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Cycle News 2015 Issue 49 December 8

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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VOL. 52 ISSUE 49 DECEMBER 8, 2015 P89 sorts of chat about an inch off line: feathered the brake and it snatched, missed a gear, put in too much lean, got nudged by someone, or even the puzzled "the data shows I didn't do any- thing different." Plus a detailed account of the transit between saddle and gravel. Frequently finding it hugely amusing. So there is something un- avoidably hilarious, as well as potentially tragic, to the end-of- season crash-stats compilation. A fine balance happily not badly upset by the biggest crasher of the biggest class, Alex de Angelis. The former GP winner emerged mercifully quickly from life-threatening injuries incurred in his 19th crash of the year. After some time in intensive care in Japan, he was back to visit at the final at Valencia, and plans to return to the tracks next year to do it all over again. Thirty-one-year-old "D'Angerous" (as some riders call him) was in good company in double figures. Rank rookie Jack Miller had only one less, but aged only 20 he bounced. Likewise 22-year-old Marquez. He came fourth (behind di Meglio) in this unenviable and involuntary contest, with 13. Expensively for his title chances: six in races rather than his more usual "finding the limit" practice prangs. We can draw a simple conclu- sion. Riders most likely to crash are ambitious rookies (obvi- ously), or old hands battling to keep up on uncompetitive bikes. Or Marc Marquez, always near the top. Furthermore? Make up your own mind. Jorge Lorenzo had three crashes all year; Rossi only two. The smaller the classes, the more the crashes: race- weekend average 12 in MotoGP, 20 for Moto2 (where everybody suffers the "uncompetitive bike" problem), and 23 for Moto3, home of the headlong hero. Yet the highest individual total only went to Moto3 by one: second-year teen Karel Hanika had 24, Moto2's never-say-die Axel Pons recorded 23. Happily, he was also starting to get seri- ously fast. Moto2 is crash-happy be- cause superhuman effort is required to overcome the clunki- ness of the bikes. Note that two out of the next three also won races. Sam Lowes had 19 crashes, and Xavier Simeon 18 (class rookie Alex Marquez also had 19). Most notable Moto3 high scorer Nico Antonelli, equaling fourth with 17, also demonstrated the positive side of pushing like crazy. Last year he was second overall to Hanika with 22 crashes to 24. This year he won two races. That's the positive side: crash- ing helps you learn. It's an old saying: It's easier to teach a fast rider not to crash than a slow rider to go fast. That doesn't explain, however, why 2015 should continue an overall upward trend. MotoGP most clearly indicates a steady climb, from 98 in 2006 to 215 nine years later. It surely doesn't mean that riders (several of them the same) are less competent, the tires and suspension worse, the track surfaces polished and slippery? By 2006, the more danger- ous circuits were long gone, and danger spots at existing tracks had been much improved. It was already safer to crash than the long-gone bad old days, with several fatalities every year. Since 2006, the single most important step is air-bag leath- ers: a huge benefit in turning a potentially bad bump into a well- dissipated bounce. Again, even safer to crash. So we are seeing more of them not because the riders are more careless, or because they think it is funny. (That's still only in retrospect.) It's because they can. And as a result they have to. PS: Just so you know, Silver- stone (79 crashes) shaded Le Mans by one; the most-crashed- at corner is Tramonto at Misano, before the back straight. CN

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