James Toseland
Valentino Rossi
John Reynolds
Phil Curtis
Chris Vermeulen
James
Toseland didn’t manage to hold on to his world title
this year, despite riding the wheels off a Ducati which was rarely
on the pace and, truth be told, seeming to be getting very much
the second best from a team desperate to boost their standing
in France – a large market they haven’t really penetrated despite
having a French rider. The fact that he still managed to beat
his team-mate and finish a very respectable fourth says an enormous
amount for his skill and commitment.
Valentino Rossi, of course,
gets a nomination. Just for being Valentino Rossi, really. And
for being, arguably, the most talented motorcycle racer the world
has ever seen. After last year’s sensational debut on the Yamaha
M1, this year just got better and better, with the possible peak
being a rain soaked Donington Park where the Italian simply re-wrote
the laws of physics to storm home in appalling conditions.
John Reynolds. For being one
of the toughest, most committed guys in racing. For being a really
worthy champion. For racing so hard while still in plaster after
a practice crash that he was wearing the cast down on his leg
going around Brands. And for finally having the courage to say
“enough” after another huge crash, also at Brands Hatch,
that could so nearly have made him a top of this page feature
instead of down here.
Phil
Curtis. A lot of you will be scratching your heads and
wondering who Phil is. Phil was an instructor with Rapid Training,
a traffic policeman and one of the nicest, kindest most ludicrously
talented riders that you’ll ever see. His death earlier this year
didn’t make an obituary on the site because not enough of you
would have known him, but the impact it had on me and his friends
was profound and so he gets my nomination.
Chris
Vermeulen gets a nomination for being a smashing guy,
being as fast as you like on the Ten Kate Fireblade
and for resisting the urge, when offered the Big Carrot of MotoGP,
to go for the easy option and ride a Honda. Instead he went to
Suzuki. He’ll not win much this year but my word he’ll learn and
the bike will get faster and faster. If he doesn’t make it to
the top of the tree in five years I’ll eat my Arai.
Event of the year – the biking event
that you think was best or most important for biking
World Superbikes at Silverstone
MotoGP at Donington Park
That last corner at Jerez MotoGP
Rapid Training Mallory Park trackday, 12th May
Silverstone SBK saw, as it
has for the last few years, well over 50,000 people attending
without any trouble, attitude or overwhelming Police presence.
The weather was, um, interesting with high winds making things
a little exciting in places, but the main thing was the fantastic
performance put on by James Toseland, out-riding his team-mate,
qualifying well and silencing at least some of the critics with
a superb and well deserved win in race two.
If the weather at Silverstone was bad then that
makes the Donington MotoGP positively atrocious.
Heavy rain, biting cold and winds turned the circuit into a lake
on a hill, more suited for powerboating that MotoGP. So naturally
Valentino Rossi turned in an incredible peformance, catching highsides
as they started, sliding everywhere and still lapping at a decent
pace. Coupled with exciting support races, this has had the most
nominations for event of the yearl
Jerez was always going to be
the MotoGP round that saw Sete Gibernau really make his mark and
mount a serious challenge to Rossi. First race of the season,
on his doorstep, with the best bike. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, the answer is a lapse in concentration that saw him run
wide and leave the door open for Rossi at the last corner, only
to try to correct it, collide with the Italian and end up lucky
to stay upright in the gravel. Couldn’t have been better if it
was scripted.
Rapid Training’s Mallory Park trackday
has received several nominations so I have to mention it. It seems
that it stuck in people’s minds after a certain motorcycle journalist
managed to have a large highside there. Well – it stuck in my
mind, that’s for sure, though others saw something rather more
positive than my experience and talked about prioritising, focus
and the great feeling of cameraderie between bikers. So there
you go. Personally I’d rather take the lessons away and forget
the rest, but it looks as though I’ll not be allowed to do that…
What you’re most looking forward to next
year
Buell City X 2006
Riding on warm roads with sticky tarmac
The World Superbike season
The Buell CityX has already
been tested and indeed nominated as Bike of the Year. But the
2006 version has sufficient changes – mainly in the shape of a
slick new gearbox and a cracking new colour scheme – that it deserves
a second try.
Almost everyone has mentioned how much they
are looking forward to the Spring and all that
it brings. Who am I to argue?
And similarly, lots of people are looking forward
to the race season starting again. 2006 is shaping up to be a
beauty, with lots of hungry riders out to prove a point after
an unusually turbulent end of season contract negotiation session.
Disappointment of
the year – the thing or person that could have been great but…
Max Biaggi
Sete Gibernau
Ken Livingstone
Max
Biaggi spent another year as the bridesmaid when he had
all the equipment and support, including a full works Honda ride,
to be up the front at the altar instead. Consistently out performed
by his young team-mate, Biaggi’s star seems finally to have waned
completely and at the time of writing the firey Roman is without
a ride for 2006.
And talking about being a perpetual runner-up,
Sete Gibernau broke the record this season for
throwing his motorbike into the gravel when in the lead and under
little pressure. After his coming together with Rossi at Jerez,
which was a genuine racing incident but which was the Spaniard’s
fault, Gibernau made mistake after mistake, finally finishing
the season way down the field.
Ken Livingstone is the Mayor
of London. Again. We’ll stay off his politics except to say that
London is still the most backward city in the Western World when
it comes to integrating bikes into transportation policies. Bikes
still aren’t even allowed in bus lanes, and the only reason we
don’t get hit with congestion charges is because we don’t have
front number plates. This hasn’t changed from last year.
Product of the year
– as it sounds
The V2 Sponge
Hein Gericke roll-top bag
The bungee net
The V2 Sponge is simple, cheap and effective.
That alone would make it a possible nomination for product of
the year. The fact that more than half the responses we have received
mention it as well means it gets in on points alone.
Hein Gericke roll top bags
are as cheap as chips, waterproof, strong and easily available.
And Dick Henneman thinks they’re great, so that’ll be OK then.
The Bungee Net. We’ve all had
’em, we all use ’em and we all swear by ’em. Not a new product,
of course, but enough of you mentioned it to make a nomination
essential.
The rest is all
pretty personal. Seeing your editor highside in front of
you. Why does that keep coming up? Falling off your bike at The
Nurburgring and doing virtually no damage to it or yourself. Going
through a whole season without falling off. And that’s just our
team. Your extras are more eclectic still, but all seem to revolve
around one simple thing. It’s great being a biker.
But we can’t vote on any of them because they’re
so subjective. So they don’t belong here, though they were great
to read…
But finally, then, we can announce the
winners of the classes. And they are:
Product
of the year, 2005
V2
Sponge
by miles. So many of you voted for it that
it was a given. Fantastic value, fantastic product.
Event
of the year, 2005
World
Superbikes, Silverstone
for hearing the crowd go crazy as a Brit took and held
the lead
Person
of the year, 2005
Valentino
Rossi
for being Valentino Rossi. And doing it so well.
Bike of
the year, 2005
MZ 1000ST
By a very small margin from the
Buell CityX. It’s a great bike, it’s fantastic value and it’s
winning conquest sales from the VFR800.That must make it a very,
very good motorbike.
That’s it until next year. No
doubt you’ll have opinions, and no doubt by now you know how to
air them, too.
2005 motorcycle racing and review of the year
James Toseland
Valentino Rossi
John Reynolds
Phil Curtis
Chris Vermeulen
James
Toseland didn’t manage to hold on to his world title
this year, despite riding the wheels off a Ducati which was rarely
on the pace and, truth be told, seeming to be getting very much
the second best from a team desperate to boost their standing
in France – a large market they haven’t really penetrated despite
having a French rider. The fact that he still managed to beat
his team-mate and finish a very respectable fourth says an enormous
amount for his skill and commitment.
Valentino Rossi, of course,
gets a nomination. Just for being Valentino Rossi, really. And
for being, arguably, the most talented motorcycle racer the world
has ever seen. After last year’s sensational debut on the Yamaha
M1, this year just got better and better, with the possible peak
being a rain soaked Donington Park where the Italian simply re-wrote
the laws of physics to storm home in appalling conditions.
John Reynolds. For being one
of the toughest, most committed guys in racing. For being a really
worthy champion. For racing so hard while still in plaster after
a practice crash that he was wearing the cast down on his leg
going around Brands. And for finally having the courage to say
“enough” after another huge crash, also at Brands Hatch,
that could so nearly have made him a top of this page feature
instead of down here.
Phil
Curtis. A lot of you will be scratching your heads and
wondering who Phil is. Phil was an instructor with Rapid Training,
a traffic policeman and one of the nicest, kindest most ludicrously
talented riders that you’ll ever see. His death earlier this year
didn’t make an obituary on the site because not enough of you
would have known him, but the impact it had on me and his friends
was profound and so he gets my nomination.
Chris
Vermeulen gets a nomination for being a smashing guy,
being as fast as you like on the Ten Kate Fireblade
and for resisting the urge, when offered the Big Carrot of MotoGP,
to go for the easy option and ride a Honda. Instead he went to
Suzuki. He’ll not win much this year but my word he’ll learn and
the bike will get faster and faster. If he doesn’t make it to
the top of the tree in five years I’ll eat my Arai.
Event of the year – the biking event
that you think was best or most important for biking
World Superbikes at Silverstone
MotoGP at Donington Park
That last corner at Jerez MotoGP
Rapid Training Mallory Park trackday, 12th May
Silverstone SBK saw, as it
has for the last few years, well over 50,000 people attending
without any trouble, attitude or overwhelming Police presence.
The weather was, um, interesting with high winds making things
a little exciting in places, but the main thing was the fantastic
performance put on by James Toseland, out-riding his team-mate,
qualifying well and silencing at least some of the critics with
a superb and well deserved win in race two.
If the weather at Silverstone was bad then that
makes the Donington MotoGP positively atrocious.
Heavy rain, biting cold and winds turned the circuit into a lake
on a hill, more suited for powerboating that MotoGP. So naturally
Valentino Rossi turned in an incredible peformance, catching highsides
as they started, sliding everywhere and still lapping at a decent
pace. Coupled with exciting support races, this has had the most
nominations for event of the yearl
Jerez was always going to be
the MotoGP round that saw Sete Gibernau really make his mark and
mount a serious challenge to Rossi. First race of the season,
on his doorstep, with the best bike. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, the answer is a lapse in concentration that saw him run
wide and leave the door open for Rossi at the last corner, only
to try to correct it, collide with the Italian and end up lucky
to stay upright in the gravel. Couldn’t have been better if it
was scripted.
Rapid Training’s Mallory Park trackday
has received several nominations so I have to mention it. It seems
that it stuck in people’s minds after a certain motorcycle journalist
managed to have a large highside there. Well – it stuck in my
mind, that’s for sure, though others saw something rather more
positive than my experience and talked about prioritising, focus
and the great feeling of cameraderie between bikers. So there
you go. Personally I’d rather take the lessons away and forget
the rest, but it looks as though I’ll not be allowed to do that…
What you’re most looking forward to next
year
Buell City X 2006
Riding on warm roads with sticky tarmac
The World Superbike season
The Buell CityX has already
been tested and indeed nominated as Bike of the Year. But the
2006 version has sufficient changes – mainly in the shape of a
slick new gearbox and a cracking new colour scheme – that it deserves
a second try.
Almost everyone has mentioned how much they
are looking forward to the Spring and all that
it brings. Who am I to argue?
And similarly, lots of people are looking forward
to the race season starting again. 2006 is shaping up to be a
beauty, with lots of hungry riders out to prove a point after
an unusually turbulent end of season contract negotiation session.
Disappointment of
the year – the thing or person that could have been great but…
Max Biaggi
Sete Gibernau
Ken Livingstone
Max
Biaggi spent another year as the bridesmaid when he had
all the equipment and support, including a full works Honda ride,
to be up the front at the altar instead. Consistently out performed
by his young team-mate, Biaggi’s star seems finally to have waned
completely and at the time of writing the firey Roman is without
a ride for 2006.
And talking about being a perpetual runner-up,
Sete Gibernau broke the record this season for
throwing his motorbike into the gravel when in the lead and under
little pressure. After his coming together with Rossi at Jerez,
which was a genuine racing incident but which was the Spaniard’s
fault, Gibernau made mistake after mistake, finally finishing
the season way down the field.
Ken Livingstone is the Mayor
of London. Again. We’ll stay off his politics except to say that
London is still the most backward city in the Western World when
it comes to integrating bikes into transportation policies. Bikes
still aren’t even allowed in bus lanes, and the only reason we
don’t get hit with congestion charges is because we don’t have
front number plates. This hasn’t changed from last year.
Product of the year
– as it sounds
The V2 Sponge
Hein Gericke roll-top bag
The bungee net
The V2 Sponge is simple, cheap and effective.
That alone would make it a possible nomination for product of
the year. The fact that more than half the responses we have received
mention it as well means it gets in on points alone.
Hein Gericke roll top bags
are as cheap as chips, waterproof, strong and easily available.
And Dick Henneman thinks they’re great, so that’ll be OK then.
The Bungee Net. We’ve all had
’em, we all use ’em and we all swear by ’em. Not a new product,
of course, but enough of you mentioned it to make a nomination
essential.
The rest is all
pretty personal. Seeing your editor highside in front of
you. Why does that keep coming up? Falling off your bike at The
Nurburgring and doing virtually no damage to it or yourself. Going
through a whole season without falling off. And that’s just our
team. Your extras are more eclectic still, but all seem to revolve
around one simple thing. It’s great being a biker.
But we can’t vote on any of them because they’re
so subjective. So they don’t belong here, though they were great
to read…
But finally, then, we can announce the
winners of the classes. And they are:
Product
of the year, 2005
V2
Sponge
by miles. So many of you voted for it that
it was a given. Fantastic value, fantastic product.
Event
of the year, 2005
World
Superbikes, Silverstone
for hearing the crowd go crazy as a Brit took and held
the lead
Person
of the year, 2005
Valentino
Rossi
for being Valentino Rossi. And doing it so well.
Bike of
the year, 2005
MZ 1000ST
By a very small margin from the
Buell CityX. It’s a great bike, it’s fantastic value and it’s
winning conquest sales from the VFR800.That must make it a very,
very good motorbike.
That’s it until next year. No
doubt you’ll have opinions, and no doubt by now you know how to
air them, too.