#Max Biaggi

[ray935sworld]

Max Biaggi and Jorge Lorenzo chilling in a pool together. Okaaaaay

[bikefuckersoftheworldunite]

valentino and sete sharing sete’s water bottle at welkom 2004 post race presser

[verdemint]

If I had to see this, you should see this también

Singing vale (and max biaggi)!!!

(For some context: this is an italian show (le iene) where they usually do pranks and other stuff lol. This time they’re doing this lil sketch about wearing a helmet while riding bikes or scooters. They’re saying/singing: “riding without an helmet is bullshit”)

Lets thank @bikefuckersoftheworldunite! We spent an evening sending each other le iene videos lol

[sebmaxrc]

idk i think its funny

[forza-beznaia]

“He’s more of a product than a person. He cries so much he should be sponsored by Kleenex.” - Mick Doohan about Max Biaggi (1998)

[coimbrabertone]

A Postmortem on the Competitive Era of MotoGP

Okay, that is a very dramatic title, and hopefully, a year from now I'll be able to look at this and say I was wrong, but...I think MotoGP's competitive era is over.

First let me explain what I mean by competitive era.

Grand Prix motorcycle racing, more so than other forms of motorsport, I think, is prone to eras of complete dominance. Agostini in the 60s and 70s, Doohan in the 90s, Rossi in the 2000s, and Marc Marquez in the 2010s. Marc Marquez's run of dominance, however, came to an abrupt end at the 2020 Spanish Grand Prix.

Here, Marquez crashed riding maniacally to make his way to the lead. Marc broke his right arm and started a multi-year struggle with injury that would impact his 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 seasons. This would also ultimately end Marc's relationship with Honda, as at the end of 2023, he decided to move to a Gresini Ducati.

In the meantime, MotoGP was wide open.

Joan Mir on a Suzuki won the 2020 championship on consistency over the Petronas Yamaha of Franco Morbidelli, with teammate Alex Rins in third.

Fabio Quartararo on a factory Yamaha won 2021 over the raw speed of Ducati's Pecco Bagnaia and Suzuki's Joan Mir.

Pecco Bagnaia got the upper hand over Fabio Quartararo in 2022, with additional challenges from the Gresini Ducati of Enea Bastianini and the Aprilia of Aleix Espargaro.

Bagnaia won again in 2023, but it was a new cast of characters around him. Instead of being pressured from outside, he was being pressured from within as the Pramac Ducati of Jorge Martin and the VR46 Ducati of Marco Bezzecchi challenged him for the championship.

2024, however, is when things started getting stale. Jorge Martin won the championship over Pecco Bagnaia - the same top two from last year, just in a different order - whilst Marc Marquez on the Gresini Ducati was third, and Enea Bastianini on the factory Ducati was in fourth.

Five years with four different champions.

Suzuki riders, Yamaha riders, factory Ducati riders, and satellite Ducati riders.

It was variety, it was amazing.

However...it was already getting stale this year.

Ducati has been the strongest for a few years now, I admit that even as someone who initially was in favor of Ducati dominance - my logic being that Honda and Yamaha have dominated MotoGP for so long that it was nice to see a European bike take a turn on top - and they've really mastered it this year.

KTM didn't win anything this year.

Aprilia only won two sprints and a single race.

The entire winning constructor column on Wikipedia is a sea of Italian flags without interruption.

And I fear it's only going to get worse for 2025, because Marc Marquez will be on a factory Ducati. After four years of being broken and one year of being on year old machinery, I fear that we may be seeing the Marquez revenge tour for the next few years.

Now, I'm sure for Marquez fans, they'll have a lot of fun.

But...I'm not a Marquez fan.

I'm a Ducati fan, I suppose, but even then, I'm more of a competition fan. The last few years I've found myself turning away from Ducati and becoming an Aprilia fan. The problem with Aprilia, however, is that Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales are good riders, sure, but they're not the kind of riders Aprilia needs to take the fight to the Bolognese.

So Aprilia has made a change for 2025.

Jorge Martin and Marco Bezzecchi.

I think this is a good change. I don't like Martin, his personality rubs me the wrong way and I've spent the last two years rooting against him, but hey, it's Aprilia nabbing the reigning champion, so I understand why they'd want that.

Marco Bezzecchi I'm more excited about. I like him more as a rider, and while I expect Martin to be faster, I hope Marco gets some success too, because then I could at least enjoy some of Aprilia's successes.

Assuming, of course, that Marquez doesn't go and win everything next year.

Will KTM be able to provide any resistance? Maybe. Pedro Acosta is impressive, and Brad Binder has put on some performances at the end of this year to finish ahead of Acosta in the standings, but neither of them have finished any higher than second, so...what they can do depends on where the 2025 KTM is.

The same goes for the new Tech3 KTM lineup of Maverick Vinales and Enea Bastianini, two riders I like - I was glad to see Vinales succeed at the USGP, while Enea has been the rider I've rooted for in MotoGP ever since I became an active fan - they're both moody riders. On their day, they're invincible, problem is that their day doesn't come around nearly often enough to mark a consistent challenge.

And to add insult to injury, Pierer Mobility Group is suffering poor sales globally.

This is why Tech3 is going to be a KTM team instead of a GasGas team, because Pierer is refocusing their marketing on their core brand to try and regain stock value.

So...maybe they can challenge, but I'm not particularly optimistic.

Yamaha? They're gonna need a hell of a lot more speed if they want to challenge.

Honda? Look, yesterday at the Solidarity GP, Joan Mir crashed on the Honda and Neil Hodgson went "oh it's Mir time" so...the less said about Honda right now, the better.

Especially with Repsol gone.

How about the rest of Ducati?

Well, Bagnaia still won eleven races this year, so he's certainly still a force, but is he capable of beating Marc Marquez on equal machinery? I hope so, but given that Bagnaia just got beat by Jorge Martin on equal machinery, I'm not sure if I'm optimistic.

There is also only going to be one more factory-spec Ducati in 2024. Pramac has gone over to Yamaha, while Ducati has given a single GP25 to VR46, putting it in the hands of Fabio Di Giannantonio.

I think Digia will be good on the GP25 this year, and maybe he'll win a couple of races, but I expect him to finish somewhere between third and fifth. Third if no one else can challenge Ducati, fourth or fifth if the likes of Aprilia or KTM can start to pressure the Ducatis.

So overall, I think most races next year will finish with Marquez and Bagnaia in the top two slots, and everyone else fighting for third. The bright side for everyone else, I suppose, is that both Marc and Pecco can be crash prone, so maybe that's where all the other wins will come from.

Will that be good?

We'll see.

Was this competitive era good?

Yes.

Hearing about 2020 and 2021 and paying attention to the very end of the 2022 season is what made me want to become a MotoGP fan. I watched the entire 2023 season on janky streams, I was relieved as hell to see the 2024 season come onto Max so that I could watch MotoGP legally and safely - and share it with my racing friends - so for me, this competitive era has been great.

The entire reason I'm writing this blogpost is because I'm scared that MotoGP is turning for the worse just as I've become a fan.

So what era do I think is most comparable to this competitive era?

The early 2000s. Let's say 1999-2003 for instance.

1999, Mick Doohan gets injured and suddenly the best 500cc GP rider is out of the picture. Alex Crivillé on a Repsol Honda and Kenny Roberts Jr. on a Suzuki battled for the title, with occasional appearances by the other two Repsol Hondas of Tadayuki Odaka and Sete Gibernau, as well as Max Biaggi who was dragging that Marlboro Yamaha forward.

2000 continued the trends, with Kenny Roberts Jr. winning on the Suzuki, Valentino Rossi pressuring him on a Nastro Azzurro Honda run by Mick Doohan's former crew. Max Biaggi on the Marlboro Yamaha was third, with a huge variety of satellite riders involving themselves as well. The Emerson Hondas of Alex Barros and Loris Capirossi, the Red Bull and Antena3 Yamahas of Garry McCoy and Norifumi Abe, Carlos Checa on the other Marlboro Yamaha, and Alex Crivillé struggling on the overpowered - no literally, it had too much power - Repsol Honda, only taking one win in his title defense.

2001 was a turn towards dominance with Valentino Rossi on that Nastro Azzurro Honda, but we still saw wins from Max Biaggi on the Yamaha. We saw the Pons team - now West Honda - continue to pressure the front with Capirossi and Barros, and Sete Gibernau won a single race on the Suzuki. Interesting how that happened twice in a row. In 1999, Crivillé on the Repsol Honda won the title just to win a single race in 2000, while in 2000, Roberts on the Suzuki won just for Suzuki to only take a single win in 2001 with Sete Gibernau at Valencia.

2002 I think lines up with 2022. Valentino Rossi, now brought into Repsol Honda, wins the first 990cc title over Max Biaggi on the Marlboro Yamaha. Tohru Ukawa on the Repsol Honda and Alex Barros on that West Honda also challenge for wins on the same bike as the champion, playing that Enea Bastianini role.

2003 then, is the Honda show much like 2024 was the Ducati show. Valentino Rossi on the Repsol Honda, Sete Gibernau on the Telefonica Gresini Honda, and Max Biaggi, now on the Camel Honda - Pons with a new title sponsor - with Loris Capirossi at Catalunya playing that Maverick Vinales at COTA role as the sole win for a different manufacturer.

2004, however, marked the end of that era. Valentino Rossi went to Yamaha and still won the title in dominant fashion. Five Hondas in the top six but it was Rossi on top with nine wins on a bike that hadn't won since 2002. That shattered the idea that Valentino Rossi was simply the best of the Hondas, instead, he was the best in the world, perhaps the best ever.

And maybe on an optimistic note, in 2025, his protege, Pecco Bagnaia, will prove that he is more than just the Ducati champion. Perhaps Bagnaia will weather the storm of Marc Marquez as his teammate and win the championship anyway.

MotoGP seems to be in a bad way, with Ducati dominant, Bagnaia having been beat by Martin, and Marc Marquez coming into Ducati and threatening to dominate.

But in 2003, everyone swore up and down that the 990cc five-cylinder Honda was the best bike in the world, only for Rossi to go onto the Yamaha and win anyway.

Honda seemed invincible in 2003, but Yamaha beat them in 2004.

Marquez seems inevitable in 2024, but maybe someone can stop him in 2025.

Maybe Pecco, maybe Martin on the Aprilia, or maybe the Japanese will shock everyone and somehow bounce back.

It's unlikely, but...maybe there's still hope.

[marcsplaining]

poor biaggi he was haunted by a guy with dyed hair and silly hats

[alexlimone]

Relaxing after a game of football

[bikefuckersoftheworldunite]

Valentino’s 2001 interview with Mat Oxley/Valentino in his 2005 autobiography/ Valentino in 2021 Dazn documentary Route 46

[verdemint]

hilarious scenes in faster (2003): one thing is knowing that doctors in motogp have probably burned the hippocratic oath as soon as they graduated and should be charged with medical malpractice … but another thing is the crazy doctor in faster (2003) comparing valentino and max biaggi’s heartbeats (?????) while a guy (that actually look surprisingly similar to rossi) is writhing and screaming in pain in the background

[alilvalearchive]

so this video is a mess coz we got vale and max speaking and the commentators voices on top of that lol

and its about the fight between vale and biaggi before the podium in Catalunya 2001 where apparently they did beat each other up a lil bit

Vale in the end of the video, before going through the door says "finally we got into a fight eh" jokingly

[watercolor-hearts]

Heart Rates in MotoGP 🫀

There’s this post about the doctor in the movie Faster (2003) comparing Valentino Rossi's and Max Biaggi’s heart rates, and Vale’s maximum being only 125 bpm while Max’s was 170 bpm was a bit unbelievable to me so I’ve decided to do some research because those who know me know this is one of my favorite topics.

What I found when searching for this topic was a gold mine for people who are interested in hearts, so I thought I’d write a post about it because I think it could be interesting for everybody, especially for new fans (like me) who don’t already know about these heart-related things in MotoGP.

Important information: I don’t have a medical background, I’m just a cardiophile/someone who’s interested in hearts so this post isn’t about the medical side of this topic, it’s only to share the interesting stuff I found.

So, according to this article (which is basically the copy of this but I found the other one earlier), the riders’ highest heart rate is typically around 160-170 beats per minute. But what makes this really interesting is that I’ve discovered that there are a few riders that are an exception because of their extreme cardiac output like Maverick Viñales, whose highest heart rate barely exceeds 130 bpm, or like Jorge Martín, who’s the opposite extreme with his heart rate reaching 200 bpm during the highest points of qualifyings and races. Both of their resting heart rates are around 40 bpm, which is surprising because I expected Jorge's to be higher.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Maverick Viñales (@maverick12official)

MotoGP began broadcasting the live heart rates of riders in 2019 with Maverick’s being shown first (as he writes it in the caption of the post above) and that was when his heart became a sensation because of it beating significantly slower than the hearts of other riders. The video above is him doing a hot lap at the 2019 Japanese GP weekend. That was when they discovered that his heart was different from the other riders’ hearts and in this video, they asked him about it because some people doubted if the monitor was accurate. (After seeing this, Vale's 125 bpm from the beginning of the post doesn't seem that unbelievable anymore.)

As you can see above, in 2020, during the Austrian GP weekend, they compared Maverick and Jack Miller’s heart rates, to which Jack’s reaction was, “I don’t know what Vinales is, a snake or something, or his heart is not working!” (jokingly) “I just saw they did a comparison and I am sitting at 160 and Vinales on 120-something. I’m sure mine wasn’t even at the highest point when I was doing those laps.”

And then Jack talked about his heart rate a bit more:

“I’ve never been in the 200s, I think the most I had in a test – and this was 3 years ago – was 199. If I’m training on the bicycle it’s 175-180. I think the best I have had on the bicycle has been 188. I think the start of the race, the lights, would be the highest point for me. And if you're in a fight especially in the first couple of laps it’ll be through the roof. Then you can sort of stabilize it around 160.  I know with the motocross bike it stays around 172. That’s my normal average for a 25-minute training moto.  Like I say, it’s not like I'm blowing out of my arse or anything like that, it’s just that Vinales is a bit of a ‘snake’! His just doesn’t work in the same way as mine… He’s got a bigger stroke, less rpm!”

And something worth mentioning here is that Maverick posted about his pre-season medical check-up and someone in the comments asked about his VO2 Max result and he answered the question in a video posted in his Instagram story (you can see it below), which was really surprising to me because I don’t usually see people openly sharing information like that.

(For reference, the average for people his age is 31-41.9, good is 42-49.9 and >50 is excellent. So his results of 64-70 are incredible.)

And some other things I found while doing some more research for this post:

Jorge talking about having an overheating problem and a heart rate of 230 bpm during the 2023 Indian GP.

Álex Rins racing with an average of 190 bpm (remember, the maximum is 160-170 bpm usually) during the 2024 Japanese GP (and finishing last despite trying really hard to get a good result).

And here is a video of Marc’s start in the 2012 Moto2 Valencia GP where his heart rate goes above 200 bpm. In this interview, he said he usually doesn’t monitor his heart rate during a race, but he did during this one. I think it was a good idea because it shows us how his heart behaves during the start, which is one of the most stressful moments of the race.

-

I really enjoyed writing this post and getting to know the incredible hearts these riders have. I hope I could show something new and interesting to those who didn't know about this. Thank you for reading it! ❤

[certifiedbi]

Absolutely love how the Rossi/Biaggi rivalry is like the opposite of the Rossi/Marquez rivalry. Like Marc moved into the MotoGP having idolised Vale yet Vale moved into the 500cc category deciding he already hated Biaggi. I think it's beautiful

[boanerges20]

Max Biaggi Vs. Tetsuya Harada

[indiangp]

Out of context Yakuza game screenshots + MotoGP riders (3/?)

[42bakery]

Of course Dani and Jorge are tied on the 2nd best result on the prime class debut. They both finished in P2.

And if you are wondering who had a better result in their debMax Biaggi