Milkbar Cowboys

The weather has been so lousy lately and my weekends have been consumed with “other business” to the point that I’ve definitely been suffering greatly from a case of stir-craziness. The solution of course was to get out on my Hondamatic for a cobweb bashing blast around the Waikato countryside.
Half way through the ride I was about to slip into the groove when I fleetingly wondered how much of my lunch-hour was left in case I had to alter route plans along the way. It seemed like I’d been out for an hour already. Riding a bike, at a decent pace, seems to have this weird time-warping like affect, as if you really are bending time, ie the faster you go the longer time seems to last.
I didn’t lose track of time in the end, but I did clear my murky mind and reminded myself how lucky we are to be a live and to have access to these awesome toys. There’s no doubt in my mind at all that a midday jaunt on a powered two wheeled vehicle at various keen angles of lean is THE MOST fun you can possibly have (with your clothes on) in one lunch-hour.

Stoner has now won 5 from 8, and if V. Rossi wasn’t in the championship you’d have to say it was all over already. But a 26 point lead can disappear with one bad race weekend, and if he has the kind of luck the Ducati factory team riders have had in the past couple of years Stoner could find himself 26 points down on Rossi in the blink of an eye. You’d have to be extremely pessimistic to think Stoner isn’t in with a fighting chance at winning his and Ducati’s first MotoGP world championship.

Done 250km or so now, including a semi-cruise out to Raglan. There is still a lot of running in to do before she’s hitting peak form, and is she going to be something when she gets there! The 1098 out-everythings the 998. It’s like Ducati have designed it just for me. Everything is exactly as I want it to be - something quite unique in my dozen years or so of riding. The only problems I foresee will be a continuous diet of new tyres (you can get on the power in a corner so early it’s insane.) And the only thing that’ll wear faster than the tyres will be the muscles that make me smile

…and it’s superb. All that I wanted it to be.

Agent-Very-Happy-1098

Normal service has been resumed it seems. Rossi led for all but the first half of the first lap, and was untroubled by second-placed Pedrosa who similarly untroubled by Edwards in third. The real action was happening around Nicky Hayden who lept off the start line, had a brief scrap with John Hopkins for 4th place before Hopkins fell, and then proceeded to race toward the back of the pack as rider after rider caught and easily passed the world champion. Tony Elias, 4th, and Casey Stoner, 5th, both started slowly and took until around half race distance to start pushing past the other riders.

Rossi now leads the championship and looks strong. Pedrosa was not able to challenge him this time out on his home track, and even when he is able to scrap it out with The Doctor will the pressure of the moment get to him? Is he the new Sete Gibernau?

I have been upgraded from “On schedule” to “Soon”. Maybe they’re struggling to colour match exactly the right shade of green…

The two most consistent riders during practise were at the forefront of a gripping race on Saturday. Casey Stoner rode a flawless race, leading almost the whole way with The Doctor snapping at his heals. In the past this tactic has seen the leader make an inevitable mistake, but Stoner showed maturity beyond his years and never put a wheel wrong. The straightline speed of his Ducati Desmosedici proved decisive as he was able to slide past Rossi down the main straight on the occasions when the Yamaha ride did find a way past earlier in the lap.

So Stoner has started his first season with Ducati with his first win in the premier class. The worry for the rest of the field however will be Rossi’s form so early in the season. It will also be worrying for Nicky Hayden that he is struggling so early in the season. It appears that the 800s really do favour the former 250 riders, with only John Hopkins and Colin Edwards among the front runners throughout the weekend having no recent experience in the smaller GP classes.

Qualifying for the first race of the ‘07 MotoGP season has thrown up a couple of surprises. What isn’t surprising is that The Doctor is on pole. His time of 1.55.002 being 7 tenths of a second quicker than last certainly is. The 800s are obviously going to be at least as quick as the 990s they have replaced.

The surprises start with Casey Stoner qualifying second, just 5 thousandths of a second behind Rossi, and Colin Edwards qualifying third showing the ‘07 Yamaha is the bike to beat at the start of the season. Two thousand and six world champion Nicky Hayden qualified in 9th, with his teammate Dani Pedrosa 5th behind the quickest Honda of Toni Elias in 4th.

In the other classes 250 world champion Jorge Lorenzo starts 2007 the way he finished 2006 - at the front, while Gabor Talmacsi has pole in the 125s.

I can’t wait for MotoGP on the PS3, but have been filling in time lately replaying the challenges and seasons on MotoGP4 on the PS2. I finished the 125, 250 and GP seasons this week, and am about halfway thru the challenges. The TimeTrials are insanely hard tho, not sure if I’m ever gonna beat them. e.g. last night I did a full GP at Jerez, 27-laps, then went straight to the Jerez Time-trial, one lap right, I was a full 2-secs off the pace after having just done a 27-lap race (where incidentally I lapped about half the field!!!

In a surprising move by Ducati a NZ based customer known only as Agent-748 has convinced the company to produce and supply a limited number of the new 1098model in a special livery based on his personal favourite Kawasaki Lime-Green

The new owner is eagerly awaiting delivery some time this millennium and is already planning what outfit to wear to the un-crating ceremony.