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Are you guys really going to ignore the circumstances from today? Calling Rossi a has been is excessive but using today to claim he still has it is a bit much.
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What circumstances are you referring to?
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I love watching VR race. What a great race. I went for a ride today with my Rossi Replica jacket on in celebration.
I would say he still has it. He beat MM yesterday.
A couple of my friends bought these shirts from England. I'm a bigger Rossi fan than either of them but thought that ~$40 for a t-shirt was a bit much, even for a die-hard fan like me. After yesterday's back-to-form virtuoso performance, I'm ordering one. Rossi seems to have found his new Casey Stoner to chase around and motivation to stay in the game 
I don't think we were watching the same race. Actually, I don't think we've been watching the same season...
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A good article on Rossi
motogp.com · Rossi on family, racing, rivals, Honda and Ducati
motogp.com · Rossi on family, racing, rivals, Honda and Ducati
Bwahahahah! Perfect.
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I was trying to avoid posting spoilers in case people hadn't seen the race but it's Monday now. I'm watching a season where there's one relevant guy and everyone else is just cashing their checks. Rossi stole a win in a season that's basically a foregone conclusion on a day when MM93 struggled.
When the only way you, or anyone else, can win is when the dominant guy is struggling with setup that doesn't mean you still have it.
No one said MM wasn't dominant this season. Like I said, watch this season given the last 3 years and say Rossi doesn't still have it. If you haven't been a MotoGP fan for the last 10 years then I understand your perspective. Rossi is the only guy this season not on a Repsol Honda that has been able to duke it out with MM and prevail on the lap that counts the most. He dominated the race. If that doesn't mean he "still has it" then I don't know what does.
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So what you're saying is, when the dominant guy doesn't have the perfect set up, he doesn't know how to use the most out of his bike. In that case, MM is not the best rider at all. He seems to flourish when he has the best setup, the best team, the best bike. On the other hand, Rossi has been consistent though out his career. And at 35, he can still compete with MM and Pedrosa and Lorenzo. Anyone who thinks Rossi doesn't have it is either delusional, or simply a Rossi hater. Only talent keeps you in the this game for so long. Give Rossi and MM the same exact bike and Rossi will win every time, even at this age.
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No one said MM wasn't dominant this season. Like I said, watch this season given the last 3 years and say Rossi doesn't still have it. If you haven't been a MotoGP fan for the last 10 years then I understand your perspective. Rossi is the only guy this season not on a Repsol Honda that has been able to duke it out with MM and prevail on the lap that counts the most. He dominated the race. If that doesn't mean he "still has it" then I don't know what does.
I think this is a semantic debate. This season I would say Marquez has *it* and everyone else is in the paddock searching for it. Rossi belongs on a factory bike and if you got the impression that I meant otherwise I didn't. I don't think he's a has been. I'm just not going to talk up a rider in a season where the gap between 1 and 2 is 70+ points. I'm not going to call things competitive when the field manages to pick up a second win when the other guy has eleven. Regardless of the standings I don't imagine that you'd disagree that Rossi's win would have meant exponentially more had Marquez not lowsided.
Everyone that's not Marquez, and especially Pedrosa, deserves a kick in the leathers for now utterly uncompetitive things have been this season.
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What MM has, is balls, no fear, the best bike, and lots of natural talent which equates to being so far ahead in points. To win so many races in a row is undeniably a tribute to the rider as well. But what I see is a young fearless rider who takes the most risk during races. He almost never starts well, usually if he has pole, he ends up in 3,4,5,6 during the first few laps. Then what separates him from other riders is his fearless braking late and cutting off the rider in front, nearly causing a crash if the rider in front doesn't stand up the bike to avoid contact. Last year he nearly killed Pedrosa by cutting off his Traction control with his bike. And how many times this year have we seen him stand up riders into corners, almost every time he passes. What separates him from the top 4, is this ability to pass so closely, while other riders pass with care. I think Rossi and Lorenzo are just beginning to do the same. It was evident during this weekend's race, when MM passed Lorenzo, then Passed Rossi, but when Rossi wasn't having it, thus MM crashed out. Wasn't a setup problem, it was rider error.
I think I get your point, that "it" is defined as having the dominant combination of skill/team/mojo and therefore is exclusive to MM this season.
However, I would say that Rossi's win is even more impressive given that you could say he caused MM to crash trying to keep his superior pace. MM has a habit of crashing in practice while finding the limit, but keeping it just on that knife edge while running away from everyone during the races.
He's tangled with Lorenzo and Pedrosa but prevailed convincingly in a few laps to run away and hide. As the English feed announcers reiterated, Rossi knew he had to attack MM immediately when he came past, to keep him from running away and hiding at the front. The fact that Rossi was able to consistently re-pass MM and then caused him to make an unforced error by trying to keep up, and then ran away from his teammate who had been the clear number 1 on the team until this season (and on a softer front tire that shouldn't have been giving as good grip as Lorenzo's medium front later in the race) is simply a testament to how Rossi is the GOAT, considering his career to date. He definitely still has "it", at least from my viewpoint.
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Couldn't have said it better and this is so true. MM late braking is what contributed to most of his wins this year. Not that RV, JL are afraid of late braking, but MM has an advantage with Hondas Seamless transmission. It enables MM to brake really late and remain stable at the same time. MM is also pretty reckless during passing and so far he is able to get away with it, but hey its the name of the game. Rossi stepped up his game and stuck it back to MM this race and said he wasn't going to have none of that. RV bike seemed to be a lost faster than MM Honda this race and when RV was pulling away from MM , MM had to push his bike to its limit to keep up but eventually caused him to low side.
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^
JLo is actually an early braker. (This year, Yamaha has simply been unable to use the new rubber to exploit his superior corner speed.) But I get what you're saying: MM has this aura of invincibility that only guys like Stoner and Rossi have been able to hold.
I think the big thing with the Honda this year is that they've improved in braking so much that they can turn the bike while the rear wheel is still in the air. Rossi commented on this a short while ago. Now, that may only yield a few fractions of a second worth of an advantage, but over the course of a lap I'm sure it can pay dividends, especially for true late-brakers like MM.
JLo is actually an early braker. (This year, Yamaha has simply been unable to use the new rubber to exploit his superior corner speed.) But I get what you're saying: MM has this aura of invincibility that only guys like Stoner and Rossi have been able to hold.
I think the big thing with the Honda this year is that they've improved in braking so much that they can turn the bike while the rear wheel is still in the air. Rossi commented on this a short while ago. Now, that may only yield a few fractions of a second worth of an advantage, but over the course of a lap I'm sure it can pay dividends, especially for true late-brakers like MM.
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The "it" Rossi has is one win on the year. And one win last year. He's got to do a hell of a lot more than that before we start pretending he can take it to Marquez week in and week out.
Mostly this is people trying to create drama out of a season when there isn't any. Rossi hasn't been in contention for a championship for the past 5 seasons. Has Rossi improved? Sure. Is he championship material? Nope.
Mostly this is people trying to create drama out of a season when there isn't any. Rossi hasn't been in contention for a championship for the past 5 seasons. Has Rossi improved? Sure. Is he championship material? Nope.
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