MotoGP 2012

[Oscar]

Cunts. Why don't they just call him the best modern GP rider we've seen....yet. Because that's what he is.

It's a meaningless phrase.
Rossi never raced Doohan, or Lawson or Hailwood or Ago...add your own names...
He's certainly dominated the era, and won in all the classes it was possible for him to win, but "that phrase"?
Meaningless.

[White trash]

What? So "the greatest of all time" is more likely correct? Get real.

Edit: Just read your post properly. Yeah.

[DidJit]

It's official.



So much for my wild speculation...

[Tony.OK]

It's official.



So much for my wild speculation...

I find that decision hard to fathom? Dovi is finally getting good consistent results and on a great bike but next year will prob be an also ran if he can't monster the Duc.
Silly season it sure is!!

[pritch]

It's official.

It's been described as "Win Win" for Dovizioso, but it's not that likely that he'll be winning too much next year in reality.

The interview with Furusawa though provides an indication that perhaps Ducati have finally got the message..

[DidJit]

Dovi is the best of the satellites (and a few factory bikes too) with his 5 podiums thus far. Rossi scuttled Dovi's hard work at earning a factory ride at Yamaha which left him with two choices — stay at Tech 3 and hope to keep getting a few podiums; or take on a Ducati factory ride with guarantees in his contract from Audi that they aid and speed up development.

If you read the interview with Masao Furusawa, you will have noted how very much Ducati want a competitive bike and how much they've changed their tune/attitude/approach (as evidenced by Filippo Preziosi and Ducati actively seeking out Furusawa's help and the admissions Preziosi made to the M1 guru). So, from Dovi's perspective, if the bike fails to get better he can just point at Rossi and say, “Well, the 9-time champ over there couldn't do it.” If, however, the bike does get better with Preziosi's new-found knowledge in triangle theory combined with Audi's speedier prototyping and Dovi's methodical approach, then Dovi gets a lot of kudos.

I think, in my armchair capacity, that Dovi has stepped in to the team at just the right time.

Edit: It would be cool if Cristian Gabbarini and the rest of Stoner's Italian crew sign on to help him get to grips with the thing.

[Maido]

http://twitter.com/Official_CS27/sta...664576/photo/1
http://twitter.com/Official_CS27/sta...813824/photo/1

Casey's ankle. Would have been pretty sore to ride with.

[DidJit]

Pretty sore full stop!

[steveyb]

IMHO I think Cal is in a perfectly safe place where he is, at Tech 3.
Possible podiums next season and move on after that.
I think he shouldn't be so eager to move onto the factory bike.

[Crasherfromwayback]

http://twitter.com/Official_CS27/sta...664576/photo/1
http://twitter.com/Official_CS27/sta...813824/photo/1

Casey's ankle. Would have been pretty sore to ride with.

I can vouch for that. I see he's got his baby bottle ready in the second pic.

Think you can also safely add 'hard bastard' to his list of achievements.

[Maido]

I can vouch for that. I see he's got his baby bottle ready in the second pic.

Think you can also safely add 'hard bastard' to his list of achievements.

I knocked the ankle bit off my ankle (the sticky out bit), as well as breaking 3 other bones in my leg and foot in a crash off the end of the straight at Ruapuna (data logger said 210kph) a couple years back, it lokoed very similar to what stoner's looks like, I can tell you that holy shit it hurt. You definately can't walk or weight bear it, so to do what he did is pretty ballsey.

[Crasherfromwayback]

I knocked the ankle bit off my ankle (the sticky out bit), as well as breaking 3 other bones in my leg and foot in a crash off the end of the straight at Ruapuna (data logger said 210kph) a couple years back, it lokoed very similar to what stoner's looks like, I can tell you that holy shit it hurt. You definately can't walk or weight bear it, so to do what he did is pretty ballsey.

They're no fun that's for sure. Mine is still nearly as fat as Stoners...7 years later.

[Drew]

Maido and crasher, your ankles were considerably worse than mr stoners, there's no way he'd have ridden with that kind of injury.

Still double hard though.

[The Chow]

They're no fun that's for sure. Mine is still nearly as fat as Stoners...7 years later.

Comparing war wounds thats a good thread , yeah smashed my ankle and fractured my spine in a Crash at Hawkesbury in 1974. Those ankle injuries are bloody painful, my foot had got caught under between the footrest and clutch cover on my S2-a Kawasaki and the ankle bone was crushed . Had to have a major operation and lost some permanent movement. BUT! i wasn't riding a 200HP Moto GP bike , now thats takes big balls.

[Crasherfromwayback]

Comparing war wounds thats a good thread , yeah smashed my ankle and fractured my spine in a Crash at Hawkesbury in 1974. Those ankle injuries are bloody painful, my foot had got caught under between the footrest and clutch cover on my S2-a Kawasaki and the ankle bone was crushed . Had to have a major operation and lost some permanent movement. BUT! i wasn't riding a 200HP Moto GP bike , now thats takes big balls.

lol. It's what you do when you get too old to get anymore!

Ouch. Ankles, wrists and collar bones eh!