Cycle News

VOL. 52 ISSUE 13 MARCH 31, 2015 P133 able to match Giacomo Agos- tini's all-classes 122 wins and 15 titles. Though Ago did have the advantage of competing in two classes simultaneously. The GOATs kept on coming in Ago's wake. It is quite a roll of honor. Kenny Roberts is next—the last rider before Marquez to claim a rookie championship. And he was a total Grand Prix rookie, without track experience in the smaller classes. Freddie Spencer was dominant enough, though his career was short- lived. Eddie Lawson another candidate, the first to win back- to-back titles on different makes of motorcycle. Wayne Rainey was well on the way to his own fourth-straight title when a crash cut the story short; but those that followed made an even deeper impres- sion on the results sheets. Most especially Mick Doohan. It remains a moot point whether his era coincided with a lack of really strong challengers (Rain- ey, for example, had Schwantz, Gardner, Lawson and others), or whether Mick's talent was just so great that he made the rest look feeble. Either way, a rider can only beat those who come up against him, and Mick did that more than comprehensively, time and again—until he too was stopped by injury. Who knows how long it might have gone on. Not even Rossi (once again) has beaten his record of 12 wins in a sea- son. We will come back to that number... To a newer generation, how- ever, Rossi is clearly the GOAT among GOATS. He beat all com- ers, repeated Lawson's back-to- back machine-change statistic, and has more premier-class wins (82) than Ago's 68 and Doohan's break Doohan's 12-in-a-season record, with 13 last year. Though it is worth remembering that he had 18 races in which to do it, and Mick just 15. There is another example of how standards change and comparisons become difficult. Rossi tops the list in the number of points scored: 4,151. Doohan is next, but with fewer races, at 2,391. Third is none other than Dani Pedrosa, 2,282. And he is in no way a candidate. And in any case, when Ago was in full flow, the winner only got 15 points, compared with 25 of today. These things keep chang- ing. This at last brings me to my point. Greatest Of All Time is really a meaningless concept. Because new GOATS keep on com- ing. It is the nature of sporting achievement, indeed the nature of human endeavor, that the bar keeps on getting raised. Therefore the latest GOAT is the only GOAT. MotoGP is particularly blessed at present, to have two of them on the same grid. Rossi on the way out, Marquez on the way in. In the end, though, the young- ster will also be superseded. Or perhaps that might be "rebut- ted". GOATS may come, and GOATS may go, but GOATS go on forever. CN "GREATEST OF ALL TIME IS REALLY A MEANINGLESS CONCEPT. BECAUSE NEW GOATS KEEP ON COMING." 54. Although neither of those two matched Casey Stoner's win rate of 38 in just 7 seasons. This gave Stoner an average of 5.43 per season; Ago scored 5.23, Doohan 4.91. And this might be as good a yardstick as any for the GOAT title. Use it, and Rossi wins again. In 15 seasons so far he has 82 premier-class wins and an aver- age of 5.46. Or is this a somewhat arti- ficial measure? I mean, how about Marquez. Two seasons, 19 race wins. An out-of-sight average of 9.5. And the first to

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