#also for fans of narrative. phillip island 2001 does not tell you anything you didn't already know about valentino. 2004 doesssss

[batsplat]

at least motogp channel did put sete in valentino’s rivalries vid for their vale tribute HA the valentino snipers did not get to them in time ig https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=63oLIUbRT6M

(video) it's still one of the Big Five Feuds!! admittedly to most people it's fifth of fifth, but it can't be displaced!! he had two title fights with the man!! pepperidge farm will NOT forget!!

genuinely when I sat down to watch the 2004 season for the first time and watched mugello, catalunya, assen... honestly I think I may have watched them straight up in a row because I just couldn't stop myself? like that shit hit SO good and I had this moment of?? why isn't everyone talking about these races ALL THE TIME. I'd never even heard them mentioned?? and okay the answer to that could be 'well they happened in 2004', but they don't even come up that much in discussion of old races!! they're all bangers, they're all DIFFERENT bangers, a real range of flavour that all heavily feature the same two title protagonists. they change the championship picture completely in a way where okay with the benefit of hindsight you can go 'oh ho ho valentino was always going to win that title' - well no he wasn't! valentino showed up in mugello with the wooden medal helmet for a reason! it was his first yamaha season and after that initial welkom high, he did look like he was in trouble! and you get those races to completely change the tone of the title fight?? not crashes, not just dumb mistakes, a direct contest! individually all three of those races would be a decent shout for best or second best race in a lot of seasons, let's be honest. as back-to-back-to-back races, the only trio of races that is even in the same DIMENSION this century are austria/silverstone/misano 2019 - which is undoubtedly a great shout too in all being bangers and having a sort of mini storyline arc with a fantastic conclusion, but it does feature different protagonists and also has less than zero championship implications. plus the biggest interpersonal relationship story we got out of that trio involved a rider who literally wasn't even involved in any of those duels, which is objectively pretty funny and speaks to the lasting power of that particular feud - BUT!! it's not quite the same thing as the 2004 trio

genuinely valentino is so lucky biaggi showed up at welkom to do the dramatic duel with him so that's the crowning achievement everyone remembers from the yamaha switch. like the way the pr works is that - well, people vaguely remember biaggi being the big rival for valentino at some point in his early years and valentino beat him at welkom for his first yamaha win so that might as well be the only important race of that season?? which. the biaggi thing ALREADY wasn't the main rivalry at the start of 2004!! valentino's getting away with a massive act of historical revisionism through dumb coincidence!! literally you can make the argument that this is the only real one-on-one race duel biaggi and valentino EVER have, it's not their only memorable battle (suzuka + phillip island 2001 obviously) but it is the only one in that category of race-long one-on-one! and it just HAPPENED to fall exactly then, which is obviously extremely valentino because he loves having everything work out that way for narrative reasons. but it's also super convenient! by the evidence of the entire 2003-05 period, it is so so so much more likely that duel happens with sete! it'd be unfair to call it a biaggi cameo appearance since he was still a serious factor until honda promoted him to their factory team in 2005 (I have many unanswered questions about what on earth honda was doing with their line up for much of the early noughties) and finished p3 in the standings in both 2003 as 2004, plus there was a time in 2004 where biaggi was super close to the championship lead after... uh. rio? actually no I double checked, after sachsenring he was a point off valentino. point being, biaggi was absolutely a factor but not really in terms of on-track battles!! the actual duels were happening almost entirely between valentino and sete, with ONE exception. of course valentino gets to say his favourite career win was against biaggi. twat

anyway after writing all this out. I did actually click on the video. and. they left oUT ASSEN 2004!! THEY LEFT IT OUT!! THAT WAS THE BEGINNING OF THE END YOU FOOLS YOU AMATEURS THERE WAS LAST LAP CONTACT!! WHAT MORE DO YOU NEED TO INCLUDE A RACE?? IS A LAST LAP OVERTAKE WITH SUBSEQUENT CONTACT WITH OBVIOUS POST-RACE TENSION NOT ENOUGH FOR YOU??? WHAT'S THE STANDARD HERE??

on the other hand, you could say that if a rivalry is so high quality on track that they don't even include a race like that, then it has to be an absolute all timer. I rest my case