Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/726231
VOL. 53 ISSUE 36 SEPTEMBER 13, 2016 P141 that it was so. They were soon disillusioned when they started going too fast for his comfort. The list of former good bud- dies who were surprised to feel the full force of his equally considerable wrath, expressed in full public view, includes some erstwhile big names. For exam- ple, Sete Gibernau and Marco Melandri. Both were surprised when the best-pals suddenly turned the other way. Melandri told me, after all but beating Rossi at Assen in 2005, and suffering as a result: "We used to dry our socks on the radiator together after riding motocross." He looked hurt and bewildered. Gibernau's experience was similar. One week they were playing with remote control cars together in the hotel lobby. Then Rossi's pit crew were caught cheating: laying rubber with a spinning scooter wheel on the grid at Losail. Rossi blamed Sete, denounced him as a spy, and vowed he would not only never speak to him again, but that he would never win another race. In that latter prediction, he was correct. Max Biaggi, at least had the advantage of being an enemy from the outset. Like Max, both Gibernau and Melandri were pretty much dismantled by Valen- tino. Nothing much has changed, except the new friends-to-ene- mies are nowadays a bit more difficult to take to pieces. They're younger, for one thing. And while it is amazing that Rossi is still so fast, some of them are faster. Look at the current bête-noir, Marc Marquez. When he turned up in MotoGP in 2013, Rossi was fresh from two humbling years with Ducati, had been forced to accept a junior role back at Yamaha, with Jorge Lorenzo in the cat-bird seat, and was delighted just to win a single race. His appreciation of Marquez's achievement in winning six and the title seemed quite genuinely respectful, and definitely cordial. Two years later things had changed radically. Rossi was now himself a serious title can- didate, only narrowly beaten by Lorenzo. And he blamed Mar- quez, whose status turned to deadly personal enemy. Nobody could forget Rossi's pettish display at Sepang, where he still insists Marquez was try- ing to help Lorenzo by slowing him down. In the end, he ran wide and knocked the young pretender off. The subsequent penalty was part of the reason why he didn't win the title. Rossi certainly hasn't forgot- ten it, and referred to it again at Silverstone after the pair had laid on a terrific paint-swapping dis- play of strictly personal on-track rivalry. This was different, he said, because "we both had the same goal—to finish in front." But it was pretty brutal, and gave the lie to their handshake in the emotional parc ferme moments at Catalunya, when all were much stricken by Luis Salom's salutary death. Hitherto Rossi has equally been respectful of comingman Maverick Vinales, first-time winner in Britain. They shared a laugh at Mugello, where the new boy slotted into second on the grid after tailing pole-setter Rossi, and Lorenzo compared them with two schoolboys copy- ing one another's work. He even had a good-natured little post-race dig, suggesting it would have been better if Mav had waited for them to join the fun of an epic five-way battle. We can see, however, that the digs will soon get sharper, the enmity more acute. For next year the two will be teammates at Yamaha, and if this marvellously talented youngster can win a race on a Suzuki… just imagine what he will be like on an M1. Given that your teammate is always the first one you have to beat, Valentino ain't gonna like it. Back to Machiavelli for a closing thought, "It is better," he said, "to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both." Rossi has achieved the latter with the gen- eral public. But Maverick looks like he won't be bothered to do either. CN