Cycle News

VOL. 52 ISSUE 35 SEPTEMBER 1, 2015 P127 who has scored a point in the essential mind game of grand prix racing. For Rossi, it is an unusual experience to be on the receiving end. One of my favorite old grand prix yarns comes from 1980 350cc World Champion Jon Ekerold, the last true privateer to win a title. To cut a long story short, at the French GP he had two rivals, and needed to disable one, so he could con- centrate on racing the other. He chose pole qualifier Patrick Fernandez. "I walked up to him on the grid," explains Ekerold, in one of those slightly scary South African accents, "put my arm round his shoulders. 'Patrick,' I said. 'Your home race. The pressure must be terrible.' "And I felt him shudder." Mind games are as old as racing, but there have been few practitioners as expert and persistent as Rossi. Unless you count the predecessor he admires the most: Barry Sheene—who made an art form of it, whether by giving false in- formation to his teammates and rivals, or just outwitting them, commercially, romantically or verbally, often just for the fun of it. The list of Rossi's victims is quite a role of honor. You had to be a threat to get on it. Once there, you never got off. Top of the tree Max Biaggi, who complained back when Rossi was still in 250s: "We are not even in the same class, and he is trying to beat me off the track." Rossi would mock his man- nerisms and his comments without mercy. When Max was complaining of persistent chat- ter, Rossi's response to the avid Italian press was: "I am not happy with my riding. I need to develop some chatter." On the track they came to blows, literally, in Rossi's first 500-class championship year, at Suzuka. Biaggi elbowed him onto the dirt flat out on the front straight. Rossi came swooping 'round him at the next chance, and gave him the finger as he rode round the outside. They exchanged blows post-race also in Catalunya. Biaggi had a spot of blood on his cheek. "A mosquito bit me," he said. Marco Melandri was next up. Thrusting ex-250 champ who could give Valentino a good run. They'd been friends until then, as Melandri said, "drying our socks on the radiator together after riding motocross." That friendship came to an abrupt end after Melandri almost beat him at Assen. Then poor Sete Gibernau, whose only comfort must be that at least Valentino took him seriously enough to devote a considerable part of his energy not just to beating him on track, but belittling him with subtle comments, and getting every- one on his side. It came to a head when Rossi denounced Gibernau as a spy at Qatar, after being shoved to the back of the grid after his teamsters were seen spinning up a scooter to lay rubber on the track from his front-row starting position. Rossi blamed everything on Gibernau, and announced firmly: "He will never win another race." He was cor- rect. Rossi's more recent target was Lorenzo, whose greatest fault was to be so precociously fast. Rossi panned Yamaha for hiring him, announced that they should have just one number- one rider and that he should be treated respectfully. He insisted on a wall down the middle of their joint pit box, and then car- ried out his threat to leave the team if they didn't drop Lorenzo. He went to Ducati, and we know what happened next. It was a much chastened Rossi who did return to Yamaha, and was obliged to accept that he was no longer by right the num- ber one rider. Now Rossi has Marquez nee- dling him in public. It means one thing. He'll have to rely on only his riding instead. CN

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