#from assen 2011

[batsplat]

all time great crash photo

[motogp-museum]

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Hi!! It's @kissingwalls (this is not a side blog though)

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Rider filtered by year

To find the rider's posts from a specific year, type their initials, rider number, a colon, a space, and then the year into the search bar. For example mm93: 2013 (there are a couple of people I haven't done this for, so check their main tag first)

Here are a few common ones :) (i would put them all but the link limit is humbling me)

Vale:

vr46: 2013

vr46: 2014

vr46: 2015

vr46: 2016

Dani:

dp26: 2011

dp26: 2012

dp26: 2013

dp26: 2014

dp26: 2015

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jl99: 2014

jl99: 2015

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mm93: 2012

mm93: 2013

mm93: 2014

mm93: 2015

mm93: 2016

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You can also search by circuit: year (eg. catalunya: 2015). Just make sure you put a space after the colon. Unless the post said where it was though, I did not put a location tag.

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Intro:

(i'll just put it at the bottom so i remember to delete it)

I have been hoarding all of these (there are like 1000 more in my draft and queue lol) for a while now in my draft bc even tho they are like 3 note gifs, they are historical artefacts to meeee.

Anyway, I've got a cold, and so to occupy myself, I decided to just make a blog so that everything can be organised and easy (ish, this is tumblr after all) to find!

I know heaps of my fellow ✨motogp tumblrinas ✨have made archives for their favs, and you are all braver than me, bc I would lose all the gifs immediately if I tried to create new archival posts. So I just reblogged everything and am going to hope for the best in terms of copyright lol

But yeah, these aren't just my favs. This is more just a snapshot of the fandom at different periods. I only reblogged the deactivated ones, but, y'all, use the posts as little gateways to blogs from that time period, it is FACINATING.

As always, peer review is welcome! If i completely messed up a tag (very likely, since i used the mass tag editor), you're welcome to let me know. Also if there's a ship tag, fun tag or something you want me to add in the mass tag editor, lemme know! more than happy to add literally anything ✨✨

I only started this today, so it's very much a work in progress! All the things without a link are because the posts that match up with them are in the queue. I also need to add the ones i forgot

[moonshynecybin]

In the beef between Valentino and Marc I can't take a position. This will be a little long but allow me to articulate my thoughts.

I understand where both of them were coming from and both points of view. Why?

I think that to better understand Vale it is important to keep some factors in mind: 2015 was the first year after the disastrous two years at Ducati where he had a chance to compete for the world championship, in 2011 one of his closest friends - not exactly known for being the most cautious driver on the track - died, and finally he was getting old. It's also important to keep some things in mind about Marc: he saw his idol complimenting him since before he took part in MotoGP, he was very young and super thirsty for victory. That said, things started to go downhill at Assen in 2015, Rossi made a Rossi old style overtake and Marc got a taste of it which must have been a bit bitter, so bitter that he called himself “the moral winner of the race", for Valentino, however, that moment was a factor that certainly gave him extra determination, that made him remember who he was before slowly losing himself. Jorge Lorenzo also said it in one of his interviews: “The last straw was in Assen, when they touched each other on the chicane. They were blaming each other" explained Lorenzo, according to him and also according to Valentino that was the moment in which Marc decided to make Rossi lose the world championship. Then when they raced in Australia and Rossi found himself just 11 points behind Lorenzo, he was convinced that Marc had favored Lorenzo at Philip Island, saying that every time he passed Marc then Marc overtook him but only to slow down and give the possibility of letting Jorge pass and putting distance between the two. The fact that Marquez didn't really enjoy Assen was certainly a theory that went in Vale’s favor. In a tense situation like that you tend to overanalyze everything and therefore I understand how easy it was to find malice in Marc's gestures. At that point for Vale it was as if he was fighting for the world championship against two people instead of one, which explains what happened in Sepang which was the culmination of something that had started well before. Marc was in Valentino's way the whole time and so I'm sure Rossi kicked him (even if he says he didn’t) having lost his patience. Imagine driving to try to win your tenth title against your teammate who is faster than you and having a this new talent standing in your way out of annoyance. Vale at this point wasn't racing to be competitive, he was racing to win THE title and instead suffered a defeat both on a sporting and personal level.

At the same time we must also try to understand Marc's point of view: I'm pretty sure that before Sepang Marquez didn't actually intend to sabotage Lorenzo, he certainly didn't like what had happened in Argentina and Assen. Up until that point Valentino hadn't really had the chance to fight him to his full potential, so seeing how Vale was beating him and acting lowkey cocky about it afterwards must not have been very pleasant for Marc. Sepang was the moment in which he decided to repay with the same coin, I don't think that during the race in Sepang Marc was specifically trying to sabotage Valentino, I think it was more of an almost involuntary reaction due to the precedents, but after Sepang without a doubt anyone else would have preferred to see anyone win the world championship other than Valentino. So for Valentino what Marc did was just a child's whim and for Marquez what Rossi did was the reaction of an insecure adult man. I have no difficulty understanding Marc's resentment, if you can call it that, towards Vale, especially knowing how competitive Marc is, but at the same time I also understand how all of Marquez's actions were easily misunderstood by Valentino, especially given the situation in where he was.

for sure man!! 90% of what i do on this blog is try and get at the root of where they’re both coming from during 2015 and this is a lot of it and very well articulated!! and you don’t have to like. pick a side and have a hard line stance here it’s sports who gaf… i just love marc he’s my baby girl…

however. i WILL say. the past where i start slipping into beating vale with hammers territory is the press conference before the race and then the public backlash afterwards. marc was an adult for sure, but it’s GLARINGLY obvious to me that vale had a LOT more control in this situation in terms of the media, and he leveraged that against marc deliberately in ways that kinda sucked! marc got his house broken into! marc got death threats! marc thought, okay maybe he’s not my friend anymore but he’s still my hero, and then vale BLINDSIDED him publicly :( i know vale was going through it and thought marc was sabotaging him but. marc still rates those few weeks as some of the worst of his life. especially considering how young he was at the time. so i still love vale but i’m hashtag team marc here… like he collected his bikes!!! while they were racing!!!! he loved him. and vale REALLY hurt him.

[bobendsneyder64]

So I was watching back the episodes from the special TT news they make every year in the week before the TT and learned some amazing things I wanted to share with you

This post will be about Assen

- the first ever TT was in 1925 and was 28 kilometers long. It was from Rolde via Borger and Schoonlo back to Rolde. It moved to Assen in 1926 because there was a part in the original circuit that was a sand road. This was only 800 metres long but the organisations and officials that organised it didn't wan't to put asphalt on this small part. Because it was a street circuit the whole circuit had to be asphalt. Assen immediately took their chance to host the TT from then on.

- while there have been a lot of changes to the circuit over the years, the place of the start/finish line never changed. Ever since 1926 it has been on the same place and never moved, not even an inch. The circuit has become shorter and wider, but the start/finish line never changed.

- in 2025 the TT exist a 100 years and it will be a special year. They want to do a lot of special stuff and release special material, like a book and a movie. This year, however, was only the 92nd edition of the TT but that is because in all these years, there were 6 years were they couldn't organise one. 5 years were missed because of WW2 and one year was missed because of covid. So the 100th TT will be in 2031.

- in the last 13 races in Assen there were also 13 different pole-sitters: Jorge Lorenzo (2010), Marco Simoncelli (2011), Casey Stoner (2012), Cal Crutchlow (2013), Aleix Espargaró (2014), Valentino Rossi (2015), Andrea Dovizioso (2016), Johann Zarco (2017), Marc Marquez (2018), Fabio Quartararo (2019), Maverick Viñales (2021), Pecco Bagnaia (2022) and Marco Bezzecchi (2023)

This is post 1 of 2. Find post 2 here

[sbknews]

Alvaro Bautista secures 2022 WorldSBK crown

The 37 year-old rider secured the 2022 WorldSBK Riders’ Championship at Mandalika. Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.It Racing – Ducati) fought hard during the 2022 season, resisting the charge of 2021 WorldSBK Champion Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) and six-time Champion Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK). He became WorldSBK’s 19th Champion, and the second Spanish rider to be crowned WorldSBK Champion after Carlos Checa in 2011; Checa was also Ducati’s last WorldSBK Champion. Bautista returned to Ducati for the 2022 season after two seasons away and did so in perfect fashion, taking his first win of the season in the Tissot Superpole Race at the season-opening Aragon Round. He also left MotorLand Aragon as the title leader following his Race 2 victory. Rea was able to fight back at Assen but that lasted for just one day as Bautista extended his lead again in Race 2, with the newly-crowned Champion leading the way from Assen’s Race 2 onwards. A Race 1 crash at Donington Park dented Bautista’s lead but he bounced back in style; taking 15 podiums in the 18 races that followed including a hat-trick at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. A crucial part of Bautista’s title-winning campaign was his fights with both Razgatlioglu and Rea, particularly with the 2021 Champion throughout the Estoril, Portuguese and Argentinean Rounds. Bautista began his career in the Spanish Championship from 1995 to 2002. In 2002, he was fighting for the title until the final race. In the same year, he made his first appearance in the FIM 125cc World Championship as a wildcard. He became a 125cc Grand Prix winner in 2006 at the Spanish GP. With eighth victories claimed that season, he secured his first World Championship title. The Spanish rider then moved up to the 250cc class, claiming 28 podium places including eight victories. Bautista stepped up to the FIM MotoGP™ World Championship in 2010. During his eighth seasons in MotoGP™, he claimed three podium places and one pole position, with a fifth place as his best classification in the Championship standings in 2012. In 2019, Bautista made his WorldSBK debut with Ducati, finishing his rookie season with 16 wins, 24 podium places, 4 pole positions and 15 fastest laps as he secured second place in the Championship standings. In 2020, he switched to Honda, racing for the Team HRC squad. Over the 2020 and 2021 seasons, he claimed three podium places for the Japanese manufacturer before returning to Ducati and the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati team for the 2022 season. With 14 wins and 29 podium places, Alvaro Bautista became the 2022 WorldSBK Champion at Mandalika. Bautista becomes the ninth different rider to take a Riders’ Championship for Ducati with the Italian manufacturer securing their 15th Riders’ Championship overall. He’s the third different rider in three years to take the crown, as well as being from a third different country and on a third different bike, emphasising the competitive parity in WorldSBK. The newly crowned WorldSBK Champion will remain with Ducati in 2023 and both will aim to continue challenging many records.

Alvaro Bautista, Aruba.It Racing - Ducati: “It’s incredible, I’m so happy. It’s a dream come true, especially after the last two years and all the difficulties. I want to say thanks to everyone who trusted me, to give me this chance to fight for good places and we got the Championship at the first time of trying. Today was the first time I felt a bit nervous or stressed, but it was in Race 2 on the grid before the start. I tried to manage the emotions and when I was in first, I was making a lot of mistakes because I had too many thoughts in my head! I just preferred to stay second behind Toprak, but he was very strong, so I could just follow him. So happy. It’s difficult to know what to say. I’m just so happy. During the whole season, I was so happy because I had a lot of experience from the past. I tried to be the best possible rider, not make mistakes. I think our performance has been really, really high. I think I had the best performance level ever from Toprak and Jonathan. They performed at a really high level in all races. I was lucky that I made fewer mistakes than them. What’s important is also consistency. I could beat Jonathan, a six-time World Champion and Toprak, a one-time Champion, breaking all the records at all the tracks which means the level is so high. We can win with this amazing level.” Giulio Nava, Bautista's Crew Chief: “We worked really hard for this; this team and Ducati. I’ve been working with Alvaro for many years and I’m super happy to be here with him, seeing him achieving these results. It means a lot. I’m very lucky to work with him. You create very a strong relationship together. We joke together. Alvaro is like my brother. It’s difficult for me to explain what it means, but it means the world to see him winning.” Luigi Dall’Igna, Ducati Corse General Manager: “It is a wonderful day for us. We worked a lot with Alvaro in the past and in 2019 we did a fantastic job until the middle of the season. In the end, we could not win the crown. Today, in the end, and it was a fantastic emotion. It was a special day. This is probably one of the best seasons of his life. This year, and 2006, were two really amazing seasons for him. He won the 2006 125cc World Championship and today he won WorldSBK. He’s a real fantastic rider and I’m really, really happy he could get the title today.”

World Championship Career: 2002-2006: 125cc - First Race: Spanish GP 2002 | Best result: P1 2007-2009: 250cc - First Race: Qatar GP 2007 | Best result: P1 2010-2018: MotoGP™ - First Race: Qatar GP 2010 | Best result: P3 2019-2022: WorldSBK – First Race: Australian Round 2019 | Best result: P1 2022: World Superbike Champion Rider Statistics First round: Phillip Island 2019 Race starts: 130 Wins: 30 Podium places: 56 Pole positions: 5 Fastest laps: 27 Title: 1

For more info checkout our dedicated World Superbike News page World Superbike News Or visit the official World Superbike website WorldSBK.com Read the full article

[ferrarigays-moved-to-ferrarism]

Top 5 races

hmmm thanks, again a hard one! even though i have been watching racing for a while my memory is hazy so most are recent gps.

monza 2019 - look as a ferrari fan i don’t think it gets a lot better than il predestinato winning monza in front of the tifosi - stuff of dreams. a championship maybe but as a race this was it. i am a sucker for emotional wins and i’ll think about that race forever.

phillip island 2015 - after watching this during the break i see why people think this is one of the best races - pure entertainment and racing all the way with the win going on the last lap - amazing.

interlagos 2007 - what can I say, the last time we won a championship and it was one of the tightest fought championships in f1 history. was the championship in the grand scheme of things maybe more of mclaren’s to lose? absolutely, but in the end there was only one name carved to the trophy and it was kimi’s. watching this race live and stressing for such a long time about our chances, wow it was tense! and as a finnish tifosa, there was quite literally nothing better than to see a finn win with ferrari. and with hindsight, how lewis ran that race after the first lap and produced a comeback drive and subsequently how eloquently he spoke after the affair and the year they had had - just showing off his class and what an amazing driver he already was.

sachsenring 2021 - as I said, i am first and foremost a fan of the emotional moments. don’t get me wrong, i love racing/sports for the action but the storylines and people behind the races are what keeps it going for me. this was one of the first motogp races i watched and although we saw little overtakes, i enjoyed miguel’s hunt for the win and how the race played out. but watching marc win again after all the torrid times - stuff of dreams just like monza but in very different ways.

suzuka 2005 - there are a few older races that i remember but i rewatched this a while back and still one of my faves. i watched this live with my grandma and she remembers how I started shrieking half way to go like ”kimi is gonna win!” and I was very much looking forward to that. i love suzuka as a track and there were so many great overtakes. again, overtake of the lead on the last lap after starting from the back of the grid? kimi räikkönen masterclass, one of his best races.

there are a ton of other races that also come to mind, for sentimental reasons and pure racing, such as canada 2011, assen 2016, spain 1996, interlagos 2021 and so on and so on but off the top of my head these are what came to mind.

put “top 5” anything in my ask and i will answer ok go

[batsplat]

“the issue was that valentino had thought that he could fix that bike - and while obviously he did influence that project, it was still several years away from being particularly close to being fixed. those two years are all about frustration, of trying to make changes to the bike and nothing working... which was enough to make valentino willing to accept yamaha's terms as long as he could get back to a point where he was competitive again. because he had begun to doubt himself, because after two miserable years of injury, a bike that oscillated between throwing him off and just being slow, the tragedy he and the sport suffered at sepang 2011... well, more than anything else, he just wanted to enjoy himself again”

sorry to copy whole chunks of your work into your inbox and idk if you meant it to sound this way or if it’s an accident but reading this part you could have also been talking about marc’s last years at honda (heartache! my god, my chest twisted) and his switch to ducati and it’s rather interesting… that this happened at almost the same age for them… through almost the same situation………. idk, as different as they sometimes seem, it’s almost like they are meant to be viewed as two versions of the same

(x) maybe a teensy bit on purpose lol

yeah, look, obviously there's plenty of notable differences between the two situations - from how serious the injury was to the personal tragedy valentino went through during that time to the disparity in their ages (three years doesn't sound like a lot but in this sport it kinda is). personally, I didn't really doubt that much that marc could be a title contender again, but from the way he speaks about it, talking during this last presser that he was considering retirement at assen last year... look, some of the stuff early this year was expectation management and of course he's perfectly capable of lying about this stuff, but he very obviously did have some serious doubts about the extent to which he could be competitive again. this is the thing, right... he just hadn't been able to fight at the front of the field for so long, plus he was on a bike that is just ideal for slowly stripping away the confidence of a rider. if you're constantly unexpectedly crashing because you just can't trust the feedback you're getting from the bike, that's just psychologically incredibly tough to deal with (incidentally broadly an accurate description of the ducati during the early 2010s)

which is where the parallels with valentino really do come in, don't they... it's the confidence, the way for the first time in their careers, it's really been systematically stripped down... all this self doubt, the way they're struggling to find themselves again. of course, they'd both gone through rough patches before - the 2006-07 period for valentino, 2015 for marc. they've had a few knocks, it's not as easy to shrug off injuries any more, they know there's no guarantee they'll measure up to the riders they once were. I compiled valentino talking about marc's injury here, but most relevant is how he compares it to his own 2010 injuries. so you have this in july 2020:

I think it's interesting that valentino acknowledges that it helped he knew his title charge was over after the broken leg, to force him to give it up and just focus on his recovery. it's easier, right - if he'd been in marc's situation, it's entirely possible he would've tried to race the following week too. I also think this is an interesting way of framing his actual recovery process, where he *checks notes* still came back way sooner than everyone expected,leading to speculation he didn't really believe his title charge was over - plus kept delaying surgery to the shoulder to the off-season even though it was very obviously hampering him, which then continued to be an issue the following year. like, okay, great job, you didn't try to ride a motogp bike WITH A BROKEN LEG, but also "I only thought about getting better" doesn't quite match up with your actions buddy

as valentino acknowledges, the sport does have a history of near-miraculous comebacks... I feel like these days people only remember 2010 and not the 2017 knock-off

and of course marc's ill-fated decision has to be seen within this context. the ways in which he was influenced by the comebacks from other riders in the past (the most famous of which is probably jorge assen 2013) and by how he himself had a habit of somewhat improbably recovery timelines after constant off-season surgery. from the vale race recs post *wink wink* *nudge nudge*:

valentino also compares his own mugello injury with marc's in september of 2020:

so you also get valentino agreeing with the parallel between honda's situation in 2004 and 2020. of course, the situation in 2004 wasn't as dramatic for honda - but in both cases, they went into that season fully expecting to win that title and instead found themselves underperforming and losing

moving on to comparing the injuries: valentino says his initial injury was worse, but it was marc doing the crazy fast comeback that really fucked him over (which is all true). he talks about why it's so tough... the "physical side" of the pain when you ride the bike but also "on a mental level if you have any fear". how this leaves a "mark on all riders". not particularly hard to draw any parallels here, he's already doing it for us

and lastly in november 2020, again with reference to his own 2010 injury:

talking about how eventually it becomes not just about the career but also about quality of life... how it was a tough period for him because he was just in constant pain... "sometimes you need time"... again, not really much to add, is there. the following years are a brutal double whammy of sorts: not only are you attempting to recover from your worst career injury, not only are there massive reasons why you're suffering (chronic pain, personal tragedy), but also you're suddenly uncompetitive in a way you've never been before in the premier class. you know there's a real possibility your time at the top of the sport is over... that even if you get back on a competitive bike, there's no guarantee you'll be able to come close again to being the rider you once were. you've ridden a bike that's gradually sapped your confidence, your ironclad trust in your own ability to be able to master any bike... you've spent so much time away from the top positions, and you've also made way more high profile mistakes that you had at any stage of your career. for valentino, the most memorable one is obviously jerez 2011 - which, yeah, you can write it off as just a dumb error in the wet, but it's not the kind he'd make if he didn't see this as his one chance to get a big result this early in the season with the crap bike and the crap shoulder (this is 'ambition outweighs talent'). for marc, it's silverstone 2021 (as martin says afterwards, "I hope he can learn from this one and improve for the future", which is great snark lol), portimao last year (y'know, the home crowd booing him)... arguably aragon 2022 the first lap, but that one's not quite as bad a misjudgement (admittedly, he maybe should've called it a day after the first collision). obviously, valentino was never a particularly crash-prone rider until he got on that ducati - but it's worth remembering marc wasn't really known for this kind of error, where he was collecting other riders and causing them both to crash. all of this isn't fun! it's also just kind of humiliating! they're used to so much success, and now they're getting barely any of that - while also occasionally having to go around apologising to other blokes for annoying errors they weren't really making back in the day!

then from marc's end, you've got this quote from 2014 (credit to this post):

of course, knowing marc, there's no way he's not thought about the parallels between his current situation and valentino's back in 2013. and, look, obviously it's not one to one. valentino was three years older back then, his injuries were serious but considerably less so than what marc went through, the competitive landscape looks completely different now than it did in 2013... but this isn't about drawing direct comparisons, it's more about the associated feelings for both of them... all this self doubt, all this pain, the way they just weren't having fun any more... this is the first order of priority, rediscovering the joy. personally I reckon they were being more or less sincere at the start of that journey in not primarily thinking about securing more titles. of course, that changes once they realise they can be competitive again... but while the doubt remains, it's not the main thing they're concerned with

that's the fun thing about qatar 2013, isn't it? there's no point in valentino's entire career where he would have been less invested in whether he ended up winning or losing a fight like that. the whole point wasn't the end result, it's that he was even capable of fighting like that again... of having fun again, battling with a top rider, with the star of tomorrow. given his weekend up to that point, he wouldn't even have been expecting to do so right before the race! really, beating marc in that race was just a bonus. in a different way, the same thing was obviously true of marc: making his debut in the premier class and immediately getting to fight his hero, ending up taking his first ever premier class podium. because of some cruel alchemy of timing and circumstance, you've managed to capture them both at the precise moment where they really are just happy to be there, made their first fight with each other a moment of pure, undiluted ecstasy. such a sweet moment for the pair of them, where they found themselves able to fight each other and had every reason to relish it. you really couldn't have scripted it better

and like you say, they are two versions of the same rider! it really does feel like their careers should be read in conversation with each other! obviously valentino frequently acknowledged this himself early on, saying it wasn't an 'exaggeration' to call marc 'the next valentino rossi'... the ways in which marc had modelled himself after valentino, including of course copying some of his most famous overtakes. beyond their rivalry and conflict, there is also continuity between the pair of them. their entire feud hinges on how it can feel like a blessing to face another version of yourself... but it can also become a curse. the reason why they grew so close in the first place and why things got so ugly between them is fundamentally the same. neither of them have ever really forgotten about the similarities between the pair of them either. mutually inescapable until the end, I fear

incidentally, for context, here's what valentino was actually saying at the end of the ducati years. first of all, he pays casey his dues for being able to succeed on that bike:

you'll note that while he says the experience hadn't broken him (though "I don't think so" isn't particularly firm either), he does talk about how psychologically tough riding that ducati was. also, like I mentioned in the post that this one is a follow-up to, the really big frustration is not even about the riding as much as it is in the utter failure in bike development terms - where nothing they did actually worked:

he describes this as his first wrong career choice (although in other places he has also defended this decision), while also paying credit to his ducati team. crucially it followed on from all these rolls of the dice that had worked, the most major ones being probably the switch to yamaha and later the switch to bridgestones:

he says he's uncertain about whether he'll be able to fight for titles and even race wins again, stressing the importance of the valencia test (which is when he knew he was in serious trouble back in 2010):

and he talks about being the number two rider back at yamaha (while of course flipping it around again to ensure he's putting pressure on jorge):

same principle as with marc, some of this is expectation management and avoiding putting too much pressure on himself, cf marc's constant talk about being content if he could just fight for those 'top five top six positions' again (lol). but crucially valentino didn't know what would be possible

he does also talk a bit about his successors to the seat:

the thing about the ducati during this time, right, is that it was a very bad bike. honda decided to be a bit more dramatic about this post-2020, but these are two broadly analogous cases of massive decline for a manufacturer that had recently won a championship. casey came in for 2007 as a 21 year old insanely talented rider who wasn't too familiar with another bike (certainly not one as friendly as the yamaha) and was able to do something special with that capricious package... but he also talks in his autobiography about how ducati became far too complacent once that title had been won. it's not just mystery illness that explains the progressive decline in his results at ducati during the following three years - it was hubris from ducati, their refusal to listen to their riders while preferring to insinuate their riders simply weren't following the right diet or just weren't exercising enough. valentino switched to this poor package at an age at which adapting to a new bike is just categorically harder, and he failed in making any real progress with that bike for the following two years

that being said, at the end of the day ducati's situation back then isn't a million miles away from what you've seen with the honda - albeit in a different era where this performance decline wasn't punished quite so badly in championship standings because the margins now are a lot slimmer. casey did the equivalent to what marc did in the late 2010s, and put a somewhat evil but obviously fast bike into championship contention for two of his four years at ducati. he jumped ship at the right time, valentino jumped onto it at the wrong time and swiftly realised most of the ship was by this point underwater. look, just some interesting context imo! feel free to ignore. if you're interested in a more in-depth read about what was actually wrong with the bike in 2011, here you go - the short version is "front end feel". which is of course the ideal way to ruin confidence... if you can't trust the feedback you're getting, you can't trust yourself, simple as

[mariusmutin]

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Who else loves a good intense practice session ahead of a competition.. @sharanova and @kashirkin_ilya sweating it during the Dutch Camp ahead of the Dutch Open 2019/@the_dutch_open 📺Watch more of the Dutch Open 2019 on Marius Mutin's Youtube Channel. 📺 Next to come, WDC AL World Championships Dublin. Pre-order your videos from the competition and brings back home lifetime memories. DM Me. Do not wait, spots are going away and are limited. For the fans and dance lovers, Subscribe to the YouTube Channel and follow @mariusmutin for exclusiv content! Marius Mutin, Yours, since 2011. By the way, hitting soon the 100 000 subscribers on Youtube and 85 000 000 views, making it the 2nd Dancesport related channel to cross the bar, after @wdsfdancesport .. But making it the first channel to cross the bar as a self made man production. A big thanks already to all of you who followed me, and shared the emotions, that means a lot, a big thanks to the organisers and federations which I worked with, to all of the dancers and teachers, something personnal will come to celebrate it by the end of 2019. Stay tuned. 2020 will take it a step further. READY TO SHOOT 🎥📷📸 Yours, Marius Mutin (at De Bonte Wever Assen) https://www.instagram.com/p/B5apAbmqKVu/?igshid=8njzmvg4p3ob

[torentialtribute]

England’s Cricket World Cup winning side have come so far… now let’s keep going!

English cricket earned its day in the sun with Lord & # 39; s.

Lord & # 39; s was a fitting stage for the perfect day.

In the end, when I walked across the floor for the presentation, it was jumping and no person had moved from their seats. They all wanted Eoin Morgan to lift the trophy and reflect on the most amazing game of cricket they will ever see.

[Engeland]

]

[Engeland] World Cup winning side celebrating their glorious victory at the oval on Monday

<img id = "i-fc77e400f91084a" src = "https : //i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/07/15/21/16087448-7250261-image-a-37_1563223070494.jpg "height =" 449 "width =" 634 "alt =" Eoin Morgan & # 39 ; s party beats New Zealand in a thriller to win their very first Cricket World Cup New Zealand in a thriller to win their very first Cricket World Cup "

Eoin Morgan & # 39; s side beats New Zealand in a thriller to win their very first Cricket World Cup

There has been a lot of negativity around cricket and it sticks, but if you take a step back and think about what's in it he past decade has been reached, then it is not comparable to, say, my generation.

England, remember that the Assen home have not been lost since 2001. They won the World Tw2020 in 2010 and went to the top of the world Test Rating in 2011.

They won the Ashes away Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower in 2010-11, reached another World T20 final in 2016 and now, gloriously, have won the World Cup for the first time after four years of planning and investment in 50-over cricket.

England has world-class players that another country would love. People like Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Chris Woakes, Jofra Archer and an excellent captain in Eoin Morgan. England, really, are the envy of the world.

<img id = "i-fd92e5db4227148f" src = "https://ift.tt/2SfjtNU 21 / 16043640-7250261-image-a-32_1563222912355.jpg "height =" 437 "width =" 634 "alt =" In the likes of Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow, England has players that another nation would like from Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow, England have players that another nation would like "

In the likes of Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow, England has players who would otherwise love nationwide

Then take a look at the power of Test cricket and how we sell our locations. The success of the ladies game and that beautiful day back to Lord & # 39; s two years when they won the World Cup. I have seen the legacy of that victory at hand because my daughter plays cricket and I see more girls like those who just do and want to play. We should shout about this performance from the rooftops.

It was appropriate that we had Andrew Strauss in the commentary field on Lord & # 39; s because he was the architect of this triumph. It was Strauss who said & # 39; enough is enough & # 39; after the last World Cup and Morgan supported to put things right.

England got the right people at the helm in Morgan and coaches Trevor Bayliss and Paul Farbrace.

Strauss has experienced so much after the loss of Ruth, his wife, and it was wonderful to see him on Sunday. It clearly meant so much to him and he was ultimately an emotional wreck, screaming for every flight.

All-rounder Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer played a crucial role in the incredible super over "

and Jofra Archer played crucial roles in the incredible super about

All-rounder Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer played crucial roles in the incredible super over

This huge improvement since that time has been made possible by the broadcast deals of the past 14 years, which are not only made this possible, but also maintained and even existed for the 18-county healthy system.

When I played, our Essex captain, Keith Fletcher, and Graham Gooch said that he shouldn't hit the balls too often because our Secretary, Peter Edwards, would complain about the cost of buying new ones.]

Yes, I know I am commenting on Sky, but I think this extraordinary extraordinary World Cup win should give everyone the chance to win make up alans, look at what we have and use it as a springboard for more.

It was a great gesture from Sky to offer coverage to Channel 4 on Sunday. But let's not say that the answer to a possible fall in participation levels would be to release all our cricket. The game must be careful what it wishes.

It was Andrew Who said & # 39; enough is enough & # 39; after the last World Cup and Morgan supported Strauss who said & # 39; enough is enough & # 39; after the last World Cup and Morgan supported "

It was Andrew Strauss who said" enough is enough "after the last World Cup and supported Morgan

<img id = "i-78c7759bda336951" src = "https://ift.tt/2NYdz5t" height = "423" width = "634" alt = "England skipper Morgan lets children hold the World Cup trophy on the Oval on Monday

British skipper Morgan lets children the World Cup- holding the trophy on the Oval on Monday Trophy on the oval on Monday

To begin with, terrestrial canals are not exactly lined up for the

Children and teenagers consume their television on different ways, and to be honest, just don't spend hours watching cricket on television like people of my generation did.

Of course there are always areas to work on and of course there is a problem with children who stop playing when they are 16 or 17, there are so many other things that compete for their time. But it is certainly not all doom and gloom and sometimes we all have to remember that.

Sunday was that memory. Let us be thankful for where we are. Let us be thankful for days like Sunday. It requires investment. And let's enjoy.

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[sbknews]

#PerfectComb1nation: Pecco Bagnaia is the 2022 MotoGP World Champion!

The Italian takes the premier class crown after a tense race in Valencia, becoming the first Ducati rider to win the title for 15 years. Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) is the 2022 MotoGP™ World Champion! The incredible rollercoaster comeback is complete as the Italian came home in the top ten in Valencia to secure the crown, having overcome a deficit of 91 points back before summer break. Bagnaia is the first Ducati rider to take the crown since Casey Stoner in 2007, the first Italian to achieve the feat since Valentino Rossi in 2009, and first Italian on an Italian bike since Giacomo Agostini in 1972. Born in Turin, Bagnaia enjoyed MiniMoto success before going international onto bigger machinery in the then-CEV in 2011 on a 125, learning his craft before moving up to the Moto3™ World Championship for 2013. Joining the VR46 Riders Academy and then moving to SKY VR46 for 2014, the pieces were in motion before a statement season. On Mahindra at Aspar for 2015, he was the lead rider for the squad and only confirmed that in 2016 as he took the bike’s first ever win – and second. The first was at Assen and the second Sepang, earning him a special treat from the team: the chance to try the MotoGP™ bike in the post-season Valencia test. Bagnaia moved up to Moto2™ in 2017 with the new Sky Racing Team VR46 intermediate class effort and was Rookie of the Year, taking several podiums. In 2018 he then hit the ground running and was a contender for the crown from the off, with imperious form and some incredible wins seeing him take the title in Malaysia. Next stop: MotoGP™. Despite showing impressive speed in his first outings in the premier class in testing, it was a difficult rookie year for Bagnaia at Pramac Racing. Still, a fantastic fourth place in at Phillip Island showed plenty signs of promise. 2020 proved a mixed year for the Italian, but he earned an impressive second place in the San Marino GP and a week later at the same track, he was on the verge of a maiden premier class victory until a heartbreaking crash ended his hopes. He never quite got going again in the remaining races that year, but 2021 saw him move to the factory squad and signalled the start of a whole new chapter. Three podiums and a pole in the opening four rounds signalled the Italian as a title contender and, despite a blip in the middle of the season, he was the last remaining challenger to eventual Champion Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP™) – and finished the year as the rider with the momentum. From a debut MotoGP™ win at Aragon after an incredible head-to-head with Marc Marquez to an amazing victory in Misano a week after, Bagnaia had arrived and he signed off the season with a win in Valencia, too. 2022, however, began on the back foot. A crash in Qatar, a tough race in Lombok, two fifths and an eighth signalled an unexpected start to the season, but Jerez saw the number 63 back on top in a race-long chess match with Quartararo. Then came another crash, at Le Mans, and then another win at Mugello as the Italian took the spoils on home turf. But the rollercoaster went down again as bad luck saw him take home a zero in Barcelona and a mistake caused the same at the Sachsenring. Then, Bagnaia was 91 points behind points leader Quartararo, the biggest deficit overcome to date. The best way to stage a comeback is to start winning, and Bagnaia did just that as he took an awesome four victories in a row in Assen, Silverstone, Austria and Misano. In Aragon it was second place one year on from his first win, but it was hundredths in it as he duelled it out against 2023 teammate Enea Bastianini. Again. But the rollercoaster was in motion once more at Motegi as Bagnaia slid out on the very last lap – and from right behind key rival Quartararo, losing some ground hard-gained since summer break. Thailand marked a huge challenge as a rainy race day gave many flashbacks of Lombok, where Quartararo has taken a podium and Bagnaia only one single point, but fortunes were reversed at Buriram as Pecco podiumed and El Diablo failed to score. Then came Australia and a crash for Quartararo as Bagnaia once again got back on the box, before a tense, tense first match point at Sepang. There, it was once again Bagnaia vs Bastianini. All race long the two went toe-to-toe, with all eyes on the duo who will share the factory garage next season. But this time it was the number 63 who kept the nerves under control and the upper hand on track, taking his seventh win of the season to pull out a 23-point lead as Quartararo put in an impressive stand with a podium. And so, #TheDecider had arrived. Two riders, 23 points, and one crown. It was a nervy weekend for Bagnaia at times but once the lights went out, the track lit up with an incredible race to sign off an era of Grand Prix racing. Quartararo was pushing to get to the front and it got heated for a few tense, gloves-off laps between the Frenchman and the Ducatis – and a few more – but as the race went on the result seemed set: Quartararo had to win to retain the crown, and win he would not. Bagnaia, having lost some aero in a tangle with the Frenchman, kept it calm but slipped back in the top ten once that became clear – and crossed the line in ninth to crown himself 2022 MotoGP™ World Champion. Complimenti, Pecco! #GoFree and fiesta!

#PerfectComb1nation IN STATS Francesco Bagnaia is the first Italian rider to clinch a premier class world title since Valentino Rossi in 2009. Overall, he is the seventh different Italian rider to do so along with Giacomo Agostini (8), Valentino Rossi (7), Umberto Masetti (2), Libero Liberati (1), Marco Lucchinelli (1) and Franco Uncini (1). Bagnaia’s title is the 21st in the premier class for Italy and the 80th overall in Grand Prix racing. Bagnaia became the second Ducati rider to take the premier class world title along with Casey Stoner in 2007. Aged 25 years and 296 days old, Bagnaia is the oldest rider to clinch his maiden MotoGP™ world title since the introduction of the class in 2002. Nicky Hayden in 2006 is next: 25 years and 91 days old.

Bagnaia is the first Italian rider on an Italian bike to win the premier class title since MotoGP™ Legend Giacomo Agostini in 1972 with MV Agusta. At the 2022 San Marino GP, Bagnaia took a fourth win in four successive GP races, becoming the first ever Ducati rider to do so in any class of GP racing. Since the introduction of MotoGP™ in 2002, Bagnaia became the fourth different rider to take four (or more) wins in four (or more) successive races in the class along with Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo and Marc Marquez. With 11 premier class wins, all with Ducati, Bagnaia sits in third place on the list of Ducati riders with most wins in the class behind Casey Stoner (23 wins) and Andrea Dovizioso (14). With 20 premier class podiums so far, Bagnaia is the fifth Ducati rider with most podiums in the class, behind Jack Miller (21 podiums). Casey Stoner leads the way with 42 podiums. This season Bagnaia has stood on the MotoGP™ podium more than any other rider (10 times), including seven wins. Only two Ducati riders have scored seven (or more) wins in a single season: Casey Stoner (10 in 2007) and Bagnaia (2022). After the German GP, Bagnaia was sixth in the Championship, 91 points off the leader Fabio Quartararo, meaning this is the best point recovery to take the crown since the introduction of the point scoring system in 1993. Since 2001, there have been only two occasions on which the rider who clinched the title at the end of the year didn’t finish within the top five in the opening race of season: Joan Mir (2020) and Francesco Bagnaia (2022); they both crashed out. Bagnaia also became the first rider to clinch the premier class title despite five DNFs throughout the season. Bagnaia is only the second rider to clinch the premier class world title having previously clinched the Moto2™ title, along with Marc Marquez.

PECCO BAGNAIA How does it feel? "I'm very, very happy because on the day of the worst race of the calendar I've had a special sweet taste When I crossed the finish line and saw my pit board with writing saying I was the World Champion everything was brighter and nicer. My emotion is incredible in this moment. It wasn't easy because after the fight with Fabio I lost a winglet and from that moment everything was a nightmare. I've done lap by lap trying ride defensive lines, but it was very difficult, and it took so long to finish the race. I'm very proud of my team, myself and of what we did because it's incredible." Did you think it was going to be difficult after Germany? "Yeah, like I said one or two races ago, I lost the faith in the championship for one hour after the Sachsenring race but then after that I knew there was still a chance to be World Champion. Sincerely, the work we did this year was incredible. We performed in an incredible way in the second part of the year. We tried to analyze everything, at home also, to see what to improve, why I was crashing and I was making so many mistakes, and from that moment we've just done some incredible. I'm very happy for that because we really deserve this title." Most difficult moment + best moment? "The most difficult was Sachsenring, because I was very competitive like in Le Mans. I was there with a possibility to win the race, but I crashed and in that moment I realised my weak point was that. I was a rider with a lot of ups and downs, with good speed but no consistency. To accept that was not easy. From that moment I recognised I had a problem and I tried to improve myself, also thanks to the people at home that worked with me everything day and helped me a lot. I think I improved myself a lot this season." On Ducati's long wait: "I saw many faces crying, and it was incredible. I was crying too. It was an amazing victory because I was feeling the weight on my shoulders to give back this title to my team, to Ducati, and to Italy. When I spoke to Vale, he said to me yesterday that you have you be proud to have this possibility, not everyone can have the same feeling. It's true that you feel the pressure, you feel anxiety, you feel fear, but you have to be proud of it, be happy to have it, and try to enjoy it. I tried to do it, and today in fact it didn't work but sincerely I'm very happy to think who we have as a mentor and leader.

BIOGRAPHY First Grand Prix: Qatar 2013, Moto3™ First pole position: Silverstone 2016, Moto3™ First podium: Le Mans 2015, Moto3™ First victory: Assen 2016, Moto3™ Grands Prix: 172 Victories: 21 Podiums: 43 Pole positions: 18 Fastest laps: 14 World Championships: Moto2™ (2018), MotoGP™ (2022) For more MotoGP info checkout our dedicated MotoGP News page Or visit the official MotoGP website www.motogp.com Read the full article

[teleindiscreta]

Lorenzo: peor que Rossi en su estreno con Ducati

Fuente original: Lorenzo: peor que Rossi en su estreno con Ducati Puedes ver más visitando Teleindiscreta - Las mejores noticias de actualidad, famosos, salud, belleza, cocina, motor, música y mucho más.

Uno de los muchos alicientes que el Mundial de MotoGP 2017 presentaba allá por el mes de marzo en Qatar, era conocer el rendimiento que Jorge Lorenzo demostraría con la Ducati Desmosedici GP17. Porque el desafío que el piloto balear había decidido emprender esta temporada era mayúsculo.

“Fichar por Ducati es la decisión más difícil de mi vida”. De esta manera definió Lorenzo en abril del 2016, la osadía de dejar Yamaha tras nueve temporadas donde logró tres Mundiales (2010, 2012 y 2015) 44 triunfos, 107 podios, 39 poles y 28 vueltas rápidas, y aterrizar en un equipo como Ducati que acumulaba diez años sin ganar un campeonato.

Ahora, la primera mitad del Mundial de MotoGP 2017 nos deja muchas preguntas por resolver. ¿Cómo se habrá adaptado Jorge Lorenzo a Ducati? ¿Habrá mejorado los registros de Valentino Rossi o Casey Stoner cuando debutaron con la escudería de Borgo Panigale? ¿Quién habrá ganado el duelo entre Andrea Dovizioso y Lorenzo por ser el primer piloto del equipo?

Empecemos el análisis basándonos en hechos. Después de nueve carreras, el pentacampeón se encuentra en la novena posición en el Mundial de pilotos con 65 puntos, 64 puntos menos que el actual líder del campeonato, Marc Márquez, y 58 menos que su compañero de equipo en Ducati, Andrea Dovizioso.

De igual modo, Jorge Lorenzo ha subido una vez al podio (Jerez), mientras que su peor resultado en carrera ha sido una decimoquinta posición en Assen. En Barcelona, el mallorquín logró la primera y única primera fila de parrilla de salida en clasificación, así como en Holanda registró también su peor entrenamiento cronometrado con una decimoprimera posición.

En promedio, Lorenzo ha comenzado las nueve pruebas del Mundial de MotoGP 2017 desde la 11,8 posición y ha cruzado la línea de meta en el 8,4 puesto. Unos registros que no han sido constantes y que se encuentran lejos de las estadísticas de Dovizioso, que en clasificación ha partido desde la 9,3 posición y en carrera ha concluido en el cuarto lugar.

Si miramos más allá del presente, y analizamos y comparamos las estadísticas de Lorenzo con los pilotos debutantes con Ducati durante los primeros nueve Grandes Premios, llevar a cabo un estudio objetivo resulta complicado de ejecutar debido al rendimiento fluctuante de la moto italiana en los últimos años.

Por ejemplo, si examinamos la productividad de Lorenzo con Casey Stoner en 2007, el piloto balear sale claramente perdiendo. Pero si observamos el rédito del balear con Valentino Rossi y Andrea Dovizioso en las temporadas 2011 y 2013, el pentacampeón no se encuentra tan lejos en cuanto a resultados obtenidos.

Probablemente, la equiparación más justa se produzca entre Jorge Lorenzo y Andrea Iannone. Porque en el a��o 2015, ya que la Desmosedici GP15 era una moto competitiva, pero no al nivel de la Desmosedici GP7 que coronó a Stoner como campeón. Iannone derrota a Lorenzo por 53 puntos, así como en este periodo había anotado dos podios (Qatar e Italia), su peor resultado era una sexta posición y se encontraba tercero en el Mundial de pilotos.

Pero también existen algunas circunstancias atenuantes que justifican esta desigualdad entre el italiano y el español. El piloto de Vasto tuvo dos temporadas para adaptarse a las características de la Ducati en el equipo cliente Pramac, mientras que el de Palma aún se encuentra aclimatándose a la moto italiana. Además, la parrilla de MotoGP ahora es mucho más competitiva que hace dos años, y tener un mal día significa conseguir un resultado más allá del décimo lugar.

Por lo tanto, realizar una comparación imparcial entre Lorenzo y los pilotos debutantes de Ducati resulta difícil de cumplir. Pero si solo comparamos valores, Jorge Lorenzo cae derrotado frente a Stoner, Iannone, Rossi, Loris Capirossi, Dovizioso y Troy Bayliss, mientras que vence a Carlos Checa, Nicky Hayden, Sete Gibernau, Marco Melandri y Cal Crutchlow.

La segunda parte del Mundial de MotoGP 2017 comienza este fin de semana en Brno. Está claro que el pentacampeón necesita más podios y más clasificaciones en primera fila. Pero esto es algo que solamente conseguirá el balear con más kilómetros sobre la Desmosedici GP17. Actuaciones como las de Jerez y Barcelona permiten confiar en que la primera temporada de Lorenzo en Ducati aún sea positiva.

Comparativa Jorge Lorenzo VS Pilotos debutantes con Ducati

Piloto Año Puntos Victorias Podios Mejor resultado Posición Mundial Casey Stoner 2007 185 5 7 1º 1º Andrea Iannone 2015 118 0 2 2º 3º Valentino Rossi 2011 98 0 1 3º 4º Loris Capirossi 2003 96 1 3 1º 4º Andrea Dovizioso 2013 81 0 0 4º 7º Troy Bayliss 2003 79 0 2 3º 5º Jorge Lorenzo 2017 65 0 1 3º 9º Carlos Checa 2005 51 0 0 5º 10º Nicky Hayden 2009 46 0 0 5º 13º Sete Gibernau 2006 44 0 0 4º 13º Marco Melandri 2008 32 0 0 5º 14º Cal Crutchlow 2014 28 0 0 6º 14º

Fuente: AS

La entrada Lorenzo: peor que Rossi en su estreno con Ducati aparece primero en Teleindiscreta.

from Lorenzo: peor que Rossi en su estreno con Ducati

[lacharmante]

BMW RS 54, 1954. Source.

One of only 24 examples built by BMW in 1954, this RS 54 was restored to its current condition and configuration by former factory racer Kurt Busch in the mid-1980s. Using the engine, gearbox, and driveshaft from sidecar racer Gustav Pape’s World Championship motorcycle, Busch rebuilt frame number 549010 to its current proper mechanical condition. The RS 54 engine is a masterpiece of engineering. The 500-cc DOHC horizontally opposed two-cylinder engine, driven by transverse shafts and conical gears, is specific to this model. The factory riders Walter Zeller and Georg Meier have each won the Tourist Trophy, and BMW won the sidecar world championship numerous times with machines equipped with the incredible Rennsport engine. In 1998, this RS 54 was ridden by Kees Koster in the Centennial Classic TT in Assen, as homage to his 500-cc championship attempt on a BMW Rennsport. This motorcycle was sold in 2011 to its current owner, who has dutifully maintained and kept the BMW in proper working order. The Rennsport presented here is a splendid machine whose exceptional quality is clearly apparent.

[batsplat]

hi batsplat this is marquezian.. as our resident casey scholar i was wondering if you have casey race recs !!

boy do I ever have recs! here's a (hopefully) fairly comprehensive list, drawing from more or less all the stages of his grand prix career and featuring races notable for a bunch of different reasons

casey is quite defensive of the 'boring' racing of the alien era (in particular the 2010-12 years)... but it is a shame his time in motogp overlapped so heavily with the 800cc era, which did lead to some tough watches for fans of 'overtakes' and 'close racing' and 'unpredictability'. so a lot of these race picks aren't necessarily reflective of how casey racked up the majority of his wins, plus presumably don't always match up with what his own picks would be. but well, whatever! I threw in a few of the ones I know casey likes

warning: the race descriptions generally spoil the results of the races. since this list is pretty long, I've put an asterisk next to the races I'd particularly recommend, and double asterisk next to my personal faves

my tldr spoiler-free top five faves list is catalunya 2007, donington park 2007, laguna seca 2008, sachsenring 2010, and laguna seca 2011. my five next-off most notable/fun races are assen 2004, turkey 2006, qatar 2007, phillip island 2009 and silverstone 2011

and here's the actual list, in chronological order:

sachsenring 2003: first podium in grand prix racing! big disclaimer: the recordings of the 2003 125cc races you can find on the videopass are poor quality and don't feature any commentary, so not the easiest to watch. this race is also not great to follow on the colour front: the three main protagonists are *squints at notes* casey (yellow bike, number 27), perugini (mostly black and white but with a few greenish highlights, 7) and de angelis (mostly green, 15). but well it's a really tight fight that goes until the last corner, good fun... casey's talked about how nervous the track made him so he wasn't racing his opponents hard enough at the end. which is kinda sweet and revealing

brazil 2003: another tight battle, this time with jorge (green/red, 48) and de angelis, another time he doesn't QUITE make it. jorge's first ever victory! y'know the one where he overtakes everyone on the outside and starts the whole x-fuera thing

valencia 2003: first win! 125cc/moto3 racing being reliably good fun is a time-honoured tradition and it can even make that middling karting track exciting to watch. it's a good fight - quite helpfully, casey's nicely visible yellow bike contrasts well with the blue bike (hector barbera, number 80) and the red bike (sic, 58) (at some point steve jenker, 17, shows up on a black and white bike). that being said... the bloody video on the motogp website cuts off around two and a half laps to the end, which is a shame because those laps were (apparently) filled with drama. very close finish, not helped by the spark plug of casey's bike breaking RIGHT before the end, which is a very casey thing to happen to him. he thought he was screwed but ended up being saved by barbera running wide trying to overtake him in the last corner. here's a cute lil feature with casey discussing the race that you can probably just watch instead of the race. also ofc him saying how good it felt to beat the spanish at their home circuit (clip here), king of spite

^look at him in evil gross luminous yellow

**assen 2004: I'll admit, this race is one of my faves in large part because of the terrorism jorge does on casey on the last lap, which casey was NOT happy about. (in a funny coincidence, the same event features jorge's future teammate doing some last lap terrorism on gibernau that gibernau is also decidedly not thrilled about.) featured in the autobiography - he really wasn't a fan of jorge at the time - and when he's being sulky in the interview they have in the post-race broadcast. but another great fight and, with my apologies to casey, the last lap is fantastic. excitingly includes commentary!!

jerez 2006: casey's first motogp race! you don't reallyyyy see enough of him on the broadcast for it to be completely worth it, but it's still a proper good ride. he starts in fifteenth, makes a great start and then gets a lil lucky at the first corner when toni elias attempts to murder barrels into valentino and opens up a gap for casey. gets all the way up to fourth and finishes sixth!! also ofc a starring performance by dani at the front of the race

qatar 2006: second race of the season. after the first race, casey had been ill with a bad fever, plus there'd been a fuck up with the flights that meant he only got to the lusail circuit ten minutes before the first session. he topped the first practise session and qualified on pole, even though he was still recovering from illness and was massively sleep-deprived. his first battle with valentino, eventually drops a few places but still <3 also features some fun vale/nicky hayden battles

*turkey 2006: the third race of the season (look he front-loaded his good races that year) and my girl's first premier class podium!! but... bit of a heartbreaker as he did come VERY very very close to winning. also he said apparently he was pleased with his podium but when he got to parc fermé his team was acting disappointed he didn't win :( still a fantastic race, the highlight of casey's troubled rookie campaign. (casey was fast from the get-go in the premier class, but was dealing with major tyre issues that the team around him didn't do a good job at helping him with. by the end of the season, he ended up acquiring a somewhat unfair reputation for being a crasher, with the lovely nickname 'rolling stoner'. still, for young talent it's generally the peaks that matter most and you could really see his ability shine through here)

*qatar 2007: obviously of Great Narrative Significance, casey's first race with ducati and when he announced his arrival at the top of the sport by getting his first premier class win. good solid fun casey/vale fight, though it does feature the classic 'ducati blasts past everyone down that very long lusail straight' syndrome. people were kinda mean about that - which in turn made casey very irritable, arguing that if your bike is a nightmare to ride everywhere else then it's an accomplishment to be close enough to blast past down the straight. unfortunately I do agree a lil bit with the naysayers in terms of the actual racing, but still a pretty good fight

^the last year it was a day race

**catalunya 2007: probably my personal favourite? (of the ones casey won, anyway.) just something about a great battle at that track - obviously valentino had about a million, but this was really the only race-long one that he lost. important in the context of the 2007 title campaign - even though it was only a ten-point swing - because it showed casey wasn't just about horsepower dominance. fantastic riding from both of them

**donington park 2007: my fave of his wet weather performances because he actually has to work his way through the field. he started fifth but was outside of the top ten early on after an uncharacteristically poor start. fun race with plenty of good shake-ups of the order

(he sealed the title in motegi and won his home race for the first time that year, but since he finished sixth in the former and won the latter by a few lightyears, they don't make the cut)

*qatar 2008: more fun than qatar 2007!! imo!! obviously it's also jorge's first race and he's on pole and dani's a bit injured and those two have their whole thing™️ going on... and vale has just switched tyre suppliers and is trying to prove he's not washed and casey is starting his title defence... so a big significant race for all four of them, and unlike many races in that era has a fair few twists and turns and almost all of them actually get to fight each other a bit. okay eventually it settles down and gets dull but until then it's fun (and there's also some very late excitement involving dovi/vale)

**laguna seca 2008: I feel a wee bit bad for including this one and casey would throw something at me, but well it obviously belongs on here. ignoring casey's complaints for a minute about vale's aggression, it really is a fantastic battle - and vale only goes as far as he does because casey's so good! (also unsure whether casey would appreciate this line of reasoning.) probably the one everyone's most likely to have already watched, and for good reason since it slaps. sorry casey

estoril 2009: only for sentimental reasons, after the first few laps it gets boring fast. still, it's casey's first race back after the mystery illness-induced break, he immediately has a cute lil battle with vale (which he wins, slay) and... okay then it's basically a procession but it's also nice and sweet when it's over and he's on the podium and he's shown everyone he's still got it. maybe skip like. 20 laps

**phillip island 2009: casey's first win in only his second race back!!! warning that it's a little light on actual overtaking but it's still tense and close most of the way through and casey's so great to watch on this circuit. (he's literally too good at it for most of his races there to be all that interesting, this is probably the best one.) plus it's another one included partly for sentimental reasons. here's my pitch:

sepang 2009: so he's been slandered for months, he's been written off, ducati have been fucking him over, he comes back and immediately gets a podium finish and wins the next race... what does he do after that? win again obviously! another neat little wet performance (partly helped by vale having a bit of a shocker off the line lmao, though he seals the title that day with a p3 finish)

valencia 2009: if you want to see the pole sitter crash on the warm up lap and dani almost miss the start in confusion

**sachsenring 2010: vale's first race back after the broken leg. usually that's the time when everyone would pretend to be nice to each other... but all three of vale, jorge and casey had gone to efforts during vale's absence to make things worse <3 anyway cracking race including a good fun spite-fuelled battle between casey and vale for the last podium spot, one of their better scraps with a dramatic ending - after which both of them are charmingly bitchy about each other to the media (see below). shame it was basically their last notable battle in the dry (I didn't include either jerez 2011 or le mans 2012 on this list because I wouldn't really recommend them as good casey races, but they do more or less conclude casey and vale's on-track story. and the latter is also the last podium they share, plus it's the race right after casey announced his retirement. fave presser moment)

^😭😭😭😭😭 you guys are AWFUL oh my god. people always talk about laguna 2008 but the vibes got way more rancid post-2009 when their actual on-track rivalry was basically over

motegi 2010: this one's kinda marginal on whether it qualifies for this list. casey was really proud of this win and felt his 2010 wins were particularly impressive given how much he had to override a bike that was objectively shit by this point.... BUT in practise once he shakes off dovi, it's quite a dominant win and the real fun is watching valentino experiment with whether he can make jorge lorenzo the first person ever to die of rage alone while riding a motorcycle

*silverstone 2011: one of the truly great wet weather performances. this is a personal taste thing - I don't mind dominance as much in the wet because it's just cool sometimes seeing somebody drop a masterclass on the field in those conditions. but obviously not necessarily the most exciting victory fight once he hits the front after like. a lap. still, good battles going on behind him

^a fan of british tracks, not a fan of the british

*sachsenring 2011: great three-way battle with jorge and dani, with the lead exchanged several times - also plenty of other good battles down the order. not one casey emerges victorious from, but definitely one of the best races that season

**laguna seca 2011: okay look corkscrew this corkscrew that but there's an argument to be made that casey makes a pass in this that's better than anything marc and vale can DREAM of. well no I won't go that far - but it's still an incredible overtake, insane thing to do at a blind corner, and casey just looks fantastic riding on that circuit. in his autobiography he says something along the lines of 'oh it looked scary on tv but I knew I'd make it'. which. okay casey!! not gonna say more than that, one of those where you'll know it when you see it. one of the best races of his career and also a key race in that year's title fight

phillip island 2011: marginal inclusion, but it's sweet he sealed the title on his 26th birthday by winning his home race (even though he mainly sealed it there because jorge lost half a finger and couldn't start the race). conditions got treacherous when the rain showed up but well casey stayed on the bike, just about

*jerez 2012: casey's first and last win at jerez! this is the one that casey called his greatest career win at the time and... sure, fair enough, especially given he had a weirdly bad record at the track. he didn't enjoy the experience much because of his arm pump issues, which makes the performance all the more impressive. fun first few laps in particular, after that it's maybe a bit more tension than actual action. still a proper good race

estoril 2012: another win he's very proud of... another one that's maybe even more skewed towards tension than actual action, but still an unmistakably impressive performance given jorge's strong record there and casey's physical issues. that and jerez completed his set as they'd been the races he hadn't won yet, which made him feel more certain of his choice to retire

phillip island 2012: listen it's his last win and it sealed the title (for jorge), so was at least somewhat exciting. but also according to his autobiography, casey deliberately rode slower for a bit before expanding the gap again just to keep his focus up, which I think gives you a sense of how easy he found winning there

^his penultimate race and sixth consecutive victory at phillip island. he also finished on the podium in his last ever race at valencia

[batsplat]

https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeqGj4i5YQtD5ou6o6Hyyymq_UAp8LPfQ

Found this playlist on YouTube of MotoGP races with a couple of 125, and 250 races as well as moto2 and moto3. I do have the videopass but because I’m new to watching races and I don’t have time to binge every race of every single season yet so I’m gonna make my way through this playlist and then go back and watch the races I’ve missed another time.

don't think this is a terrible selection - but if you have videopass (or for anyone else, see this post for full seasons 2003-2019), I can give my top few recs for each season 2001-19. note that this is just for motogp - mainly because how much I've watched of the other classes goes from 'signed up expert on every race' for 2006 250cc to 'what' for. idk. 2014 moto3 or whatever. also, this is just off the top of my head, first races that come to mind, don't take this as gospel. top three races each season get an asterisk

2001: suzuka*, jerez, catalunya, assen*, donington, phillip island*

2002: suzuka, jerez, assen*, sachsenring*, sepang*, phillip island, valencia

2003: welkom, le mans, catalunya, sachsenring*, brno*, motegi, phillip island*

2004: welkom*, jerez, mugello*, catalunya, assen, brno, qatar, phillip island*

2005: jerez*, shanghai, catalunya, mugello*, le mans, donington*, sachsenring, brno, qatar

2006: qatar, turkey, mugello*, assen, donington, sachsenring*, sepang*, phillip island, estoril

2007: qatar*, mugello, catalunya*, assen*, estoril, motegi

2008: qatar, catalunya*, donington, sachsenring, laguna*, indy, motegi*, sepang

2009: le mans, mugello, catalunya*, sachsenring*, donington*, phillip island, sepang

2010: jerez, sachsenring*, motegi*, sepang*, phillip island

2011: le mans, silverstone, sachsenring*, laguna*, valencia*

2012: le mans*, sachsenring*, brno*, sepang, valencia

2013: qatar*, assen*, laguna, silverstone*, valencia

2014: qatar*, mugello, catalunya*, silverstone*, misano, phillip island

2015: qatar*, argentina, assen*, silverstone, misano, aragon, phillip island*, sepang

2016: argentina, mugello*, catalunya*, sachsenring, brno*, sepang

2017: le mans, assen*, austria, misano, motegi*, phillip island*, sepang

2018: qatar*, argentina, assen*, brno*, austria, thailand

2019: qatar*, argentina, mugello, austria, silverstone*, misano*, thailand, phillip island

and as ever, if you're looking for a full season to check out - 2004 or 2006 are your friends

[batsplat]

Quick questions about Casey

1. You mentioned something about his back, did he have back issues

2. When was he diagnosed with his chronic illness and what was it (I wanna say it’s sleep related)

3. I read that he hated that the Ducati has yellow on it when Vale switched over

(Not a question but I watched hitting the apex recently and man Casey saying not gonna lie I enjoyed watching him suffer more then we did is the hater levels I want to reach but also your ambitions outweighed your talent iconic)

Did you see that Vale did a interview/show thing in Italy and they asked if his balls were named Casey and Marc like wild stuff is happening over there

in order:

1) back pain: yes, he had back issues going back to an injury sustained at assen 2003. from his autobiography -

After crashing out of the lead group again at Barcelona I was chasing Jenkner for the win in wet conditions at Assen but Dovi's bike missed a gear and I hit his back wheel and ended up in the gravel trap. I had to lay the bike down before I hit a wall. (That crash would affect more than one race; the back injury I sustained would go on to plague my career.)

and he's discussed the issue post-retirement (x):

Basically with chronic fatigue, I can't keep myself fit and healthy. I have a problem with my ribs, and I often suffer from back pain. I have some disks that put pressure on my nerves and cause spasms. I've improved by taking new medication, but I can't train or go out and do things.

apart from the sepang 2006 flare up discussed in this post, there were a couple other major recurrences during his career. first off, estoril 2011, where casey's back suddenly started causing him excruciating pain during the race (x):

and from his autobiography:

My chances of chasing [Jorge and Dani] for the win at Estoril were ruined on the first lap by Marco Simoncelli - who cut me off in turn one and then crashed right in front of me in turn four - as well as my old back injury from 2003, which flared up again. At some point during that race I felt my back completely lock up on me and I couldn't move for three or four corners. I was struggling to do anything and could hardly breathe so for a moment I thought I would have to pull in but thankfully within half a lap it eased up a little, got better and we managed to finish in third place.

lastly, casey had to miss a day of pre-season testing in early 2012 (x):

“I was stretching this morning for a good 20 minutes preparing to go out on track for the first time and then all of a sudden my back just locked up on me,” Stoner said. “I couldn’t move or do anything. I had to call someone to come and help me move into a position that was less painful! “Then I had some physio on it straight away trying to get it better for this afternoon, but it wasn’t feeling good. I had some more physio after lunch, but it still wasn’t easing up. I felt I could have gone out on the bike in the afternoon, but we all agreed it would probably make it worse for tomorrow.

and from his autobiography:

The new RC213V was fantastic but I couldn't even ride it on the first day of the test because of my old back injury, which flared up again when I was warming up. I must have been stretching for a good twenty minutes and then all of a sudden my back just locked up on me. I couldn't move or do anything - I had to call someone to come and help me move into a position that was less painful.

so yeah. nasty injury. I think that one and the wrist were probably the worst continuous problem zones for casey

2) casey was advised he had chronic fatigue syndrome way back in 2006 - but the diagnosis on its own didn't necessarily mean either he or the doctors knew how badly the condition was affecting him. he certainly didn't think it was a satisfactory explanation of his mystery illness in 2009 when he was forced to step away for several races. during that time, he eventually identified lactose intolerance as the culprit - which a helpful anon a few months back informed me makes sense as a comorbidity with chronic fatigue. he was able to improve his health in 2009 by cutting lactose out of his diet, though it was only after his career that he came to better understand the full impact chronic fatigue syndrome was having on him

3) yeah, I mean, there's one mention of casey hating valentino's yellow on the ducati in his autobiography, which has been posted in this parish and I do admittedly enjoy referring back to a lot. just one of those fun accidentally revealing lines, casey's always good for those. the key thing here, right, is that objectively this bike is not inappropriately yellow. there are many bikes out there that have made more extensive use of a secondary colour specific to the rider, which if anything is extremely helpful when you're watching the races. valentino's ducati is a red bike with a yellow number on it. sure, there's riders who just stick with a white number - like the dani/marc honda era, which was just annoying any time they're close to each other on the track. jorge has a red number, and it makes the yamaha era fights with valentino more watchable. also, take a wild guess who else had a personalised colour scheme. rhymes with 'moaner'. it's really just not in any way remarkable, right

so either casey's perception or his memory or his commitment to honesty is out of whack here. I already posted this photo a while back but just for context, here's valentino and casey's ducati bikes side by side:

from the way casey talks, you'd think valentino had thrown a bucket of fluorescent paint over the thing. sure, valentino's seat has a little yellow on it - but given how you'd generally expect that thing to be covered up, this should not be a deal breaker. at this point what it comes down to is whether you aesthetically prefer the colour yellow or the australian flag

and what is so fun about this is... it's not just that casey was paying attention to how much yellow was on the ducati. it's not just that he commented on it at some point. it's the fact that it made it all the way to his autobiography. let's assume casey isn't just being a dick here and knowingly exaggerating... I mean, even if his assessment of the colour scheme were accurate, this would still be a petty thing to bring up. ducati is not going to 'destroy their brand' by running a yellow-ish motogp bike for two years. not to be too cynical here but. it is also hard to take casey's concern for ducati's brand integrity particularly seriously. something about how casey wants to provide evidence for how valentino made motogp worse in basically every way imaginable... like casey takes such a big picture view with valentino, where he does manage to thematically tie him in with 90% of casey's problems with the sport. even with the colour scheme

idk it's just so charming to me because it's SUCH a cheap shot. each valentino feud has its own distinctly fun feel... and there's just something with this one where. y'know. it's not like they're making each other 'worse people' exactly, but they DO have the ability to drag each other down into the absolute dredges. they just make each other PETTY. like valentino always had an ability to get under casey's skin, sometimes on purpose but often just kind of accidentally... whereas casey had to put in the hard work in order to become really, really good at pissing valentino off. and by the end of their rivalry they'd gotten so skilled at pushing each other's buttons that you've got casey still thinking post-retirement about how much he fucking hated valentino's bike colour scheme

casey probably really did remember that bike as being offensively yellow, which just implies a pleasing level of attention being paid to valentino at all times. even when casey really didn't have much reason to be paying attention to valentino as a competitive threat. just this intense preoccupation with all he saw of valentino for years and years. imagine worming your way into the head of a competitor to such an extent that you're at risk of giving them a pavlovian response to a primary colour. beautiful

end notes: yes, schadenfreude is Good. it's fun how much casey's leaned into that angle in his own narrativisation of his rivalry, again comes back to all those handy communication skills he learned along the way. really understood the narrative oomf of the jerez 2011 incident (a bit more on that here and here). and on that last bit. I'm gonna be honest, as a rule I keep up with nothing athletes do after their career is over unless it's relevant to their actual careers. so I have... no clue what this is referring to and. uh. I feel like I'm missing a bit of context there

[batsplat]

sorry if you’ve answered this before, but do you count Marc as an alien? I’ve seen some people do it on Reddit & I fully get why, but personally I kinda feel like only the og 4 can count??? I find myself saying “the aliens AND Marc” but then I’m wondering if I’m just being dumb about the semantics of it lol. Do you know if ppl more broadly in the sport (commentators, other riders, etc) count Marc as an alien? (god I swear this sport makes me type out the dumbest sentences I’ve ever written in my life lol)

I'm not massively fussed about this either way, though I personally do include marc as an alien because it's just a useful shorthand for those five riders. the term for those 'og 4' that gets bandied about is 'the fantastic four'... I cannot tell you why, but personally I just cannot bring myself to call them That. (though I've also seen the term being used for the top four in this year's championship, which I fw even less.) I talked about how I use the term in this post, where my main point was that to me the term primarily is about an era. there was a specific time span in motogp history where the championship was completely dominated by a small group of riders, partly because they were just very good and partly because they had a substantial machinery advantage over everyone else. in any given year from 2007 to 2015, you could safely predict that every single race would be won by one of four riders. the only exceptions to this are le mans 2007 (vermeulen on a factory suzuki), motegi 2007 (capirossi on a factory ducati), donington 2009 (dovizioso on a factory honda), and assen 2011 (spies on a factory yamaha). all of these races were conducted in the wet too... in the dry, it's complete domination

which, again. this is partly about the machinery, like this was just an era with way more substantial a factory/satellite divide than you'd get today (or indeed in the 990cc era). you never know what would've happened if more riders had that quality of machinery - though obviously it's worth pointing out that dovi in three years at repsol honda secured a single race win to dani's nine. (and casey got ten in 2011 alone, when all three of them were teammates.) still, it's at its most useful to me to describe them as like. a group. as a dynamic that consistently played out in competition across a set number of years. which to me marc is a part of. basically this:

because marc took over casey's role in ensuring that dynamic SO completely, I think it makes sense to include him in that group. the dynamic is essentially the same, right? until change in tech regulations, control electronics and michelin tyres and all the rest of it, as well as gradual competitive decline of the 'og aliens' and shift of the competitive balance between yamaha and ducati from 2016 onwards signals the end of the alien era. the aliens describe a cohort more than riders of a certain talent level (which is fine by me since I am not a fan of discussions of talent). but valentino has roughly the same age gap to dani as marc has to jorge, so... might as well expand it to those five

as for what the wider motogp world says, yeah, I do think they're mostly on board with calling marc an alien. again, I think when people are trying to talk only about the non-marc aliens, they tend to use the term 'fantastic four'. I do not use this term and generally just rely on context to make it clear who I'm talking about. but also if you prefer to not use the term to include marc, y'know, fair enough - the term wasn't originally used to apply to him. the difference is whether you're talking about a group of competitors elevated from the rest in 2007 to 2012, or 2007 to 2015. in practical terms, to me there isn't a massive difference between the competitive dynamics when casey was on the grid versus when marc was on the grid, so. that's where I come down on this