Cycle News

VOL. 55 ISSUE 20 MAY 22, 2018 P139 crown, had become an increas- ingly awkward burden. The 39-year-old multi-champ superstar had just signed up until the end of 2020, by when he will be into his 40s. Walking down pit lane, I bumped into an old pal who has worked with VR since he came to the premier class in 2000. "He's starting to look like a bed- blocker," I joked. The bristling response was immediate: "He's a pretty fast bed-blocker." Then Valentino put his Yamaha on the podium, ahead of his younger teammate Maverick Vinales, and I felt slightly chastened. But subsequent events seem to have rather born me out. Valentino's residency in the Movistar-backed factory team (along with a slightly hard-to-un- derstand early two-year renewal also for the off-form Maverick) had its biggest casualty in the run-up to the start of the Europe- an season, round four at Jerez and Spain. Yamaha lost Johann Zarco— the most promising new rider they've had in years. It is understandable that the French first-ever double Moto2 champ thought himself worthy of promotion. He's been fre- quently beating the factory guys on a year-old bike, after all. He wanted a factory ride. Yamaha didn't have one available until 2021 at the earliest, by when Zarco himself will be 30. So when the chance to get the full-factory deal from KTM came along, he jumped at it. Yamaha had already also lost Tech 3, also to KTM. The French squad has a 20-year his- tory with Yamaha, willingly and capably playing second fiddle, especially technically, as a place to get a few more miles out of superannuated bikes. Last year, coincidentally, their M1 bitsas were better than the latest M1s. This in itself was instructive in- formation. But Tech 3's role as a potential feeder team had been made redundant. The beds were blocked. Now Tech 3 has been prom- ised full factory support, the lat- est factory bikes, and an integral role in the hierarchy. The expe- rienced French squad will play an important development part with the Austrian newcomers. Yamaha has lost a strong ally. Rossi's overbearing influence on Yamaha was most painfully clear in Argentina. As you'll recall, Rossi was running sixth with five laps to go, while an on-fire Marquez was blazing through after serving a ride-through penalty. He was go- ing so fast that when he caught Rossi, he expected to be able to get straight past. His attempt, at the tight penultimate corner, was over-ambitious. He bumped Rossi off. (That Rossi fell was a little surprising. He was surely aware of Marquez's approach, and knows his reputation. When Marquez has made similar moves on Dovizioso, Dovi gave him enough room to out-brake himself, and zipped back past on the exit. Three times. But that is a moot point, and there is no doubt that the real mistake was made by Marquez.) After the race, Marquez and Honda team manager Alberto Puig strode straight down pit lane to the Yamaha box to apolo- gize. They were promptly and firmly told to, well, "go away," though not so politely, by Rossi's right-hand-man Uccio Salucci. It was all on camera. But where was Yamaha team man- ager Lin Jarvis? He took a back seat. Many might think a more correct protocol, when two ma- jor Japanese corporations were involved, would have been for him at least to exchange words with Puig. But Rossi is too important. He's too popular. He is bigger than the team, and in many ways bigger than the sport. This cannot be a very com- fortable position for a classic Japanese factory. Worse still, imagine the public opprobrium if Yamaha dumped him. They are between the devil and the deep blue sea. And Rossi is both of them. CN

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