ApriliaForum sponsored by AF1 Racing, inc. - Professional Racing Discussion

Mat Mladin Comeback?

BMG — Tue, 21 May 2013 09:49:35 GMT

It's hard to stay retired...

http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/...pro-superbike/

Quote:

“A couple of months ago that bug sort of started coming back again,” said 41-year-old Mladin, who retired to his home country of Australia after winning his seventh AMA Pro Superbike title in 2009. “I’ve had a few years off, and I’m feeling like I wouldn’t mind getting back on and having a go.”

Mladin told Roadracingworld.com Monday that since he has been bitten by this “bug” he has been enlisted to do test riding for an Australian magazine and to test Next Gen Motorsports’ BMW HP4 in June. Next Gen Motorsports is the team of former Australian Superbike Champion Glenn Allerton, who was once sponsored by Mladin.

The first order of business for Mladin, however, is to back away from his daily routine as a cattle rancher and get back to his previous racing weight and fitness level.

“When I saw you last year I was about 205 pounds, the heaviest I’ve ever been,” said Mladin, referring to a visit he made to an AMA Pro event at Infineon Raceway in 2012. “I was working out in the gym a lot and working on the farm, sitting in the cattle yards for lunch and having a steak sandwich here and there. That’s definitely not the way you need to go about racing.

“When I left America in 2009, I wasn’t in the best shape, 170, maybe 172 pounds. In 2008 I was in my best condition. I was 165 at most, sometimes less than that. So I wasn’t in my best shape in 2009 because halfway through the year I decided I had had enough and let things go a little bit. I wasn’t that excited about racing or training. So just to get back to the condition of 2009 is losing 35 pounds, and my absolutely best condition is 40 pounds away from where I was when I saw you last year. So right now I’m halfway there and obviously a long way to go.”

Mladin said he is dieting and riding motocross regularly in preparation for a possible ride as teammate to Allerton in an endurance race in Australia late this year.

“The bottom line to it is I don’t want to race again just to make up the numbers. That’s something that I’ve never wanted to do,” said Mladin. “So I’ve got a good three or four months hard work ahead just to see if I can get myself to that point. Then come August or September I’ll make up my mind if I’m going to do any racing at the end of this year. As I’ve told Glenn and his team, if I’m in the right condition and I feel I can do the lap times they’ll be the first ones to know.”

But racing professionally in Australia is not Mladin’s ultimate comeback goal.

“I’d like to come back and race in America again, for sure,” said Mladin.

In Mladin’s final few years of racing it was rumored that his base salary exceeded $1 million per season and possibly reached $2 million in a single season. That’s not counting bonuses and personal endorsement deals. But rider salaries do not even come close to that anymore since the global recession led to the U.S. motorcycle industry shrinking by 60% in recent years.

When asked if he thought it was financially feasible that a team could make it worth his time to come back to AMA Pro Superbike racing, Mladin said, “I’m spoken to a couple of people. The biggest challenge is going to be finding a motorbike to get on. In the end, my old team [Yoshimura Suzuki] now has a paid rider who pays quite a bit of money to ride one of their bikes. So obviously things are very different over there. So as I’ve said to a couple of people, I’m under no illusions that the hardest thing is actually going to be getting on a factory motorbike that is capable of doing the job that needs to be done.

“My knowledge of what’s going on over there is enough to know that it doesn’t matter how much hard work I put in that it may be something that doesn’t happen, and I’m fine with that. That doesn’t make any difference to me.”

WSBK: 2013 Round 05 - Donnington (SPOILER)

budoist — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:10:32 GMT

Sometimes You're The Swatter, Sometimes the Fly

Luck is not a lady. We court her, we butter her up, we seranade her; but deep down in our hearts we know - Luck is not a lady. Even in the song we sing about her we call out all of the behaviors that she is known for that we hope she doesn't exhibit when she's on our arm: flirting with others and offering her charms and abandoning us in our time of need are just the least of her offenses. Yet we swoon when she graces us with a smile and are jubilant when she pays us any attention, only to be heartbroken when she moves on to the next suitor. At round 5 in Donnington, the ephemerous "lady" certainly broke a few hearts while melting others.

The most notable suitor of Lady Luck would be, by far, Tom Sykes. After finishing a very unfortunate half point behind championship winner Max Biaggi in 2012 and suffering an off-season injury that hampered a typically strong start to the season in Phillip Island, Sykes was making a strong case for being on the comeback trail. Round 3 at Assen saw the British rider convert pole position to a race win and second place over the weekend to build up a good points position into round 4. When he managed a 3rd pole position for the season at Monza it seemed that he wsa truly back to championship contention form for 2013. Then came race day. Up against the rejuvenated might of BMW with Marco Melandri and the record setting speeds of the Aprilias, Tom put in a brilliant fight for race one to score a hard fought 2nd place. While denied the win, first rung down on the podium still boosted his standings. A win or podium in race two would have solidified his position as a championship contender for the season. Sadly, that is where Luck turned her attention elsewhere. Though he remained embroiled in a tight group for the lead throughout the race, the final laps saw him fighting with points leader Sylvain Guintoli for the final spot on the podium. On the final lap Sykes made a lunge for position into 3rd place, demoting the Frenchman to fourth after a costly mistake. However shortly thereafter Sykes found himself halfway up Melandri's exhaust and had to run off track to avoid a collision. Sykes returned quickly to the track, a move that blocked Guintoli and ended that rider's charge for position. Luck smiled on him all the way to the finish line where he claimed 3rd place on the podium.

Then she turned her attention to Guintoli. The French rider had the opposite start to the season that Sykes did. He finished 2012 nearly paddock destitute, his former satellite Ducati team cutting him prematurely under reports of underperformance - though his personal results before and the team results after clearly show that not to be the case. Luckily for Guintoli he was picked up by the factory Apriilia squad by season's end, and promptly leapt to the fore in off-season testing. By the end of the race two, Guintoli had notched up a race win on his factory debut and a second place against his teammate. Those podiums gave him a healthy advantage that he would nurse going into Monza; despite no further wins he earned double second places in Aragon and a third in race one of Assen. Race two in the Netherlands saw the championship leader struggle with setup and a strong field, falling back to eventually finish in 6th place and opening the door to his competitors. An off podium finish in fourth place during the weekend opener at Monza robbed him of much needed points, and as he notched his RSV4 Factory into grid position for race two he knew that he would need to win or at least podium to maintain a slight advantage on the field. When the lights went out Guintoli rocketted to the front of the pack, taking an early lead and maintaining it through most of the race. Alas, the rest of the field had also made much needed changes between sessions and were ready for him. By the last third of the race Guintoli was summarily passed by rival teammate Laverty and then race 1 winner Melandri. Sykes threatened to go by as well and the two became embroiled in a last lap battle that saw Sykes go off track and then on to claim 3rd while a dejected Guintoli limped home for fourth. Again. Fourth, that is, until Luck sent one last smile his way for the weekend. Though Sykes did in fact take part in the Parc Ferme celebrations, Race Direction officially reversed the finishing order for the two riders shortly after the race on appeal from Aprilia. The reversal gives Guintoli a 16 point championship lead, and while it may not seem spectacular with 50 points on the line each weekend it is a healthy boost to the confidence when Luck can be so fickle on any given day.

BMW riders Chaz Davies and Marco Melandri would know something about just how ephemeral her charms can be. After a very promising year aboard the customer Aprilia in 2012, Davies joined the factory backed BMW squad in 2013 to high expectations. Melandri was already ensconced in the team and had begun turning the team fortunes around. At the season opener in Australia Melandri was the only rider to break the Aprilia stranglehold on the podium, though it took him until race two to do it. En route he had the misfortunate of getting embroiled in Carlos Checa's own tangle of Luck, the result of which was both riders' retirement from the race. Left to carry the German flag solo, Davies rode to a valiant fourth place in race 1 only to taste the asphalt himself for race two before remounting to a disappointing seventeenth. Whether the pair burned an RSV in effigy is unknown, but by Aragon the team came back in a major way. The BMW had always been touted as a class leading motorcycle and under the Spanish sunshine they proved to be just that. Race one saw the roundel pair split the podium with championship leader Guintoli, while Chaz moved on to be the only rider to pull the double so far this season in race two. Then it went pear shaped again in Assen. The Dutch track was absolutely brutal to both riders. Chaz Davies only managed to finish 7th, and while he had a dog-fight of a race to even manage that he still fared better than Melandri. BMW's lead rider failed to even start at Assen when a mechanical failure on the grid caused him to retire completely from race one before turning a wheel in anger. Race two was somewhat better with Davies in 5th and Melandri in 8th, but the pair were glad to show Assen their backs and move on to Monza. There Melandri was able to turn his luck completely back around, scorching through to a race one victory and harrying the lead pack for the distance to score a second place podium in race two. Davies did not fare as well as his teammate this time around. Despite continuing where he left off with a 5th place in race one, the young Brit fought well up front before crashing out of race two for zero points.

Which brings us nicely to Donnington. Everyone has courted Lady Luck for the season, and every one of the top riders have earned both her favor and her scorn to a degree. Perhaps the winners this weekend will be the one's who hide a horse shoe or rabbit's foot in the leathers - although, as the joke goes, the foot didn't seem too lucky for the rabbit. Then again, perhaps the winners this weekend will be the ones who forego ritual, defy the odds and make their own luck.

Hey Nonno, dust off the cape....

JedB — Wed, 15 May 2013 15:51:39 GMT

http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/817/16...o-Ducati-.aspx

2014 Rumour and conjecture already...

MotoGP: 2013 Round 04 - Monster Energy Grand Prix de France (SPOILERS)

budoist — Mon, 13 May 2013 21:19:35 GMT

The Power of Three

Three rounds in the premiere class - that's all it took for Spain's Marc Marquez to become embroiled in controversy that has followed him for so much of his riding career: the aggressive nature of his riding. In Moto2 there were several official complaints lodged against the young star, though fortunately even the most egregious incident did result in the significant injury to any party. With such a colorful history there was much speculation across the Internet regarding how long it would be before Marquez punted a rival off track. For a while it looked like Marquez's bad-boy days on the track were behind him as his racing in the opening rounds showed a much more mature and patient riding style. Battling with Rossi, Pedrosa and Lorenzo in turn over the rounds he seemed much more astute in his race craft, following - even hounding - his opponents before making passes that were always decisive, always very fair and quite often un-matchable. Then this past weekend the oft-spoken question was answered. At his first home race in Spain since advancing to MotoGP the Rookie-Of-The-Year candidate lit a short fuse on the media world by make a last lap-last corner pass on reigning champion Jorge Lorenzo that left the veteran shaking his head off track and the incumbent sailing past the checkered flag in second place. Everone, inside and outside of the paddock, is talking about the move, and inevitable comparisons to similar tactics by other great riders were inevitable. Regardless of which side of the fence you fall on, the fact remains that The Move put Marquez on an emotional and performance high before France that it will be hard to knock him from. For opponents of the young man who has already broken two records in his inaugural season, this may make the difficult task of beating the rising star just one click harder.

Three races of the 2013 season - That is how long it took for Dani Pedrosa to win his first race. For one of the few men to have earned the unofficial title of "alien" within the GP paddock, the importance of the victory should not be underestimated. After nearly a decade as the undisputed lead rider in the Repsol Honda garage, the 2012 off-season presented a unique challenge as he was presented with a teammate who was not only an talented rider but also had at least equal backing by both of the team's major sponsors. Problems seemed to stack on each other once the season got underway, with Pedrosa not only finishing below the rookie Marquez in position but each time doing so after being passed by the newcomer during the race and being unable to recapture the position. Suddenly the not-so-quiet murmurs concerns Pedrosa's future with one of the two strongest teams on the grid became considerably louder. The most evident sign of how much pressure Dani may have been under came as he responded to an article in which former champion Kevin Schwantz was critical of his reliance on some aspects of his support network including long-time manager Alberto Puig. Then under the brilliant Jerez sunshine it all changed and the rider who was runner-up to a close fought race to the championship in 2012 re-emerged. Pedrosa was not the fastest in practice or warmup, but Jerez has been his playground for years and 2013 was no different. Pedrosa took an early lead in the race and set a scorching pace that no-one could match, and then quite simply rocketed off to the finish. The decisive and unequivocal win puts the stamp that Pedrosa is still very much a title contender and force to be reckoned with in MotoGP and set the stage for a rematch in France where he hopes to drive the point home.

Three races of the 2013 season - That is also what it took for Jorge Lorenzo to lose his lead in the championship. The Mallorcan rider had seemed unflappable during practice and qualifying, posting chart topping times despite the oppressive heat that so many complained about. Yet when the lights turned green it all changed. Whether the increasing heat adversely impacted the team's chosen setup or the Honda rider's found something unexpected in theirs the Mallorcan rider found himself in deep waters when the bikes shot away from the line. After a disastrous start that placed him squarely in the sights of his competitors, Lorenzo found himself left behind as championship rival Dani Pedrosa rocketed away for his first win. There was some consolation to second place, as 20 points would have kept Lorenzo in the points lead; alas it was not to be. A second mistake going into the final corner saw Lorenzo make contact with Repsol Honda's Marc Marquez and be pushed off track. Lorenzo recovered quickly and rejoined to finish third, but the damage was done. Going into the French weekend Jorge now sits on 57 points, a single point below race winner Pedrosa and a scan four points behind (now) championship leader Marc Marquez. However this isn't Lorenzo's first rodeo. France may be the place where we get to see how much of the fairing banging 250cc racer remains beneath the polished MotoGP champion exterior.

Three race wins in three rounds for 2013 - That is what it took to firmly cement Spain's apparent stranglehold on talent for the MotoGP grid. In three successive weekend events, El Marcha Real has rung out across the world to proclaim that a Spanish rider has claimed the top step of the podium. That small fact, however, remains just a small piece of the puzzle. Of the combined 9 available podium positions 8 have been occupied by Spanish riders, notably the three aforementioned winners. The lone exception was Valentino Rossi's hard fought second place finish in the season opener under the lights at Qatar. After a costly mistake relegated the Italian rider as far back as 7th during the race he was able to fight back past the factory Hondas of Pedrosa and Marquez to break the Spanish domination of the grid. Despite being an international series with races across the globe, large amounts of funding flow into MotoGP from Spain and many of the key players in the background - from major sponsor Repsol to current CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta - are Spanish nationals. Quiet rumbles have been cirulating outside of the paddock that Spain's general interest have also begun to play a part in the behind-the-scenes politics that ultimately bubble over into policy and privilge, the recently removed "Rookie Rule" being one such example as it was withdrawn in time for Spain's Marc Marquez to join the factory Honda team. Whether the rumors are true or not, Spainish fans will have a lot to be proud of when the riders take to the track for first practice.

For the remaining Power of Three: Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Hector Barbera been a naughty boy!

GTR Racer — Sun, 12 May 2013 17:15:23 GMT

Anyone else hear about it?

Apparently Hector and his Girlfriend have been sentenced for 6 months jail time for assault and battery on each other. Explains the 'motorcross' incident scars and bruises he had on his face at Jerez last weekend!

Cal OUT -- Pol IN wtf?

Pieman_tm — Sat, 11 May 2013 13:03:45 GMT

Cal has told BBC he could lose his job as Yamaha have approached Pol.

I can't see how they can justify this. Yes Pol is good but since the minimum weight has be brought in he hasn't stood out at all.

Cal though is the fastest non-alien and riding faster than every bike other than of 2 Factory Yams and 2 Factory Hondas. He's racing with bits of left over bikes ffs.

I hope this is just bs. Or maybe Bradley Smith should be upping his game massively over the next 5 races.

http://www.motogp.com/en/news/2013/C...+Pol+Espargaro

Le Mans MotoGP

MisterV — Thu, 09 May 2013 19:16:58 GMT

A group of us are off to Le Mans next week for the MotoGP. Not been for a few years so any tips, do's & don'ts would be great. Read somewhere that Le Mans is a bit of a shit hole now (?), cannot remember it being that bad, but it was probably about 8 years ago that I went (and camped). Staying in a hotel about 40 miles away (as left booking a bit late) in a place called Vendome. Hoping the weather is going to be good as all the covered grandstands are full (unless you want to pay silly money for the VIP stuff!). Anyway, any thoughts would be appreciated and will post up pics when I get back...Thanks

WSBK: 2013 Round 04 - Monza (SPOILER)

budoist — Thu, 09 May 2013 13:12:48 GMT

Cry Havoc!

Monza, the self proclaimed "Cathedral of Speed". Few places in the world allow you to twist the throttle with such wild abandon and revel in the feel of a fully developed motorcycle truly being topped out to its potential mere heartbeats before slamming on the brakes to navigate a slow speed complex. Bring a hefty pair to the tarmac (a need for speed won't hurt either) and Monza rewards with a thrilling ride and often thrilling spectacle. Allow yourself to be lulled by her promise of high speed and plentiful runoff and find any mistake punished with often drastic loss of position and points - as Max Biaggi found out when a small error in rejoining the track prompted a black flag despite no other riders being presently at risk.

Fresh from conquering the field at Assen, Tom Sykes is eager to return to action at Monza this weekend. The British rider had a slow start to the season due in no small part to injury sustained during off-season testing. Using his brain over brawn, Sykes avoided any undue drama for the opening rounds and allowed his body to heal, then showed the world his potential with his first and convincing win at Assen. He then followed up with a decisive second place in race two, pushing himself up in the standings to within 28 points of the championship leader. The Kawasaki ZX-10R is a rocket of a machine, and updates made for 2013 have yielded positive results that could pay huge dividends on such a fast track. Sykes is motivated to build some momentum, and this weekend could see him start to make a solid run for the championship.

It has to be said that if the ZX-10 is a rocket then Aprilia's RSV4 Factory might just be the Starship Enterprise, warp drives engaged and the crew holding on for dear life. Few motorcycles have been shown more capable of posting a top speed record so easily, making the Italian machine a very capable weapon for Monza's front straight away. Standing atop the points ladder, factory rider Sylvain Guintoli will look to extract every ounce of performance available as he sets his sights squarely on the track's top speed record. With pressure mounting as new challengers begin to make themselves known, Italy's own will need to stay focused if he is to maintain or build-on his lead. Each of his rivals are hard and experienced men. Monza may prove to be his hardest challenge to date this season.

One man who will likely not be calling this weekend "fun" will be Ducati's Carlos Checa. The motorcycling world has been on Panigale watch, but results so far have not been overtly positive. This may be in part due to persistent injury suffered by the team's lead rider that becomes aggravated during the stresses of competition. Checa has been undergoing intense physiotherapy to correct, or at least alleviate, the problem. The big question will be whether it is enough. Monza is a series of high speed straights followed by hard braking for chicanes, a recipe sure to put any potential healing to the test. In addition Checa has never had much luck at this venue, posting a career best finish of only seventh place during the 2012 season. The Cathedral then will be an equal test of both man and machine - the man as he seeks to battle pain to climb the standings, the machine to showcase the merits of such a radical new design philosophy from Ducati.

Eugene Laverty, on the other hand, will have no such hardship. After surprising even himself with a win for race two of Assen Laverty can move into the weekend with a confidence grounded in experience and raw statistics. The Irish rider claimed his very first Superbike wins at Monza in 2011, when he rode the proverbial wheels off his Yamaha R1 to "do the double". While his results in 2012 were more modest, Laverty can build on his race win to push him to a good result when the lights go out on Sunday. Laverty holds second place in the official standings, however this standing will be of little comfort as he shares his 83 point tally with two other riders - Kawasaki's Tom Sykes with whom he shared victory two weeks ago and BMW's Chaz Davies. Laverty has zero room for error this weekend, with Guintoli seeking to further his lead and two other riders in the perfect position to capitalize on any mistake.

No more Free Motogp TV coverage in UK?

Pieman_tm — Thu, 09 May 2013 11:13:23 GMT

Looks like Motogp will be leaving BBC next year, not sure about Eurosport.

I'm sure this will be big news later on in the year. We all remember the upset when Eurosprt lost the rights to show the Motogp Live.

No mention of cost yet.

http://www.motogp.com/en/news/2013/B...nces+from+2014

WSBK Monza on beIN Sport?

MadDaddy — Thu, 09 May 2013 04:00:04 GMT

Can anyone find this on beIN's schedule? (or Speed for that matter)

No more wins?!

Turbonero15 — Mon, 06 May 2013 06:05:14 GMT

I don't think there's any argument V.R. is still an effective rider. But whether its just his relatively old age or the younger riders mastery of the electronics... Is Rossi done standing at the top step of the podium in MotoGP?!

Marc???

Mcknigha — Sun, 05 May 2013 16:01:59 GMT

So today Marc Marquez proved that he is able to bump heads with the big guns and is now leading in points. What do you think are the chances that he takes the 2013 title?

Marco Melandri's girlfriend

Turbonero15 — Fri, 03 May 2013 22:00:35 GMT

Seems like she's about a foot and a half taller than Marco.. Anyone have the actual measurements?!

Rossi + Nascar = ?

Racer X — Wed, 01 May 2013 09:24:55 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...v=rJ5VaQFFmJ4#

MotoGP: 2013 Round 03 - Gran Premio bwin de Espa�a (SPOILERS)

budoist — Wed, 01 May 2013 06:31:12 GMT

Trend Setting and Record Breaking

The Rookie
Marc Marquez has done what no other rider has done before. Such a bold statement would typically be theatrical hyperbole, meant to inflate the ego or importance of the subject, to dramaticize some minor accomplishment to add drama that entices the viewership. For Spain's fast rising star, however, this could not be further from the truth. Under the glaring heat of the Texas sky, Marquez officially stamped his name into the MotoGP history books not once but twice in the same weekend. First he tackled a record that has stood since the great Freddie Spencer graced the track when, despite an early fall in practice, he became the youngest rider to achieve a pole position in the premiere class. The celebration was short lived however, with race day looming mere hours away and Marquez's closest rival on identical equipment. Bolstered by the youngster's stunning performance at Texas to date, the team set about putting together the best package possible to complete the weekend. The race itself could not have gone better without a professional script for entertainment and perhaps a couple of Blockbuster stars. From pole position Marquez lost the lead early and fell behind Pedrosa into second. Then, in an eerie repeat of a scene played out beneath the Qatari lights the GP rookie stalked his teammate over several laps. Ever threatening but never demanding, Marquez shadowed the veteran until mid-way through the race when he quite simply made the pass and never looked back through to the checkered flag. That win shattered the second record from Fast Freddie, putting Marquez as the youngest rider to ever win a MotoGP race. This is the emotional high the will buoy him up through the Jerez weekend against three of the series' strongest riders.

The Veteran
For the second race in succession Dani Pedrosa has lost a position to his teammate. This is without doubt a burr in his proverbial paw, but the most damning pattern to form as been his seeming inability to mount a meaningful response to the threat from his teammate on the track. Racing at its best, from the perspective of the viewership, is reliant on passes after all and the drama between two riders fighting for position. As such there is certainly no shame in relegation for a position. Marquez himself has been passed by two of the greats already so early in his career, as both Pedrosa and Rossi have stormed past him at one point or other in both of the opening races to the 2013 season. The difference between them, however, is that while Marquez has been able to to fight back and reclaim his position to the point of engaging in battle with Rossi at Qatar, Pedrosa has simply not been able to respond in a decisive way. This is not to say that he doesn't try. In Austin he hounded the ascendant Marquez for lap after lap, often time hovering mere inches from the Respol pilot's diminutive tail piece. The result that time, and everytime, is the same. Yet Pedrosa is far from a wide eyed novice in the paddock. He knows that the season is a long one and that despite a slow start he will have plenty of chances to claw back an advantage over his rivals. Patience is a virtue after all, and in 2012 it almost netted Pedrosa the title. Jerez may be the track where he is able to mount his 2013 challenge in earnest.

The Champion
Every great rider has a style of their own. In superbikes Ben Spies had an elbows out chicken wing style that served him well. Rossi has a dangling leg trick that everyone hasn't quite figured out but yet but has become popular amidst the classes. Casey Stoner had a wild, almost frantic style that allowed him to get even the Honda loose on the tarmac. Lorenzo has an internal gyroscope that enforces a seemingly impossible balance over race distance. It is rare to see the reigning champion's bike out of sorts, a notable exception being a particularly wet Sepang in 2012. Monsoon season aside, the track may as well have a painted line for all that Lorenzo deviates. The result is that Lorenzo may not always win, but he manages to consolidate position and maximize his points score each weekend. As the series enters its third round Lorenzo finds himself once again at the head of the points table despite a dominant weekend in Austin by the factory Honda squad. Still, this weekend will be one of the most hotly contested races of the season, Jerez being the home venue for all 3 of the current top riders in the class. While Lorenzo tries to remain stoic and focus on his championship aspirations there is a level of national price at stake. The two-time champion will need to keep his wits about him in the face of a boisterous newbie and a wily veteran looking to shore up his position on the Repsol squad.