite of the changes to the track, and many were reminded of what happened to one of Rossi's heroes, Kevin Schwantz, in 1994. He crashed in practice and fractured his wrist, ruining his title defense, and effectively ending his racing career, as he retired midway through 1995. Remarkably rapid recoveries from injury were painfully evident at both Marlboro Ducati and Fortuna Honda, as two of the three riders stretchered away from last weekend's horrific multiple-bike first-corner crash were back in the saddle and going for it, just four days later. Marco Melandri was sporting an impressive black left eye, the only visible sign of injury. The dislocation to his left shoulder/collarbone had settled, he said; the greater pain now was from torn muscles in his neck on the other side. He had also suffered concussion - an injury that in rugby, for example, would rule anyone out of playing for three weeks. Melandri's recov- ery time had been only four days. But doc- tors had cleared to him ride, with further checks after the first session. A master of Assen, he was showing little sign of being daunted, although he did complain later of pain and took some time to get going. One of the smoothest of all around the old sec- tion, he qualified seventh for a race he expected to be a test of endurance. Loris Capirossi had been discharged from the hospital the morning after the crash, cleared of suspected internal bleeding, but with a painful chest injury. He was finding riding a struggle, mainly because of chest pain and consequent trouble breathing. From the first afternoon, he was on an increasing regime of exotic painkillers - including the controversial meso-therapy - from Dr. Claudio Costa. "If the race was today, there'd be no chance for me to take part," he said. He qualified 15th. Luckless Spaniard Toni Elias joined the injury list as one of three left-hand-corner fallers in the first free practice, landing on his left shoulder and damaging tissue and suffering a small fracture to the top of his humerus bone, which ruled him out for the rest of the week- end. Elias, in considerable pain, was flown back to Spain for further medical checks, and he will begin rehabilitation. His next assess- ment, to see if he will be fit to ride in the British GP in one week, was scheduled for Monday, but current predictions put him out of that race, though he will possibly return for Germany a fortnight hence. Last year, Elias missed a chunk of the season after a testing injury early in the year. This year, since he switched to Honda, he has been erratic as he tries to get used to the machine. The latest version of the classic Assen cir- cuit, using barely half of the old track - and even that was significantly altered - was effectively brand-new, and the first free prac- tice session was expanded by 30 minutes from the usual hour for riders to find their way around. Immediately, one truth became obvious: You can change the Assen circuit, but you can't change the Assen weather. Showers sweeping in from across the flat countryside never really wet the track, but they sent riders back to the pits repeatedly. This was in line with almost every race so far this year. There was a lot to learn, on a cir- cuit cut from 6.027 km to 4.555 km, with pole speed down from 182.701 kph last year to 170.084 kph this year. Even more telling, Assen has now become a five-gear circuit - a distinction shared with the tight and twisty Sachsenring and (for some riders) Laguna Seca. Although Assen gearing is quite high, first gear is now used for the ultra- slow first left hairpin - it was used nowhere previously, and the truncated straights mean that sixth gear is now quite redundant, according to Rossi's crew chief, Jerry Burgess. The alteration is primarily the complete removal of the first section, the North Loop, replaced with a tight section with 360 degrees' worth of right-hand bends leading into a very tight left-hand hairpin, which takes the name of the famous Strubben hair- pin that it replaces. The subsequent to-and- fro "Veenslang," already straightened last year, is now completely straight. The only taste of the old Assen comes in isolated Briefly... Continued on page 21

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