MotoGP Laguna (there will be spoilers, so be smart before clicking)

[darylbowden]

I think he had 3 corners in particular he was choosing between and he would have eventually made his move.  My guess is before turn 11 because Rossi was effectively blocking him there and impeding his drive down the straight.

Rossi rode a good race but he wasn't unbeatable.  Stoner did pass him and was passed in only 1 area of the track repeatedly (corkscrew).  He had many opportunities to pass and as I said I believe he would have.

Rossi passed him into 6 more than the corkscrew actually.

Point me to one article where he whines like that.  Just one.  To this point I haven't seen one.  I've seen one post race video where he's obviously pissed.  All the articles and interviews are pretty bland and a repeated, I was faster but Rossi ran a great defensive strategy and won. 

Do you have a motogp.com subscription?  You can watch the post-race interviews on there for one.  After that, head over to superbikeplanet.com and read the quotes and press releases.  Then head over to BBC.com and autosport.com and you can read some more (they're everywhere, I don't feel like listing half the web here).

You are reaching on the pregnant doginess let alone all the he's in his head, biaggi, etc nonsense talk.  Stoner knows he's faster and is confident in his team.  He's got 4 of his favorite tracks still ahead and an extremely fast track (supposedly) waiting for him in Indy.  To say he's afraid of Rossi is laughable.

Well, I guess that Julian Ryder, John Hopkins, the entire WERA board (which includes a few people involved in GP racing surprisingly), as well as countless others are reaching as well.  At least I'm in good company.

I don't know that I ever said he was afraid of Rossi, I just said that Rossi is in his head, and that could lead to mental mistakes much like the one you mentioned.

At the end of the day, yesterday was a great day for racing and the two best racers duked it out to a level little seen in GP anymore and that makes me happy.  If the racing remains like this throughout the rest of the season, I'll be happy no matter who wins the championship (even Pedrosa).

[Grampa]

* rossi is in my head...... FACK!




 

[Grampa]

lllllllllll/
 [moto]
@   @
   L
  O

[sh]

awesome race!  I was sitting front row at the corkscrew and seeing Rossi go into the gravel and SOMEHOW save it and then Stoner SOMEHOW recover and not go off the track was insane.  the crowd was going nuts.  I completely expected to see those two tangled up in the dirt on that corner.

I haven't watched the replay, but in person it sure looked like Rossi bumped Stoner.  I don't see how he couldn't hit him because Rossi basically slid back onto track right into Casey's line.  If he didn't actually hit Casey then I'm even more impressed that Casey could react so fast and save his 

Valentino ran an incredible race.  He was so aggressive and smooth that I think Casey (even though he was apparently faster) couldn't pass him without putting himself in serious jeopardy.  I have new respect for both of these guys.

This was the best battle I've seen in a long time.  I hope those guys enjoyed it because I know I did.

my $0.02

[hydra]

was it me or did it seem like there were more on-board footage than when it's broadcast on speed? awesome footage of stoner up rossi's ass.

and yes, white is a doofus...

[darylbowden]

was it me or did it seem like there were more on-board footage than when it's broadcast on speed? awesome footage of stoner up rossi's ass.

and yes, white is a doofus...

motogp.com

[mikeb]

Point me to one article where he whines like that. 

It all started with his claims of sabotage when he moved up from 250's.  And his need for validation.

Keep in mind he was thinking this during his first season when he hadn't won anything and kept crashing.  Even then we wanted to be special.  He was upset people had forgotten about him. He'd just moved up to the big bikes and hadn't done anything yet and he was already upset.......

SpeedTV: When you took the pole in Qatar in only your second MotoGP race and were leading Rossi over the first part of the race, were you surprised to be going that well so soon?

C.S: Yeah, well Dani did it in the first race in Jerez and Dani and I had battled all through the 2005 250 season. It was a little bit frustrating because coming into that season of MotoGP everybody just looked at Dani. Sure, he has a lot better resume than me going up into MotoGP -- he'd won championships -- but I had pushed him. But everybody seemed to completely forget about me and they were all saying that Dani was going to be the fast one out of us.

[Grio]

Yes, the American broadcast is lacking.  The comentators, even with Schwantz, seemed ignorant in comparison to the European announcers.  There was a brief portion of the race, when Rossi and Stoner were still battling, that displayed the activity of the on board controls of the two.  You could see how much smother Rossi was than Stoner.  It just seemed that Stoner was really fighting hard for some reason and graphic showing his hard braking / hard throttle really confirmed the impression.

Rossi was just riding like he always does.


And another note regarding the broadcast, a track map was never displayed on screen untill the end of the race...Casey had already gone down, and the race was in essence, over.  The track map then appeared...it wasn't even synced up well....the location indicator lagged behind the rider's location...weak.

[il d00d]

I am pretty much a MotoGP n00b - these last two races and pretty much a whole season I watched in Hungarian is about the extent of my viewing experience.
But, what I took away from that race was that Stoner got outridden by a better rider on a slower bike.   I got the impression that he was trying to use the bike, and not really his ability to overtake - like he was waiting for the opportunity to let his bike beat Rossi's bike.  He eventually got frustrated, did something stupid, and ended up in the gravel/second place.  I didn't think any of the passes were particularly reckless - if they were, they may have been riskier to Rossi than Stoner (fvck it - I am going offroad.).  So, any complaints on the part of Stoner have the ring of sore loser to them - Rossi just wanted it more.  He was smarter, apparently more hooked up with his bike (I kept expecting Stoner's wobbles to materialize into a crash), and a better competitor.

[sh]

one other comment I'll make.  those of you who think that Rossi's pass on Stoner in the corkscrew was "just racing" probably watched it on TV.  In person it was UGLY and if either of them had gone down (which my mind still can't comprehend how they didn't) I fully expect one of them would have been broken in half.  I don't share their skill so it's hard to know how manageable that situation was for those guys, but it didn't look that safe to me.  Perhaps Rossi's comment "that's racing" means more that weird shit happens and you just gotta make the best of it.

It's lame that Stoner wouldn't shake hands with Rossi.  I can see it both ways tho.  I'd be pissed if someone tried a move like that on me.  Still, he should just take it on the chin and be happy that he's there.

I know for a fact that most of you, on the track, would go ballistic if someone pulled something even 1/1000th as dangerous as that move on you.  

Lorenzo ....  maybe this dude should just take a long break and heal himself.  He seems to get more and more injured every race!

[sh]

Rossi was just riding like he used to.

fixed it for ya 

[darylbowden]

one other comment I'll make.  those of you who think that Rossi's pass on Stoner in the corkscrew was "just racing" probably watched it on TV.  In person it was UGLY and if either of them had gone down (which my mind still can't comprehend how they didn't) I fully expect one of them would have been broken in half.  I don't share their skill so it's hard to know how manageable that situation was for those guys, but it didn't look that safe to me.  Perhaps Rossi's comment "that's racing" means more that weird shit happens and you just gotta make the best of it.

It's lame that Stoner wouldn't shake hands with Rossi.  I can see it both ways tho.  I'd be pissed if someone tried a move like that on me.  Still, he should just take it on the chin and be happy that he's there.

I know for a fact that most of you, on the track, would go ballistic if someone pulled something even 1/1000th as dangerous as that move on you.  

I guess it looked worse in person, cause they never even touched and Stoner didn't even have to go to the edge of the track.  When Rossi comes back on track they're side-by-side, so it's not like Stoner's gonna get t-boned.  I think Stoner had to check up a bit, but if you're gonna cry every time you have to check up, you're prolly gonna need tear duct implants in the near future.

[COWBOY]

"It was about two or three moves, I think everybody will have seen them," he told the BBC. "A couple of other moves were alright, nice and clean, but there were a couple I wasn't happy with.

"I've been in hard racing all my life, some very aggressive racing, but today was a little bit too much. I nearly went in the gravel so many times and I don't think it was necessary. I was so nearly on the floor it wasn't funny."

This quote from the BBC is the one used in most of those articles (I have them RSS too, LOL).  I read pissed but whiney?  Please.  In his head? LOL.

"For me, some of the overtaking manouvres were not correct," he told Italia1 television. "I'm a little disappointed because if I do something like this then for sure I get a penalty. I've had some very hard racing in my career, some very aggressive racing, but not dirty. For me, today was a little bit too much.

"Valentino rode a fantastic race, there's no taking that away from him," he added. "But, for me, some of the moves, not all of them, but some of them, were too much. I was very close"

This is the Italian TV interview version.  Again.  Pissed, not happy, etc.  Whiney? Maybe.  Rossi in his head? LOL.

The following quote is the only one I would classify as whiney/pregnant dogy. 

When asked whether the outcome of the race makes him think he should be more aggressive in future, Stoner replied: "I don't know whether I should because I've had problems before. I got fined two years ago for getting slightly in the way of Dani Pedrosa on a qualifying lap. I didn't mean to but I got fined for it.

"Dani or Valentino wouldn't get fined for this, but I get fined for it. So I'm worried if I do the same display I'll have punishment put on me, so I prefer to stay away from this and ride clean, aggressive but clean. If everything's kept fair and square it's alright, but I'm wondering sometimes whether they make decisions for certain reasons."

Being pissed about a reckless move is one thing.  Whining about the special treatment of other riders is another.  Still not in his head though.

[mikeb]

one other comment I'll make.  those of you who think that Rossi's pass on Stoner in the corkscrew was "just racing" probably watched it on TV.  In person it was UGLY and if either of them had gone down (which my mind still can't comprehend how they didn't) I fully expect one of them would have been broken in half.  I don't share their skill so it's hard to know how manageable that situation was for those guys, but it didn't look that safe to me.  Perhaps Rossi's comment "that's racing" means more that weird shit happens and you just gotta make the best of it.

Yeah, but what you need to keep in mind was Rossi ending up in the gravel wasn't intentional.  He never intended to wind up in the gravel in order to make the pass stick.  Lots of riders overshoot going into the corkscrew.  So it was indeed just a racing incident.  And Rossi did the best he could to salvage going in too hot.

[COWBOY]

I guess it looked worse in person, cause they never even touched and Stoner didn't even have to go to the edge of the track.  When Rossi comes back on track they're side-by-side, so it's not like Stoner's gonna get t-boned.  I think Stoner had to check up a bit, but if you're gonna cry every time you have to check up, you're prolly gonna need tear duct implants in the near future.

Stoner runs extremely wide there.  On the first shot he goes from inside line to outside and is a few feet from the paint.  On the close up replay Rossi's bike hops and skids back on track next to Stoner who immediately stands it up a bit and goes wide to avoid him.  No question if Stoner doesn't do this they touch and one or both of them go down.