#matchvedev

[batsplat]

can’t ask via side blog so this is matchvedev 🫡 you mentioned catalunya in that reblog of vale celebrating his 100 wins… 👀 what’s the story behind that and are there any other fun anecdotes that come to your mind looking at that poster? only if you wanna talk about it ofc but super lowkey, just anything you might wanna talk about

(x) oh yeah sure! I'm gonna leave the other bits of the poster for another time because this post is already long enough and tbh I need to find a version where I can make out a little more of the poster. but I will at some point!!

so, assen 2009 was the race directly after catalunya - a race that valentino also of course just happened to win. it's actually super convenient that these were consecutive wins, because can you imagine if they'd had to lug that massive poster everywhere they went until valentino finally got his 100th? anyway, catalunya was very much the turning point of the 2009 season. going into that race, valentino was in a little bit of trouble... actually, y'know what I do have a post about this race already so I'm just gonna plagiarise from that:

so, long story short, obviously that race was a banger. if anyone reading this hasn't watched it, please go and do that. valentino won it with a final corner overtake on jorge at a bit of the track you're not supposed to be able to overtake at. every time this race comes up, I'm legally obligated to remind people jorge was going around telling pundits that as long as you're ahead going into the final two corners of the last lap, you're safe. which, obviously don't do that! casey did take a break from almost fainting so that he could rag on jorge for not preventing the overtake - not least since valentino had employed that overtake on casey two years earlier, which jorge was also aware of and was later kicking himself over (here, here and here, but don't click on that first link right now). so there's plenty of fun lore with that overtake... anyway, valentino goes full ham with his celebrations. he's now tied in the championship standings with casey and jorge. more importantly, he's shown that he's still got it AND he's beaten his annoying young teammate at home. he breaks out of parc fermé to accept the adulation of jorge's home fans and also interrupts jorge's interview to shake his opponent's hand... just in case jorge is less than generous after his brutal defeat, this interaction will be nicely caught on cameras and mics

there's one more thing he does in his celebrations - but we're going to need a bit more context here. let's go back a few years, to the early noughties. (I promise this is relevant.) now, fun story, did you know that casey was talent-spotted by dani's long-time manager alberto puig and that's where he knew dani from? (stick with me here.) also, did you know that this is actually the reason why dani and casey run consecutive numbers, 26 and 27 respectively? from casey's autobiography:

I'd wanted to use the number 66 when I raced, but another rider had taken it. Number 66, or 166 if there had to be three digits, had always been my number in dirt-track because Dad had used number 6. I had run 66 in the Aprilia Superteens but it had been taken in the British Championships so I'd used 48, which is what I was given. For the Spanish series Alberto had block-booked all the twenties for his riders and I was given the number 27. It was the number I would keep from then on.

and here's another bit later on:

Unfortunately my favourite number, 66, was again already taken, this time by the German rider Alex Hofmann, so we decided to stick with my number from the Spanish Championship, 27. That same year in the 125cc class Joan Olivé would be running number 25 and Dani Pedrosa number 26, so having the number 27 on the front of my bike was a subtle but nice way to maintain my association with Alberto and his team of riders and show my respect for him.

something nice about how those two numbers always remained linked, isn't there! now, back to jorge: for most of his career, he'd been running the number 48 (yes, coincidentally, the number casey had used in the british championships), in honour of his manager dani amatriain who he met when he was ten years old. more on their relationship here, but the most relevant bit is this:

so, until the start of the 2009 season, he'd had the number 48 on his bike (minus the one year where he ran the number one plate). he then had this massive and pretty traumatic falling out with his manager, and he went so far as to change his number to distance himself from the man:

which, good - it was obviously meaningful to him. he later chose to use the number one plate after his first premier class title but stuck to the 99 for the following two... in the end, he really made that number his own

except, one more thing. why 99? so apparently, he ran a fan poll at the end of 2008, and he chose the number that won. here, from an article after the 2015 season:

unfortunately, this doesn't give you a lot of detail about the fan poll... but if you get creative with the wayback machine, you can find an article from the motogp website from 2008 that gives you a little more to work with:

so he didn't really use a fan poll, he got the fans to just... slightly narrow down his preexisting choices. which is important context! fan poll this or that, he did basically choose the number himself

now, regrettably the next bit basically just urban legend. I have found no good source confirming this, it's just something you see on forum posts, it might just be conjecture. but... well, let's just take a second to consider who his three major rivals were at this point: dani, casey and valentino. and if we do some basic arithmetic...

26 + 27 + 46 = 99

look. I have zero evidence that this was actually the reasoning behind jorge's choice. but you have to admit it's one hell of a coincidence, and quite a funny one at that. there's something kind of charming about the idea that all four of those numbers ended up being connected in some way, first through the dani and casey thing and then by jorge linking all four of them together... and of course, it'd also be hilarious if this is how jorge approached choosing his number. 'actually, I'm all three of my rivals combined' - sorry, but I buy young jorge doing this. apart from anything else, that is a man who was canonically obsessed with his rivals, especially vale and dani. is this a dig at them or a tribute? both? neither? what's going on here? who's to say

maybe this isn't actually the explanation! either way, in 2009 jorge rocked up with his new number, having distanced himself from his manager and determined to be his own man now. he might have pretended like he didn't have big title ambitions for that season, but obviously he wanted this to be his year. at latest by the time he got to catalunya, he believed he could win this title and really wanted to beat valentino... he would have loved nothing more than to beat his teammate in a close and dramatic duel at home. except valentino gets the better of him, in pretty much the cruellest way imaginable

remember how we've established that assen was valentino's 100th victory? well, in an extremely annoying coincidence, catalunya of course just had to be valentino's 99th victory. because of course it was. and of course, because it's valentino, he does actually remember this while he's celebrating

funnily enough, the dorna commentators have no clue why he's doing this and are a little confused by valentino pointing at the 99 on jorge's bike. but I got it, valentino, don't worry! which is just... wonderfully irritating, isn't it. during his extremely extensive celebrations where he's really rubbing it in, taking control of the season and all that... he's also remembered exactly what number of wins he was on and decided to be an arsehole about it. think about all the things that had to play out the right way for this celebration to hit the way it did. even if you don't believe jorge's number was directly inspired by [valentino plus his other rivals], it was still a number he'd only gotten THAT year, just in time for this duel. of all the wins that could've given him 99, it had to be one of the very finest of valentino's career. it's just. so annoying

which brings us to assen 2009, victory number 100. they had two weeks to complete their lovely poster and choose the photo they'd take for victory number 99. of course, there's really only one way you can go here:

now, some scholars may recognise this photo as the 'knee retraction shot', where they got very close to making contact. this is headed down the main straight on the penultimate lap, where jorge has overtaken valentino on the straight but valentino has taken the outside line to out-brake jorge in order to reovertake him... and he's so close he actually has to briefly retract his knee to get past (see here for a little more detail). on the final lap, jorge does flirt with running valentino off the track to prevent this, so he did learn his lesson! still, it's the perfect shot: you've got the two numbers clearly displayed and they couldn't be closer together (actually *checks motegi 2010 notes* I suppose you can get them a little tighter still). yes, it's the obvious choice for the 99th victory photo - but again, incredibly annoying behaviour from valentino

one more fun thing: there was actually a second dramatic duel between jorge and valentino in 2009 that unfortunately has gotten forgotten about a little bit. this one was at the sachsenring, and again valentino emerged on top... another decisive blow against his young teammate's morale in a title fight he was increasingly in control of. let's just quickly check in on the painfully slim winning margin

now, I have zero proof for this, but in my heart I truly 100% believe that valentino both noticed and appreciated the coincidence. this whole thing is just very him, isn't it? jorge changes his number for deeply personal reasons, goes through some extensive introspection and an overly convoluted public process to choose his new number which may or may not have been directly inspired by his closest rivals... and then valentino (with an assist from the whole bloody universe, apparently) spent the next half year making this into another new fun part of valentino's story. it's valentino's super special 99th career win! it's part of the 100 career wins poster now! what a lovely coincidence, isn't valentino lucky! doesn't everything just somehow work out perfectly for him! wouldn't he fucking infuriate you! god

[scrollonso]

moots feeling feelings rn

[moonshynecybin]

@matchvedev something DID happen they got all the riders to line up on the grid in tuxes like deranged entries to a season of the BACHELOR. and marc had this little moment looking at vale turning it on for the cameras which drives me INSANE. and then they turn up to misano and want to kill each other. like i simply have to assume somethin crazy went down with vale in that suit it’s the only plausible option

[kevotsuka]

rafannadal matchvedev here PLEASE your tags on that jerez video... i definitely think marcs feelings towards pecco and luca are Different compared to marco? pecco esp with his racing in emilios moto3 team and teammates with alex and everything, and luca bc hes... known him for a while, hasnt he...... vales baby brother......... UGH GOD anyway hes known them both for soooo long and much more closely than bezz, right, so i def think where bezz counts as full-fledged academy member One Of Vales Boys, he kinda Missed important... developments... and im sure hes been Filled In but also. hm. pecco and luca def def def... special.......... i always remember that interview marc did where he was asked what his relationship with pecco, bezz and luca is like and he said great with pecco and luca and didnt even mention marco 😭 literally forgets about him all the time, it feels like, and then bezz didnt really make the greatest effort to be Friendly, has he... apart from liking one million of marcs insta posts up until the divorce happened 😭😭😭 and now what, for a decade bezz has been icy but marc is supposed to care about him? never. he has REASON to care for pecco and luca and even franky, but bez?

@rafannadal matchvedev ,one or dearest tumblrlinas of this site ... You're so right and all your words are soo real

i have so many feelings for cev pecco and marc and they interactions, Pequito looking at Marc with stars in his eyes, to shy to ask for anything but still around him in the box in case of Marc decided talk to him. Marc who see Pecco and 'ow, he's good, he would become better in the future', his future teammate now

and Luca, little honda fan Luca who watches how they take marc since the begging of his career and maybe think 'i can dream with that? i hope one day...' like Vale doesn't ruin every bridge to honda for him (this is related and parallel to the Alex M/Yamaha saga to). Luca who never really ended up in the middle of the divorce, unlike Alex who had to physically push people away to protect his brother Luca always saying nice things about Marc (the Ducati thing? Like he said it just because is a little shit who loves drama, but was a choice and he take it) and Marc chose don't be like Valentino or his people have a part of my heart

And then we have Bez . 'who?' in Marc's books. Bezz who was growing up, he take a side and wants to die for it in the way teens would die for they beliefs and never think about it after that. Bezz who watches Marc win unfairly, because he ruined Vale career, so everything good happen to him would happen to Vale instead.

Bez who wasn't worry about Marc's lession and probably think 'he deserves that' with a bit of more malice than he knows he have inside of him. The honda slowly trying to kill Marc's makes him forgot how good he really is

Bez now is a adult but he never questioned the divorce before, about the evil, the horror bedtime story that Uccio tells to warn them about Marquez. But now he knows Marc, at least one part of him, that one who doesn't feed the press telling what happen that day. He could ruins Marco, but chose don't and that maybe change something, or maybe was when Marco watches him with a good bike again at the point he's LEARNING from him-

and then we have Marc who barely know this fucking guy who yelled at him at one of the most emotional days of his career, the pain of his arm with the last day with his FAMILY in a race who was ruined for someone else and he can't really be angry for that, but Bez?

'no voy a perder tiempo con ese personaje' and he is committed whit it. He don't think about that guy, he barely respond his words and act like bez doesn't exist when he can. For someone like Bez who lives for being recognized

And is all Bez fault, i think is beautiful <3

[emininetythree]

me reading @matchvedev and @astirian go crazy in the tags like

[koachdal]

"and if i say vale…" youd be correct??? in some ways its the root of the problem, isnt it, that he ended up in too deep, lost control of what it was meant to be, and it all tangled into this mess with the championship he also could not quite control. the two things arguably closest to him and most on his mind, and he cannot keep either together or in line. why DID he blame marc, like that. why IS marc the protagonist of his title loss. why did vale do everything to steer the media a certain way, grasp the last weapon he had as firmly as possible... why cant he move on, a decade later? helpless... helpless... helpless as you crave confirmation that the other loves as much, confirmation you can never have. helpless, in trust. helpless, in doubt. helpless, in longing. and then you resort to your last weapon - violence - and it is still not enough. you cannot cut him off from yourself, but worse, you cannot cut him out from inside you. anyway!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what the fuck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wait, its me. can you tell? taps mic from the offstage is this thing on. its me.

right exactly “why IS marc the protagonist of his title loss.” question for the ages!!!! why has vale been more forgiving and gracious to his actual rivals he lost titles to!!! now i don’t much (anything, really) about valentino’s dynamic with his other major rivals but.

his chemistry with marc was so natural, so palpable- both of them genuinely liked each other off the track and even worse- valentino was fond of marc in a way i don’t think he’d ever imagined being of someone he considered a rival on track and maybe a bit off it too, an emerging force against his own legacy. and i think not an inconsiderable part of this fondness (and his ensuing contempt) was a function of marc being so much like valentino himself- a mirrored reflection of his own talent and flair and exuberance and unabashedness and mercilessness. he could never have helped but be drawn to marc, he really is helpless in the face of it. like. this is 2019! TWO divorces witnessed by the entire motorsports world why are u looking at him like that do you want a third divorce.

vale’s press campaign against marc, the narrative he built about marc being a danger to the sport and entrenched himself in that narrative in a way that, when brought up even a decade on, only pushes vale to talk himself further into it, leaves no space for any clemency from him, not without compromising his ego. and him framing the 2018 argentina crash picture is so. like. symbolic. to me. all of it a performance for the world but also for himself. THAT is the version of marc he wants to remember.

also. can i tell its you??? favourite person in the world whose thoughts i feel biblically familiar with???? yes i can tell its you @matchvedev <3

[motogpblr-love]

Everything @matchvedev writes is so funny and so true. I always hit view more on their tags like I’m cracking open a scientific journal.

@matchvedev

[myrquez]

happpppppy birthdayyyyyyyyyy !!!!!!! 🎉🎉🎉 glad you feel better! 💐 also yes pspspspsps doviiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii pls post 🙏🙏🙏

- @matchvedev

OMGGGGG MATCHVEDEV!! thank you so much dear!!!!!!!!! 🥹💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

(manifesting a thirst trap OR a dovquez interaction OR. a new interview or whatever tf very hard rn🎉)

[el-cabroncito]

@matchvedev I know you were looking for some angry Marc moments a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve come across this

[batsplat]

@matchvedev I'll find actual presser clips at some point, but here's jorge bringing up race bans at le mans 2013 (race after jerez)

and more mention of it after aragon 2013 (where marc caused dani to crash)

and in the context of assen 2015 (obviously not one of the instances where jorge brought it up, but still narratively kinda fun so I'm including it)

and for old time's sake, jorge did bring it up again after argentina 2018

[scrollonso]

I don’t wanna be nosy but is that post about matchvedev? Does he reblog a lot from you? Cause it says in his profile that it’s a side blog so he maybe follows you from main that doesn’t show up as mutuals for you cause tumblr is dumb

LMAO IT IS... 😿

i didnt realize it was a side blog (i'm not very observant...) but his profile always sticks out in my notifs bc he's writing essays in reblogs and im obsessed

[moonshynecybin]

for the ask game, Q3 but make it what are your top3 most listened to playlists lately and why those three at the moment?

@matchvedev (sorry sorry side blogs can’t ask off anon, tumblr pls make it happen 😭)

i have not been on the playlist grind lately (i like them as thought exercises but i mostly just put my liked songs on shuffle) but i'll pull out my rosquez playlist, my blend with my friends, and if im sad my musical theater playlist semi-regularly

[motogpblr-love]

everytime @matchvedev reblogs something from me i already know i will look at the tags and experience three (3) spiritual awakenings and also be thoroughly entertained by insane and free (!!) fic blurbs. still to this day constantly think about the rosquez bull riding fic tags. also just generally pivotal inspiring posts about motogp jesus marc marquez and rosquez psychosexual relationship.

bowing humbly before you; thanks for your contribution to our insane community <3

@matchvedev

[moonshynecybin]

@matchvedev he’s in shambles

marc really did have an EXCEEDINGLY bitchy weekend between the gp23 downgrade the pole lap time cancellation and now the race being boringggg…. let your cunt flag fly babygirl