Cycle News

VOL. 51 ISSUE 40 OCTOBER 7, 2014 P121 team dynamic is the acceptance of the alpha dog. Two alphas on one team can be costly and I'm not talking salaries. It can cost teams championships. If you need an example, look to World Superbike. The two top teams – factory Kawasaki and Aprilia – both have a pair of alphas and the blessing and curse that goes with it. Yes, if you're a team owner you double your odds of race wins and a shot at the championship, but those championship dreams can also turn into a nightmare by a rider not willing to play a sup- porting role when they have no shot at a championship. Alphas don't like supporting roles. And neither do racing pur- ists. The words – Team Orders – make riders and fans alike cringe. In the individualist spirit of things, it is, may the best person win. No one gets excited about a race winner who was waved past to help secure a championship for a teammate. It's all rather anti- climactic and uninspiring. In fact, unless you're a fan of the rider bidding for the championship, you cheer for the guy who stares down team orders or gives it a not so nice hand gesture. Generally the only time you be- come the "bad" guy is if you take- out your teammate, especially if it's a bonehead move that jeop- ardizes his/her championship hopes. And there's no greater ex- ample in recent memory than the Portuguese Grand Prix in Estoril 2006 when Dani Pedrosa took out teammate Nicky Hayden and turned Hayden's championship advantage over Valentino Rossi into a long shot with one round to go. And there was a big outcry for better team support for Hayden – although without using the dread- ed words "team orders." This weekend in Magny-Cours team orders were the theme of the race weekend and it wasn't received very well. Both Kawa- saki and Aprilia had pit boards strongly urging both Marco Me- landri and Loris Baz to give way to their teammates in the title chase – Sylvain Guintoli and Tom Sykes - in race one. And it took a lot of urging. An angry emoticon on Melandri's pit board and the words "lose 1P" on Baz's board – dreaded signs to any competitor let alone an alpha. In the end, with two laps to go, Melandri moved over and waved Guintoli past in a still-alpha ges- ture. It was nothing more than a case of "this win is mine and I'm giving it to you." Melandri made a gracious acceptance to his role as team player in the post-race press conference, saying sometimes in life you have to take one step backwards to take two steps forward. But I guess during the break between race one and race two he changed his mind. So by his own logic how many steps backward did he take by running to the finish line ahead of Guintoli in race two? Melandri reasoned that Guin- toli didn't need his help anymore and giving him the double would disrespect his personal spon- sors. Was anybody waving their fists saying how dare Melandri? If there were, they were few and far between. Sylvain Guintoli fans perhaps. But you can bet that the powers-that-be in the factory Aprilia team were doing it. Was Melandri right? Only the final races at Losail circuit in three weeks time will tell. If Guintoli wins the champion- ship, then no harm, no foul and Melandri can say, "I told you so." But his alpha instincts of not tak- ing one for the team made his French teammate's title chances that much more difficult. Those points would have made a differ- ence. How much of a difference? Five points. Which doesn't sound like a lot unless you're chasing Sykes. Instead of going into the final round at Qatar with a sev- en-point deficit on Sykes, Guin- toli has a 12-point disadvantage. Translation: Even if Guintoli pulls off the double, Sykes can still clinch it with a pair of seconds. The question is which Melandri shows up in Qatar? Team player or alpha? Because Guintoli could use a teammate to be the perfect bridesmaid more than ever to help Aprilia and Guintoli secure their third championship in the series. CN

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