Not a good showing for Hayden

The Moto GP World Champion qualified 9th and finished the race in 8th?!?!?! Everyone is entitled to a bad day but that isn't a good showing for the reigning world champion. I'm curious to hear your opinion. Was it a fluke? Did Nicky Hayden just profit from Rossi's demise last season? Remember he only won 2 races. Both of which Rossi got a DNF. Remember Rossi actually won more races than Nicky. But Nicky finished more. Question 2. Will Hayden be back in Jerez with a vengance or is this season going to be like we saw in Qatar? Rossi, Stoner and Pedrossa all year? Your predictions on the World Champion's outcome this season...  

Dont forget he had shoulder surgery not all that long ago. Champion is Champion, nobody else was able to take advantage of Rossi's misfortunes. You can beat me for the NASCAR analogy but ... Kenseth won only 1 race in his championship run as well but it doenst make a person less of a champion becasue they had fewer wins, racing is about finishing as well. And to do that consistenly over an entire season is no simple feat. Also dont forget that Nicky beat Rossi while acting as Hondas guinea-pig last year, riding a bike that was by all accounts not as sorted as the rest of the RC211Vs.  Rossi is another animal altogether. And personally after being let donw by his bike and tires last year, i think he is going to be on a mission this year.  Rossi is one of those rare Champions that comes along perodically in sports and makes the pros around him look like amatuers.  

I was even more disappointed with Colin Edwards' race.  The guy(and Rossi) leads every *** thing there is to lead over the off-season and practice and Quals, then doesn't have the race pace??  Wtf. I'm a big Edwards fan, and was very disappointed in the race.  As far as Hayden, the guy is screwed.  Shoulda left for another manufacturer.  Honda clearly designed that bike with Pedrosa in mind.  Hayden is just too big for it.  When you can't tuck behind the bodywork it's pretty obvious that they didn't design the bike with you in mind.  I think Rossi is still clearly the best rider, and title favorite, and with some more horsepower he'd have won on sunday.  

Allow me to correct myself. My original posting read as though I was discrediting Nicky. I do agree that he was consistent. And nobody can take that away from him. Well done to Nicky Hayden last year for the ongoing push to the championship. It is nice to see the title in the USA. However, I am a die hard Vale fan and I think that had he not had those two unfortunate happenings (tire problem and engine failure alone) we would not be calling him the former world champion. Judging by the performance of the two (Hayden and Rossi) at Qatar. I would say Nicky has the deck stacked against him this season. And he's not only going to have to earn it again this year, but prove that he earned it last year without a failing M1 on the track.

Colin is a different story. I like him and I would like to see him do well. But has he won a GP race yet? I don't know if the bike set up isn't right for him or if he is lacking somewhat in that attitude of a winner. I don't see a lot of fight in him. (Changing series here) Much like I don't see it in Jason Disalvo. Both are very good out front but once they get down they don't seem to have the fight in them to come back. I was there when Jason and Colin did well at Laguna Seca in 2005 but since then I haven't seen anything out of either of them that says champion.

My pick for 2007... I think you would be a fool to bet against Rossi. But I don't think that Pedrossa or the Ducati's are going to let him get away without a fight. Let's hope that Hayden finds a groove and I wish him a speedy recovery. I would like to see the champion fight hard to retain his title. Even if he isn't able to hang on to it this year. After all that's what Rossi did last year.  

Didnt think you were. I love Rossi, somewhere i have a quote by him, after winning a race he crossed the finsih line standing up pretending to play a violin, he compared the running the perfect lap to playing a violin, it was just a great qoute. Yea, had the bike not let him down he'd have crushed everyone last year, considering the problems with the bike, the fact that he almost won anyway is amazing.

On a different note... that 190cc drop to slow the bikes down sure worked out well      

It'd be nice to see the field tighten up and more people run up front consistently. Colin might be suffering the same problem to a degree as Nicky, Honda obviousy wants Pedrosa to win and will direc the resources to achive that. Yamaha might be doing the same with Rossi, after all they spent an ungodly sum of money to get him.  After watching MotoGP testing, F1 testing and NASCAR testing, i am beginning to get the feeling that you cant read too much from it, as least as far as predicting whose gonna run well during the season.  

Ahhh, this is my kind of thread. There seems to be no doubt that the guys w/250 backgrounds are getting on much better w/ the 800. Nicky's championship last season was all the more outstanding when you consider (and this is not conspiracy theory) that he was developing the new chassis  for this season while Pedrosa got to enjoy all his work and just (JUST!?!)had to ride it. No question who HRC considers the number 1 guy, and it ain't the guy w/the number 1 plate. I really wanted to see Nicky bolt the stable for Yamaha or,preferably,Ducati (check the motorcyclist forum, I'm the hated Duc guy).

+1 on Colin, I just don't think he will ever repeat his WSBK success in GP,even w/his 250 background. For whatever reason, he seems unable to pull it all together,but I'd love to see him do it.

Yeah, crystal ball prognostication from pre-seasn testing is pointless, but frickin' entertaining!!! Colin looked amazing, but the flag drops on the first race and he's mid-pack as usual. And NOBODY, myself included, would have picked Stoner to win. No question, the Ducs have been wicked fast (maybe having the bike ready early worked for them) but I assumed that Capirex would be in the mix and Stoner would just crash out at a MUCH higher speed than he has in the past. But after one race, he looks like the real deal.Time will tell if he's a better fit for Ducati than Nicky would have been.
My championship predicitons look like this:
1.Rossi (yeah, I know,gutless...but he's Rossi)
2.Capirex
3.Pedrosa

Unfortunately, I see Hayden no better than,say 6th or 7th, behind the likes of Melandri,Stoner,and Hopkins(finally showing he belongs,although that's more Suzukis' fault than his).