And I don't care how you feel about Hayden personally. He was never named (officially) as Repsol's #1 rider. Not even when he won a.... wait, it's coming... A MotoGP Championship. He never raced on a bike built for him. And he never got that brand new set of forks this year that his, eh hem, "team mate" got. But again, he WON a championship while being handicapped, lucky or not.
So talk bad about him all you want, just try to stick to a fact, any fact, any fact at all.
FACT is that nobody is ever "officially" #1 rider because...get this: There are none. In fact, Honda has always prided itself with supplying (contractually as well) the same bikes as the factory (except factory team gets stuff to try first). When asked why? Honda answer was simple: "we want Hondas to win"
In fact, Biaggi and Sete never believed it... Biaggi finally did after riding the factory bike was.. uhhhh...disapointed. Sete "finally" got a full factory bike and before that, tons of parts flying his way...and well... it made no difference - much to his disapointment as well.... (dang, so Rossi did not win because of the bike..that sux).
Futhermore, in 2006..first time in perhaps a decade... Honda Gave and built a bike JUST FOR HAYDEN. Pedrosa rode, as the rest of the Honda riders, the previous year's bike with some upgrades. Hayden had a prototype NOBODY ELSE HAD. Those are the facts. A bike built JUST for Hayden. Not for the team, but for Hayden. A reliable rocketship.
To say in 2006 Hayden was "handicaped" is
Rossi would have loved to have Hayden's Handicap and "problems"
Fact is, do you think anybody wants to ride "Last Years Bike" or the new prototype? Oh, of course, everbody wants to ride last year's "proven" bike.
Let's look at futher facts. First 6 years for Kevin Schwantz lead to NO championship, but had some 23 wins and some 43 podiums. Hayden?
First part of the year, Hayden gets beaten by Dovi who is on last years crappy bike. Not until Hayden get's the rocketbike has Hayden able to eventually beat Dovi - eventually, because Dovi beat Hayden at LS (but then, not a big power track).
As far as numbers don L1e...well, Pedrosa can sit at home the next two races and he will still be invited to the GP winner's table..... something that we cannot say of Hayden, even if everybody were to stay at home.
Once again. Next year is the year of the truth..the year Hayden and his devote fans to truly prove that he is a worthy champ, and that Honda kept him down...
i could tell them didn't wanna make eye contact cause i was nuts
arty
