Exactly they all use it to some level and if they expect it to be there and all of a sudden it isn't they're gonna get caught out.
Well, back to the original thread topic, I am enjoying watching Marquez ride as he is clearly a real talent, and a proper racer at that. The others seem mixed about this, but he is no different to Rossi in that regard - he has always been aggressive..... As for Stoner, the thing that is often forgotten was just the raw speed he had. He would sit in the pits, come out half way through first session, set a lap about 2 seconds faster than anyone else, and then sit back down until they all caught him up! It was often embarrassing for the others..... Then just ocassionally, rather than winning by 2 seconds, he would win by 20-30 and just murder the entire field. I remember seeing him win by over 30 seconds in the wet once etc.... The kid was fast. But clearly hated the rest of the show..... But first season out and winning? Marquez could be the next Doohan/Rossi....
MM will / would crush Stoner like a bug. Stoner was astonishingly quick but couldn't 'race'. MM's loose front end would scare the living shit out of Stoner. MM just rides out of it. No contest. I'm an Aussie btw. Troy Bayliss on the other hand....
Bayliss would have relished it, because he was a racer first and foremost. Risks are things other people take, because for someone like him risks don't exist in that moment. Exciting or what?!
Bayliss was something special. His WSB exploits were unmissable, then to get on a GP bike and win was the mark of a truly special man. Stoner didn't, nor will ever have, that wow factor. Bayliss could punch through a thick field of racers and somehow end up in front, and left you wondering how the hell he did it, and then control a race from the front. Stoner only had two modes - win or lose. some people would say that's the ideal state for a racer, and maybe it is. But it sure as hell ain't the ideal state for a spectator. I can only view it from a spectator's viewpoint, I'm not a GP god. The Doohan years were boring as fuck, the years that Stoner won were boring as fuck, gos alone knows what watching Agostini win his umpteenth title was like. The reason Rossi is so well loved is because he won by tenths rather than minutes.
Motegi Stoner hits very close to same times on the prod racer as on the 2013 factory bike and is competitive out of the box on only 1 outing.... CS still has the magic touch?
TBH, there was a time when Rossi was winning so regularly it was pretty much a formality and boring too. The racing has always been boring every time a dominant rider emerged. That was what was so good about the Rainey/Schwantz/Lawson/Spencer era - you never knew who was going to win and the rivalry was intense.
I've enjoyed this season immensely, hopefully next season and the new rule changes will make it better still.
