What I don't get is riders like Colin Edwards, who at best gets a third place once a season, but is in the top 10. He's like a journeyman racer who works hard for a living. What's he all about? Development? How can his pit crew get excited about every race knowing they're going to take another fifth place?
Actually, I think his team is stoked about him. He's the top rider of all the satellite teams. There are really only three teams that have a legitimate shot at winning on a normal (dry) weekend -- Fiat Yamaha, Repsol Honda, and Marlboro Ducati (and then only Stoner's bike it seems). Everybody else is really racing against everybody else. Colin's been the cream of the second group and that means something to the guys in the pits. And when he beats the full factory efforts from Suzuki and Kawasaki (or occasionally one of the big three), they're ready to do back flips and have his children.
The thing about Edwards that had me scratching my head last year was the first 5 to 10 laps. He was qualifying okay, then it seemed like he'd get passed by half the grid in the first few laps of the race and spend the rest of it trying to claw his way back. It seemed to happen a lot.
And, hell yeah, I'm excited too. For WSBK as well. For AMA, not so much, to be honest.
And, oh yeah, the news...
You can see this year's riders at
https://www.motogp.com/en/riders/MotoGP. No changes on the big three teams. Farther back, a lot of big names are gone (Toseland, Vermuelen, Elias) and a lot of guys from the smaller bikes moved up (Simoncelli, Bautista, Aoyama, Espargo). Spies is the only one moving over from WSBK.
The biggest news lately is that Lorenzo crashed a week or so ago while training on a motocross bike. Messed up his hand. He'll definitely miss the next test and may not be able to test again before the start of the season.
