A Glass of water for Mr Parrish, and a handful of Vale (ium) for the Mimi, please.
What a stonking race! The best of the season so far, and now MotoGP really comes alive this year.
I thought I'd be writing a piece tonight on how the Aussies rule the roost (and more later) but what I forgot was that Mugello is Valentino's home turf and he would just never let it go.
As I followed the build-up to today's race, I was in full agreement with the pundits that this is the year when the Aussies are coming. The young guns Stoner and Vermuelen have won most of the races this year. Casey, riding for Ducati, has disproved his crash and burn reputation, and shown great maturity with the Italian team this season. Chris, riding for Suzuki, has taken advantages when he can, and a wet weather win in Le Mans was typical of his opportunistic skill.
Casey and Chris took pole and No 2 on the grid for today's race, and it seemed as though this would be a stroll in the park for a bit of Aussie rules. A great pre-race interview with Mick Doohan explained why they come over here with such a burning desire to win. The Brisbane man said: "It's a long way to go home with your tail between your legs, y'know? Australians always want to have it their way - winning."
Well fine, Mick. We know how the Aussies approach their sport and yes, they do like to leave large footprints in the sand, but up against the master, the Doctor, at home in Mugello and there'll be a fight on your hands!
And what a fight they got! Rossi didn't get the best of starts and in the early laps was down in 8th - not a winning position you would have thought but the Doctor was at home in his surgery and about to deliver a few lessons to his patients, or as commentator Charlie Cox would say - Nightmare in a bubble car for his opponents. Rossi just showed them all why he is Number One in the world of motor-cycle racing. He may not be the reigning world champion or even leading the current table, but he is the best in the world. My heart is in my mouth too often these days when he races, but I keep my faith with him - even at a 60 degree lean, and I trust that he will do the business, and deliver another World Championship for me and all his other fans. Just remember that although he may have been around for ever, he is still only 28 years old.
A postscript for today's race was that the privateer D'Antin Ducati team led the Italian bikes home. Nice one Alex!
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One of the best races I've seen for quite a while.
But lay of Mick, he's the only rider that is comperable to Rossi.
And responsible for some of Valentino's success (via Jeremy Burgess). And has won in Italy as often as Rossi.
Agree Valentino is awesome, and it was a great race, I just still have burning memories from the 90s, and Mick was as good as they get then.
Good piece btw - forgot to say that
Nice one mimi
Jeremy Burgess, if memory serves, was engineer of Doohan's machines and also of Rossi's. Now I know next to nothing about bike racing but I do know that Rossi came through the ranks of 125s and 250s whereas Mick, before Moto GP, rode huge thundering superbikes. Different paths to the same destination. Unarguably, best of their respective eras.
I found this quote from Jezza, “Mick absolutely loved the winning, Valentino really loves the racing."
So Mimi congrats spot on observations. And have you put those flowers I sent in a vase yet?
I missed the race, which is really disappointing as it sounds fantastic. When Rossi drops back off the grid (as he often does) than carves through the field, it is one of the great sights in all sport.
It's so hard to compare, but I'd have Valle just ahead of Doohan on sheer showmanship. I've just a feeling that Kenny Roberts might have got the better of both of them, so calculating was the brian under the helmet and behind those flintiest of eyes.
100 Great TT Moments was excellent on ITV4 over the weekend - at least the clips and interviews were. Murray Walker talked about his dad and there was a great story about the Irish boys winning a race by changing the tank instead of re-fuelling! So sad that Hizzy, Joey, Mike the Bike and Big Dave have gone, but great to have Ago, in his mid-sixties still the world's most handsome man, to charm us yet again.
thanks mimi, is there really a biker called Stoner?
and Rossi must be older than 28, was he one of the cloned?
Nope - Rossi was born in 79. He's been racing (and winning) since 97. I remember as a 17-year-old he celebreated a 125cc GP win by doing a lap of honour with a blow-up sex doll riding pillion.
Such larks.
Motm
That Kenny had a bloke called Brian sharing his helmet shirley disqualifies him from the best ever class.
Nesta - true. My brian isn't at it's best on a Monday morning!
ebren: I didn't intend any disrespect to Mick D, nor any comparison between him and Rossi. I think he was one of the true greats as a rider, and these days is a joy whenever he's interviewed in the paddock - also does a lot for the sport. It was simply that before the race there was an overwhelming feeling all around that the Aussies, especially Stoner, would walk it, and they didn't!
I've written in an earlier piece that Rossi owes a lot of his success to Jerry B - who like Mick is always good value pre and post race.
Mimi
Everytime an Aussie sportsman turns up he/she thinks they are going to walk it. Part of the culture. Makes riding to the shops a bit of a nightmare though!!
Mimi
Ghost Rider strikes again....
succinctly described joy of revival for vale and thank goodness there are surprises when brilliance has it's moments.
I rode a blunderbuss around australia in the seventies and was always pissed off when the polish bloke on the 125 honda would pull into the campfire every night.... you just cannot shake those damned europeans....
I learned to ride on a BSA Bantam and was total rubbish as a bike rider. That's why I turned to cycling as my own endeavour, and spent most of my youth riding pillion on Ducatis and Hondas - ah the luxury of the Gold Wing!
yamaha 1100 but close enough to the goldwing to still be abused for riding a riceburner....
but glory days and dog years anyhow....
biggest downer was camped at Port Lincoln in a three day thunderstorm, in the midst of which, (and in the black of night), the waters rose putting out my fire, flooding the tent, and subsiding my dear canon which I had to struggle back upright and wheel it knee deep in mud to higher ground... I am a big man but that effeort was almost beyond me and at one point I contemplated leaving it there in the mud and walking the rest of the trip....
I managed to lash it to a tree and hauled it out inch by inch.... on the bitumen though one smoked cigars, peed warm in the leathers, listened to music, and sang the songs of the road.... ah but that might be another story....
I'm not crazy about engines. I like to walk. Or swim. Or paddle. I also like reading Mimi's stuff when I sit down.
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