I’m surprised, no comments on the last 2 rounds. The battle between Casey and Valentino was nice to see at Laguna Seca. Too bad it ended so soon. Looks like Casey is going to have to learn to accept close passing and do the same to Valentino if he wants to keep the #1. Dani’s crash at Sachsenring was disappointing too. While the racer needs to finish to win, it makes quite a difference in the championship standings because of his injuries. I saw footage somewhere other than from CBS, on Speed’s website I think it was, Dani’s bike landed on top of the air fence. That would have been interesting, to see him trying to pull it down to continue the race. Ben Spies did respectably too.
The battle between Rossi & Stoner at Laguna was Awesome, while it lasted. Would have been nice to see more people up there with a shot though. Lorenzo & Pedrosa have had some tough breaks this year. Looked like it was going to be Lorenzo's Championship at the beginning of the year. He's shown some true grit riding injured, but he's out of it now. I'm sure he'll be tough next year. Stoner has been strong lately, but Rossi's talent & race craft are always tough to beat over the course of a season. I'm looking forward to seeing them all in action at Indy. Hopefully Spies will have even a better showing with the track being new to everyone. With more seat time, he could make next year even more interesting than usual.
If, the biggest word in the dictionary. It is too bad for us that Dani and Jorge are hurt. This just shows what may happen next year. 4 guys fighting every race weekend. As for Nicky, his only hope is to go to Ducati where they will set up the motorcycle the way he needs. Honda will never do this as their self-fulfilling prophecy is Dani. One of the differences I see between Valentino and Casey is how they recover from mistakes. Rossi ran in to the dirt and recovers by leaning over more on the exit to keep it on the asphalt. I feel Valentino learned that pass-in-to-the-cork screw from Colin. Casey got off line and appeared to still be on the front brake instead of letting go and leaning more to finish the corner, which is what I'd expect Valentino to do. Instead you can see where Casey gives up, stands the bike up and rides off only to fall. Casey also needs to learn to protect the inside line. This was also the first time I saw Valentino use the "block pass" which indicates to me just how much under pressure he is feeling, or in other words, how hard he now has to ride. The rest of the season looks as it may be like the hey-days of the late 80's and early 90's as I can only recall Valentino throwing his bike down the track when the heat was on 1 time. That was when chasing Nicky in '06. following is from speedtv.com [The following conversation was picked up by UK broadcaster BBC on their live coverage of the post race confrontation as Rossi attempted to shake hands with Stoner: Rossi: "Great race." Stoner: "No, you can't race this way." Rossi: "That's racing, Casey." Stoner: "That's racing? Okay, we'll see."]
CBS did not even cover all the race I hear. Does anyone know what resolution motopg.com video is? I hear they have a better and more complete version of the race on the website. I just wonder what resolution that is.
motogp.com Motogp.com does offer HD; however, it costs more than the standard service. I have had the standard service for 4 years and I enjoy it. It is far from perfect but, you get the many of the practices and all of the qualifing live. The race coverage starts about 30 minutes before the race and goes for 30 minutes after. Take Care and ride safe, Brian
Do a search for Loris Capirossi crash Assen 2008 and one of the videos will be from motogp.com which you can view without joining the website. This will give you an idea of the video quality.